Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

A wide-open opportunity for your business to thrive

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Today’s post offers you a wide-open opportunity for your business to thrive in the months ahead.

Yes, you read that correctly.

No, it’s not a play on words.

Allow me to explain

As we all know, these are very uncertain times. Yet there are some really important things we can have a high degree of certainty about. Here are just a few of them.

  • We’re looking at a period of months (or longer), before the world population can safely return to a pre pandemic way of life.
  • It will take years for world economies to recover.
  • Previous periods of long-term economic crisis have simultaneously seen some businesses thrive, whilst others vanish.

By focusing on the things we can be almost certain of, we give ourselves a much steadier foundation from which to make our decisions. Acknowledging the long-term nature of the situation also helps us avoid going broke, as we can see it isn’t viable to wait for things to return to normal again.

Your wide-open opportunity

Back in March and April I offered a ‘Thrive” service, exclusively to help my former clients not just survive the pandemic, but thrive. I mentioned it at the time 1, 2 and 3. In every case, by focusing on the things they can be almost certain of, my clients were able to do spectacularly well.

We found that they had almost no competition. That’s because the vast majority of their competitors were scared stiff. Frozen with fear. Waiting for things to return to normal. Doing zero or minimal marketing. I found that my former clients had uncontested access to the marketplace, which made our marketing more effective than ever. And they have even less competition now, than they did back then, as their competitors now have even fewer financial resources and are even more scared. The competition have left the doors wide-open for my clients.

As I write this, that same wide-open opportunity to thrive is available to you.

That’s to say, your competition will largely be operating from a mindset of fear and doing the absolute minimum. To thrive you’ll need to be willing to do what your competitors won’t do. This includes things like focusing on what you want rather than what you fear. It means adapting your business to the new needs of your marketplace. It also means looking for opportunities to grow and having a commitment to being agile.

With 24/7 news coverage pumping fear and uncertainty at us, it’s way too easy to focus on the confusion and fear, which uncertainty brings. That’s a wholly ineffective mindset for any business owner.

Focus on the things that are under your control. Shift from a survive mindset to a thrive mindset. Do everything you can, with everything you have.

It beats the alternative and allows you to be justifiably excited about your future.

1 Essential word your marketing needs. Plus 1 you absolutely MUST avoid

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business growing, how to

Here’s a very quick tip, to help you improve the sales effectiveness of your marketing. It’s all about a word you use regularly, which is negatively impacting how people feel about your business.

That word is change!

People are hard-wired to fear change.

We know that change, good or bad, is a source of stress. Even something as positive as the change that comes from getting married, buying a new home or setting off for a week in the sun, is a cause of stress. In short, change is a trigger word, which places the prospective client or customer in a suboptimal state.

Because of the negative way people feel when confronted with change, it makes sense to remove the word from your marketing. Don’t worry, I am going to give you a massively more powerful, motivating alternative!

Improve, rather than change

Whenever possible, use the word improve, rather than change. Improve, is a positive word. It’s an attractive word too, because we are always looking for something better.

For example, look how the phrase below becomes far more powerful, when change is replaced with improve.

“This copywriting tip will change your marketing results.” (It could make them worse)

“This copywriting tip will improve your marketing results.” (It will make them better)

Your prospective clients or customers fear change, but want things to improve. So, stop offering them what they fear and give them what they want.

Why some businesses thrive in 2020, yet their competitors struggle

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marketing help, coronavirus, covid-19

Today’s post is about two service providers. In the same industry. In the same country. Serving a very similar marketplace. With all the same coronavirus / economic hurdles as each other.

I was prompted to write this, after an email I received from a reader. He thanked me for the post I’d just written, then explained how tough things were for his business.

He said he was going to “keep his head down” and wait for the coronavirus to pass and the economy to pick up. He went on to explain that you can’t make money in his industry right now, “because no one is spending”.

Here’s why his email stood out

I’m currently working with someone in the same country as him, in the same industry as him. My client’s business is flourishing. And this is largely because her focus is 180 degrees different to his.

For example.

  • She’s focused on growing. While he’s focused on surviving.
  • She’s focused on moving. While he’s focused on waiting.
  • She’s focused on opportunities. While he’s focused on losses.

Interestingly, she started off just as worried about the future as he is. What made all the difference is how she responds when she’s worried.

I remember vividly how fearful she was on our initial session, in March. She told me that her strategy for dealing with fear is to use it, to motivate her to look for answers. In this case, she found my service when looking for a way to navigate the changing economy caused by coronavirus.

She told me that taking positive action gives her a sense of control and keeps her focused on what she wants, rather than what she fears. This fills her with energy and justified confidence for the future.

Move forward with justified confidence

By choosing to focus on thriving, you drastically improve the scenario.

You get to spend your days working on successfully growing your business. Your shift of focus also enables you to see opportunities, which fear-focused business owners will miss. You transition from a feeling of apprehension, to one of excitement.

And it improves literally everything for you and your business.

A tip that helped my friend build his multimillion dollar fortune

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marketing money

Andy is a long-time friend and client, who used to own a number of very successful gyms in London. When he sold them, he’d made enough money to retire to Miami, with financial security for the rest of his life. He was 42 years old at the time and had been in business for 8 years.

Last year on a trip to England, Andy invited me to lunch. We were discussing ideas around a new project he’s working on, when he mentioned something in passing, which helped him build his fortune. I’m sharing it with you today because it’s very seldom talked about, yet it’s extremely important.

Andy told me that when he was hiring a new salesperson, he would always ask them; “how much do you spend each year on gym membership?”.

Why did he ask that question?

He told me that salespeople who didn’t invest in gym membership, always struggled to convince other people to become gym members. They couldn’t sell something, which they themselves didn’t value enough to invest in.

Here’s why I’m sharing Andy’s tip with you. That exact same principle holds true for business owners. For example, a business coach who doesn’t invest in great coaching will needlessly struggle to sell their services to prospective clients. A business consultant who doesn’t invest in great consulting will similarly struggle to attract clients.

That’s because there’s a critical disconnect, between what the business owner values enough to invest in and what they want their clients to invest in. A failure to walk the talk.

