37 Ways to Up Your Game as a Business Owner

The learning never stops.

No matter how long you’ve been in business, what milestones you’ve reached or goals you’ve achieved, you will never stop learning. And the call to step up your game, to get better at what you do, will always be there.

That, at least, is my hope for you.

Because the moment you stop reaching to improve your skills, strengthen your mindset, and grow, is the moment your business will start to decline.

As is so often said, if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

I’m not just talking about numbers here. I’m talking about the way you run your business, the way you serve your clients, and the way you show up on the planet.

So here are 37 ways that you could up your game, and grow – as a business, as a business owner, and ultimately – as a human being.
 

Increase Your Income

1. Raise your prices – especially if it’s been a while since you’ve done so.

2. Instead of offering discounts, add value in the form of bonus resources, trainings, or even time with you.

3. Quit trading dollars for hours. Learn how to craft, price, sell and deliver packages.

4. Make sure one of those packages is a premium level, VIP package for your very best clients (who want to invest at the highest level in their work with you!)

5. Look for ways to diversify what you offer. If most of your work is 1:1, add a group, an online course, or a workshop. If most of your work is in group format, add 1:1 as a premium level service.

6. Pay yourself a weekly salary. This simple act will focus your energy – and add a sense of stability – in ways that will surprise you.

7. Once a year, re-evaluate all the tools you’re paying for on a subscription basis: website plug-in’s, hosting, domain names, social media scheduling tools, project management or productivity tools, etc. Eliminate those you aren’t really using.

Improve Your Infrastructure

8. Take a really close look at your most common processes. Where can you add automation? Where can you use a template? Where can you add a system to make things easier for yourself, your team, or your clients?

9. Clarify expectations. Make sure your client relationships are clearly defined with a written description of what you offer, and of what you expect. Clarity serves everyone.

10. Hire a VA, project manager or in-house assistant to help with the tasks that drain your energy the most.

11. Hire a CPA you actually like, who understands and cares about small business.

12. Hire a bookkeeper who promises not to make you feel stupid. You need someone to help track your numbers, and who will teach you what those numbers actually mean.

13. For heaven’s sake: use an online scheduling tool to make life easier for your clients – and for yourself.

14. Set up a way to take credit and debit cards in your business, like PayPal, Stripe, or Square. Your clients will thank you, and you’ll get paid faster.

Master Your Marketing

15. Learn to think like a marketer. Look for ways to talk about what you do everywhere you go – not with obnoxious sleazy energy, but in a genuine, service-oriented way.

16. Create a series of valuable free offers, tools and resources that you can give away on your website in return for someone’s email address. Update these from time to time to keep them fresh and relevant to your audience.

17. Build a list of contacts, prospects and referral sources that you nurture and add to over time.

18. Reach out to potential referral sources, especially if you have a local-based business or practice. Seek to learn more about what they do and what their needs are.

19. Keep in touch with your referral list, reaching out to them from time to time to keep that relationship strong.

20. Keep in touch with those who opt in through your website, on a regular basis through the use of a blog, newsletter, videos, weekly tips or other touch points.

21. Set up at least a simple website with a page for services, about, your blog and contact. And if you already have that, take a fresh look. Where could you improve?

22. Step up your visual brand. Consider investing in a clear consistent visual brand that is consistent across everything you do. Stick to it like glue.

23. Consider adding a private Facebook Group to your Facebook Business page, as a place to really connect with your ideal audience.

24. Get strategic about your use of social media. Post regularly, and often, across all platforms relevant to your target audience.

25. Use a social media productivity tool like MeetEdgar.com to make even better use of content you’ve already created.

26. Add the liberal use of testimonials and client stories to all of your marketing materials. If you don’t have many, get in the habit of asking for them. Develop a system for collecting these as you go.

27. Develop a trademark talk that can be adapted to multiple audiences. Seek out ways to get your message in front of those who need what you have to give.

28. Offer to write a weekly or monthly column for your local paper on topics relevant to your work that the public would enjoy. Yes, this can still make a difference locally.

29. Use volunteer work, service on non-profit boards, or involvement with the chamber of commerce as a way of being more visible in your community, while doing good. And while you’re there, remember that that, too, is a marketing opportunity.

Manage Your Mindset

30. Pay attention to the feelings that come up any time you are challenged to step up in some way. Notice your self talk, and actively seek to address anything negative.

31. When things get wonky, come back to center through yoga, meditation, journaling or other centering activities that help you reconnect with your core and get grounded again.

32. Learn how to sell. Yes – sell. Get clear on your value, and the difference you make for your clients and customers. Stop apologizing, and get paid what you’re worth.

33. Practice pro-active self care. Schedule in advance things like massage, personal retreats, vacation, and date nights.

34. Get the support you need to keep going on the tough days. Work with a coach.

35. Join or create a mastermind with other like minded entrepreneurs who get how hard this is.

36. Surround yourself with people who refuse to enroll in your negative stories, and who constantly call you forward into your highest and best self.

37. Be willing to invest in your own growth at the highest level, so that you are constantly growing internally, just as your business grows externally.

Which of these are you already doing?

And which of these do you need to focus on next?