Business Focus: The Secret to Doubling (or Even Tripling) Your Business in One Year

I watched a really great movie this week, The Help, starring an amazing actress, Viola Davis. I've been watching Viola for years, most recently in The United States of Tara, a Showtime series. Now, with this new role, it seems that Viola is everywhere. Or, maybe I'm just noticing her more because of the great performance she gave in The Help. How did she get to this point in her career? If I had to guess, I'd say it was due to the fact that she became hyperfocused on one thing -- getting quality leading roles in movies that showcase her full range of acting skills.

Believe it or not, you can employ this same notion of hyperfocus in your business. How? You dig deep to discover what the primary driver is for your business focus, and you focus all of your time and attention on it.

So, if your best generator of clients is through public speaking gigs, hyperfocus on getting more speaking gigs. If your best leads for clients are generated through Internet marketing, hyperfocus on traffic generation and web site conversion. If your best client leads come from referrals, hyperfocus on networking to get people talking about you. If all of your great client leads are from doing webinars, hyperfocus on doing more webinars.

How do you hyperfocus in a good way so that this strategy works for you?

Here are 5 steps to help you hyperfocus your business focus:

1. Discover what strategy is bringing you the most clients and sales. In order to determine this, need to know how clients found out about you to hire you. Make sure you ask this question in your intro session with your clients, on all of your online forms, and on every printed piece of marketing material that you publish. Then track your results for two months. What is your #1 lead-generation strategy where you should concentrate your business focus?

2. Determine your goal. Any time you do any type of marketing, you need to have a goal in mind. If you are focusing on lead generation via Internet marketing, monitor how your traffic converts to a specific goal, whether that is subscribing to your list, reading your ezine, signing up for a webcast, or contacting you for a free introductory session. Have a specific goal/purpose for each marketing tactic you engage, and continue to tweak each process to increase your rate of conversion.

3. Focus your marketing plan around that strategy. So, if Internet marketing is what is working to bring your more clients, for example, develop your online lead generation plan that consistently brings your more traffic. This may include video marketing, creating podcasts, or content syndication.

4. Rinse and repeat. Continue to repeat this strategy again and again, and measure your progress toward your goals.

5. Hire a hyper-focused team member. This team member will focus all of his/her time on this one best lead-generating strategy. So, if you're focused on getting more speaking engagements, hire someone to help you get more speaking gigs. If you're focused on Internet marketing, hire an Online Business Manager to help you generate more web site traffic. If your focus is social networking, hire someone to get you more fans, followers, and connections, and implement a followup process to connect more deeply with those connections.

This has been my secret to success. The majority of my clients come to me from Internet marketing and holding webinars, so that's where I focus my business. Determine what brings business to you, and then create a hyper-focused implementation plan. You'll discover your business focus will be streamlined, easier to implement, and work better for you.