Hey friend, I see you.
You’ve been in a business for a couple of years, however you were expecting to be a bit further than you are now. You’re struggling and wondering why.
Well, I’ve worked with lots of overwhelmed entrepreneurs like you and can tell you 5 common reasons why your business isn’t growing.
Reason #1– You don’t want to spend money.
And I totally get it. When you first started your business, it is understandable that you had limited funds. So you can’t afford to just throw money everywhere, right?
However, in order to grow your business you will need to start spending a little bit.
If you want to utilize the best technology that saves you time, that is going to cost money. If you want to hire the best employees who bring lots of skills and experience to support you, you will need to pay them well.
I see a lot of entrepreneurs looking for mentors to show them exactly what they did to be successful. Well, what you’re really looking for is a coach and you will have to spend a pretty penny to get them to share their secrets with you.
Basically what I’m saying is– you need to get your mindset right about money and stop being a cheapskate. If you are afraid to invest in yourself, then why the heck would anyone else want to invest in you?
Reason #2 — You are too focused on the small stuff.
You’re busy working on things that are really insignificant and are not bringing you any closer to meeting your goals.
For example in my business, I woke up one day and decided that I did not like my logo. My logo was blue and I thought it should be a prettier turquoise blue.
Don’t judge me…
So I went ahead and redesigned my logo. I have different variations of my logo, so I had to change each variation. Then I updated my website and all of my social media pages with my new logo.
Basically, I wasted a ridiculous amount of time doing something that doesn’t really matter. My new logo did not bring me new customers and it did not bring me any more money. No one even noticed that I changed my logo to a prettier blue.
Not one person cared!
So don’t be like me. Don’t get shiny object syndrome. Don’t get distracted by random tasks or new ideas that aren’t important to your bottom line.
Go through your to-do list and scratch things off that aren’t going to help you get further in your business. If you’re too afraid to scratch things off completely, then just move them to your 2021 to-do list.
But it’s very important to get laser-focused on exceeding your business goals — everything else can wait.
Reason #3— You’re not utilizing technology.
You are doing things manually and it’s taking up a lot of time and energy. There are many different types of software and tools that can help you be more productive in your business if you use them wisely.
You can use these tools to automate many tasks and projects. You just set up the software once and then it continues working for you in the background allowing you to do other things.
You can automate your social media posts for Facebook and Instagram using Facebook’s Creator Studio. Your email newsletters can be automated. A welcome series of emails can be created and sent to new subscribers automatically overtime.
One of my favorite tools to use is Calendly.
Calendly is an appointment scheduling software. Instead of having to email back and forth with potential clients to schedule an appointment with me, I can send them a link to my scheduler where they’ll see the dates and times that I’m available.
They can go ahead and book the appointment themselves directly through Calendly.
I also have it setup where they must complete a questionnaire in order to save the appointment. This saves me a step in the process. Once they book, I will get an email letting me know. Plus they will also get emails and text reminders.
There are tons of other ways that you can use technology to make transactions in your business a whole lot smoother. It will take some time to research the different options to find what works best for your business needs, but it will be totally worth the effort.
Reason #4 — You are not utilizing systems in your business.
You’re reinventing the wheel every time you do a job. You’re making mistakes and you’re forgetting steps because you don’t have a process in place that you’re following.
Every task that you do repeatedly in your business should be documented in a detailed standard operating procedure aka SOP.
An SOP is a document that provides step by step instructions on how to perform a specific business activity. It could be something as simple as a checklist, but can also include video. Example tasks that need an SOP:
- Your client onboarding process
- Your hiring process
- Email marketing
- Blog publishing
- Sales process and more
Systems will help you stay consistent in the work you complete. They will ensure that you don’t drop the ball and miss any steps. And they will also be very useful when you start hiring people.
As a busy business owner, you don’t have time to hand hold and train new hires on every single thing. Instead, you can give them the documented SOP to review. They will be able to follow step-by-step what you have listed and stay on track.
Having systems in place and documented will give you the peace of mind that your business is operating smoothly at all times.
Reason #5 — You don’t have a team.
You’re missing a supporting cast. Imagine having a team helping you manage the day to day workload — wouldn’t that be great?
You may have started your business as a solopreneur, but you can’t continue forever as a one person show. You need to start delegating smaller tasks to someone else so that you can focus on growing and developing your business.
Now you don’t have to start off with a large team, you can begin by just hiring one person, like a virtual assistant. Start by giving them small jobs to test them out. Then as the trust builds, you’ll be able to handover a larger workload.
Getting a virtual assistant is key to being proactive in your business. One day your business may all of a sudden explode or go viral.
And you’ll be happy to get all of these new customers, however if you don’t have anyone on your team to help; your happiness could quickly turn into despair because you weren’t prepared to handle the demand.
So if your business is bringing in steady income each month and you are earning a profit, it may be time for you to bring on some support.
If you don’t know where to begin to find your first assistant, I’ve got something in store for you. During the week of Thanksgiving, I will be releasing a brand new course on how to hire your first Virtual Assistant.
In the meantime, click here to receive this free workbook and get started right away.