That disconnected approach to business costs them an absolute fortune. Because as Andy discovered, the marketplace can spot it a mile away.

This is unreasonable, right?

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I’ve had an idea that could help your business in multiple ways. It’s an unreasonable idea. Yes, I know that sounds weird.

Allow me to explain.

marketing unreasonable

If a product or service is only reasonably good, it’s nothing special. It’s just okay. It’s certainly not good enough to motivate people to buy from you, hire you or tell all their friends about you.

So… this got me thinking

The opposite of reasonable is unreasonable.

What if someone decided to embrace an unreasonable mindset to their business and the services they provide?

I believe it could lead to some significant improvements. Improvements that would encompass their whole business. Here are just a few examples of what an unreasonable approach might look like, which immediately came to mind.

A business owner could choose to:

  • Be unreasonably committed to customer service and the total happiness of their clients or customers.
  • Show unreasonable persistence when it comes to delivering projects on time and keeping their promises.
  • Have an unreasonable attitude to life long learning and developing their potential.
  • Set the bar unreasonably high on the quality of work they’re willing to ship. (This will help you) get it right.
  • Have an unreasonable passion for helping others to succeed.

Surely, any business operating from that kind of unreasonable mindset, is going to get noticed. They’re going to retain their clients for longer, too. And yes, they’re going to give their clients and their marketplace something interesting to tell their friends about. That’s a lot of important boxes checked, as a natural consequence of being unreasonable.

In short, if being reasonable isn’t working for you, you now have an unreasonable alternative to consider.

Why people criticise you and how to deal with it in just 3 steps

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why people criticize you, criticise you, how deal with critics

Here is a simple, powerful 3 step process, to help you totally overcome the impact or fear of negative criticism. It will show you why people criticise you and how to deal with it… fast!

Broadly, all of your critics can be divided into 1 of the following 2 groups:

  1. Those who want to help you and encourage you.
  2. Those who want to hinder you and see you fail.

It’s the second type of critic, which I want to talk to you about today. It’s that type of negative criticism, which stops many of us from being willing to stand out. It stops us putting our work or art out there. It encourages us to keep our head down. To follow the crowd.

The power of a critic

If you want your business to stand out, to attract lots of word of mouth referrals, it’s essential that you stop negative criticism from influencing you.

Why?

Because just about everything you need to do in order to market your business successfully, is visible and wide open to criticism. Anything you do, which is different enough for the marketplace to value it, is also visible enough for critics to criticise it!

So, you either learn to deal with it or do what most small business owners do, and run a business in the shadows, which is not a wise marketing move!

3 Steps to deal with negative criticism

Fortunately, dealing with negative criticism is relatively easy, so long as you learn to accept it for what it is. Once you understand why criticism happens, it eliminates its negative impact and allows you to focus all your effort on putting your best work out there.

Because I publish lots of material to a large audience, I get negative criticism regularly. In fact, the better my work, the more likely it is that at least one person will criticise it or criticise me for writing it.

Here are the 3 steps I used, to totally eliminate the negative impact of criticism.

1. Deal with criticism by considering their motivation

When someone feels the need to negatively criticise you or your work, they are satisfying a need they have. It’s always about them, not you or your work.

Even if someone is criticising you because they hope it will help you improve, it’s to satisfy their desire to help.

So, whatever the intention, criticism is always about the critic!

Understanding this is a key part of disempowering the critic’s influence over you and how you feel. When you accept that it’s NOT about you or your work, you see criticism for what it is: a selfish act perpetrated to feed a need the critic has – positive or negative.

Of course, even if the motivation is negative, if they are an expert in the field, you can still learn from what the critic says. Scientists often negatively criticise the work of their peers, people who really know their subject. That kind of criticism may be negative, but it can bring value with it.

This brings us nicely to the second step.

2. Deal with criticism by considering the source

Is the person who is negatively criticising you, qualified to criticise you? Most criticism is unqualified. That’s to say, the person criticising your work doesn’t know enough about the subject or what you’re trying to achieve, to offer anything other than an uninformed opinion.

Negative criticism from an unqualified, uninformed source is of so little value that it’s meaningless.

It makes zero sense to pay it any of your valuable attention.

3. Deal with criticism by using it to make you stronger

With each piece of criticism that you run through the previous 2 steps, you build your resistance to the negative impact of critics. Just as lifting weights builds your muscles, processing negative criticism builds your emotional defences. Each time you are criticised and see it for what it really is, it becomes easier. Less daunting. Less fearsome.

Pretty soon, you learn to be fascinated by criticism and what it tells you about the other person. You quickly learn that if no one is criticising you, you are either invisible, doing work that fails to stand out… or both.

I hope you found these ideas on why people criticize  you and how to deal with criticism useful. More importantly, I hope you use these ideas to achieve what you’re capable of.

Business development seldom exceeds professional development

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content marketing

I was just going through some notes I took, following a talk I gave to a group of entrepreneurs. I spotted something, which they found extremely useful on the day. So, I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s based on my answer to a great question. Someone wanted to know why over a thousand articles on my blog are tagged as professional development, when it’s a marketing blog.

Here’s a shortened version of my reply.

The reason I focus so heavily on professional development, is that without it, NONE of the information a business owner receives is of any value to them. I then shared one of the foundations of all business success:

Business development seldom exceeds professional development.

In other words, we can’t give our business something, which we don’t have. Here are a few of the examples I used.

  • We can’t avoid mistakes if we fail to see them coming.
  • We can’t benefit from opportunities if we’re blind to them.
  • We can’t enjoy a bumper crop if we harvest too soon.

I then explained how that’s only 50% of the problem caused by a lack of professional development.

Here’s the other half. And it’s a biggie!

Even if you give a business owner the exact answers they need, if they lack professional development… they’ll ignore it. That’s because when you lack professional development, REAL improvement always, always sounds scary.

It looks like this.

  • Improvement = change.
  • Change = risk.
  • Risk = fear.

Every business starts to grow after it launches. Then, the business reaches a certain point and hits a plateau. Some plateau in the first 12 months. Others don’t plateau for a decade.

And it doesn’t matter! Because it’s what happens when they reach that plateau that makes all the difference.

Business owners tend to fall into one of the following two, broad groups.

