Ways to grow your business

Are You Making These 5 Mistakes in Your Business? These are the top 5 things that will stop you from growing your business.

Running a small business is tough, very tough. History shows that 4 out of 5 start ups never make it to 5 years.

As a business owner I know.

Sometimes we are subject to endless regulations, jobs being cancelled , staff letting us down at the drop of a hat.

Don’t you just hate the sound of your phone beeping at 7 am on a Monday morning knowing that someone has just let you down? Or you’ve an emergency to deal with, or a job is cancelled. And now you have to be instantly alert and solve problems.

I know your pain, because I have experienced exactly the same problems myself.

I have run my business for over 10 years now, and I also know that sometimes running your own business can be a very lonely place. 

● Who are you going to talk to?

● Where can you get a second opinion?

● Are you overreacting?

That’s why I started my marketing and sales coaching business. 

During my coaching meetings, I have seen a series of similar problems and this led me to write today about the 5 most common business mistakes I see.

1. Working IN your business

Many owners are very busy working in their business, not only doing what you do but also working as the book keeper, the HR manager, the social media manager, the marketing manager and so on.

This is working IN your business.

When you work IN your business , you are stealing time from working ON your business .

As a business owner you have certain responsibilities: making sales, creating systems; recruiting staff; attracting new clients and so it goes on.

These activities actually grow your business.

As the business owner your job is to Grow Your Business not to work in your business.

You can recruit a book keeper for £7 to £10 pounds an hour. If you are doing your own books, then you are NOT working on growing your business.

One of my clients was taking on too many jobs himself. Now jobs are delegated, outsourced or simply dropped and he now spends much more time with his family – something he was really missing out on.

Don’t miss out on your important family responsibilities because you are a business owner. You have a business for lifestyle as well as security.

All it takes is to open your eyes and decide what you actually want, then resolve to make the changes.

Take some time out of your business. Go to a coffee shop, hotel or spa to work. Make sure you have a good laptop. When you are out of the office, take the chance to work ON your business. Focus on making decisions and thinking about your business.

You are a business OWNER so do the jobs an owner MUST do: sales, vision, marketing, management.

Recruit staff and outsource the low paid jobs. Focus ON your business.

And when you work ON your business, you need to understand your numbers which is the second of my business mistakes.

2. Not knowing your numbers

Lord Kelvin Said “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”.

If you are working to capacity, then getting more leads is probably a waste of time? Your time might be better utilised:

● recruiting more staff,

● increasing the size of your premises,

● increasing your prices,

If you’re not working to capacity, then I would argue that getting there is probably where your focus should be.

When you know your numbers it is easier to determine your priority.

Yet most of the owners I have met don’t know their basic numbers?

For instance:

● How many customers can you take?

● How many more customers can you take with your current staff?

● How many more customers could you take with more staff?

And here is the biggie:  What is the lifetime value of one more customer?

For instance, if a customer is worth £1000 a year and stays with you for 3 years, then the lifetime value could easily be £3000.

Knowing that the lifetime value is over £3,000, how much would you pay to get that customer?

£100? … £200, more?

Yet do you have a marketing budget?

Knowing your numbers makes it blindingly obvious that buying customers is a simple NO BRAINER!

When you don’t know your numbers, you are more likely to focus on the wrong activities, which will kill your business.

Struggling Businesses spend time to save money

Succeeding business spend money to save time

So if there is no marketing budget, then it is very unlikely that you will have marketing systems in place.

By the way, having the odd social media post is not a marketing system.

Bringing us neatly onto business mistake number three 

3. No Marketing Systems

So armed with the idea that it is extremely profitable to buy customers do you have an easily switched on marketing system in place?

● Can you turn on your marketing at any time?

● Can you switch on your referral system tomorrow?

● Can you unpause an existing facebook campaign to get a new stream of leads TODAY?

Chances are if you don’t have such a system, then your competitors are stealing your clients.

For instance I have a Facebook campaign. Business was slowing. I switched on my campaign and had 5 new leads over the day.

Was it expensive?

NOPE less than a tenner then tomorrow I will switch it back off again, but it is ready to turn on at any time.

You can do the same with an email campaign, or a direct marketing campaign.

Your job is to get your marketing systems in place.

Which leads me nicely onto the next of the business mistakes.

4. Not Growing YOU and your staff

You are no doubt an expert in what you do but how good are you at running a business? You need totally different skills.

You need to know how to get your marketing done, manage staff and most of all, learn how to make decisions.

By reading just 10 pages a day, you can study 20 plus good business books per year, that could transform the way that you deal with people.

If you want your current situation to change then you have to grow yourself.

Sound a lot?

Not really.

You can easily read a book or two per month, by reading 10 pages per day. Many business books are very short, designed to deliver a simple, but effective message.

5. No One to Talk To

The last of the business mistakes, and arguably one of the biggest. When you take all the decisions yourself, you are making those decisions based on your own pot of experience.

It’s only when you get out of your comfort zone that you often discover, that there are potentially other decisions you could have made.

Don’t be afraid to ask. 

Don’t compare yourself with others, this is your journey. You decide where your goals are and which path you want to travel.

If your business is not where you want it to be then change it. 

If you don’t know how, then get help. Ask someone that has been there, done it and is wearing the T-Shirt.

Remember you are doing a VITAL job for the country. You are helping the country grow. You are helping others get back to work.

Your service is so valuable so value yourself.

Look in the mirror and say to yourself I am a business person.

And lastly in this country the Law states that your business must make a profit or you have to close.

For your staff, for your family, for the economy and for your peace of mind, make sure that you are making money.

If not then get in touch. Book your discovery call here