The Secret to Success? Simple. Do More of What Works

The Secret to Success? Simple. Do More of What Works

“Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt

As you’re planning the future of your company, it can feel devastatingly crucial for you to make the right decision about – well – everything.

What services should you offer?

Which markets should you prioritize?

As you grow, how should your marketing strategy change?

It’s a lot to think about!

Fortunately, you can make those decisions a lot easier with one simple step: Looking to your past.

Look back to move forward.

Take a second, put down the forecasts and analyses and reports, and think about what you’ve already done.

What’s worked? What’s worked well? What were you excited about doing, and what did your audience clamor to purchase? What marketing efforts got you the most traffic? Which types of social media posts got the most engagement?

Your best plan for your future is just this simple: Do more of that.

Avoid reinventing the wheel when making decisions about your company’s future

Growing any business involves learning from direct experience. In this case, results are far superior to theory. Instead of relying on abstract notions to guide your decisions, look at cold, hard, facts. Look at what’s already happened.

Did something generate lots of profit for you last year? Even if it wasn’t something you expected to do well? Write that down.

Did a particular marketing campaign or publicity event get your customers REALLY excited, even if you aren’t sure that’s what you want to invest in? Keep your mind open. Write that down, too.

Clearly, it worked. If it worked once, it’s very likely that it’ll work again. You don’t need to spend valuable time, resources, and energy coming up with redundant methods or more creative workarounds.

Just do what you already know works.

Here are a few practical tips to help put this philosophy into action.

Leveraging your past strengths to skyrocket your future success

1. Become a data-mining machine. In order to do more of what works, you should probably start by finding out what works, right? Luckily, in today’s Information Age, you have endless resources at your fingertips telling you precisely what’s going well – and what isn’t. Delve into those analytics.
2. Be flexible. Sometimes, what’s really working for you isn’t necessarily what you had planned. That’s okay. That’s exciting.
3. Be ready to move. When you’re making data-driven decisions, you’ll find that, sometimes, you need to capitalize on energy that’s happening NOW. If you need to change your marketing strategy overnight because you’ve stumbled across untapped excitement, that’s what you need to do. (That’s startup life, right?)

When you do more of what works, you’re being smart about your business strategy. You’re making your life easier, and you’re remaining open to opportunity.

Here’s the thing: When you do what works, it might feel like you’re taking the easy way out. But you never know where that road could lead you. It’s exciting!