Group one

Business owners in this group need additional professional development. They are deliberately targeted by marketers, who exploit the business owners eagerness to grow their business. They entice them with webinars, Facebook Lives, growth-hacking secrets, and countless online training products; all promising “too good to be true” results.

That kind of advice sells. It’s all gain, with no real effort. And those testimonials are always so inspirational. It’s easy money too, because there’s an endless stream of business owners… hoping that THIS motivating promise, MAY finally be the one that works.

Of course, it fails.

It has to fail.

Why?

Because as we know, in business, meaningful improvement only comes after making meaningful improvements (meaningful changes). If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Business, like everything else in life, works on the law of cause and effect.

Now for some great news.

Group two

Every business owner in this group, (including me), started in group one. Then, at some point, they figured out they were wasting a lot of time and making very little progress. So they jumped ship into group two.

They now insist on expert advice from proven professionals. Professionals who will look at their unique situation and provide the unique roadmap or solutions they need. It’s why business owners in group two thrive.

Think about it. There’s a really good reason why:

  • Literally every successful business owner makes important decisions based on trusted, informed, targeted advice.
  • Literally none of them make important decisions, like how to grow their business, based on the toxic junk that business owners in group one rely on.

That’s why I focus so much of my content on professional development. I try and educate business owners, so they avoid the stress and wheel-spinning of being in group one. I strive to inform business owners who are trying to get the help they need, but looking in the worst possible places.

I hope you found this useful. Moreover, I hope you do something with it.

A marketing lesson from the world’s best coffee shops

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marketing coffee shops, coffeeshops

What are people hoping for, when they hire you or buy from you? That’s one of the most important questions in marketing.

Think about it.

  • People visit Facebook, because they hope it will entertain, inform or connect them.
  • People donate to charity, because they hope it will make things better for others.
  • People relocate to nice areas, because they hope it will improve their quality of life.
  • People subscribe to a newsletter, because they hope it will be useful.
  • People buy big name brands, because they hope it will ensure high quality.
  • People buy from local providers, because they hope it will help the local economy.

Your prospective clients are just the same. They’re hoping for something. And it isn’t always obvious.

A marketing lesson from coffee shops

Ask the owner of any successful coffee shop and they will tell you, the quality of their coffee isn’t the secret of their success. It isn’t even in the top 5 reasons why people choose them over their less successful competitors.

Instead, successful coffee shops thrive because they focus on what people hope for, when they visit a coffee shop. People hope it will provide them with a great place to meet friends, an interesting change of environment, a space where they can relax… and a thousand other non-coffee-related things.

Struggling coffee shops fail to provide the kind of experience, which the marketplace is hoping for. So even if their coffee tastes great, it doesn’t matter. That’s because no business, in any industry, can succeed or even survive, by failing to meet or exceed what people hope for.

As business owners, our task is to uncover what our prospective clients are hoping for. And then make it a foundational element of our service and our marketing. Offering a great service (or great coffee) isn’t enough, by itself.

What is inspiration? Find out and get inspired!

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So, what is inspiration and how can you tap into it when you need to become inspired?

what is inspiration, whats inspiration?

Today, I’m going to share one of the ideas used by Pablo Picasso and Steve Jobs, when they were looking for creative inspiration. I’m also going to share a couple of tips of my own, but first, let’s take a brief look at the definition of inspiration.

What is inspiration?

The Oxford Dictionary defines inspiration as:

“The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative”.

Commonly we think of people being randomly struck by a flash of inspiration, so we see inspiration as a feeling that occurs almost by accident. However, as the start of that dictionary definition states, inspiration is a process. We become mentally stimulated (inspired) to do something. For those who want to feel inspired, the key is to learn how to create an inspired state when we need to.

What is inspiration? Part 2: How to feel inspired

There is no single, set way to make every person feel inspired. That’s because we are all different and are inspired by different things. You need to learn what works for you and one of the best ways to do this, is to think about what you were doing the last few times you felt inspired. Consider where you were and what you were doing, etc. Look for any common factors and incorporate these the next time you need some inspirational ideas or answers.

Here are just a tiny number of situations, which trigger creative inspiration:

  • Some people find inspiration in books.
  • Some find inspiration in music.
  • Some people are inspired when surrounded by nature.
  • Some people grab a pad and some colouring pencils and start doodling.
  • Some people become inspired to create, when an internal or external deadline approaches. This one is really interesting, because it shows how creative inspiration can indeed be self driven.
  • Some find inspiration through affirmations or positive self-talk.
  • Some find inspiration comes when they are doing some type of physical activity. For me, it’s walking that works best.
  • Some find inspiration in the design of an everyday item. (More on that in a moment.)
  • And others find all of the above work to a lesser or greater degree.

What is inspiration? Part 3: Become inspired on purpose

As well as being potential sources of inspiration, each of the scenarios above has another thing in common. Can you guess what it is?

They are all under our control!

That is to say, we can decide to take any of the actions above when we want to feel inspired. We don’t need to wait to be struck by inspiration. We can find the things that work best for us, then build a strategy that uses them. So, when we ask ourselves what is inspiration, part of the answer is that inspiration is something under our own direct control.

I found that I often got my best ideas when I was walking. This Stanford study agrees. So, I incorporated a daily walk into my routine. I always carry an audio recorder with me, then when an idea comes I can record it. I write thousands of words every day, most of which are inspired by ideas captured during my walks. I also find that I get lots of creative ideas when I am in the company of other creative people, [problem solvers].

“I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at 9:00 every morning.” Peter De Vries.

That quote from Peter De Vries makes a great point. We can choose to help ourselves become inspired or we can be a servant to inspiration. We can wait for the fictitious muse to arrive or we can take control and direct our own mind.

What is inspiration? Part 4: Great artists steal

Many people believe that in order to create, their inspiration needs to come from a wholly unique idea; something no one has ever thought of before. However, when we look at the creators of the most amazing art, inventions and ideas, we find the opposite.

