Victoria Tifft of Clinical Research Management was recently recognized as the 2012 U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Person of the Year during National Small Business Week. After the awards ceremony, Tifft sat down with Entrepreneur and discussed her strategy for success. She told the periodical, “Make sure that you’ve got a strategy and that you know how to execute your strategy. Create the plan…then make sure that you can execute on the plan.” When asked about the advice that she’d give other entrepreneurs about becoming successful, Tifft replied, “Create a strategy. Ask yourself what is it that you want to do. And then figure out a way to do it by seeking out advice from others…don’t assume you know everything.”
Tifft is successful because she believes that follow-through is important and that you don’t have to know how to do everything yourself. If you don’t know how to do what you promised or planned, ask for help. A small business consulting firm can provide you with the solutions you seek to help your business grow.
Why Follow-Through is Important
- Inspire trust
- Gain respect
- Get the opportunity to cultivate and strengthen your relationships
- Enhance customer growth
- Increase your trust in others
- Turn obstacles into opportunities
How to Do What You Say You’re Going to Do
- Be realistic about your promises
- Develop a process that consistently sets you and others up for success (ask a small business consulting firm for help)
- Use a to-do list to track important people, projects and deadlines
- Plan your week ahead of time to remind yourself of your deadlines
- Give yourself early preliminary deadlines so you have some wiggle room to meet the real deadlines
- Create an organization system that holds your documents in order of client or project to eliminate seemingly random stacks of paper on your desk
- If a promise takes less than two minutes to complete, do it immediately
- Place tasks that take more than two minutes to complete on your to-do list
- Partner and work with those who trust your leadership and deliver above-average results
- Accept guidance from a small business consulting firm and other professionals
Regardless of a task’s size, to set yourself up for success you must have a good plan, map out the steps and know when to ask for directions. Let your enthusiasm and customer commitment fuel your follow-through, as follow-through is essential to building the longest-lasting and strongest relationships.
If you’re looking for a small business consulting firm, please call 610-380-8735 or complete our online contact form.