There are tons of resources out there that claim their process is easy or that their solution is easy to implement. Believe me some things are easy but be careful with wanting EVERYTHING to be easy. What am I referring to when I say EASY? Have you seen those office depot commercials with the big red easy button, you know-- it appears out of no where and you push it and every thing you need appears. Wow! What a concept, I only wish it were true for everyone when growing a business.

I run into a lot of entrepreneurs who get frustrated because they are drained, mentally tired, and wondering when the light in the dark tunnel will shine. “Why is this so hard, they say.” Believe me I wonder that sometimes myself. But, most of the time it’s only hard because we make it hard. The challenge comes when we want others to provide the easy button for us vs. creating our own beautiful red button by working smart – not hard.

Building and growing a business is not easy, but some of the activities we do to reach our vision can be easy. Here are some quick tips to create your own shiny red easy button without falling prey to the easy trap:

Identify Your Comfort Zone and Get Out of It
An easy trap is to get caught up in your world to the point where you’re spinning like a hamster in a cage. You have to be open and most importantly global. If you’re not growing or generating the cash flow you need then you must do something different. Basically you’re caught up in you own comfort zone (which is easy) and you never really get a true picture of your business as a whole. Try this, stand or sit in the middle of your office with a blank piece of paper and a pen and write down all the things that are not working in your business and why. Next, take a look at this list and determine what needs to change immediately. You’ll probably realize that the first thing that needs to change is you. Don’t get upset – get a changin!

Welcome Good ol’ Criticism.
An easy trap is to avoid and shake off other people’s opinions and feedback – good ol’ criticism. Most business owners feel warm and fuzzy toward their target market, as long as their target market toes’ the line by continuing to say nice things, buying their products and never complaining. The minute the critics (that’s what we call them when they’re not nice) say anything negative, we freak out or our feelings get hurt. Huge mistake. The more you welcome--even celebrate--criticism, the stronger your bonds with your target market.

Diversify Your Business
An easy trap is to only do one thing for the life of your business. You must diversify. Diversifying is an excellent growth strategy, because it allows you to have multiple streams of income and allows you to increase profitability. Here are some examples of diversification: sell complementary products or services, teach small business courses at a local community college, instead of speaking for free get paid for it, market and sell information products on and offline. The list can go on and on and on - diversify.

Get Efficient through Technology
An easy trap is to create processes in your business without integrating technology. Technology helps you get more done, get it done easier and/or better. Most of the time, by integrating technology into your business processes, you’re able to do most things that you couldn’t do without it.

Look at this way; if you coached a football team, you need to have a good defense and a good offense to win championships. If you concentrate too much on one at the expense of the other you will lose because you need both to win. So stop creating processes that creates mostly manual activities. Remember, to achieve business alignment, (which fosters growth) you have to align technology with business processes, and often, technology is the only way to successfully integrate, align and grow.

Create a Culture
An easy trap is not developing the customer and team experience within your business. When you think of growth strategies you imagine immediate and tangible results. But there are some growth strategies, like creating a culture, that have more impact results, that make your business more dynamic, more productive and more profitable consistently over time vs. quick hits here and there.

In a small business, culture is “The foundation of why you’re in business and the framework for how you do business.” A Business Culture consists of five elements that are "practiced and passed on to the business team": Vision, Purpose, Philosophy, Priorities, and Mission. You may have heard of all five or just two of the above. The question is, have you defined each one for your business and practice them with planning, follow through and action?

Make Your Sales Effort a Priority
The easy trap is that this seems obvious, but most of the time you get caught up in other non-sales activities that don’t position you for growth. Over time, this can become a rhythm that gets you stuck. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s time to change your activities.

Quick tips to make sales a priority: set aside 30 minutes a day for selling only, make new prospect calls at least 3x’s a week, get in selling mode by knowing your solution inside and out, play the numbers game – know how many calls it takes to get a sale or an appointment, if you sell online – know the cost per customer click, set sales goals daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. By no means is this the end of the list, but it should give you some insight into how much of a priority your sales effort really is.

If you follow some of the tips above, you’re on your way to creating your own easy button. Be careful out there – easy traps are being set every second of the day.

© Effició, Inc. Sherese Duncan