Business owners say all the time, “I need more business. My marketing isn’t working.” Yet, when they are faced with an opportunity to learn and grow and install a system that will give them a long-term strategy for success, their excuse is, “I don’t have the time.”
How can that be? How can you need more business if you don’t even have the time to GET more business? What are you going to do IF you ever actually get that business?
I’ve been in a business a little while now…. I have customers, I have speaking engagements, I have workshops, classes and seminars. I have A/P, A/R, taxes, piles of paper, and all that same stuff that every other small business owner has – AND I spend a lot of time marketing my business. After only a little while in business – and not exactly a millionaire yet – I realized it’s time to hire someone because I simply can’t do it all myself. I want to grow and I realize that in order to grow, I need help.
I started out small – I hired someone on a contractual basis to handle some of the tasks I don’t like doing. Yeah, it’s money out of my pocket (and there isn’t a ton of it right now) but my eye is on the bigger picture – the future of my company. A vision that includes having a few employees executing the day-to-day while I drive the strategic direction and do what I am best at – which has nothing to do with A/R, taxes, booking speaking engagements, etc.
The point is this: if you want more business but can’t even take the necessary steps to either free yourself up or hire someone to do what it takes to GET more business, do you really need more business? You hear it again and again, stop working IN your business and start working ON your business. When are you going to take that step? When are you going to say, “OK, today is the day, I need to do something different, because what I’ve been doing isn’t working.”? When are you going to stop spinning in circles and start making some of the tough decisions that business owners need to make? You can either make the decision to grow, or you can continue to drown… what will it be?
Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help business owners implement an effective marketing system that will bring in more customers—consistently. For more information about Fortune Marketing Company visit the Fortune Marketing Company website or blog.