Pablo Picasso famously said:

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

This phrase became popular again in 1996, when the late Steve Jobs repeated it in a PBS documentary called Triumph of the Nerds. In that interview, Jobs went on to say:

“We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”

What Jobs was talking about, was not ripping off a piece of work and claiming you created it. Far from it. He went on to explain that he and his team would “expose ourselves to the best things that humans have done”, and then try to incorporate them into something unique of their own.

what is inspiration, what's inspiration

A well known example of the kind of inspiration that Steve Jobs was talking about, comes from the creator of roll on deodorant.

Helen Barnett Diserens was inspired by the way ink flowed from a ballpoint pen and saw how the process could be applied to any liquid with similar properties. As you know, the roll on deodorant went on to become one of the most popular hygiene products in history. This was around 80 years after John J. Loud invented the ball point pen, which inspired her.

An even better example is the invention of the tablet computer. The idea behind the tablet devices we see today, was inspired by at least 2 existing ideas: The clay tablets used 3,000 years ago and the modern notebook / laptop.

Little, if anything, is truly new. We should understand and embrace this idea, if we want to remove one of the biggest barriers to creative inspiration. We just need to remember that there’s a big difference between stealing ideas to create something new – and copying or ripping off an existing idea. Remember that Picasso quote from earlier: ‘… great artists steal’. They don’t copy!

What is inspiration? Part 5: Creating your inspiration strategy

It starts by deliberately monitoring the things that inspire you the most. Write them down. Then, incorporate them into your work flow, so that you can get into an inspired state when you need to, rather than just when it randomly occurs.

what is inspiration, whats inspiration

What works for me?

I incorporated a walk into my work flow when I discovered that it was how most of my best ideas came to me. I also learned that if I read my email first thing in the morning, it took my focus away from creating. So, my workday starts with a walk, followed by the commitment to write 500 words or solve a problem, before I start on my email.

Just as Peter De Vries made sure to be inspired at 9am each workday, we too need to stop waiting for everything to be perfect and proactively seek inspiration – doing what works for us.

Build a recipe that works for you, then use it every time you need to do some creative work or find a creative answer. Don’t wait for inspiration. Deliberately encourage it.

What is inspiration? Part 6: Doing the work

As well as inspiring ourselves to create, we also need to motivate ourselves to put what we have created into action. It’s one thing to have a great idea sketched out on paper – it’s something else to actually use that idea.

We need to learn to give our ideas the chance to fly. We need to give our answers the chance to make a difference. This means we need to back them up with intelligent activity.

So, what is inspiration? It’s something you control, which enables you to produce your best work.

Steve Jobs photo Copyright: Albert Watson

I have some news for you

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It’s the 12th anniversary of Jim’s Marketing Blog.

But this one is very different from the others.

Previously, I’ve had to think whether to commit my time and money for another year. It’s a big commitment. The time I spend each week creating free content for my readers, significantly reduces the hours I have available for fee-paying clients. And with thousands of pages of content online, the blog would still attract more client enquiries than I need.

However, this year, the decision to carry on was easy.

How easy?

I’d forgotten about the annual renewal decision until literally 20 minutes ago!

The impact of the coronavirus on small and medium-sized business owners, has motivated me more than ever to try and help. I’m working on ideas all the time. My goal is to be as useful as possible, to as many people as possible. The best way I know to do this, is through the free information I provide on the blog and email version of the blog.

So, I plan to be here for at least another year.

By the way, if you want to say hi or just see what I’m up to, you can catch me on Twitter @JimConnolly. Look for the verified tick to ensure it’s me.

21 Tips to massively improve your business results

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marketing busy, marketing noise

Photo: Shutterstock.

In no particular order.

  1. People buy what they want. Not what they need. It’s why people renew their phones every 12/24 months, even though their ‘old’ phone works fine. They want a new phone. They treat themselves to a new phone. But they don’t need it. Once you understand the difference, you can massively improve your marketing.
  2. Avoid using buzzwords. Those who don’t understand them will be confused. Those who do understand them, will cringe. And buzzwords get old, really quick.
  3. When you want to generate high quality cash flow fast, find new products for your existing customers. It’s far quicker and more profitable, than finding new customers for your existing products. I’ve helped hundreds of business owners enjoy windfall profits this way. Yes, windfall profits. It’s that easy.
  4. Stop waiting for the right opportunity to come along. Make it happen. Create it.
  5. Embrace brevity. Shorter messages are more powerful. Most marketing I see is 75% too long.
  6. Keeping your promises is a proven way to build a great reputation. (Read more).
  7. You don’t have any clients, customers or subscribers. They’re not yours. You simply borrow them. This means there’s no room for complacency. You need to earn and then re-earn their custom, attention and trust.
  8. Learn how to make your marketplace curious. Why do prospective clients call you or email you? It’s because they need to know something and their curiosity motivates them to get in touch. So, you get a sales lead or client enquiry. And a chance to convert them into a new client or customer. As I said a few days ago, don’t explain everything in your marketing, unless you want very few enquiries. (Read more).
  9. If you want your marketplace to talk enthusiastically about your business, do something worth talking about. If it’s remarkable enough, they’ll remark on it!
  10. A confused mind always says no. Keep your marketing as brief and clear as possible. Fewer options. Fewer words. Less fluff.
  11. The most successful business owners decide who their ideal clients are, then market exclusively to this super-valuable group. You should do the same. The average business owner relies on DIY marketing and takes whatever comes along.
  12. People buy for their reasons. Not yours.
  13. Include deadlines in your marketing messages. They’re an exceptionally powerful way to motivate people to take action. (Read more).
  14. Everything your business does, is marketing. The way you answer the phone, your payment terms, the way you reply to emails, your location, the way you write, the design of your website, your prices, your social network activity… it’s all marketing. This means it needs to be intentional and consistent.
  15. Don’t rely on Facebook, Linkedin or any third party for your communication channel. It’s like building a house on rented land. Instead, attract people via third party platforms. And then encourage them to subscribe to your email list.
  16. Building an email list is a massively better option than buying a list. The people on paid-for lists don’t want to hear from you. These so called opt-in lists are mainly just lists of people, who completed a form on a website once, without reading the small print.
  17. Businesses with a fixed marketing budget never achieve much. It shows they regard marketing as a cost, rather than an investment. This is then reflected in their results.
  18. The most powerful marketing is permission based. When people subscribe to your list, your message is treated very differently, than an unsolicited email from a needy stranger.
  19. The more your services or products resemble what your competitors offer, the less visible your business is.
  20. Tell the truth. It’s the easiest, least stressful way to build a great business and your marketplace will respect you.
  21. If your business isn’t attracting regular sales leads or client enquiries, your marketing is broken. This means the very thing that feeds your business isn’t working. It’s losing you a fortune. Needlessly. Why are you allowing this to happen? Think about that for a moment.

