In light of Honan’s 50th Anniversary, CEO and entrepreneur, Damien Honan, shares his 4 tips on how to build and maintain a successful business.1. Have a clear focus.It’s great to be adaptive and opportunistic, and in today’s business world it almost seems like a must, but be cautious of over-extending and spreading your business too thin. You need to pick your battles. It’s far better to establish a foothold in a market and dedicate your time and energy to an area where you are achieving success, rather than penetrate ten different markets when realistically only one or two of them will pay off. This is where understanding your business and having a clear direction becomes essential to your company’s success. If you do plan to move into a new market, make sure you have a strategy in place that reflects your long-term goals and core focus, from there carefully monitor your win/loss ratio and be prepared to move out of an area if you don’t belong there.2. Find talented people that will add value to your business.Damien believes his success, and the success of the Honan Insurance Group as a whole, is largely attributed to the people around him. Talented people are not easy to find, you need to make a conscious effort to seek and retain them. Don’t be afraid to look beyond your industry either in your search for top talent, this will allow you to gain insight into your current business practices from an alternate perspective and further develop areas of expertise within your business.3. Invest in your people.Giving your employees opportunities for growth and development will contribute to their involvement, productivity and ultimately their happiness within the business. This is a good means of ensuring that your talented employees remain engaged and achieve fulfilment within their workplace. At Honan, we promote a culture of constant learning and provide our staff with the resources that they need to do their best work. We have internal and external training processes to give our staff a rounded, wholesome learning experience.4. Create a culture.A focus on culture is essential to the long-term success of your business. Culture begins from the top and is a concept you have to intentionally create and gradually introduce over time, in doing this you will empower your employees, align each individual in your organisation towards a common goal, foster a desired attitude, whether competitive, friendly or innovative, and give employees' work a higher meaning and purpose. It becomes the glue holding your business together as it grows and adapts.