Why Practicing Is the Key to Profitability
"Practice creates confidence. Confidence empowers you," says Simone Biles, the famous American gymnast. In addition to making you more confident dealing with customers, practicing — repeating a task until you’re really good at it — will also make your business more profitable.
You may have noticed it takes the longest when you do something for the first time. You are a novice at the task. You have to figure things out.
Doing the same job a second time is much faster. Repeating it takes even less time, and so on.
With each repetition, you'll become more proficient and productive. That's why professionals, like musicians or athletes, practice a lot.
But the need to practice also applies to plumbers, interior designers, caterers, dog groomers, web designers, copywriters, doctors, accountants, and lawyers. I think it applies to all professions.
The more you repeat a particular task, the more skilled you become, reducing the time it takes to complete it. After many years of doing your job, you are so experienced — because you have seen it all — that you are considered an expert.
Customers Favor Experts
Customers favor experts because it ensures that the job is done correctly and according to a professional standard, reducing their risk of hiring the wrong person.
Questions like, "How many projects have you completed that are similar to ours?" or "Could you give us a few references from past customers?" aim to assess your level of expertise and help predict how you will execute their job. That's why positive reviews, referrals, and recommendations are so valuable for business owners.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Word-of-mouth marketing is inexpensive but can be very effective, two attributes that make it perfect for small businesses.
Practicing Increases Your Profit
It is challenging to start a business and get your first paying customers without past projects to show for or satisfied customers to vouch for your expertise.
Even if you sign the first contract, you won't make much money on the first few assignments, likely incurring losses instead. That's not because you had to discount it so much to win it — that probably too — but because you haven't yet figured out how to run your operation most efficiently. Or you have made a few beginner mistakes. I bet you won't make these mistakes again.
Instead of licking your wounds, I recommend trying to get the next job.
Each similar assignment will make your work more deliberate, focused, and streamlined.
As you gain experience, you will spend less time on each job, allowing you to take on additional clients. This increase in productivity will ultimately lead to higher profits.
Learning Curve
The more a person practices, the better their performance on a task — and the less time they require to complete it.
If you plot this relationship between performance and practice in a diagram, you get a curve. This curve — called a learning curve — is an essential concept in business with many applications.
A steep learning curve generally means a person can become an expert after only a few tries. But as a saying, it can also mean that someone has to be up-to-speed in a very short time.
On the other hand, a shallow learning curve predicts the need for a lot of practice or training before mastering a task like doctors, musicians, or lawyers.
Still, the more you practice, the sooner you become an expert and your business more profitable.
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