10 Reasons your business is not growing and how to fix it!

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why business isnt growing, fix it

If you’re wondering, “Why isn’t my business growing?” this information packed article is written just for you. I’m going to share 10 extremely common reasons why your business is not growing that limit or stop the growth of a business, PLUS how to quickly turn things around.

Let’s get started.

Your business isn’t growing, because you stopped growing

Your business is a reflection of the decisions you make and your decisions are based on what you know. So, for your business to grow, you need to grow. After all, you can’t give your business the benefit of knowledge, which you don’t have.

Read the books. Study those who’ve achieved what you want to achieve. Seek expert advice. Grow. Then watch your business grow too.

Your business is not growing because you’re selling based on price

This only works if you’re the lowest priced alternative, and you’re not. Your prospective clients can go to Google and find a lower priced alternative in seconds. Only one provider can be the lowest priced and it changes daily, sometimes hourly, as desperate business owners price-drop in an effort to attract sales.

It takes a huge amount of planning and a watertight strategy, to sell based on being lowest priced and still make a worthwhile profit. Some big brands manage to succeed on wafer thin margins, but it’s a very precarious approach.

Usually, small businesses only market based on being low priced, because it’s easy to lower prices or fees. It takes very little effort and zero creativity, to simply undercut your competitors. We call this the race to the bottom. It’s a race you don’t want to win, as you end up working for peanuts and attracting the lowest value clients.

Clients you attract through low fees are the easiest to attract and the easiest to lose, when a competitor decides to undercut you.

Instead of selling based on being the lowest priced, look for opportunities to add more value to what you do. Not only will this make your business more profitable, it will allow you to compete for better clients… those who value you and what you do.

You’re starving your business of the marketing it needs

No matter how great your business is, unless you market it correctly, no one will know. Sadly, it’s a fact that an average business that’s marketed correctly, will always outperform a wonderful business that has ineffective marketing. This is why some lousy businesses make a fortune, whilst some great little businesses struggle.

By starving your business of professional marketing, by default, you’re relying on amateur marketing. This makes no sense, as it is both more expensive, and vastly less effective, than getting expert help.

In a nutshell: If you want great marketing results, invest in great marketing.

Your business is not growing because your branding doesn’t work

Yes, if people knew how great you were, they’d hire you. But when they connect with you for the first time, all they have to form their decision on, is what they see. That’s why your image matters so much.

Here’s a question for you to ponder: How do you look, when a prospective client encounters your business branding / image for the first time?

Most small business owners operate behind naff logos, poorly designed websites and amateur looking social networking accounts. If you want prospective clients to consider you a professional, you need to look the part. No matter what promises you make, what testimonials you offer or what guarantees you provide, no one will take any notice, if your image looks like a DIY project.

So, at least invest in a professional logo for your business and some decent photography for your social networking accounts. An amateur (or dated) logo and photograph dents your credibility and will lose you a fortune. The same is true of an unprofessional looking or dated website.

Give your business the impact it deserves. And attract the clients your business deserves.

Your business isn’t growing because you’ve camouflaged yourself

This is one of the most common mistakes made by small business owners. Very, very few small businesses stand out. Perhaps 1 in every 10,000. Instead, they opt for the fake safety of being just like their competitors.

This is why we find that when we look at the providers in any industry, they seem so similar. You could swap them around and no one would notice.

They offer a similar range of services. They make similar promises. They charge similar fees. In effect, they become invisible. Almost impossible to tell apart. They have camouflaged themselves within the masses.

If you want to stand out, do something outstanding. Something remarkable. Something uniquely valuable. Find a new service, which your competitors don’t provide. Develop a new pricing model.

Just don’t be like all the others, if you want to get noticed.

You’re associating with the wrong people

There’s a direct link between how we think, and the people we habitually associate with.

  • If we associate with people who inspire us, we feel inspired.
  • If we associate with people who encourage us and motivate us to stretch, we grow.

That’s why it pays to be selective regarding the people we associate with. For example, when we associate with people who are doing better than we are, the natural inclination is for us to rise to their level. Of course, the opposite is also true. When we associate with people who are doing as well as us, or less well, we find ourselves spinning our wheels.

As Jim Rohn used to say about potential: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.

So, choose wisely. Associate with people who will inspire you to be better. People who will encourage you and motivate you to be the best you can be.

You’re networking with the wrong people

In business, it’s extremely important to build great connections with influential people. This is the exact opposite of what the typical small business owner does. They go for numbers instead and look in the worst possible places.

Think about it: We’ve all met business owners who struggle to find new clients, even though they’re members of a networking group and have hundreds, maybe thousands of Linkedin contacts.

That should be impossible.

Right?

Surely, with so many contacts, these struggling business owners would be able to reach out with a message and quickly attract more client enquiries than they need. However, this never happens. Why? Because they are connected to business owners who lack the influence and contacts, to be able to make a difference!

The most successful business owners use the exact opposite approach. I recommend you do the same. It looks like this: They deliberately target the most influential people in their marketplace and put a strategy together, to connect with them. They do this months before they ask anything from them.

And no, you will not find the most influential people in networking clubs, asking struggling business owners for introductions. You’ll have to do a little research. But that’s fine. You’re aiming for quality, not numbers.

Your business isn’t growing, because you’ve become comfortable

Small business owners usually start off with great plans, but somewhere along the way they settle. Instead of focusing on building their business, so it provides them with the rewards they want, they switch.

They switch to lowering their lifestyle expectations, so it meets the limitations of their under performing business.

It’s up to you to switch things back the way they should be! This means leaving your comfort zone, setting exciting goals and then making the commitment to take the action required.

You’re getting too few referrals, so your business isn’t growing

Business owners who get too few referrals have to quickly figure out why their clients and associates are not referring them. This is a tough challenge to face. It means accepting there’s a serious problem and then being willing to fix things.

