The CAP: A Habit Every Small-Business Owner Needs to Have
Business owners (or as I call them bizowners) need a lot of habits in order to succeed. Before I tell you what I think is the most important habit bizowners need, I should tell you how I define a "habit."
In general terms, a habit is an action or thought pattern, developed through repetition, which is for the most part automatic. Bizowners use habits all the time to make their lives easier and make their businesses grow. Some use habits to always give the best service. Some use habits to keep track of finances on a daily basis, and some use habits to simply return phone calls or e-mails on time.
We all have habits, and we all use them all the time. How many of us have developed the "I can't live without my cell phone" habit?
Picking Up the CAP Habit
To pick one habit over another as far as importance is a tough job because each of the habits we have acquired, or need to acquire, impacts our success in its own way. For me, the most overlooked and underutilized habit most bizowners need to acquire is the CAP habit.
CAP stand for Customer Acquitision Plan. If I had to pick one habit that impacts the success or failure of a small business (and especially a new business) the most, it is this habit.
A Customer Acquistion Plan is what we do on a daily, weekly, and monthy basis to generate new customers for our business. For some successful bizowners the CAP is 10 calls a day to new prospects. To others it is canvassing a neighborhood once a week for 3-4 hours, and for some (more introverted bizowners) it is sending 30 e-mails a week to prospects.
In any case, for a CAP to work it needs to become a habit. Routine and repetition are the keys to successful long-term growth. Doing something once doesn't make it a habit. Doing something twice or three times doesn't make it a habit. Doing something 21 times or more begins the process of making a habit.
A 21 Week Plan
If you want your business to grow dramatically in 2012 then let me give you a challenge.
Take a four-hour block of time each week and do nothing in that block of time but look for and contact potential new customers. Use your individual strengths and your knowledge to figure out the best way of doing the prospecting, but do it for four hours and do nothing else in that time period.
Block the time off on your calender and don't let anyone or anything get in the way of this activity. It is important that you pick the same time each week. This makes it easier to develop a habit. If you do this for a minimum of 21 weeks, you will have begun to develop the CAP habit, and you will be amazed at the growth and momentum your business has acheived!
