1) Solve an annoying enough problem for customers that they're willing to pay money to solve it, and want to solve it right NOW

The is a subtle, but arguably profound point.

Many businesses exist to solve a customer's minor annoyances. When times get tough minor annoyances suddenly become tolerable, while spending lots of money to get rid of the annoyances is no longer tolerable.

When you solve a "must solve" and especially a "must solve now" problem, you're in a great business.

For example, cosmetic surgeons specializing in breast implants have seen revenues plummet by 85% in the great recession.

In comparison, heart surgeons haven't seen any drop in income. People still have heart attacks and generally those that do insist of fixing the problem NOW, and they never shop around for price.

Be the heart surgeon.

2) Be unique in what you do or for whom you do it for (specialized offering or a niche market)

When you deliver your elevator pitch, where in 30 seconds (the length of an elevator ride) you describe what you do and who you do it for, can you replace your company name with a competitor's name and have the statement still be true?

Example:

"My company is ABC Tax Services, we do tax returns for US tax payers"

"Our company is called H&R Block, we do tax returns for US tax payers"

If customers can't tell you apart from your competitors, then you're fighting an uphill battle.

Try this on for size from a real company (name changed to protect the brilliant):

"We're XYZ company, we tax loophole strategies used by billionaires, and simplify them enough to be used by millionaires."

3) Make sure your revenues exceed your expenses, and your bank account balance gets bigger each week. (Tip #2 helps with this a lot)

You must charge enough to cover your costs. If you're not, it means customers don't place enough value on what you do and your business may not be viable. Or it means your overhead is way to high given the actual business opportunity in front of you.

Deal with the reality of the situation. If you need to make a change, make it – and do it quickly.

The reason checking the bank balance is important is because it's possible to be profit rich, but cash poor. The difference comes from how quickly your bills come due vs. how quickly your customers pay you.

If you're on the wrong end of the equation, it's possible to grow your sales and profits right into bankruptcy. Yes, counter-intuitive and yet very true.

4) Get the word out (e.g., marketing) related to tips #1 and #2 above

If a product is released to the market, but nobody knows about it, does it really exist? Just check your bank account for the answer!

When you have something unique to offer customers and you solve a problem they really, really care about, you got the foundation for a great business.

But, until you market your business and get the word out, something terrible happens… NOTHING.

Market or die (assuming you got something worth marketing)

There you go, 4 simple rules for business success in any small business. Pretty easy to understand right?

Now comes the hard part, you actually have to go out and do it.

Is market differentiation the same as "Unique Selling Proposition"?  If not, what's the difference?

Let me start by providing some context.

The term "Unique Selling Proposition" (USP) is a term used by advanced marketing professionals that basically states every advertising campaign must explain what's unique about a particular company, product, or service.

In short, one's unique selling proposition is the answer to the following question, "As a potential customer, why in the heck should I buy from your company instead of every other company on the planet?"

In today's marketplace, you'd better have a darn good answer.

In response to Tony's question. USP is the public communication of a company's market differentiation.

Let me illustrate by example.

In marketing circles, Domino's pizza in its hey day is often cited as an example of a company with a really compelling unique selling proposition.

Between 1972 – 1992, the company's marketing slogan (note: not all USP's need to be expressed in a slogan) was "Hot Fresh Pizza Delivered to Your Door in 30 Minutes or Less Guaranteed… or it's Free!"

That is the USP.

The company's market differentiation began in 1960 when company co-founder and CEO Tom Monyhan decided to focus exclusively on the pizza delivery business (radically different for the industry at the time).

He then decided to ditch all the dining tables and chairs in Domino's locations. Decided to pick our real estate parcels for new locations that were much smaller (as they only needed to house a kitchen and not an entire dining room).

Because the real estate requirements of a Domino's was a lot smaller than say a Pizza Hut and because the company only focused on delivery, the decision was made starting in 1960 to pick locations that were 1 – 3 stop lights closer to customer's homes.

So rather than be in the major commercial districts, Domino's locations were in nook and cranny properties closer to customers. Again, this was possible because Domino's could fit their operations into smaller spaces where larger ones were not always available.

The entire Domino's operation was factually DIFFERENT from the other company's in the market. Every facet was different.

This made it possible for Domino's to operationally deliver on their USP of "Hot Fresh Pizza Delivered to Your Door in 30 Minutes or Less".

Other companies tried to copy Domino's USP. But these companies could not actually deliver on the same promise.

