As is always the case in business, connections are everything. As a small business owner, getting advice and inspiration from established, successful entrepreneurs is essential.
Business owners nearly always say, “invest, invest, invest.” They mean it.
In order to build your business properly, you have to have one eye on the future at all times. This doesn’t mean getting so far-fetched in your faith of what you can accomplish with your business (which is likely more than you think anyways) that you let daily operations run amuck, but that you are able to focus on expansion and the betterment of your enterprise.
As a boss, you can’t get bogged down by the little daily issues which will be innumerable and ceaseless.
John Ferraro EY is an example of someone who knew how to invest wisely and from that was able to earn his title of Global Chief Operating Officer of Ernst and Young. Ferraro’s strategy is like that of McDonald’s, but on a globally less threatening scale–get everywhere and make good business connections.
When you think about it, it’s the type of approach you might take in your own life with personal relationships. The more diverse and numerable the connections, the more well-rounded and flexible you’ll be in your trajectory.
You don’t just want friends who like Jack London, hiking trips, and microbrews, but ones who find astrology a little too accurate, are addicted to frozen yogurt, and can write epic poems at a moment’s notice. All about the diversity.
Diversity is what helps you grow and expand your notions of what’s available, what’s possible, and what’s needed in the world.
Since I was a senior in high school and first learned of the Stock Market in economics, I’ve learned to diversify investments. It’s good to have your hand in multiple honey pots because, as well all know, things are shifty when it comes to financial markets.
It’s really a matter of being smart and thinking not only about the future, but what may go right in the market or terribly wrong if you don’t have rainy day funds at your disposal.
You have to be open to changes and willing to grow as the world does. Nothing is the same from one day to the next and looking to someone who holds that same approach, as Ferraro does, will only make you more resilient to the inevitable declines and rough spots of running a business.
Revitalize your plans every once in a while by reaching out in ways you didn’t plan on doing before. As wonderful and brilliant as you are, you’re limited to your specific experiences without an infusion of creativity and external stimulation.
Seek out that stimulation instead of waiting for blockages in growth. Invest time and energy in people, businesses, and methods that speak to you, challenge you, make you better just for having been in their vicinity. Make it your mission to spark your own interest in what you’re doing rather than waiting for others to find you to be a guide.
What does this mean, exactly?
Well, if you’re an insurance company, try your hand at investments for the rapidly developing field of wireless health. If you’re a marketing company, add a social media little to your portfolio.
Read up on what others are doing and use it as an impetus for new projects and projections. Go to conferences, watch TED talks, follow trends on CNN’s financial page. Get out there and seek the wealth of information that’s available to help you see how you can improve.
Article contributed by Jenna Smith