Great Ideas Don’t Grow Your Business. Implementing Them Does.

I gave up three days of my week recently to attend the National Entrepreneur's Convention.

Sunday. Monday. Tuesday.

Taking three days away from your business is never easy. There’s always something happening, somebody who needs an answer and a list of jobs waiting for you.

But sometimes you need to get out of the business to think properly about the business.

And I came home absolutely buzzing.

There were great speakers, inspiring business owners, plenty of laughs and pages and pages of notes.

When I went through everything afterwards, I picked out 12 ‘Golden Nuggets’ that I want to implement into my business.

That sounds great.

But there’s a problem.

Not one of those 12 ideas will make the slightest difference unless I actually do something with them.

Knowing isn't the same as doing

This is something I think catches a lot of business owners out.

You read a book and underline half of it.

You listen to a podcast and hear an idea you know would work in your business.

You attend a conference, come back fired up and tell the team about all the things you’re going to change.

Or perhaps you already know you should change a promotion, tackle a staffing issue, review your margins or improve something about the customer experience.

Knowing what needs to be done can make you feel as though you've made progress.

But you haven't.

Implementation changes the business.

The idea itself is worth very little until you put it to work.

You probably don't need more ideas

There’s certainly no shortage of business advice out there.

In fact, the bigger problem can be having too much of it.

You can spend so much time looking for the next idea that you never properly implement the last one.

That’s why my job after the convention isn't to go looking for Golden Nugget number 13.

It's to look at the 12 I've already got, decide which ones can make the biggest difference to my business and start putting them into action.

Because trying to implement all 12 at once probably isn't particularly clever either.

What's already sitting on your list?

Think about your own business for a minute.

What do you already know you should be doing?

Perhaps there’s a promotion you've been talking about for weeks.

A conversation with a member of staff you've been putting off.

A price increase you know needs to happen.

A new display you've wanted to try.

Customers you should be following up with.

Or a simple system that could save you and your team hours every week.

You probably don't need me, another podcast or another conference to tell you that it needs doing.

You already know.

The question is whether you're going to do something about it.

I've got my 12 Golden Nuggets. Now I need to earn the value of them - starting with the ones I've decided will make the biggest difference.

What's the one idea you already have that you're going to turn into action this week?