The little things are the secret sauce for small businesses

Our family feels like it’s been stuck inside for so much of the last month. Some sick kids, tons and tons of rain, brutally hot weather that we thought was finally behind us, you name it!

And yet with the cooler temps yesterday, we took advantage of it and took a long family walk. Something we used to do nightly that just had been pushed aside as life got in the way. The simple, little things! We were reminded of how much life this gives us as we played “I spy” the entire walk and had some sweet moments racing each other to the next mailbox.

I came home and immediately thought, why do we forget to do the little things? Because we know, deep down, the little things make the biggest difference for small businesses.

Good morning everyone! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.

I was sitting in with a client a few weeks ago who had not been coaching with me for very long and I was asking them about what separates them from some of the bigger companies doing what they do?

“Well, not that much anymore!” As I leaned in a bit and asked them to elaborate, they proved my point.

“Well, when we first opened it was this thought of superior customer service meets the highest quality. We returned every phone call. We wrote handwritten thank yous to clients after big jobs. We spent extra time on the details. We spent time as a team making sure everything was lined up. And as we’ve grown, it feels like there is less and less time for all of that! We’ve kind of lost our way a bit.”

Does any of this sound familiar? Well, it should. That’s the secret sauce of most small businesses. It’s knowing the name of a client. Or remembering a team member’s birthday and that they are gluten-free! It’s the random handwritten note that shows up in your mailbox instead of some whitewashed thank you email with your name inserted.

It’s someone actually answering your call and getting a human on the line instead of a “press 0 to talk to a customer representative.” Or having a weekly check-in with your team to hear their thoughts and get feedback from the boots on the ground.

But what happens? Business picks up. The fires grow bigger. The team grows. The daily and weekly checklists get thrown out for the almighty sales funnel because sales solve all. And yet you look up 5, 8, or 10 years from your start and barely recognize who you’ve become as a business!

So, this is my simple reminder to you to ask you…what little things used to set you apart that have now kind of fallen by the wayside??This is a simple reminder to dive back in on those things that may have been neglected because of “insert excuse here!” I know I’m guilty of it.

Dive back in on BIG Wins and team check-ins. Dive back in on an effective team meeting and reestablishing your core values. Pull up a Job role and refresh it. Look back at your weekly schedule and time block your week out. Delegate one thing today. Build out a new process to make something more efficient. Shoot, maybe it’s just calling a customer to thank them for their business out of the blue! Whatever you’ve set aside in favor of more important things, bring it up and set aside the time for a bit. I’d imagine that you, like me, would find it refreshing and completely worthwhile!

So, here’s what I’m going to ask you to do. Write down 10 things that you did when you started out your business that truly set you apart. Now, take one step further. How many of those things do you still do? Have you lost your secret sauce? And be honest, if you’ve only done it once this year and you used to do it weekly, that does NOT count.

Now pick 2 that are seriously important. How can you reimplement these into your routine? How can you recapture a bit of that magic that you had? Maybe remember a bit of why you got into this in the first place. Maybe it’s getting your team together and showing them the list and delegating one to each of them.

We can’t lose the soul of our business as sales increase. It’s what got us the sales in the first place!

So gather your team up this week. Put an appointment on the calendar to think this stuff through. Recapture the things that truly separate you from everyone else and watch the joy come back into what you do!

It takes intentionality and leadership, but you’ve got that! Now you just have to do it.

Thanks so much y’all get after it!

Thomas Joyner is a business coach in the Lowcountry of South Carolina specializing in liberating business owners from chaos. He is a weekly contributor to The Business on Purpose podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com