Marginal changes are more important than we like to think. As business owners, and as humans, we should have a plan. But it doesn’t have to be earth-shattering. As a matter of fact, it shouldn’t be. Like proposing marriage on a first date, grand changes are risky.
Marginal changes allow us to make a small change and wait for the results. Did it work? How well? Should I do it again? How can I tweak this to make it better?
Even when we do make a big change like moving into a new building, we can reduce the potential loss. By waiting to hire new employees or buy new equipment we divide one big change into multiple smaller changes. It allows us time to observe the effects of each change. And this gives us a much better understanding of our business.
How do we measure the results? Profit, of course. But there’s more to it than that. Improving customer satisfaction should top the list. Happy customers (and happy employees) will produce long-term effects that may not seem obvious at first. Besides, they came to us for something; don’t we owe them the best we can offer?
Be sure to make those marginal changes on a frequent basis. At the minimum, make an honest assessment of your habits and try to improve on one; I can do that daily. Any change for the better is … well … a change for the better, no?