One is NOT a Magic Number

This is Stuart Webb. Breakthrough Growth Expert, author, founder and CEO of The Complete Approach with another of my one take vlogs, all the mistakes stay in.One of the BIG business rules is this: “‘The worst number in business is ‘ONE’.”

There are a number of fundamental business rules that should never be broken. Or if they are… you’re breaking them with a full understanding of the rule and the implications of breaking it.

And this is one rule that should never be broken.

The fact is that there are a number of business rules that every business owner should be acutely aware of. The Rule of ‘1’ is one of them.

Of course, we learn some rules on the ‘journey’ but these are usually harsh lessons. Better, much better to know what they are before learning by mistakes. They are not difficult to find, but many business owners don’t invest time learning. They don’t read books. They don’t attend seminars. They don’t invest in their own personal development. I’ve never fathomed that. You can get 10-20 years of someone’s experience in around 3-4 hours when you read a book.

Anyway, back on to the Rule of ‘1’.

Here are the sort of things you should avoid…

1 main supplier

1 member of staff that you rely on too much

1 financially big client or customer

1 way to generate leads

1 way to acquire clients, customers or patients

1 product or service

1 way to get customers buying more frequently

1 way to ‘deliver’ your product or service (Covid has had a major impact here!)

Etc.

There are a number of industries and businesses that rely heavily on one main client, customer or patient. It’s scary how often that one big client stretches resources to the full, usually to the detriment of other customers and whereby the business ultimately becomes too reliant on this big source of income. It almost always ends in tears. I was involved in a business once where that was exactly the problem. I ran a division where that special client wasn’t ‘my’ client and I was constantly robbed of staff to feed the desires of ‘our major customer’ and as a result I lost a lot of goodwill and business from my customers, A LOT. Eventually that customer cancelled there contract and the business started looking for how to recover their shortfall. It just wasn’t possible and the business was sold cheaply about a year later, six months after I left the business.

Often it’s harder than it sounds not to get dragged into the mire of ‘1’. But when you find yourself having been sucked in, you have to work extra hard to start multiplying the ‘1’.

You have to work hard to change the ’1’ to a ‘2’, or to a ‘3’, or to a ‘4’, and so on. But it’s vitally important, especially when you’re building a solid and quickly growing business!