Building Traction Processes for Your Business

trac·tion

/ˈtrakSH(ə)n/

1. the action of drawing or pulling something over a surface, especially a road or track.
2. the grip of a tire on a road or a wheel on a rail.

By definition, traction involves a relentless pursuit of moving forward, not slipping back. Traction for your business means maintaining a solid grip on your market share and finding new ways to take hold of more. It’s really all about moving onward and upward.

To grow your business into a sustainable one that’s both profitable and not going to burn you out, you need to implement processes that will power your success. They must be intentional, repeatable and able to scale with you.

Here are four places to focus as you consider the unique needs of your business and what you need to do to build traction:

1. Schedule meetings with yourself – Moving forward strategically means you must dedicate time to regularly reflecting on the past. If you’re a solopreneur, this could be blocking one hour every Friday just for yourself. Dedicate time for yourself to review data and look ahead. If you’re in a partnership or have a team of employees, it means communicating openly with them and collaborating consistently on the best path forward.
2. Implement repeatable processes – As you scale your business, staying on top of the minutia becomes challenging. If you’re tackling one-off tasks here and there with a mish-mash of post-it notes strewn about, your disorganization will catch up with you in a hurry. Manual processes that once worked will no longer be sustainable. This is where automation can really save you and why you should evaluate your processes every quarter so you can identify what works – and what doesn’t – early on.

• Pursue ongoing professional development – Stagnation or complacency has no place in growing a business. Staying relevant as a leader and as a business means staying current with the latest trends and learning as much as you can to effectively position your company for the future.

• Lean on your network – Developing professional partnerships is also a critical component of helping your business gain traction. Not only can you learn from each other, having a network enables you to earn referrals and create a trustworthy business presence.

By focusing on these four areas, you can gain solid footing for your business as you grow step by step, day by day.