Yes, it’s serious, extremely serious, if you get too few referrals.

Not only are you missing out on a regular supply of valuable leads, your clients and associates, for whatever reason, do not want to recommend you. And there’s always a reason.

A customer survey may help you find out why. However, honest conversations with those whose opinions you trust are often extremely useful too.

Just as importantly, when you get the feedback you need, make sure you do something with it. It’s hard sometimes to accept you have areas of your business, which you need to improve. I’ve seen business owners ignore really valuable feedback, believing they’re already offering an amazing service.

Don’t make that mistake. Listen to what the feedback is telling you. Then take appropriate action.

You’re not failing often enough

Many small business owners let their fear of failure stop them from putting their ideas into action. The challenge with that mindset, is that without trying fresh ideas, you stagnate by default.

When a business is new it’s easy to risk everything. After all, unless you start out with a ton of money behind you, (like Sir Richard Branson and Seth Godin), you have nothing to lose.

However, once your business is established the penalty for failing seems bigger.

Here’s why:

  • Business owners tend to over estimate the price of failure. They imagine all kinds of unrealistic worst case scenarios.
  • To make things worse, they also tend to under estimate the potential rewards. They seem unaware that just one good idea can improve their business beyond recognition.

The fear of failure is the biggest hurdle to your success. It robs you of opportunity. It causes you to play it safe, which is the riskiest thing a business owner can do. Interestingly, the most successful business owners see failure very differently.

It looks like this:

  • If they try something and it doesn’t work, they learn from it. They then invest the lesson in their next idea. This makes them far more likely to succeed the next time. So, they win.
  • If they try something and it works, they learn from it and earn from it. So, they win.

That mindset regarding failure is what I recommend you work on. It was an area of my own development that needed a lot of improvement. But when you learn the commercial value of failure, everything starts to fall into place. It’s like removing a blockage that’s been a barrier to your success. You will never look back.

Now what?

If your business is not growing the way you want it to, it’s likely that several or more of those 10 reasons require your attention. Put them right and you’ll enjoy the rewards. So, take some time today to focus on just one of those points. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll achieve the results you know you deserve.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Taste your words before you spit them out

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what meaning, taste words spit out, does it mean

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One of the best pieces of advice I ever received, was taste your words before you spit them out. The idea is that we should pause and think before we say something to someone, especially if we don’t know them well. It’s easy to be misunderstood otherwise.

The same idea applies to the information we share via the written word. And I’m going to share 2 quick examples with you. One was embarrassing and the other expensive.

He didn’t taste his words before he spit them out, when he said ‘after you’

Very recently on Twitter, a service provider was forced to rethink the snappy, 2 word profile he created. The profile simply read: After you!

  • His intention with those words, was to suggest that he’s the kind of person who puts others first.
  • He then figured out that people were misunderstanding it to mean he was after them… in pursuit of them or pestering them. That’s not a good look.

There was no real harm done as he had just started the account and had very few followers. So, he switched the profile to something clearer and laughed about it as he told me.

Crushing defeat?

The second example is regarding a seminar that had to be cancelled, largely because of the seminar’s title. The crushing defeat seminar was all about how to crush defeat and come out winning. It seems when people saw marketing for the seminar, the title was misunderstood to mean the event was all about defeat that crushes you.

A place to feel sorry for yourself. Obviously, that was the exact opposite of the desired impact.

In both of those examples, had this person tasted their words before they spat them out, the problems could have been completely avoided. The first example didn’t cause any real issues. But the second example had been advertised for a week, before he figured out what was happening. Even if the trainer had shown the seminar’s title to some people and asked what it said to them, he’d have been aware of the problem.

Taste your words with some outside perspective

Those examples may seem obvious. But sometimes the errors we make are more subtle and harder for us to spot. That’s why if you’re not an experienced marketer or copywriter, it’s important to think hard and also get some feedback, before you publish a title (The crushing defeat seminar) or strap-line (After you). The same is true of the calls to action you use, the wording on the buttons or tabs on your website, your newsletter title and the name you give to your services, etc.

A great place to start is with marketing you have, which isn’t generating the response rates you need. Sometimes a better name, title or strap-line can make a massive improvement to your results!

Marketing 101: Stop selling to yourself

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marketing, selling to yourself

Photo: Shutterstock.

Are you selling to yourself?

That may seem like an odd question, yet it’s one of the most important questions in marketing.

Why?

Because small business owners almost always market their services, as if they were selling to themselves. Or selling to someone in their own industry, to be more precise.

Sounds weird, right?

Well, here are a couple of industry examples. Though it applies to literally (not figuratively) every industry.

Read the marketing of most web designers and it’s filled with jargon and buzzwords. They talk about things like; HTML5, CSS and standards compliance. These are things designers know are important. However, those terms mean nothing to their prospective clients. Their prospective clients want a professional looking site. They want to know how a new website will help them make more sales and attract more enquiries. They want to know they can trust the designer to do a great job. And they want it explained with clarity.

Read the marketing of most accountants and you will find graphs, statistics and logos from the bodies they’re a member of. This is what accountants think is important, but it’s not what their prospective clients are looking for. The prospective client wants to know why they should hire this accountant (and not an equally qualified competitor). They want the story behind the numbers in their business. They want to know how the accountant will help them build a better business. And they want it explained with clarity.

Every business owner using that self-selling approach is leaving money on the table every day. Don’t let it happen to you.

What next?

Take a look at your marketing messages from your prospective client’s vantage point.

  • Make sure you’re using their language and not yours.
  • Lose as many industry terms and buzzwords as possible.
  • Focus on the results your product or service delivers.

And remember to highlight why they’d be nuts not to hire you or buy from you.

How to predict your future clients and attract the very best

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work begets work

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I’d like to share an idea, to help you build a fantastic commercial future… starting today.

I’ll also show you how I helped one of my clients build the business of her dreams, using this idea.

It begins with a simple 3 word phrase.

Work begets work

You may have heard that work begets work before. However, the phrase is usually used with very little mention of its wider meaning. On a surface level, it’s true to say that by working on something, we’re likely to attract more work. More likely, than if we wait around for the phone to ring. For example, I hired a guy to do some work on my house, after seeing the work he did for one of my friends. His work for my friend led to work from me.

