26 Jun Stop the Rollercoaster and Take Control of Your Business
Have you ever found your business in a lull with not enough customers then POW!!! your funnel is full and now you are overcapacity and struggling to keep up? It’s a very common problem, especially in the beginning and it can seem like a rollercoaster where you are certainly not in the driver’s seat. Although this situation will happen from time to time, there are some ways to stabilize, grow your business and not break the bank.
1. Have a long term plan. Determine where you want your business to be in the short, medium and long term. My recommendation is to start with 3 month, 1 year and 3 year goals. This exercise will help you focus your efforts on what you need to do now to build a solid foundation. Make sure to have tactical actions and a vision – you need both to be successful. Oh, and goals should have numbers associated with them and they should be tracked at a minimum monthly. Fun fact is that by tracking your goals, you will also be able to recognize your accomplishments which will be an energy boost to keep going!
2. Make regularly scheduled time for prospecting & marketing. One of the primary reasons why businesses have such dramatic highs and lows is that when you are busy you stop promoting your business, then when things get slow you become panicked and start throwing things against the wall hoping anything will stick. That’s not a marketing plan. That is someone drowning and it’s not good for you or your business. Map out a marketing plan for all available channels – social, direct mail, email, etc. and stick to it. You will invest your money and time more wisely when you have a clear plan in place for your business.
3. Get help. Learn your strengths and weaknesses so that you can farm out activities that don’t align with your skill set. Not only will this give you back time that can be better invested in doing what you are good at, but these folks will also become a support structure so that when business gets busy you aren’t stuck doing everything yourself. A common misconception is that until you “make it” then you can’t invest in your business. That is flat out wrong. You will never be able to run a profitable business without people there to support you. Figure out your budget and what you need done. Get creative, look at part-time or virtual support (Pro Tip: the Philippines have awesome Personal Assistants for $5/hour) that can meet your needs. This is a hard one, dig deep and have faith in your business.
Although these tips are not all inclusive, they will dramatically help you once they are in place. If you want to know more about any of these items, I would love to hear from you and give you some tips I have learned on how to build a solid business and invest in it wisely. Shoot me an email at tina@thegoodlife-consulting.com.