I get so excited when I get to meet with a new business client, especially one who is starting a new business! I think about all of the progress that can be made because this is a person who is getting help at the beginning.
But, then I often hear phrases like:
“If we start bringing revenues in then I can focus more on my ideal client. I don’t want to miss any sales right now though.”
“I won’t be able to afford a website or marketing.” Are you saying ever?
“My vision is to just get enough jobs to pay my bills right now.”
It is crazy because they are usually just starting. They are coming to a business coach to get help to do it right. They felt called to their new business.
And, if they are coming to us, they are more than likely a Christian and truly believe that God is a big God. He can do anything… except make their business successful, I guess?
This is the frequent mistake business owner’s make that sabotages their success:
They are not planning for (and assuming) that they will be successful.
As part of the start-up costs for your business you have to spend the time and, sometimes, some money to ensure that you are doing things that will set your business up for success.
We need to do marketing early on because it brings in customers.
So, why do some small business owners assume that successful businesses became successful before they chose a target audience or did any marketing?
Every marketing class I have ever taken or article I have ever read required a higher percentage of sales for marketing budgets at the beginning of a business. That is because a base level of marketing is required to even have a presence.
A team needs to be in place to service the orders.
If a business waits until they have hundreds of orders coming in to build their team, they are going to be in trouble. I believe a key reason that most small businesses never scale or become big, much less survive, is because they don’t plan for success.
I am not saying to hire everyone to start out, but I would at least know what positions you will need first and what qualifications the right candidates need to have to be successful long-term.
Systems are harder to change or add once you have critical mass.
Most start-ups don’t put a lot of automation or systems in place when they begin because they don’t feel they need them to process the couple of orders they get weekly. The challenge is that when we have a solid base of business, it’s more difficult to transition to a system.
People get set in their manual processing and/or the amount of data that needs to be transferred to a new system is cumbersome and technical. You have to hire someone to help get it going and it’s definitely more difficult and more expensive.
If you knew for sure you would be successful, would you wait? It usually isn’t very costly to start, and it is more simple as you are configuring with minimal transactions.
Strong sales is the only way to grow.
So many times our fear keeps us watching our expenses and not re-investing our profits back in our business, but you can only cut expenses so much.
There is a certain amount of fixed expense for any business. Once you are there, the only way to make a profit is to have enough sales to more than cover these fixed expenses.
While I believe that the foundation above is required to service the sales effectively, I do know that you have to have intense focus on growing sales.
Growing sales of the product or services that you planned when you started your business. The more you focus on your vision for your business, market to the target audience for these services, and stay focused on complete customer satisfaction, the faster you will grow.
It actually slows your sales growth when you frequently switch gears and change products and services just to get any sale.
Plus, if you think it is hard to set up a foundation for one direction in your business, think about how hard it is for many different directions.
And, by the way, that tends to increase fixed costs…
….. we need this piece of equipment to do that job.
….. we need a special vehicle to deliver this product.
….. we need a separate inventory of parts for this service.
You get the point.
The Bottom-Line
If you are starting a new business or growing your current business, you have to trust God and trust yourself. This means that you should assume that you will be successful! Make the decisions that that successful people do to invest in and run a thriving business.
Call us at 225-341-4147 if you would like xto schedule a coaching session to start growing a successful business…based upon your Christian values.
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