Are you wondering how to get more social traffic? Incorporating these words will help you to get more engagement from your fans and followers.

While having a great attitude toward your business, staying positive and working hard are key ingredients of a successful business outcome, there are some things that business owners tend to take for granted, with little to back up their assumptions.

Your customers will buy from you because you think you have a great product or service.

Yes, what you are providing may be useful, and for a period of time it will sell well. Then something else will come along as it usually does, and unless you keep up with innovation within your niche,  your business can be left behind. There are dry spells for most products and services and having a plan in place for those times will help you to make it through without breaking the bank.

A good example of this is SaaS – Software as a Service. Though very popular not even three years ago, it won’t be long before it lags behind platform and infrastructure as a service.

Your costs will always be within your budget.

Budgeting for your business needs in advance can be difficult as it is impossible to forecast the future of the economy and whether or not prices will rise. If they do, these costs will need to be added to the price of your products and at that point, you may need to make adjustments on what you are offering.

The best way to keep future costs in check is to have a roadmap of where you want to take your business. Update your expenses each month to keep it on track.

You will be able to handle the business on your own, without outside help.

This is one of the most common business assumptions and also the one that leads to the most trouble. If you are  thinking you can be everything to and for your business, you are headed for exhaustion and quite often the folding of your business.

Assessing the direction your business will take as it grows can’t be done immediately and thinking you will be able to handle all aspects of a busy, thriving business and also have any kind of a life outside of it, is wishful thinking. A good business plan always includes future expenditures that will include the hiring of outside help, usually a virtual assistant or team.

Though all new business are based somewhat on assumptions, usually called strategic assumptions, using a little common sense along with them will ensure that there are no surprises in store for you further down the line. Your responsibility as the owner of your business is to put into place checks and balances that will keep your business running smoothly.

© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2014

image courtesy of unchainedentrepreneur

Keeping your small business in sync with current needs takes a certain amount of creativity as well as updating of your products or services.

In order to continue to offer innovative products, you need to understand your customers and how they feel when they are interested in purchasing what you have to offer. While many business owners know how they feel about their products, do they have any idea how their customers feel about them?

The longer you own your business, the more experience you have, not only with running the business itself but also with the people you meet because of this ownership. But this experience is only part of what helps to make you a successful business owner.

Many entrepreneurs who go on to lead great companies started out very small. Various part-time jobs ranging from washing dishes to acting and picking produce gave them a varied background which led to a growing determination to succeed, an ability to work with a variety of personalities and just the right amount of humbleness, which always helps when you have a company of your own. Many of the skills they acquired while working at the most menial jobs were what made them strong, not just physically but emotionally.

These business owners have learned that hard work is what pays off over time but they also learned that it can’t be all work. Some have travelled to distant countries to work at jobs in which they had no experience. They pursued positions with cruise lines and remote camps and what they gained the most from these jobs was not so much the skills that they learned but the experience of being somewhere totally different than what they were familiar with. Different customs, ways of life and especially methods of doing business left its effect on them and taught them that there was more than one way to run a business successfully.

The end result was a combination of learned skills and life achievements that made them what they are today. The diverse experiences had an impact on their personality and their personal growth that in the long term helped them to succeed in various occupations and led to the development of a business that thrived, while also satisfying their need to create something useful for others.

© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2014

image courtesy of luke dowling