Sure Domino's marketers were clever.

But the real genius in Dominoes was not just the tag line / USP, but the very deliberate decision to be operationally different from day one.

In addition to working with existing clients many of whom are having record sales years, I've been working with several new clients getting them ready for having a big year in 2010.

In addition, I've been doing the road warrior thing giving speeches across the country. I started a month ago in Baltimore, then moved on to Dallas, Las Vegas, Seattle, Boston, New York City and I'm off to San Diego in about an hour.

Business owners everywhere are concerned about the economy and how to do well in it. I suppose it's good to be the "recession guy" in the middle of a recession. (There is a really big lesson in that last sentence if you read it very carefully a few times. Hint: I was NOT the recession guy BEFORE the recession.)

What has been interesting to me is to get feedback from business owners across many different cities in America.

In my speeches, I talk about the importance of finding the overlooking opportunity in your business that is growing despite the fact that it is being ignored and under-resourced.

When I mention this idea, the initial reaction is often "Ha! like I'd overlook that kind of gift."

Towards the end of my talk, I often ask people in the room how many have some portion of their business (often it's a small portion of the business) that is either growing or has not been negatively impact by the economy as much as other parts of the business.

For some businesses, it's a particular product or service line. In other, it's a particular customer segment that continues to buy despite the economy.

But what I have noticed is that in EVERY audience I speak to, about 10% – 15% of the businesses owners in the room, when prompted, acknowledge that this phenomenon happens to describe their business.

Then I ask the "killer" question… the one that "shames" people into action… I then ask, "Over the past 12 months, have you increased your personal focus, staffing, or funding to further develop this particular revenue stream?"

And 95% of the team the answer is a very sheepish, "No."

The owner of a very successful business up in Seattle said it best, "Ya know, I'm almost ashamed to admit. But you know, we actually do have this one service that has been growing month-over-month for the past 15 months in a row."

"It's a service that I think is kind of lame. I personally find it annoying. But, when I think about it our customers must really like it because it continues to grow despite our best efforts to ignore it.

We originally offered it on whim, but customers keep buying each month. And ya know, we haven't done anything with it at all. Geez… that's just so embarassing."

This is reaction is extremely common. Many very successful business owners overlook these growth areas because the growth does not match their mental model of their own business.

If they think they are in the business of selling "Product A," they interpret any growth in Product B as an accident… and they're slow to recognize it as an opportunity.

One of the reason I insist that all of my clients look at their dashboard numbers regularly and for making major strategic decisions is to use facts to blow away any assumptions they're holding about the business.

The facts describe reality. What you choose to do with it is an entirely other matter.

For example, I also met a former General Motors executive who was probably one of the top 50 in all of GM. He described to me how GM would look at their monthly sales figures and compare them to Toyota regularly.

They noticed that monthly sales had shrunk steadily 240 months in a row (that's every month for 20 years). During that same time, Toyota and Honda sales grew steadily 240 months in a row… in the exact opposite trend of GM.

How did other GM executives interpret these market facts?

They concluded that Toyota didn't know how to make "real" cars. They didn't know how to "push iron" like the folks in Detroit.

Geez 240 months in a row of declining sales for GM vs. 240 months in a row of increasing sales for Toyota. There is a message in dashboard metrics if one is willing to look at it objectively.

See the real problem was DENIAL. GM was unable to accept the brutally harsh reality that Toyota was doing something right–at least by customer's standards. It never occurred to the executives at GM to deal with reality and to learn from it.

This is a mistake. Don't let happen in your business.

Business metrics tell a story… if you care to look. If your business stinks, it stinks. Deal with it. But whatever you do, don't just stick your head in the sand and deny it.

Similarly, if the runt of your product line is selling well… don't deny and discount it's successes. Often times, you will stumble upon doing something exactly right in your marketplace. When you do, it's important to be smart enough to realize you just got lucky, and capitalize on it.

Of course, it helps a LOT to be deliberately experimenting with new ways of generating revenue. Lots of disciplined trial and error will eventually allow you to stumble upon an opportunity.

The trick is then to realize you just got lucky and to capitalize on it.

This is how you find growth in virtually any business. It's the process I used with all of my clients to find ways to grow their businesses when their competitors are shrinking.

In this video, I give my commentary on the old phrase "How to Sell Ice to Eskimos".

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One of the keys to surviving a recession is to figure out what your core business really is.