When a crisis pops up, do you readily craft solutions and contingencies, or you eagerly list down all available excuses?

Your credibility goes through a testing by fire when you are made accountable for your actions. Your business’ success primarily depends on your ability on being accountable of all the things under your care. Your credibility is only as great as your accountability. Clients judge you by your character.

When you do business alone, there’s no way to share the work, nor the blame. You shoulder everything, so the temptation to make excuses is great. The true test of your credibility is in handling unforeseen glitches or delays. Do you face and meet it head on with your arsenals of solutions or you fall back and find anyone and anything to throw the blame. For you to truly succeed in business, you must not seek the easy way out in every crisis. The following are the common lines from people who care not to stand on their accountability:

• I missed the meeting because the heavy traffic held me off
• We missed the deadline because of the power interruptions
• My computer is not in great shape, so there’s no way I could submit the reports on time

Compare these lines to people who own up to their responsibility; people who are ready for the inevitabilities:

• I know that there could be a heavy traffic, so I left early and rode the public transport to catch the meeting on time
• We’re calling you to let you know that we are experiencing power interruptions, but rest assured that we will try our very best to stay true to our original commitment of delivering it on time.
• My computer is not in great shape so I better head to the nearest computer shop to do my report there

You establish and you strengthen your credibility when you begin being accountable for everything you do. You get to convey to your clients, both current and potential, that they could securely do business with you because they know that you hold yourself true to your words. Your credibility climbs as your accountability grows. They always come together. That is why it is imperative to groom yourself to being a responsible and accountable businessman because it is want clients need. People want to work with people they know they could trust. And without accountability, there is no way to build trust. Therefore, be true to your responsibilities, own it up. Do not make excuses, rather, look for solutions. And make your way to success.

I will love to hear any idea or feedback from you.

If you wish you track about the progress of your business and to test whether your employed techniques have anything to do with the noticeable improvements, measure it!

Every other detail in our life needs to be measured. If we have set for ourselves a defined goal, whether in business or personal, we have to measure our development, otherwise, there is no way of telling whether the improvements we notice are relevant. Most businessmen neglect to include measuring in their business procedures and they pay for it dearly. To know whether you are practicing business performance measuring, read the following questions and evaluate your answers.

1. Are you keeping updated accounts?

You have to account your activities, time and again. Do not put it down in bulk or just twice a year. It is more productive if you could do it prompt and consistent.

2. Are you measuring your results?

Every after accounting your results on time, you have to make sure that you measure it for what it is. You need to gauge whatever there is to gauge.

3. Are you measuring the right data?

You have to know to identify which data that needs measuring. Otherwise you might end up wasting time and resources. You have to know which one goes where.

4. Are your measuring procedures extensive and comprehensive?

When you measure, make sure to include not only the internal but also the external factors that have contributing influence over the data that you are trying to measure.

5. Are you practising benchmarking?

When measuring is employed, it is practical that the data you have will be used for comparison for reasons of benchmarking. You may benchmark all the major consideration points so as to come up with a sound conclusion.

6. Are you using ratios for easy presentations?

Get into the habit of using ratios when you wish to present the results of your measuring procedure. When you use ratios, it is easy to interpret. A data expressed in ratio explains extensively without having to get into many intricate details.

7. Are you capable of interpreting the results?

Every item discussed above should be able to tell you much more about the anatomy of measuring and its results. More than anyone else, you should be able to understand the implications of the results so that you can fully utilize its uses.

8. Are you actively responding on the results?

The core reason why you need to measure your business performance is so that you could actively make relevant response to its implications. If the results are positive, your response should be to devise methods to maintain your operation in its current state. If the result is negative, you should be able to come up with ideas in how to rectify your current procedures so as to make the business way better.

Extend an effort to gauge your business performance. Take time to measure as to how you are fairing. Your business needs measuring from time to time.

Have you ever considered that every success you achieve, you pay the price in one way or another? Success alone is glorious; it’s the price that could get us to muse long and hard.

Most of the times we only view success as it already is. What we see are just the products and what we do not realize is the sacrifices and all the other things we need to give up in our pursuit of this elusive prize. Success always happens for a fee, for most of the time, it is costly.

When I was still a 13 year old kid I used to play foot ball. My Dad seldom comes to watch me play because his schedules are always full chasing after his lofty dreams and ambitions. So when one day he showed up, it really made a difference. I was playing the best game of my life at that time. I have a friend named Patrick who has a dad like my own. A businessman and successful and have as much reasons as my Dad for not coming to watch us play football. But his Dad always makes it a point to come every game and cheers loudly for his son. He would always shout at the top of his voice for bill. As children, we would make fun of this kind of gestures but it is only when I was already a grown up that I view this in an entirely new and higher perspective. I have grown so much respect for Patrick’s Dad by the time I realize his commitment to support his son. Both my dad and Patrick’s were highly successful in their ventures and I would say it was my dad who paid a higher price for his success. And I wish to emulate Patrick’s Dad’s fatherhood style when I already have my own children.

You have to draw a line between your priorities. And you have to identify which comes first in your priority list. I would say that you need to learn to balance things out so as not to make any unnecessary cost along the way as you tread towards your ladder of success. Make your family be your greatest motivation, and do not neglect them on the process of achieving your dreams. Value them much more than you value your business clients.

I have had my down times I admit. There are times that I had my difficulties along the learning curve. But in the end, I realize I want to be the father that my children will remember as someone who is always there for them, for love and support. Do not miss important family dates for the sake of business meetings. You don’t get to hold the years, sooner or later, your children will grow faster than you could ever notice and you will realize that you have missed their golden years of growing up.

As a businessman, you have to take good care of your business with utmost passion without compromising your quality time with your family. Every time you are faced with a decision to choose between work and family, choose family, all the time, every time.

It is imperative that you employ testing process with any of your procedures especially in business. This is so you could legitimately tell the actual results of your employed methods, which is definitely impossible to do with just mere guessing. The following are the few advantages of split testing:

It helps to learn about your average conversion rate from time to time, but it is way better to know exactly which of the particular methods or techniques led the most of your conversions. I had been devising several ways of measuring my conversion for a time already and the most I could do is to track my sign up rate. I automatically thought it’s the best way of doing things. However, on the course of doing this, I discovered one particular method to double my productivity within a short amount of time. I was sent an invitation for a free webcast. And I noticed that the company who sent me the mail was using an entirely different format and structure with the one I had been sending with my webcast sign up. Their structure follows an order and they chose not to personalise their mails. Mine was the complete opposite of what they practise. I thought I was doing it the right way because it was supposed to be the standard and the best, but this time I really want to find it for sure if indeed it is true.

I employed the technique called split testing, which entails and prompts me to split my subscribers roll into two select teams. I sent my original email structure to the first team, and to the second team the new structure. And all I needed to do is just wait for the number of sign up for each of the 2 groups. The result shocked me, the new structure got more sign up than the old one and what really shocked me is that it got more than double the number of sign up. The effect was really convincing that I readily switched my strategy. I’m not saying that you pattern your email after a generic style, nor would I say that my new style now will work with your own business. Everything else is still heavily dependent upon the involved factors such your type of business and your target audience. Whenever you have any new ideas, you do split testing and find out for yourself if that certain idea works. And then do not cease from collecting new methods and keep testing them until you acquire your most desired results.

You may start now by thinking of your own business and its particular details, which one you want to see some improvements and which one needed change. Then apply split testing method to help you track which of the ideas work for your benefit.