That’s just the surface.

You see there’s a word missing from that 3 word phrase. And it’s what makes all the difference.

Work not only begets work, work begets similar work. In other words, the work we’re doing today, will have a massive influence on the type of work we’re doing tomorrow, the clients we work with tomorrow and the fees we’re earning tomorrow.

In short, if you want to take your business to the next-level (and beyond), you need to start doing next-level work today.

Think about it. The alternative approach is nuts

The alternative is to wait and hope.

  • Wait for an amazing stranger to see (or hear about) our current-level work.
  • Then hope they magically decide, with zero evidence, that we’re capable of next-level work.
  • Oh, then hope that for some insane reason, they’ll also be keen to risk their money hiring us.

Sure, we can wait for opportunity to knock.

Like in the movies.

Or we can get off our ass and build a door.

That’s what Sue did.

How this worked for a former client of mine

Sue (not her real name) is a graphic designer, with a focus on lettering. I worked with her on my work begets similar work idea and she’s never looked back. Previously, Sue struggled, working as a freelance designer for agencies and doing sub-contract work. They said what they wanted. She did it. This was soul destroying. And whilst she was busy, the money was crap. She had very few direct clients. Her work had no signature. And she’d wasted 9 years, going nowhere.

After I shared the work begets similar work idea with her, Sue did a rebrand on her own business, demonstrating the kind of next-level work she’s capable of. We decided to reach out to some environmental charities, who she thought were in need of rebranding. The environment is something Sue’s passionate about.

Anyhow, one of them jumped on board.

Sue then threw 100% of her creativity and passion into the project. The end product was visually stunning. It was very clearly on a totally different level to the soul-destroying work she’d been doing. The charity loved it. More importantly, they used it.

And it was extremely effective.

A while after the charity’s rebrand project, the CMO of a toy company saw it and asked the charity for Sue’s details. He reached out to her and asked if she’d be interested in designing the lettering for their new, environmentally friendly line of garden furniture. That project led to the next. And that project led to the next…

Sue’s next-level work begot similar work. Work she’s passionate about. Work that is massively more emotionally and financially rewarding. She’s now well-established in a niche she loves, working direct with international brands.

Yes, it works in your industry too

What if you provide a service that isn’t as visual as Sue’s?

So long as you have the desire to crank the quality of your work to a higher level than you currently do, you can absolutely show it to your prospective, next-level clients. Blogging, newsletters, podcasts, Youtube and social networks give you all the tools you need, to showcase your next-level approach, thinking and ideas. The enquiries you attract will be from people, who’ll see you’re clearly capable of delivering the level of service (or results) they want.

This is a great time to put your next-level work out there. So, show those high quality clients you’d love to work with, just what you’re capable of.

When the vision pulls you, you don’t have to be pushed

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when vision pulls, don't need pushed, Steve Jobs vision

One of the most common questions people ask me, is in relation to blogging. Specifically, they want to know how I manage to push myself, to write and publish content as often as I do.

Here’s the answer.

Push or pull?

This quote from the late Steve Jobs answers that question beautifully:

If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.

– Steve Jobs.

If your vision of blogging is that it’s a necessary evil, you will fail on every metric.

  • You will fail to write as well as you can, because when you work through gritted teeth, it shows.
  • You will fail to show up with new information, often enough.
  • You will fail to engage people.

My blogging vision was different

I saw it as a professional and personal development opportunity. I knew that in order for me to share useful information regularly, I needed to feed my mind with useful information regularly. I quickly found another massive benefit to blogging, which is that writing regularly makes you a better communicator. That’s a huge asset for anyone.

So, even if I failed to attract a commercially valuable reader community, I’d still benefit. Firstly, I’d become far more informed. Secondly, I’d be better able to communicate my ideas than I would have been, had I not written all that content. This made it impossible for me to fail.

If you’re struggling to publish content regularly enough, don’t carry on working through gritted teeth. Change your vision. And then let that vision pull you.

Thankfully, Jobs’ concept works in every area of your life and isn’t limited to content creation.

Tip: If you found this useful, you can get my latest ideas delivered direct to your inbox, for free, right here.

Rediscovered: My business development notes from the 1990’s. Take a look!

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Okay, this one is a little weird.

While going through some of my old notebooks at the weekend, I rediscovered this list. It’s a series of points I put together back in 1998, to help guide the development of my (then) fledgling business. The list had things added and removed from it over the years, but these raw, original points were extremely useful to me. So I thought I’d share them with you.

marketing notes

Photo: Shutterstock.

In no particular order

  • Marketing is already full of robots in suits, so work like an artist. Make your work your signature. Think Warhol, Basquiat and Haring.
  • Eagerly seek out demanding clients, who need you to be at your absolute, creative best. They force you to stretch and improve.
  • Do something every day to earn the reputation you want. People need clues.
  • Avoid energy vampires.
  • Focus on being as useful as possible.
  • Love the marketplace you serve. Especially those who are the hardest to love. They need it the most.
  • Keep learning. You can’t share what you don’t already know.
  • Let your work be your megaphone, your networking and your primary source of recommendations.
  • Set deadlines. Tell the client what to expect, when to expect it and then deliver as promised.
  • Don’t borrow money. If you do, make sure it’s not for a depreciating asset.
  • Focus on creative ways to produce amazing results.
  • Do something every day to help those less fortunate than yourself.
  • Try and connect good people to other good people.
  • Learn from the success and failures of others.
  • When you think it’s correct, have the courage to take a different path from everyone else.
  • Eagerly look for the tricky kind of projects that others run away from. It’s the most rewarding work.
  • When work starts to become boring, stop. Identify the problem. Then fall back in love with the service of others.

I hope you found that useful.

15 Powerful ideas to help you grow your business

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ideas grow business, marketing ideas business

Photo: Shutterstock.

It’s said you are often just one idea away from the breakthrough you have been looking for.

So here are 15 powerful business development ideas, to help you achieve the breakthrough results you need.

