8 Simple Questions That Will Dramatically Grow Your Business!

In 1999, a friend told me about a seminar that he had attended. Each seminar participant received a cap with the word ON on the front of the cap and the word IN on the back of the cap.

They were asked at the start of the seminar to wear the cap backwards showing the IN above his or her face.

Each person could not turn around the cap with the ON above his or her face until they understood what working ON their business meant.

As he was telling me his story, I understood how important as a business principle this was, and I was ready to implement it immediately!

So I created the ON/IN™ program (working ON, not just IN, the business) for our company. Planning is the key concept in ON/IN, and I identified three planning strategies:

• Grow yourself

• Grow your people

• Grow your business

You can condense the ON/IN™ principle into one statement:

Work ON the business while we work IN the business. – Bobby Albert

Every leader can achieve tremendous results by asking eight key questions.

Once you have committed to grow yourself first, and you, as the leader, grow your people, now you are in a position to grow your business!

Our First Company ON/IN™ Workshop

In order to teach the ON/IN principle to our people, we hosted a company-wide half-day workshop.

Since our company had several different business functions and business units or divisions, I worked very hard with each leader from each function or business unit to prepare for the meeting.

First Three Questions

The leader from each function or unit developed a PowerPoint presentation to explain their answers to the following three questions:

• Where have we been?

• Where are we now?

• Where do we want to be?

Each leader made their presentation to the entire company.

Second Three Questions

After the leaders finished their presentations, we asked every employee from each function and business unit to sit as a group. Within each group, we sat no more than eight people at a table to encourage interaction and discussion.

Next, the table groups used flip charts to record their ideas and answers to the following three questions:

• How can we get there?

• When do we want to arrive?

• Who can make it happen on schedule?

Our Second Company Follow-Up Workshop

The month following the first ON/IN workshop, we held a second company-wide half-a-day workshop on the ON/IN principle.

Each leader of a function or business unit reported back to the whole company using a slide presentation that displayed the results and progress they had made as a result of their table discussions in the first meeting.

Again, we got every employee from each function or business unit to sit as a group with no more than eight people at a table. Then, they used flip charts to facilitate and record their observations and answers to the following two questions:

Last Two Questions

• What do our customers want to buy from us?

• How can/do we give them what they want?

We wrapped-up each question with each table reporting back to every employee what they discussed.

At the conclusion of our second workshop, I had our people to address at their tables one more question, since we would be moving soon to a new location: What particular barriers or challenges will there be for us at the new location?

The depth of the results from the discussion to this final question was amazing. We captured excellent ideas as we heard each table report to the whole company about their discussions.

You can use these simple, but powerful eight questions to grow your business!

The key is to:

1) Ask the eight questions, listen, and

2) Involve your entire team in a collaborative effort to find the answers.

I have created a special 1-page printable that lists all 8 Questions That Will Grow Your Business! There is no charge and you may download it by clicking <here>.

Have you ever struggled to grow your business? Would you consider involving your entire team as you answer the eight questions above? Please share your comments <here> and share this blog posts with a friend or co-worker.

P.S. – I have shared how the ON/IN principle actually evolved in our business. But, a more logical ordering of the questions would place the last two questions mentioned above as the first two questions for you to consider. My FREE download lists the questions in the preferred order.