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Want more success? Get a better view of your opportunities Think about what you do during the day.

By Erik Johnson

Think about what you do during the day.

If you're like most of us in business, your days and weeks are filled with meetings, calls, emails, to-­-dos, and the ever-­-present challenge of attending to basic responsibilities. Add to that a random mix of surprises and fires that demand your precious attention. Amongst this chaos, you're working hard to keep moving forward, to move toward greater success.

But how do you know you're taking the best path? How do you know if you're making best use of all available resources and practices?

The scary thing is that you don't know–unless you make an effort to seek out new perspectives.

Get above the trees to see the forest

The rate of change in today's business environment is unprecedented. These changes can present new opportunities: new ways of thinking, of working, and new tools. But taking advantage of this potential requires removing yourself from the "trees" that are your daily responsibilities so you can see the big picture.

Three ways to improve your business vision

Tune in to the experiences of others. The image of the entrepreneur who has made it entirely on his own is a myth. Success requires support and input. And with change happening so fast, learning from people who have recently solved similar challenges is invaluable. Of course, hearing from people who've had large-scale success is always exciting and inspiring. But connecting with peers who are in situations similar to your own can be even more valuable.

Take time out to be proactive. There are likely some unavoidable challenges you know you're going to have to deal with: things like healthcare and the Affordable Care Act, regulatory compliance, and human resource management. And there are also challenges that might arise from your growth plans: logistics, currency, and tax issues if you're planning to expand internationally. Or security management concerns if you're moving more of your services to the cloud. All these are much easier to tackle if dealt with proactively. Start building the foundation today for the leap you want to take tomorrow.

Explore ways you can work smarter. Today's business management tools are nothing short of mind-blowing. Within the vast amounts of data available about our business processes, performance, customers, and overall operations is a wealth of insights. But much of this potential is underutilized. Gaining an understanding of how to better tap the resources you have, as well as learning about tools and techniques you might easily add, is the first step to working more effectively and making smarter decisions.

Your competitors are seeking new ways of working. Are you?
Sage, a leading supplier of business management software and services, supports millions of people in businesses that are probably a lot like yours. Recently, the Sage team noticed a trend: In addition to the usual requests for assistance managing daily operations, increasing numbers of customers were asking for more strategic guidance. They wanted help tackling core challenges, advice on how to grow or extend their business, and how to make decisions with greater speed and confidence.

The Sage team wanted to provide the guidance their customers were requesting, but they knew they couldn't do it alone.

A different kind of business conference

To help small and midsized businesses get the advice they were seeking and uncover a better view of their opportunities, Sage reimagined its annual conference. It included more of the thought leadership, content, and resources today's businesses need to succeed. The result is a unique event that's built to host conversations around today's core business challenges–then support those conversations with specific strategies and tools for moving forward. No other business event is so focused on helping attendees move from vision, to planning, to execution.

Sage Summit will be held July 28-31 in Las Vegas. It features inspirational speakers, panels of experts addressing a range of timely topics, in-­-depth content, plus the full Sage ecosystem of partner experts, tools, resources, and the Sage community.

Invest in your vision–at an incredible value

Sage wants to make the expert insights, viewpoints, resources, and tools available at Sage Summit accessible to as many people as possible. That's why they're offering new attendees an incredible discount on registration: just $349 (that's over 50% off the regular price of $799).

Visit SageSummit.com today to learn more, and then enter code ENTREP when you register to claim your 50% discount.

Erik Johnson advises companies on marketing, brand, and positioning strategy. Find him at nevercompete.com