Friday, February 12, 2010

Typical Mistakes

Here's a few of the most common mistakes business owners typically make in trying hard to grow their business. Do any of these look familiar? We will help you fix these problems and restore the dream that lead you to open your business in the first place.

Competing on price or being “the low price leader”. Small and mid-cap businesses can't compete in this arena, so why are you competing by the “big boxes” rules? Do you compete by their rules in other areas, too?

Filling the role of Master Technician in your business, while the CEO slot you're supposed to be occupying is empty. Is no detail too small for you check on? Do you have to approve EVERY decision? Is everything reviewed on a case-by-case basis in your organization? If so, you're functioning as an over-controlling master technician, instead of an effectively delegating CEO.

Cutting out all marketing effort and budget in an economic downturn. Marketing is everything you do to tell your target market about how you can help them. . .and how to contact you to get that help! If you cut out all marketing effort to save money in a recession, then you've just stopped sending your message out! What happens to your bottom line when new customers can't find you and established customers slowly stop coming back?

Not knowing the basic elements of how to effectively market your business. Effective marketing means telling everyone in your target market how you can help them. So, marketing doesn't cost, it pays! Are you one of those making the huge mistake of running a yellow pages ad, hanging a sign on the door, then waiting for enough customers to find you?

Spending huge sums of money and time on marketing seminars. . .and then tucking all that great information into a file drawer, never implementing what you've learned. Is that last seminar handout still in your file drawer, with great ideas unimplemented? What return on investment (ROI) are your getting from that behavior?

Not using marketing dollars wisely. You don't have a business growth marketing plan of your own, so you get drawn into every marketing rep's sales pitch for their form of advertising. But your poor ad response means you're just putting dollars in the marketing rep's pockets. . . not yours!

Continuing the same fruitless behaviors over and over. . .and expecting a different result! Many business owners don't know what to do or where to turn when their (or their advertising rep's) strategies don't work. So, they continue to pay for the same fruitless strategies over and over again. Does this sound like you?

And the list goes on and on!

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