Recently, I sent an email asking you and all of my other small business subscribers to please answer the following question…in one sentence. What is the number one thing that keeps YOU from growing your business and/or making more sales?
To be honest, the response was a little overwhelming. Almost seventy business owners replied. And, to all of you who did take the time to do it, I sincerely thank you. You were very helpful to me…and I hope this article will be helpful to YOU.
So, let’s get right to it and take a look at your responses. Actually they were more varied than what I had expected. To be honest, some were a little off the wall and difficult to interpret…but we’re working on that too.
I narrowed it down to the top 6 most common categories of answers and the percentage of respondents who fell into each one. They are as follows:
- Time Management – 16 %
- Me (meaning you identified yourself as the problem) – 9 %
- Need More Money – 9 %
- Finding the Right People to Sell – 9%
- Fear – 6 %
- Procrastination – 5 %
I responded to each of your submissions and was able to dig a bit deeper with many of you. When asked to explain further, some of the most common replies were…
- There just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do.
- I know I spend too much time working IN my business and not enough time working ON it.
- Not enough of me to go around
- Too much time managing employees
- Finding employees who care as much about the customers as I do
- My people can’t sell.
- I don’t know where to find good sales people.
- Having the right staff in place
- Fear of the unknown
- Fear of failure
- Fear of spending money that I might not get back
- Fear of cold calling
- My business is stagnate
- I just put things off that I know I should be doing.
- I spend too much time waiting for the phone to ring and not enough time doing things to make it ring.
- I need more money to spend on marketing and advertising.
- I need more money to hire good sales people.
- Prospecting for new business
- My resistance to delegate
- Not enough time to do proper sales presentations
- Finding customers who will stick with me for the long haul
- My price is too high
- Competing with big national companies
- Under capitalization
- Having a good website
- Having enough relationships in the pipeline
- Closing the deals
There are other comments that were more obscure and harder to interpret. That, in and of itself, is one main reason some people have a hard time selling. They can’t communicate in simple, straight-forward, easy-to-understand language.
My point to all of this is to let you know that…if you are a small business owner…you are NOT ALONE. Every other business owner faces the exact same problems, struggles and challenges that YOU face, in one form or another.
But there are two distinct ways of dealing with those problems and challenges, and they are…
- Ignore it and continue to operate the same way…which, of course, will bring you the SAME results.
- Identify the problem and change it…which will bring you DIFFERENT results.
If you choose the first way, there is nothing I or anyone else can do to help you. If your business is flat, it will stay flat. If you are stuck, you will remain stuck. And…if you are losing money…you will continue to lose money until it is all gone and you no longer have a business.
On the other hand…if you choose the second way…which is to CHANGE things…you will begin to grow your business, increase your sales, be more successful, move closer to your goals and, ultimately experience the joy, peace and freedom in your business that you really do want and deserve.
I hope you will put some serious thought into your choice!
To YOUR SUCCESS,
Hal
PS. If you’re aware of some things that are holding YOU back and keeping you from growing your business and reaching your goals, and you’d like to talk with me about it, just give me a call at 770-993-0004 and let’s chat. It will be a FREE Coaching Session for YOU (my gift to you) and you will come away from our conversation with some very valuable tips and ideas to help you move forward and be more successful. And all it will cost you is a few minutes of your time.
PPS. In case you missed the WEBINAR I did with Mike Stewart on how to make and use blog videos to grow your business, here’s a link to the replay. http://mikesuggests.com/hal/
PPPS. Have you checked out the Pest Control Marketing Library yet? Just click on this link and take a look. Over 6 hours of my best workshops. No matter what business you are in. http://www.PestControlMarketingWorkshop.com