  1. If you write a blog or newsletter, ask yourself, if you’re building a tribe or simply writing drive-by content? Almost everyone gets this wrong. Here’s why this is so important.
  2. Embrace brevity. People are busy and their attention has never been in more demand. Keep your marketing messages as short and useful as possible.
  3. Do at least one thing each day, which your future self will thank you for.
  4. Remind yourself that the process of giving and receiving starts with giving. Making selfish demands from strangers doesn’t work. It also damages your reputation. Bring your seed, not your need.
  5. Fail more often this week than you did last week. Why? Because if you’re not failing often enough, you’re sticking to things you already know. This means you are no longer growing. This is why Steve Jobs famously reprimanded members of his team, if they were not failing regularly enough. Then, fail more often next week than you did this week… repeat.
  6. Stop aiming for perfectionism. It will stop you getting started, kill your creativity and block your progress. The next time you find yourself blaming perfectionism for your lack of progress, call it out for what it is: a stalling tactic.
  7. Stop doing work purely because it pays the bills. Start doing work that makes a difference. This post explains why.
  8. Get expert help in any area of your business, where you are under performing. Things don’t just change for the better because you hope they will. Hope is essential, but it’s not a business strategy.
  9. Remind yourself that you pick your clients, they don’t pick you. This is true of 100% of the most successful business owners and consultants I know. Pick clients who value you and allow you to do your best work. Build your client base deliberately. Here’s what you need to know.
  10. Get serious about the value of your time. No one ever lay on their deathbed, regretting they hadn’t spent more time watching TV. Throughout the day, ask yourself, is this the best use of my time right now? If it isn’t, go and do something more productive.
  11. Make the decision to do the tricky stuff. Every business owner claims to give their business 100%. What they REALLY mean, is that they give their business 100% of the stuff that they are comfortable with. Decide to get less comfortable with the limitations of your comfort zone. This will help you.
  12. Learn to embrace your inner freak.
  13. Get the most from your creativity. There are hundreds of free, creative thinking ideas here.
  14. Believe that almost anything is possible. No matter how bad things may be right now, with courage, hard work and passion, you can achieve almost anything. This post gives a great example of what I mean.
  15. Build a great reputation by setting deadlines and delivering on them. Think about it: Telling a client that their project will be ready “by the end of the week” is far less powerful, than telling her it will be ready “by 9am Thursday”. Keeping your deadline promises is a superb way to earn trust and build an excellent reputation. I explain this in more detail here.
  16. Give people more than they expect. Don’t under-promise though. Instead, over-deliver.

If you found these ideas useful, remember to subscribe using the box below to get new updates direct to your inbox.

How to get the best, free marketing advice

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marketing research

Photo: Shutterstock.

There’s a lot of free marketing advice available online. Some is good. Sadly, most is ineffective. Today, I want to help you identify the best marketing advice and show you how to avoid the worst.

A new client with a familiar problem

I was prompted to write this after my initial session with a new client. I went through some questions with her, as I do with all my new clients. I quickly noticed that she was making a number of serious marketing mistakes. During our session, I asked her where she got those marketing ideas from and she named around half a dozen marketing sites.

I soon figured out what had happened.

Today, I want to help you avoid making the same, expensive mistake. I need to start by drawing your attention to 2 types of marketing blogger.

1. The marketing blogger, who doesn’t have a business

Many marketing blogs are written by people who are career employees, paid to produce lots of content. Others are employees, who were previously entrepreneurs, but they failed to build their own business and are now paid to produce “content” for their employers.

Think about that for a moment: On sites like these, you’re taking marketing advice from someone, who has either never marketed their own business or whose own business failed.

2. Guest bloggers on popular marketing blogs

The vast majority of top marketing blogs rely very heavily on unpaid, guest bloggers. Guest bloggers are people who write for free, in return for access to a popular blog’s readership.

None of the guest bloggers I checked on the sites my client mentioned, had the assets you’d expect from a competent marketer. In other words, they were unable to market their own brand.

Think about that for a moment: Their readers are taking marketing advice from bloggers, who feel forced to work for free. Bloggers who still haven’t figured out how to grow their own valuable readership, community or tribe. Bloggers who still have no idea how to market their own brand, other than by guest blogging. Taking advice from them lost my new client a fortune.

Check the source

No, not every employee / guest blogger who writes about marketing is clueless. Some will be knowledgeable. At least a little.

My point is simply this: Always check the credentials of those offering free marketing advice, before you act on what they tell you.

They should have an about page on their site, (like this one). See if they’ve achieved what you need to achieve. See if they have a proven track record at the highest level. If not, then find a better source.

Well-written and sincere

Lots of bloggers write extremely well and make a compelling point, when what they’re telling you is incorrect or ineffective. They may be sincere, but it’s possible to be sincerely wrong.

I estimate my new client has lost at least 5 years worth of business growth. And probably missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues. All because she followed the same, ineffective marketing advice as thousands of other small business owners.

Don’t let it happen to you.

Before you invest your time or money on marketing, check the source.

Always, always check the source.

Help required

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marketing risk progress

Photo: Shutterstock.

Every successful business is built on a foundation of help.

  1. The help you provide to your clients or customers, through your services or products.
  2. The help you require in order for your business to thrive.

If either of those areas are neglected, the business suffers.

  1. If the quality of help you provide is matched or overtaken by your competitors, your business will stop growing and then shrink.
  2. If the help you require in order to thrive is missing, your business will stop growing and then shrink.

Most small business owners are very good at offering help. But they’re lousy at asking for it. This holds true even when they are 100% certain they need help. For some, the block is a financial one.

But for most it’s the inability to emotionally understand the difference between a cost and an investment.

  • On an intellectual level they know the difference and they can see that they have a problem that needs investing in.
  • But on an emotional level, they freeze.

As we face the months ahead, our thinking must be intellectually and emotionally aligned. That’s because knowing what to do is pointless, if we fail to do it.

A proven starting point is to examine the excuses we tell ourselves, in order to self-justify why we’re refusing to do what’s needed. Then consider where our inaction will lead us. We find it’s like wanting our flowers to grow, yet starving them of the water and sunshine they need.

Ultimately, when we work against what is right, it keeps going wrong. We know this to be true.

The next step is to believe it.