Small Business Marketing and the Vicious Circle

Of all the challenges small business owners face, getting it all done, and attracting a steady stream of clients have to be the two biggest.

No business owner I have met is immune to this; brand new, or ‘well seasoned’. The trait I see that seems to set apart those who master this and those who continue to struggle might surprise you. After the basics are covered, it’s not knowing how to do these things better that appears to make the difference, although it certainly helps. It’s the amount of motivation, stick-with-it-ness, and ability to analyze and adjust.

Corporate fugitives, people who have a desire to chart their own course, especially seem to struggle with this, I’ve noticed.  Here’s what I think is going on.

When we choose to pursue a passion, and turn away from the box of career life, we are making a statement that is highly personal. Combined with the transition of losing one identity and embracing another, there are of course many changes we go through. Change is good, but it’s generally not easy!

The difference between working for a company and working for yourself is more than who is paying you. You are highly emotionally invested in the state of your business, which is a good thing, of course. But the flip side to this investment is the lack of objectivity, and our tendency if we’re  not careful, to internalize challenges in our businesses and turn them into statements about ourselves.

So when we don’t get the client, our idea must be a bad one. When a promotion doesn’t turn out the way we had hoped, we must be terrible at marketing. When we can’t get everything done the way we used to be able to in our regular jobs, we wonder if we’re cut out for this. And when we feel frustrated or discouraged, we wonder what’s wrong with us!

As someone who has been in the marketing and advising field for a very long time, I know from analyzing hundreds of business and marketing challenges over the years that there are only so many variables in the equation of success or failure in getting your message out and getting the results you desire. Most often, when something isn’t working, something is off in one of these things: chosen market, price, services being offered, or the way you are marketing and handling sales.  The good news is that because of this, you can analyze and adjust your business operations and your marketing provided you have a firm foundation to start with.

What happens instead, for many business owners, is that they let their emotions cloud their business sense. They become discouraged, and lack of motivation causes them to stop marketing or scatter it in too many directions. Their inconsistent, stalled, or non-existent marketing leads to poor sales, which feeds their lack of motivation, and this vicious circle continues. And do you know the historic meaning of a vicious circle? It’s an economics term where after proceeding around the loop, you end in a worse position than before.

If you feel yourself slipping into this circle, take a look at how you are approaching your marketing. If you don’t have a firm foundation in place, go back to basics in researching the needs of your market, making sure it’s viable (they’re looking for a solution, you can find them easily, and they can afford to pay you), determining the highest return methods of marketing to them, setting up a regular marketing process that you will follow, and constantly tuning in and evaluating how you’re doing, objectively! If you are having difficulties either deciding these strategies, or figuring out why they’re not getting you results, don’t throw more money at individual marketing expenses without getting outside strategic advice. What you pay for a qualified business and marketing strategist is well worth the investment to save you thousands of dollars in “stuff” that will not fix the foundation of your business. Doing this will help you build those analytical and business skills, and as you become more comfortable you will become less hard on yourself.

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System™  for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.

Managing Yourself and Your Business – Are You Hearing More Noise Than Music?

Last week I was meeting with a client, who was feeling very overwhelmed, overscheduled and confused. I understood exactly how she felt, because I had been there once or twice myself. I could have told her a million different things to keep her on track, focused and accountable, but I felt this overwhelming intuition that what she needed most was a break from the noise.

So I told her to reschedule all of her commitments, unplug from the social media routine, not attend any of the classes she had signed up for, stop reading ezines, and take a proverbial “who cares?” approach to anything she felt like she really should be doing. She was surprised, I think, at my laissez-faire suggestion, since I am usually very practical and a step-by-step, work the plan, kind of advisor.

I found out from her later that it did her a world of good, and that it helped her settle some questions that she had been grappling with for a while now.

The ironic thing is that a week later, I found myself in the same place. Although the specifics and variables were different, the net result was the same. All of the things that usually jazzed me up, felt more like noise than music.

So, I took my own advice and gave myself permission to do absolutely, positively, nothing productive. I spent time outside in the sun, had an afternoon nap and put the word out that I was not cooking dinner.

And guess what? My husband shopped for ingredients and actually tried a new recipe, it turned out great (he is not a cook, so this was a stretching experience for him), and I woke up the next day feeling wonderfully. I also received three opportunities before noon. What a difference a day can make.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is that I know that many of you are way too hard on yourselves. Combined with the conditioning we carry from education and employment, we keep pushing through and find it very difficult to deviate from our plan or what we think we should do.

