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What's the difference between successful businesses and struggling businesses?
Have you ever noticed how some businesses seem to do extremely
well, and go from strength to strength, whilst the majority just
seem to muddle along?
Since starting my own business I've met many small business
owners and what I've noticed is that the vast majority of them
seem to just about get by, but few reach the level of success
that they're actually capable of. Some of them end up failing
altogether, some lurch from project to project, and some do OK,
but never really achieve the success or lifestyle they
envisioned when they started their business.
On the other hand, I know a handful of extremely successful
service business owners, who are making high 6 and 7 figure
incomes every year (and rising) - and yet they don't work longer
hours, their products and services are not magnitudes better
than their competitors and they aren't geniuses!
So what is the difference between the successful businesses and
the struggling businesses?
In a word: Marketing
Whilst there can be other factors that affect the ability of a
business or practice to be successful, such as the economy,
trends, cashflow and product/service quality or innovation, the
number one difference between successful high-flying businesses
and their struggling counterparts is good marketing.
Here is the lament of one survey respondent which is typical of
the angst felt by service business owners who know they do a
good job, but who don't understand why they don't have a queue
of clients at their door:
"We know our products and services are good - we get great
feedback from those clients we've worked with - but we still
have trouble getting potential customers to buy in. Our services
offer real benefits to clients but we are not as successful as
we should be when we see what other companies offer (not as
much) and yet are still very successful."
If you offer a quality service or product that produces great
results for your customers or clients, and yet you're still
struggling to get all the clients that you want or need, or to
charge the fees you deserve, you probably have a marketing
problem.
What do highly successful business owners do that others do not?
The first thing that they do is to realise that their primary
objective is to build their practice or client base. In the
words of Michael Gerber (who wrote The E-myth) they "work ON
their businesses, not IN their businesses". What this involves
is making the time to work on the business - in particular on
marketing and product or service development, rather than
spending all of their time handling clients, delivering services
and dealing with administration.
They also look for areas where they can gain "leverage". Simply
put, this means gaining maximum return for every hour they work.
Instead of trading hours for pounds or dollars, they find ways
to do the work once and get paid for it many times. They find
ways to market their services one to many, instead of one to one
(thus reducing marketing and sales effort and time). They
delegate those activities which take up a lot of time (but which
don't add much value in terms of moving the business forward) or
which they are not skilled in such as admin, accounting, website
maintenance and copywriting.
They also develop a success mindset, understand their strengths
and weaknesses, take risks, innovate, hang out with other
successful people and build a support network around themselves.
But above all, they learn how to market their businesses and
create a marketing system that keeps a steady stream of
prospects knocking at the door, without taking up all of their
time!
About the author:
Jane Hendry helps professionals, consultants and coaches to
create marketing systems that easily and consistently attract
their ideal clients. To get your f*ree Attraction Marketing
Starter Kit please visit http://www.attractioneers.com