Success.
When I started my own business, I thought a lot about the concept of success. To me, success meant making my vision a reality, but it can also mean many other things such as gaining customers, turning a profit, or becoming the best of the best. A book we here at HindSite live by, is Traction by Gino Wickman. He abides by the 6 components that create a streamline path to succes. Whatever your idea of a successful green industry business looks like, there are six components that will make that success possible:
1. Vision
The very first step is to inspire your team with a vision. The best vision must be specific, relevant, and attainable. It must be something that can sustain for the long term growth of your company. It must be understandable and not use too much green industry jargon. Lastly, it must be inspiring, or something that your crew wants to aspire to become.
Once you have decided on the perfect vision, you want to make sure that everyone on your team has plenty of opportunity to study it, memorize it, and think about what it means to them. Hang your vision on the wall of your office for everyone to see, employees and customers alike. Have one-on-one meetings with your employees to talk about their reactions to the vision. You will know who your best employees are based on who is working toward your vision.
2. People
In order to have a unified team that is working to fulfill the same vision, you must be selective when choosing your personnel. Identify the right people based on how well they understand and aspire to achieve your vision. These people are passionate about their work and have high standards. Beyond this, choose people who will help the rest of your team become better by sharing their knowledge and instilling confidence in others.
In addition to being selective about your people, make sure to invest in the people that you have. Invest time and energy into their training to show them that you want them to find personal growth and success at your company. Research shows that employees have higher job satisfaction and a higher work ethic when they have been trained thoroughly and feel appreciated by their boss and coworkers.
3. Data
For your green industry business, you have a lot of data to keep track of. You have finances, sales and marketing, and production data. This can be a bit overwhelming.
Successful data management comes from simplified means to capturing and managing data. You can do this by determining what data is most important and what you are trying to learn from it specifically. Eliminate unneeded data and implement a better storage solution for the data that you need. One way of doing this is through online software like Hindsite, which does all of the work and takes the pressure off of you.
4. Issues
There are many issues to keep track of for your green industry business: competitive pricing, government regulations, developing a customer base, managing personnel, etc. Staying up to date on the most relevant issues in the market is crucial to the success of your business, but it is a difficult priority to manage. My advice is that you should try to spread out the responsibility throughout your team so that everyone is aware and communicating about relevant issues. This way you can get the unique perspectives of your team, and there isn't too much pressure on you alone.
5. Traction
Often traction is the key to investors and clients that your green industry business is viable. Acquiring many paying customers early on in your businesses life is the best way to start the process of business traction. Try to find and reach out to the customers who will have a genuine interest in the products and services that you offer and will recognize that it is unique from other services in the market. Use customer testimonials to demonstrate the value of your service and attract more and more customers as this cycle continues.
In addition to customer testimonials, try to gain endorsements from other local businesses and generate publicity. This gives your business more exposure and social proof of your company's value.
6. Processes
Creating clear and easy-to-follow processes for each and every one of your departments will ensure that your business runs smoothly. For example, reach out to your marketing manager and ask for a high-level overview of the core processes of marketing and how they fit within the business model of the company. If the whole team is abiding by and understands these processes, you're in the right place. The point here is to document your business model and core processes then getting everyone on the same page in following them.
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