Drive Your Small Business to Success with These Navigation System-Inspired Tips

Navigating unfamiliar roads can be overwhelming, especially when you're in a hurry or uncertain about directions. Fortunately, car navigation systems can guide you with turn-by-turn directions to help you reach your destination quickly and efficiently.

What if you could have the exact directions in your own small business? How can you be more certain in your actions in your business as you are certain while driving with a car navigation system? What are the similarities between using car navigation and some processes and tools that will help you run your business?

Every car navigation system works the same. You enter the destination that you want to reach. Your device's GPS sync and shows your position on the map. You get instructions on where to go, but you always give feedback on how you have progressed or moved away from your destination.

Setting Your Destination

As in navigation and your small business, you must first define your destination, where you want to be in 2 hours of driving or one year of running your business. In navigation, it's pretty clear where you want to go. In your business, you must define the main goal, which will also be very clear.

In business, unlike navigation, there are a lot of factors, revenues, your fun while working on the business, work-life balance, personal status, and desires. You need to take all of them and build your clear destination, where you want your business will be in 12 months from now.

If you have been running your business for a while now, it will be a bit easier task to define the main goal. You probably already understand this goal, but if you have just started, try to ensure that you have a business, customers willing to pay, and numbers at least have a reasonable path to becoming a profitable business. Your main goal should a proof that you have a business.

Mapping Your Route

You might think that the initial direction you get when just starting to drive is the most important, the navigation system will suggest a few routes, and you will choose one. I am pretty sure that the feeling that the initial instruction was חust a starting point for tedious negotiations during peak hours between you and the navigation system is not strange for you. Well, guess what? Running a business is more like driving during rush hours than on weekend nights.

The GPS sync with the map, and understanding whether you are closer and get away from the destination help you recalculate the routes. You need the same feedback loop in your business, showing you if the day-2-day tasks take you closer or away from your goals.

Unlike the navigation system, it's hard to understand how the day-2 days affect your main goal, so you should break them into smaller mid-term goals and break those into milestones. Each one of the goals and milestones will become a business metric that you are looking at. Put all those metrics in 1 dashboard, and you will get the same feedback loop showing whether you are on the right track.

Now build the plans and routes for reaching each goal and milestone. Bear in mind that the feedback loop might suggest that you want to recalculate the route. Plan every day, week, month, and quarter to find the point you need to recalculate as soon as possible.

Following the Directions

When you drive using the navigation system, you probably follow its directions. In the same way, you should follow the plans. As in driving, you might take shortcuts in places you know but follow the plan in unfamiliar places.

In the navigation system, the road is broken into multiple segments, each with time to pass the segment. In the business, each segment is a smaller goal or milestone and its corresponding tasks. Eventually, the plans are which tasks to do. Remember that doing tasks outside of the plans is like taking turns that are not mentioned in the navigation instructions, some times is better to be sore than sorry, I guess we all took some turns not in the direction that case to change the arrival time by 30 minutes.

Summary

Running a small business has a lot of similarities to driving in unfamiliar places during peak hours. Navigation systems help you reach your destination. We have covered a process that you can follow to mimic the navigation system in your small business.
You can also use tools that will provide you with the most important aspect feedback loop and make you on the right path, goalskeeper.io, provide such feedback loop on your business goals.

The most important thing is to try to enjoy this ride of building your awesome small business.