There are many frustrations that come with having a small business, not being paid on time, not been able to afford the essentials, prospects saying no, staff not doing what they are suppose to, not getting enough leads or sales, long hours, plus many more. These frustrations however we deal with each day in the hope of one day having that dream business that we set out to achieve. These frustrations are what the business owner makes them out to be, as we explore some of the solutions to make these frustrations go away.
Recently I asked a group of business owners what their biggest frustrations were in their business right now and to no surprise the main frustrations were:
Not getting enough leads
Not making enough money
Clients not paying on time
So I thought we would have a look at these and find some solutions to these frustrations.
Firstly lets start with this. Anything that is not going the way you want it to in your business can be changed in a heartbeat by doing something different. Where people fail is that they think by doing the same thing over and over again that a different result will occur.
A business that is not getting enough leads will never make enough sales as one leads to the other. Getting qualified leads daily has to be the number one goal of any business no matter what their product or service is. We say no matter what your business does you have to be a marketing business first. The bigger your profile, the more people now about what solution you offer. Businesses starting out seem to have the biggest problem with this as they are continually tied up with doing the technician work. No matter what you do you must find at least 7-12 ways to market your business on a daily basis.
For some reason small businesses seem the last to be paid and unless you have firm systems and processes in place that will also be the case with you. A business owner must expect payment within the time frame they have indicated and if it does not occur they must follow through with action. That action might be a phone call or reminder letter / email however doing nothing only makes the problem worse. It is important to continue to tweak your invoicing and payment systems to fine tune them to where you want them to be. Do clients pay up front before any work is done, do they have an automated payment so you do not need to go chasing them, is it 5 days, 7 days, 14 day or 30 day terms? No matter what you decided where most small business owners fall down is that when payment is not made by that date they do nothing about it. Set a standard and stick to it.
Your business should always be fine tuning, tweaking, adjusting its systems, process and how it operates. The businesses who have these frustrations are the ones that do not change but expect a different result. Prospects cannot find you without marketing and clients want pay unless you are clear on the process and expectations.