I finally completed the series “How To Grow Your Business In 30 Days”.  It ended up being a lot more work than I expected, but it was really enjoyable overall.  I learned a lot.  I’ll share some of the lessons I learned during the 30 days in future posts.  Here I’ve summarized the Grow Your Business In 30 Days using the original outline I created so that you have one easy place to review them and find each post.

1. Find someone to hold you accountable: Day One
   1. Business coach
   2. Spouse
   3. Friend/mentor
2. Get control of your finances – expenses: Day Two
   1. Do you know what you cost each minute, hour, day, week, month, year?
   2. Cut out the fat
   3. Do more with less
3. Get control of your finances – Accounts Receivable
   1. It’s OK to lose 20% to get 80%
   2. Build a system that improves speed of payments
   3. Automate monthly fees
4. Get back on track – pickup the phone and call vendors
   1. Thank your vendors
   2. Tell them what you are up to
   3. Ask them what they need from you
5. Get back on track – pickup the phone and call old customers
   1. Keep your name fresh in their mind
   2. Ask them how you can help
   3. Be willing to face old problems
6. Find a new lead source
   1. Start somewhere fresh
   2. Measure the quality and cost of the leads
7. Adjust the lead source to meet YOUR needs
   1. Is it your exact market?
   2. Does it apply to the product or service you sell?
   3. How can you swing the bat more often?
8. Fine tune your prospecting approach
   1. Write a thesis statement that explains your approach
   2. Draw out each step sequentially and study it
   3. Ask your peers and mentors how the think you should do it
9. Review your successes – magnify them
   1. What worked?
   2. Why did it work?
   3. How can you replicate that?
10. Review your failures – minimize them
    1. Where did it fall apart?
    2. How can you prevent this from happening again?
    3. What did you learn from your mistake?
11. Improve your sales process – what works?
    1. Do you understand your open, middle, and closing steps?
    2. Study good sales behaviors
    3. Persistence is the key factor
12. Improve your sales process – automate it and refine it.
    1. Write it once, and re-use it
    2. Get a direct line
    3. Get in the solutions business
13. Practice honesty
    1. With yourself
    2. With your customers
    3. With your team
14. Build a strong team
    1. Outsource effectively
    2. Hire in temp to full time
    3. Learn to give consistent effective feedback
15. Build strong partners
    1. Groom your vendors
    2. Set expectations
    3. Prepare plan B and C and D
16. Put killer marketing in place
    1. Email marketing
    2. Person to person marketing
    3. The I need you, Do you need me? Approach
17. Be available
    1. Open your schedule for your customers
    2. Expect an appointment
    3. Explain the use of your communication channels
18. Write an FAQ
    1. Save yourself time and read through the FAQ’s you receive
    2. Write an FAQ and provide it automatically
    3. Ask your customers to provide input
19. Provide a support portal
    1. Queue and handle requests
    2. Automate responses and include your FAQ and tools to download
    3. Remember that every time you reach a customer it’s an opportunity to build value
20. Don’t focus on today’s dollars – look long term
    1. Monthly services are relationship builders
    2. Learn to provide solutions to problems
    3. Help others succeed and the money will follow
21. Schedule your way to success
    1. Build your to do into your calendar
    2. Make sure you are meeting someone to accomplish the to do list
    3. Never leave a meeting without scheduling the next
22. Put A Project Management System in Place
    1. Tag and prioritize products
    2. Mark the date the project entered your system
    3. Daily choose to update and manage the system
23. Take time to relax and think
    1. Lay on your back and wonder
    2. Don’t be afraid to consider change
    3. Stop doing things you don’t enjoy
24. Ask for feedback
    1. From your Team
    2. From your Customers
    3. From your Vendors
25. Have Fun
    1. Enjoy the challenges
    2. Express your excitement
    3. Don’t take it too seriously
26. Examine your model
    1. What is your model?
    2. Does it work well?
    3. How soon will you have to adjust your model?
27. Invest in good technology
    1. What really improves work-flow?
    2. What can save you time?
    3. What can save you money?
28. Learn faster than everyone else
    1. Read constantly
    2. Listen to pod-casts
    3. Ask the right questions
29. Serve those around you
    1. Do what is right for your team
    2. Lead from your heart
    3. Communicate that you care
30. Consider vertical and horizontal growth
    1. How can you grow your business larger? (vertical)
    2. How can you expand into new sectors (horizontal)
    3. How fast should you grow?

Now with everything in one place here in this post you can simply review the general thought process I had behind the 30 days or you can read each post at your convenience.  I’m sure that this doesn’t cover everything that you’ll encounter over the years in business, but I have tried to give you some tools that will make a difference in the short term.

How can I help you?  Please feel free to ask me any questions in the comments or by contacting me.  Here’s to your increased growth and success in 2011!

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States. ~ Ronald Reagan