By John Chason, Director of Acquisitions at The Firm, Inc.

It certainly seems that during these times, everyone is attempting to juggle those proverbial “16 glass balls” and trying not to drop any.  Multitasking to the max!  Right?  We often lose the sight of “the forest for the trees”, but getting back to the basics will reenergize your team and keep you on track in reaching your Vision, Mission, Goals, Objectives, and Tasks.

It was said that legendary football coach Vince Lombardi opened up his speech to newly drafted players buy holding up a football and saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football”.  Talk about getting back to the basics!  Great teams in sports, and in business, seem to grasp the idea of stressing the fundamentals.  In football, it is blocking and tackling.  In business, it is breaking down the business plan into bite size pieces.  But what is it that both have in common?  Execution!

Whether you own a manufactured housing community or a lemonade stand, here are some basic steps to get back to executing the fundamentals in order to grow and get bigger, faster, stronger as a business.

1 – Discover your “Why”.  Why do you do what you do?  What is your motivation?  Your family?  Your dream?  Whatever your “Why” is, never lose sight of it and always strive to fulfill your goals with your “Why” in mind.

2 – Create a Strategic Plan.  Based on your Vision, Mission, Goals, and Objectives, create a strategic plan.  A great place to start is a basic, and VERY honest, SWOT Analysis.  Listing your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats will lead to specific tasks that must be accomplished.

3 – Build a Schedule.  Create a specific and time sensitive schedule of tasks that must happen to reach every Objective critical to your plan.  This will lead to achieving your Goals and therefore, your Mission and Vision.

4 – Assign Tasks.  Motivated teams are critical to achieving success. Period! Your team must understand this, and be an integral part of your company Vision and Mission.  When that happens, specific tasks are assigned with specific completion dates and times.  Also, the team must be measured based on its effectiveness, efficiency, and most importantly, it’s production.

5 – Accountability.  Saving the most important for last!  Accountability is by far the most critical action step in achieving success.  Based on all of the above, accountability is the fuel for crossing the finish line.  You may have a finely tuned Formula One racecar, but without the fuel it will go absolutely nowhere!

So, get your team fired up on some basic “blocking and tackling” and watch your business grow in more ways than you can imagine. You’ve got this!