Become an undisputed leader in your industry: how to raise, invest and manage capital to finance and grow operations, profits and momentum.

• Author: Janiczek, Joseph J.

One position in business comes close to nirvana: being an undisputed leader of your industry. Think about it. Undisputed leaders garner so much respect and momentum in the marketplace that they enjoy four of the most sought-after business advantages:

1) A customer base that is so loyal that customers become missionaries for your product who help expand the business;

2) A growth rate so predictable that new profits finance expansion rather than other less desirable sources of funds, like loans or equity investments;

3) A profit-margin advantage that continually makes the company stronger in the marketplace; and,

4) Such a revered reputation that your company attracts and retains the most talented employees and vendors in the marketplace, giving you an even more advantageous position in that market.

So how do you take your business from wherever it is today and put it on the path to becoming the undisputed leader in your market? As the Chinese proverb says: A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. In this article, I provide five steps you can take over and over again to build and rebuild momentum toward becoming the undisputed leader in your industry.

STEP 1. FIND THE MONEY: THE 10/5 COMMITMENT

The first step to becoming an undisputed leader in your industry is to rearrange your business finances to constantly fund business improvement. At a minimum, I suggest the following "10/5 commitment": 10 percent of revenue (after cost of sales) immediately set aside for your "business improvement fund"; 5 percent of revenue immediately set aside for your "balance-sheet improvement fund" Doing this immediately creates a huge challenge for just about all businesses. The challenge is: How do you fit salaries, business expenses and ownership profit distributions into the remaining 85 percent of revenues? As you will see in Step 2, this challenge represents a powerful seed for innovation that is a trademark of all undisputed industry leaders. A second question raised by the 10/5 commitment is how do you allocate your 10/5 funds? As you will see in Steps 3 through 5, the process of improving your business and balance sheet is rewarding in itself, and the payback can be immediate and lasting. But it all begins by making the commitment.

STEP 2. FIND THE VALUE: YOUR NEW STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE

The second step to becoming an undisputed leader in your industry is to innovate your product/service offering and operations to provide more value to...