How to Recognize Your Business Resources

Resourcefulness is always a telltale marker of an effective leader; it is all about recognizing the strengths and positive aspects of your current strategy. But telling business owners to be resourceful and knowing exactly how to be resourceful in a unique situation are two different animals. Here are some more specific tips that can help you assess the situation you are in as a manager, how to recognize your best next action, and how to not lose sight of your goals in your actions. 1. Look for the similarities and good in people instead of differences and bad. Part of being successful is allowing yourself to trust, respect, and admire others. This seems like it may be setting yourself to be taken advantage of, and sometimes you are. But it also sets yourself up for having more valuable, successful, and profitable relationships with your clients, your employees, and your connections. Favors don’t make you weak, they make you aware of the potentialities of your network. Don’t however, exploit people for favors. This is about building relationships that last and are mutually beneficial. 2. Arm yourself with knowledge. Resourceful business people are resourceful because they have the knowledge to recognize what is in front of them. Potential isn’t always easy to recognize. As well, any knowledge that you have increases your ability to provide value to others. 3. Realize what you aren’t good at. Resourcefulness is about recognizing actions you can take with your current materials and skills. It doesn’t require that you know how to do every single thing on the to-do list. Unless we’re talking about the type of resourcefulness it takes in a solo wilderness survival situation, requiring the help of people will never doom you to failure. Learn what you’re not good at, and consider delegating it to either an assistant, a consultant, or hire some in-house team members to take care of it. This gives you time to prioritize the things about your job or your life that you excel at or that you love doing. 4. They get things done. David Allen’s “GTD” or “Getting Things Done” methodology is one of my single favorite pieces of business advice ever. The methodology encourages you to hack up procrastination by a process of structured delegation. We recognize what has your attention at that exact moment and write it down. All the tiny thing that are in your head, dump them out on a piece of paper. Then file them into categories that emphasize what your next action is. Process which problems are actionable. If they aren’t file them for reference or simply throw them away. File them into action types, such as calls to make, errands, emails, to do someday, etc. Recognize what each next step is, and don’t procrastinate in taking it. 5. They don’t take shortcuts. Understand that getting a deal is super-great, but don’t put it before recognizing the quality and features you need for your company. As well, don’t take shortcuts in quality of your customers. Cutting corners and providing poor quality isn’t resourcefulness; it’s insensitivity to your customer base. 6. Recognize systems you have that can be improved. A lot of the time when companies believe they simply don’t have the capacity for a job or project, it notes a flaw in the way the company is conducting practice. Look into your current systems and see how things could be more organized, more helpful, and more productive. 7. Be realistic. If the sight on the horizon is a larger, long-term goal, recognize the actual realities of what that goal takes. In my own realm, search engine optimization, I see companies all the time who press for a goal that cannot be accomplished in a very tight amount of time. Don’t put pressure on your staff to give you shoddy results and disappointing figures. Instead, be in a clear line of communication with your employees as to what can be done reasonably. This can be made easier by breaking up larger goals into actionable tasks that become smaller. 8. Take advantage of the things that your business can do for free or little money . I cringe when I see the things that businesses don’t take advantage of options that are right in front of them and free. Take advantage of ways to keep current customers retained. Use social media as a customer service platform. Use methods of word spread that cost less to you. Keep a log of customer questions, and host a FAQ section of the website to make your site more useful to customers.