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Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek
and John-Paul Micek
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If you set the rules, you'll win the game
TO win in any game, you have to know the rules, play by those rules, and improve your performance within those parameters. This is true in every sports game we play. But it's not true in the game of business ownership.
Business is the only game where YOU can set the rules. If you've structured your business on other people's rules --you're bound to fall far short of your full potential because other people have set the rules to play to their strengths, not yours.
So many business owners are unfulfilled or eking out miniscule profits because they haven't taken the time to view their business in this light. They're playing a game where other people made the rules. They're at the mercy of the rules they never had any input in setting, and even worse -- rules that can change at any time without warning.
Of course, there are some rules in business that must be adhered to such as honesty, integrity, and customer-centric service. The rules you don't need are those that are blindly followed in your industry without much critical thought.
Too many business owners think that just because companies within their industry have always done things a certain way, that's the way they have to run their company. Unfortunately, that type of approach will only get you the same results other men and women in your industry are getting -- average, or below-average.
You don't have to make a shift in industries. The shift you need to make is in your mind, in your thinking about what it is you do and where you are in your business and life.
Look at what the majority of business owners are doing in your industry, and listen to how much they complain or blame things on outside influences, like "the economy" instead of re-engineering how they run their business. How different are you from your competitors? Are you offering the same services/products to the same market and experiencing the same financial rewards and constraints as everyone else in your industry?
Winning the game of business ownership -- playing by your own rules -- takes a comprehensive strategy. Start setting your own rules by answering these questions:
1. What could your company provide that your competitors do not, cannot, or would not do -- even if they thought of it first?
2. What's considered "impossible" by the majority of people in your industry? How could you provide that service/product/solution IF it were really not impossible?
3. What are consumers regularly complaining about in your industry? How can you provide solutions to their complaints?
Mold your operational systems, marketing, and pricing structure around your answers. When you set your own rules, you'll take a commanding lead in your industry. You'll be setting rules around what consumers want instead of what companies in your industry find to be "the norm." And when you help enough other people get what they want, you'll get more of what you want!
John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach at RPM Success Group Inc. Reach him at
JPM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.
Deborah Cole Micek, chief executive officer of RPM Success Group, is a business success coach and life strategist. Reach her at
DCM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.