What’s more common in your business: triumphs or tragedies?

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of running a business. Many of us experience more tragedies than triumphs as we pursue success.

Let's look at how you can make your business stand out so you can earn more — so you can have more triumphs than tragedies -- even if it’s not always easy!

What does it mean to stand out?

We all want to stand out in the minds of our customers, but how do you know when you’ve achieved it?

It’s simple: if people can’t remember a compelling reason to consider your business, they don’t care about it. And if they don’t care about it, why would they return or recommend it? You can’t build a successful business on the backs of people who have no idea who you are.

If you want to stand out in the minds of your customers, then you need to make sure they remember you. But how do you do that? Here are four ideas that will help you:?

1) Revisit your vision, mission, and values

A distinctive vision and mission statement can help you define your company's uniqueness, what it stands for, and how you will achieve your goals. These are primary elements to help you stand out.

A vision statement should be short, memorable, and clearly articulated enough so everyone in your business understands it. A good rule of thumb is that if you can’t explain your vision in one sentence, it’s probably too complicated or unclear for others to understand and repeat.

A mission statement helps clarify why your business exists—what its purpose is—and how all activities support this goal. It should still be clear enough that everyone in your organization understands their role in achieving your overall objectives.

The values of an organization are what guide employees on how they should behave toward each other as well as customers or clients. These principles tend not only to exist within an organizational structure but also shape external relationships between an organization and outsiders such as suppliers/vendors/contractors/partnerships, and so forth.

2) Be consistent with your delivery of products or services

Consistency is the key to success. If your customers can count on you to deliver quality products or services, they'll be more likely to trust you. This is what encourages them to form a lasting relationship with your business.

Your reputation for consistency also makes it less likely that prospects will choose a competitor over yours. And if they do make that mistake, it's much easier for them to switch to you when they see how consistently great your customer experience is!

3) Be courageous in creating unique experiences

You create memorable experiences by being courageous.

The idea of courage is not something that comes naturally to everyone, and it’s certainly not a trait you learn from a business book or LinkedIn post. But it takes courage to do things differently, especially if your clientele is used to the same old stuff.?

This can mean serving up something new and different—a new menu item or service offering, perhaps—or going against the grain with an idea for a big event or campaign. It might even mean deviating from traditional methods of marketing your company in favor of something more creative (and difficult).

4) It’s not enough to be good at what you do—you’ve got to make sure people know about it.

This is a lesson I learned the hard way when my business experienced a steep decline after my first wife passed away. I was stuck in a rut for months. My mistake was believing that because I was relatively good at what I did, clients would naturally come knocking on my door.?

That didn’t happen, and now, years later, it still hasn’t. In fact, if anything has changed since then, it's gotten even harder as more competition has entered my field!

Here is the thing: You can't just wait around for potential clients to find you or hope they'll magically appear out of thin air with money in hand.

The truth is that many great businesses of all sizes and in every industry fail because no one knows about them! Many great businesses also fail because their owners aren't willing--or able--to put themselves out there by promoting their services aggressively enough.

So, there you have it: Four ways to stand out. You’ve likely heard them all before, but hopefully, this refresher has given you some new insight into how these principles apply specifically to your business.

If you’re still struggling with coming up with a good idea for your business or trying to figure out what makes it distinctive from other similar businesses in the industry, don’t worry—it will take time!

However, by taking these steps to stand out, you will earn more profitability, success, and freedom...AND you will experience more triumphs than tragedies!

(If you want us to help you achieve this goal, just contact our office -- or reach out to me here on LinkedIn.)