I’m not advocating to unplug from your business forever, throw up your hands and wait for things to happen, but rather to listen to yourself when you’re feeling overwhelmed and confused. When this happens, you might ask yourself:

• Am I feeling overwhelmed because I don’t know how to do something?
• Am I feeling overwhelmed because I’m not sure if this is right for me?
• Am  I feeling this way because I am not confident, or afraid it will not work?
• Or am I so overwhelmed, I have no idea what I’m feeling or why?

If it’s one of the first three, if you can identify it, you can solve it. If it’s the last one, give yourself the permission to unplug. You might find the answers are clear when you power up again!

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System™  for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.

Getting Sales Results in Your Business: The Real Secret

I spent many years both as a corporate communications manager and as an independent consultant advising organizations on marketing, crises and facilitating all kinds of change – reorganizations, product launches, new markets, and so on.  After more than 20 years immersed in this, I see the patterns in a vivid, glaringly clear way. Change is often blindingly and fundamentally simple…yet, not easy.

When I work with small business owners to help them design and market effective businesses, I see the same principles at play, and although the scope is different, the symptoms and diagnoses are very often the same: to build a strong business, you need happy, engaged staff; clients who are looking for and are willing to pay for your services; and effective marketing and operations.

It’s also clear to me that the desire to achieve these things, and even spending a lot of time and money on them, doesn’t make it easy to do what we know is needed and good for our businesses. Figuring out what you need to do and actually doing it consistently over the long term are two different things entirely!

There are actually four key areas that have to be addressed for real change (and real results) to occur in any business or organization. These four essential ingredients are constant no matter what your goal is – introducing a new customer service process, launching a new product or service or building a virtual or employee team.

Systems – you need systems that support your intended results, and they need to be monitored  and followed. They also need to be rewarded! Whether you work solo, or have a team in place, celebration and a feeling of accomplishment is very important.

Attitude – you and your team need to buy in and commit fully for any new goal or new way of operating to work. It is impossible to delight your clients if you are not sincere and happy.

Knowledge – you need to know how to do the things that you need to be able to do, in order to create change and results. The desire to do it isn’t enough, although it’s the right place to start!

Skills – beyond creating an environment and systems that work, demonstrating your positive attitude and knowing how to do something, you need the skills to be able to do the actual work!

Here are some symptoms that one or more of these areas are out of sync:

• You’re too busy focusing on today and your day-to-day busy-ness and so you put “it” on the back burner, thinking it can wait since it’s a longer term plan (systems)
• Your team members don’t see this as a priority (systems), that it’s optional (attitude) and they don’t understand the connection between their roles, and the long term importance of  “it” (knowledge)
• You know what you should do, and even how to do it, but you or your team members are simply not good at “it” (skills)

So what’s the secret then? In my opinion, you need a balance in place of the right people, the right skills, and the right strategy in place.  You need to create a foundation for your business that includes a clearly defined market, carefully selected choices to offer them, products and services that allow you to put only your best foot forward.  Then you need to make life as easy as possible for yourself, your team members and your clients. Creating a simple strategy and systems that are easy to follow, so that you are consistent, is the best way… because it’s the only way you will stick to doing what you know is good for you, your clients, and your business.

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System™  for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.

Business Success – Are You at a Turning Point?

If you listen to the stories of most successful entrepreneurs, you’ll often find they experienced a turning point after which their business took off. Of course, when we’re living it “real time” we can’t always see that the turning point is just around the corner.

Recently I interviewed 15 entrepreneurs for the Best Business Advice Ever series, and in many cases, each of them described their own turning points along with the advice and experienced that shaped them. Watch the video below.

Here are four themes that consistently showed up in these discussions.

• Clarity – success comes from being crystal clear about the vision you have for your life and your business. It can come in the form of one defining moment that simply cannot be ignored, or in a series of increments. Clarity often sends you signals, like nudges of intuition, acceptance or resistance in your body, and a deep inner knowing or gut instinct that something is right or wrong for you. Clarity also means getting very specific about your market and what you have to offer.
• Commitment – success comes from ultimate commitment and a refusal to accept anything less than the vision you have. It is not about muscling your way through and pushing harder and harder, necessarily! Being committed as well as clear, and being willing to shift and adjust your approach as needed is equally important. It means finding the healthy balance between being committed to success and being addicted to the notion of it.
• Help – success comes from accepting help and building support structures. I have yet to interview a successful entrepreneur who says it’s possible to build a successful business alone. It means being willing to accept help in the form of mentors, coaches, professional advisors, as well as hiring the help you need to support yourself and your business operations.
• Acceptance mixed with action – success comes from taking consistent action, and being able to adapt and implement advice from the right people at the right time.