Making a series of small changes, consistently and over time, is the one, sure-fire, guaranteed way to insure your business makes you rich.  In this video post are some lightening case studies to get your juices flowing.

Implement something new every week. Some little tweak or upgrade or new marketing partner or even a new channel or change to your website… Those kinds of things, and sometimes perhaps, a change that’s a bit larger: something strategic, a change to how you sell or a change to your thinking…

Implement those as often as you can manage and you are guaranteed to grow…

24 Responses

  1. Randy

    Paul,
    I’m not positive but I believe the Japanese term for this series of continuous small tweaks is ‘Kaizen’. The premise being that these continual small changes add up (or multiply) and put you WAY out in front of any competition. Does thas sound right?
    Thank you.

    Reply
  2. Macy

    First time to read this blog and I know I realize the mistakes I did when I invested on my first venture. It did not take off as well as we expected and this blog post really helped me reflect on what we did wrong. Thanks!

    Reply
  3. Lorrette

    Hi Paul

    I guess this technique is akin to avoiding what is commonly termed as ‘shop blindness’ – many thanks for the video.

    Reply
  4. Stew Kelly

    Hi Paul,

    I appreciated your insight how small changes have an accumulative effect on productivity and the bottom-line.

    The other advantage is you can measure what the change achieves more accurately than with the big drastic changes.

    Reply
  5. Jurgen Wolff

    Great point–and often the best source of a small improvement comes from comments from customers–especially “throwaway” types of comments that are easy to let go by but that point to little improvements that would make the process easier for them.

    Reply
  7. marijke

    I like this idea very much, nice video, Paul! The same goes for Jeremy Reeve’s post, very good!
    The thing is one can use the idea in so many fields.

    Reply
    • pl

      I think there are several key areas to focus on, taking on one at a time.

      Stronger margins
      More revenue per customer
      More leads
      Better conversion
      Higher, more consistent, productivity

      Reply
  8. Jeremy Reeves

    I love the idea of small changes over time. Personally I’m a “big” thinker so I’m always trying to hit those big breakthroughs – and a lot of times I do it (my latest was an increase of 162% to a clients salesletter) – but after a few of those big breakthroughs… they become a lot harder.

    A good idea for people to try is this.

    Create 3 categories:
    1) Increase conversions
    2) Increase traffic
    3) Increase profit per customer

    Then… create 5-10 ideas in EACH of those 3 categories that you can use to increase profitability… then keep track and implement a minimum of 1 idea in each category per month.

    Works like a charm every time 🙂

    Jeremy Reeves
    http://www.ReevesCopy.com

    Reply
    • pl

      It definitely does and I gave a webinar just last night about key metrics and tied it into these three things. The problem for a lot of business owners is that they don’t know WHAT to do in each of these areas. I’m putting the finishing touches on a program that has a lot of this wrapped up for them. –pl

      Reply
  9. steve

    Hi Paul

    My first sales job saw one of my earliest and biggest successes because of a small change.

    Working for a car hire company I was tasked with selling our car hire services to businesses in London. I have always been curious about the world and especially the world of business. I noticed that our car mechanics were not always that busy and had spare time.

    Suggested that we start offering car servicing as well as car hire. People will sometimes hire a car if their car is off the road being repaired.

    At any rate, they finally agreed to my idea and asked me to implement it.

    Had some brochures printed which I delivered to our existing and potential new customers. We offered to service their car, pick it up in the morning, give them a hired car, valet their car and replace it at the end of the day.

    So easy to implement and resulted in doubling our profits within one year.

    Opportunities are everywhere if you keep your eyes peeled.

    All the best

    Steve

    Reply
  10. Doug

    I could not agree more. Small changes are necessary so you don’t get stuck in rut. Some businesses fail because they continue to do the same familiar pattern over and over again, whether it’s sales, marketing, etc. They don’t explore or open their minds to changes that might be good for them, whether it’s new technology or the latest and successful strategy for their market. Changes are good and changes are 100% necessary! Thanks for a good post.

    Reply
  11. Joe

    Listening to story like the “Hot Sauce” is what keeps me getting up everyday with a big smile and work on my business. Consistent with small changes definitely pay off.

    Reply
  12. Scott

    hi paul …I love your insights thank you, i have used them and they work!

    Reply
  13. Gary Schafer

    Dear Paul,
    Your player is distractingly slow to buffer. I have seen this style of player before and I will rarely sit through this sort of player; however, as a courtesy to you I am letting you know that a call to Andy Jenkins or myself will remedy this problem. Since Andy’s still on his honeymoon you will probably reach me first. 810-599-7002.

    Reply
  14. Crystal

    Small changes, several times a day…. I should be brilliantly rich by now!
    Thanks :)!!

    Reply
  15. Arnold Shields

    Make small changes on a regular basis. Every 3 to 6 months review with changes worked. Better still split test the changes and let your users/ customers decide.

    I was just thinking the other day the difference between a really successful website and an ordinary one may only be some small changes to layout, call to action etc.

    Thanks

    Reply
  16. Jaquone Jefferson

    You are your habits hum. We need to be disciplined on running our business in a professional manner. Thanks and jesus is blessing us, amen.

    Reply
  17. John Chancellor

    Very good message. I find when people try to make big changes, fear gets in the way. It is much easier to make the small changes and as you pointed out, when you make small changes the Law of Compounding works its magic.

    A good habit would be to try to make one small change per week. I’ll make that my goal for this month, make a small improvement each week.

    Reply
  18. Deb Augur

    Hi Paul,

    I totally agree! Making small changes on a consistent basis makes a big difference. And tracking those changes will also help you to know what’s working and what’s not.

    Reply
  19. Joe Troyer

    This is great. Most of our business comes from “partners” as well and we spend almost no time finding new partners. I love your tips Paul, small easy changes are the types of changes I like making!

    Reply
  20. Steve Bell

    Paul,

    great insight and how true. While creating the “big win” is not easy, I do product creation all the time and it’s really about finding the niche or what people want and then creating a program just for that. Granted it’s not just that easy, but I can create a custom digital or printed program for my clients in that short of time frame, and it then looks like a breakthrough but really, it’s simply a solution to the big picture.

    Keep the great work up and the videos are fantastic.

    Cheers,

    Steve

    Reply

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