It's Valentine’s Day (Happy Valentine’s Day), and although I know I could speak to you about love and all of that, or about how to stay in love with your business idea or concept and keep the passion burning, instead I’ll talk to you a bit about business heartbreak (inspired by my friends and relatives who don’t have a date today or a Valentine to go home to tonight)!
Some people love misery. They say they don’t, but they are getting at least SOMETHING out of being miserable. Maybe it’s attention, maybe it’s free food from the welfare department, maybe it’s the “privilege” of not having to put forth more effort, but if a person is miserable in the state they are in, and continues to stay there month after month and even year after year, without a change in thinking and behavior, then they are making a choice to stay there.
I talk to hundreds of business people from around the world every year. The great bulk of them are making many mistakes in their business that have cost them dearly in sales and profits, and will continue to cost them if they don’t shift their mindsets and change what they are doing. Some will keep doing the same things and eventually go bust— for a lot of reasons, but mainly because of fear which includes fear of change, fear of risk, fear of asking for help and support (for fear of looking “weak”), and fear of what they will see if they take an honest look at self and the business.
If you are in this camp and you desperately want to stay there (and since you are reading this I am guessing you are not and you don’t, respectively), I have this fitting Valentine gift for you. Here is a coveted list— in no particular order except maybe the first one— of 5 of the most dreadful business mistakes you can make this year to ensure your business breaks your heart (and bank account). Here goes:
1. Not marketing enough! Marketing means creating awareness. If you are low on business Joe’s (customers), then you do not have ample awareness, not enough to thrive. What are you doing to get the word out and about? Please don’t say you are “connecting” on Facebook, telling your “friends” about the funny color of the hamburger you ate yesterday at the local fast food joint. Do you have a REAL and systematized online and onsite plan for building awareness and gathering interested peeps into your funnel?
2. Not having a system for converting leads into sales. O.K., so someone does call you. Now what? Do you have a specific process for helping them find just the solution that is fitting to their unique problem or issue? Is your offer so clear and so focused on the results the prospect can expect, that being converted to a customer is a no-brainer?
3. Not using time wisely. Time is our most precious resource (no, money is not because you can make more of that. If you can make more time, let’s get together. I think I can help you sell that amazing product). So many business owners say they want to grow, but they spend their time on menial and low-results tasks that can either be totally dropped, or delegated to a willing and capable soul. Business owners allow distractions and procrastination to fill their days, and so they go nowhere (by the way, these are actually subconscious tactics used to avoid what we fear or what we need more skills to do). To rise above and thrive, you have to shift your mindset about many things, and one of those is the way to use the precious resource called ‘time’.
4. Focusing on your product or service instead of on the amazing results that come from using your product or service. This one ties into number two, but is an issue all on its own as well. If you focus on the wrong thing, then you will market (create awareness about) the wrong thing, so get focused, and focus on results. If a man is selling a piece of exercise equipment, and he tells me all about the special aluminum it is made from, and he shows me how strong the piece is, and how the paint on the handles comes from a rain forest in a country that employees underprivileged bowlers, and how 17 monkeys could hang off of it without it breaking and the monkeys falling, I would not be impressed. However, if he told me that this device would make me smile while I used it and all day afterwards because it releases endorphins at a rate of 2 to 1 over other exercise equipment, and that I could burn off fat while really feeling empowered, and that the design means that I only have to use the device for 11 minutes a day and see a fat loss of 2 pounds a week, I’d give him my attention. No one cares about your silly product or service. They care about WHAT it will do for THEM to make their lives better.
5. Not getting enough support. No, I am not talking about undergarments. Neither am I talking about having a best friend that will listen to you complain about your spouse, kids, partner or business. By support I mean “business support”, and this includes colleagues, mentors, teachers, and members of think tanks, brain trusts, and serious networking groups who can relate to your concerns, who are committed to you and your goals, and who can and will help you move forward. If you are bunkering down at the office, alone in your attempts at success, you NEED to get support. You CANNOT and WILL NOT make it alone. There is no way!
So there it is and there it be, your surefire ingredients for whipping up a business that will surely break your heart and wallet, but WAIT just a second…that doesn’t have to be you!
If your business is breaking your heart and you are ready to do something about it, give me a call 979-690-8329. I’ll help you make a love connection with your self, your customers, your business, and best of all, your banker! Margo@MargoDeGange.com
Have a Wild Week of Loving Yourself and Your Business!
Margo
Margarett (Margo) DeGange, M.Ed. is a Business and Design Coach in the Home Fashions Industry. She creates and delivers custom training programs for managed businesses and their sales consultants to help them communicate better with customers and increase sales and profits. Margarett is a Writer and Professional Speaker, and the President of The DeGangi Group and The DeGangi School of Interior Decoration, with both on sight and on-line courses in Interior Decorating, Marketing, and Redesign. For almost 20 years she has helped individuals and managed business owners in the interior fashions and decorating industries to earn more while fully enjoying the process.
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