Owning a farm, agribusiness, or SME in the Eyre Peninsula is challenging. Long hours, irregular income, never-ending problem solving and other uncertainties can erode your entrepreneurial spirit. Often, the ‘whirlwind’ of business life makes you forget the reason you started your business (or continue to stay in it).
However, owning or running an enterprise has its benefits too. You have a mechanism for controlling your income levels. You can (mostly) create your own schedule. And you have an opportunity to create a valuable financial asset whilst providing value to the Eyre community.
Over the years we’ve found that business success comes far more willingly when you improve these two factors:
- Your ability to create value the community needs (“what” you do in business — ie. farming, offering a product or service, etc.)
- The way you feel about your business ( the way you perceive, plan, and pivot around the actions that happen within your day-to-day operations)
In this article, I’m going to focus on this second (and arguably more important) factor of business success: your mindset. Here are six mindsets that will make ‘doing business’ much easier, reinvigorate your entrepreneurial spirit, and help you acheive greater levels of success:
Mindset 1: Systems, Systems, Systems
A ‘systems’ mindset involves creating clearly defined and documented processes and procedures for everything that happens inside of your business.
Examples of systems within your business include:
- Exactly how you create your product or service
- What to say when a customer or potential customer calls on the telephone
- How to move prospects through your sales pipeline
- How to order stock on a regular basis
- How often machinery and other equipment should be serviced
- And so on
The benefits of creating and using documented systems within your business are:
- You, the owner/operator, can control how things happen in your business
- Your employees understand exactly what they need to do to meet their KPIs
- It’s easy to train new employees (just give them your systems manual to read)
- It’s easy to troubleshoot when things go wrong (work out where your system is broken)
- It’s easy to make things more efficient
- Plus, a business with clearly defined and efficiently-operating systems has significantly more value to potential buyers
For example, at Eyre Accounting Services, all of our monthly, quarterly, and annual accounting processes are written down in an operations manual. Everything has been clearly planned and documented, which frees us from working out what to do… and instead allows us to focus our energy on our advice and implementation that provides the most value to you, our clients.
Mindset 2: Theory Of Constraints
This mindset suggests that small and very manageable factors within your business have a big impact on your business’ success.
This mindset is built around the saying that “a chain is no stronger than its weakest link”.
By implementing this mindset, you constantly look for the small factors inside your business that could be limiting your success.
For example:
- Does your receptionist properly handle every sales call that drops in? This first point of contact with new customers or clients could be costing you business. Optimising your receptionist’s sales script could make a world of difference.
- Could your farming machinery be running inefficiently due to servicing or other issues? Making small changes to the operation of machinery could improve fuel efficiency, which saves you money etc.
- Are your current clients incentivised to spread good word about your business, and generate new business referrals? This small act of offering a referral bonus could create significant upside.
Mindset 3: Learning & Growth Mindset
This mindset suggest that you, as a business owner and entrepreneur, should ALWAYS be learning new skills. The more you learn as an entrepreneur, the more you and your revenue can grow.
Tactical things you can learn are:
- Mindset and motivation skills
- Leadership strategies and tactics
- How to hire and train team members more efficiently
- How to boost morale in your workplace
You could also study certificates or diplomas in:
- Marketing
- Business management
- Bookkeeping
Learning doesn’t have to take up too much of your time. Smartphone apps like Audible let you listen to audiobooks while you are at the gym.
Mindset 4: No Failures, Only Lessons
This mindset states that there are no failures in business–only opportunities to learn from mistakes. This can apply at multiple levels: within your tactical production processes, or right up to a strategic revenue/profit level.
Your staff will also feel less pressure if they know they won’t be ‘told off’ if they make a mistake. This can increase their productivity and creativity (depending on the nature of their role).
This optimistic lens provides great material for improving your systems. Mistakes demonstrate a flaw or hiccup in a system and allow you, the busines owner, to improve them.
Mindset 5: Leverage Expert Advice
This last mindset suggest that a “DIY” approach is not always the best solution for business owners. Yes, as an entrepreneur you must wear many hats–however, wearing the hat doesn’t mean that you are the best fit for the role.
Leveraging expert advice provides two core benefits:
- You are making the most of the skills, knowledge and experience of a dedicated professional, which means the task at hand will be performed to a higher standard. This means you’ll get a better result than if you were to do it yourself.
- Your time is freed up for higher and more valuable tasks.
Of course, engaging a professional costs money, but it should be perceived as an investment on both improving your business and freeing your time for bigger things.
Can We Help Grow Your Business (Or Take Care Of Your Accounting Requirements)?
We love helping the owners of Eyre Peninsula farms and other businesses grow their business (and personal wealth) through smart, forward-thinking accounting practices and bespoke business advice.
Can we help you, too?
The quickest and easiest way to find out more is to request an Accounting Discovery Session with our principal, Naomi Durdin, during which…
- You’ll get a crystal-clear view of your current business position (withouth a hint of judgement) and fresh ideas to develop your revenue and profits.
- You’ll gain greater clarity over what you want your business to look like (and what you can do now to build a pipeline of profits that works with or without you)
- You’ll identify barriers that may prevent you from reaching your business goals (and ideas to overcome these without working longer or harder)
- You’ll explore ways Eyre Accounting can help you save tax, smooth cashflow, increase profits, protect your assets, and build the business, wealth, and lifestyle you really want.
Get Our Best Business Building Ideas
Your Accounting Discovery Session will give you our best advice, with zero obligation to engage us further.
Naturally, we hope that by sharing our knowledge and expertise in this way, you’ll get so much valuable advice that you’ll consider choosing or recommending Eyre Accounting in the future. In any case, you have nothing to lose.
What Happens Next?
Your Accounting Discovery Session is usually held over the phone, via Zoom or in our office.
To request your Accounting Discovery Session, click here or call our office on 08 8682 4173.
A member of our team will contact you to ask a few questions, get some feedback from you and then book in a time for our session.
