Business Monday: The One Word – Bob Salvas

by Bob Salvas, contributing writer

When I have spoken or written about success in business in the past, I have always been a big fan of using one key word or short phrase to home in on an idea that will help make someone more successful.  Some examples of words that I have used that I think are important on our success journey:

RELATIONSHIPS – It begins and ends with relationships.  That is why we often take a journey and that is the who we celebrate or commiserate with when the journey is over.  And who we meet along the way can change everything.

GIVING – They say that what you send out in this world comes back to you tenfold and I believe that to be true.  And it comes back to you in ways you’d never imagine.

NETWORKING – Networking is your chance to give and to get.  Opportunities come to givers who are out there meeting people.

LEARNING – Not to be dramatic here, but learning ONLY stops when we die.  The question is how much learning we want to do, as what we learn will have an impact on our success.  Learning leads to earning.

GRATITUDE – Having a positive attitude is often cited as a key to success and the best way to have one is to be GRATEFUL for all you have.  If you are in a true mindset of thankfulness, it is hard to be negative.  Gratitude impacts our health, our relationships, and our success.

CASHFLOW – The top concern of business owners is cashflow because they know that is one of the biggest causes of failure in business. It has been said that cashflow is the life blood of a business so staying on top of where you are is critical to success.

But there is ONE WORD that is more important than the rest.  It is an overarching umbrella over all these key words and any other word that you might add to the list.  And that one word is….

CONSISTENCY

“Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently.” – Marie Forleo

A lot of people have plenty of good ideas about what to do for success in life and in business.  That is not their biggest struggle.  Their biggest struggle is doing those things CONSISTENTLY.

A business who is facing challenges often tries to do MORE but if they did what they were already doing in a more consistent way, many of those challenges would likely not be there at all. Consistency is the primary driver of long-term success because small, repeated actions compound over time.

There are MANY great books on this topic.  One of my favorites is THE SLIGHT EDGE by Jeff Olson.  Here is a quote from that book:

“Things like taking a few dollars out of a paycheck, putting it into savings, and leaving it there. Or doing a few minutes of exercise every day—and not skipping it. Or reading ten pages of an inspiring, educational, life-changing book every day. Or taking a moment to tell someone how much you appreciate them, and doing that consistently, every day, for months and years. Little things that seem insignificant in the doing, yet when compounded over time yield very big results. You could call these “little virtues” or “success habits.” … Simple productive actions, repeated consistently over time. That, in a nutshell, is the slight edge.”

So, what are you doing consistently in your life or in your business to get the SLIGHT EDGE?  What are your success habits?

What should you be doing every day or every week?  Write those things down and make them a priority in your calendar.  They will become your SUCCESS HABITS.

We often say that it takes a deep commitment to get married, or to start a family, or to start a business.  And that is true, but it is what you do after that, every day and every week, that will determine the success of that commitment.

“Without commitment, you’ll never start. Without consistency, you’ll never finish.” – Denzel Washington

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November 10th is the Ocean State Business Expo (oceanstatebusinessexpo.com)

November 16th is the Businesses Give Back Toys for Tots event (businessesgiveback.com)

November 28th is the Small Business Saturday event (sbsshopri.com).  

All will be excellent networking opportunities for small businesses.

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Bob Salvas is a Professional Development Manager for the RI Builders Assn, (ribuilders.org) a marketing consultant, the co-founder of Brew Work Networking (brewwork.org), and the co-founder of THE MARKETING CAMP (themarketingcamp.com), a yearly conference to help small businesses achieve success.   Bob can be reached at 401-359-1602 or at [email protected].