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What makes a business successful? A good mission? A clear vision? A phenomenal founding team? All of these contribute to a business’s success. However, all of these are already being taught in business schools and written in books, but why is the rate of successful businesses still low?
Surely, there are things we don’t talk about a lot or even at all when we look at the factors affecting the success of a business. In my experience in XDT and the several businesses I’ve helped run, the daily, miniscule things matter more than the high-level perspective of running a business. Your business goals are for decades but what makes up decades are years; and years, months; months, weeks; and weeks, days. What happens repeatedly in the day-to-day of your company is what’s going to determine its state 10 years from now.
Because of this, we’ve determined that there are 3 major factors affecting the success of a business and these are not like mission statements that you’ll need to do only once. Comfort, convenience, and compliance should exist in the day-to-day operations of your business.
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We all know the mantra of not staying within our comfort zones but it’s not entirely helpful. Think of your most recent and best accomplishment or even just a task you ticked off your to-do list. Chances are you were already comfortable with the task so you’re able to do it excellently. Also, what do we usually say about people who are competent with what they do? They seem to do it effortlessly. Expertise brings comfort. It’s inevitable. What we should do instead of staying out of our comfort zone is to expand our comfort zone by acquiring new skills and making them our expertise. Your comfort zone is a “strengths zone”.
Comfort enables you to focus on the goal. It’s why we make sure that we’ve slept at least 8 hours before working out. It’s why we first deal with the small problems in the workplace before taking on a big project. Not all challenges are necessary, and being comfortable just means being able to focus on the necessary challenges brought by the main goal.
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Convenience is about eliminating as much friction as possible with the day-to-day operations of a business. Your resources are expendable. When businesses fail, it’s not usually due to a “one-time, big time” mistake. If this was the case, fewer businesses will fail because as big as some problems are, they’re also easier to spot. However, a dying business bleeds slowly and painfully. Unnecessary operations, bureaucracies, and many more things leak the businesses’ profits and morale under the owner’s nose. In most cases, when the owner finds out what the problem is, it’s already too late.
In a Forbes article, Caitlin Burgess said, “Your goal is to deliver the right information, at the right time, to the right person, on the right platform. This is the essence of convenience. You want to make it easy on your audience to get the information they need and to make a decision — and you want to enhance the journey and create a better experience for all. How do you do this? By reducing friction. Why? Because where friction exists, frustration exists — and frustrated buyers and customers will seek out the path of least resistance.”
This doesn’t only apply between your business and your customers. Frustration due to friction can also exist within the organization. Your business cannot offer something it doesn’t have to customers, anyway. If your process frustrates your people, don’t expect your customers to find your products or services convenient.
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Coach Aiet, my wife and the COO of XDT and Co. wrote in an article that compliance gives “the peace and comfort of knowing that your business is not at risk of being ‘caught’ by regulatory bodies. That you won’t be fearing any penalties for not filing your taxes. It’s the confidence that you can scale your business if and when it starts taking off.”
A 2020 study found that companies globally lose $1.9 trillion in regulatory interventions. The cost of non-compliance also costs more than twice the cost of maintaining compliance. Data tells us that you’re actually losing money if your business is not compliant.
The C above all Cs—Confidence
At XDT and Co., we empower MSMEs and professionals to focus on what they do best—selling excellent products and services, giving extraordinary customer service, and making a positive change in the world. The common theme found in all the 3 Cs is the ability to focus on what you, your company, and your people do best. In other words, the confidence to do business without unnecessary frustrations, fears, and worries.
