Has business slowed? Are you feeling the no-customer blues? It’s something I’m hearing from a lot of business owners right now. I mean, it’s after Christmas so no one is spending, right?
Wrong. I’m here to tell you that if your business has slowed, there are still many things you can do. I also want you to understand that you don’t NEED to be affected by the slow down each year. You can choose to fight back.
Let’s talk about how I attack, and defeat, this problem again and again.
Audit Yourself, With Brutal Honesty
We are often harder on ourselves than we would be on others, yet often avoid taking this critical eye to our business. This is especially true for those who have a business that used to be profitable. It can be hard to look critically at something you know worked once. It’s hard to want to see your hard work as anything other than just what you think it should be. Therein lies part if the problem – your products, services, brand and voice need to be tailored to what your customer likes and wants. People and their needs are in constant flux, so your business must be growing, shifting and changing with it. When your feeling the pinch, step back and take an objective look at your branding, services and marketing efforts. Try to look at it from the eyes of your ideal customer. Is it appealing to THEM? If you are like many out there who don’t know what would appeal to their target audience, now’s the time to move to the next step.
Ask Your Customers Directly
No joke. You wouldn’t push a product out to market without validating it first, right? Well, same deal here. If you truly want to know why your services have stopped selling, the folks you need to be asking are your customers. Think of a couple of clients, or potential clients, that you feel would give you honest, real feedback. I like to ask someone who I see as a potential client as well, to get a fresh set of eyes. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Dead serious. Asking for help shows humility, makes the person you’re asking feel like a vital part of your progression. It brings you to the front of their mind all while helping you vet for validation. Have them review your offers, website, branding, social media – EVERYTHING. Be prepared for an assortment of feedback to sort through and consider for implementation.
Has Business Slowed Again? Rinse and Repeat, Baby!
The great part is that this isn’t something you can only ever do once. I run through this process again and again all the time. It enables me to present the best product, in the clearest manner. Heck, my first attempts are sometimes flops too. Don’t get hung up on that. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. This is unadulterated truth for entrepreneurs, and yet doing the same old thing over and over is the go to. Your freebie didn’t work? Use the above steps and come up with something new. Your PDF documents are popular? Try something different. The hot item right now is quizzes, have you given it some thought? The new offer you created hasn’t sold? Talk to your audience, learn, make changes, rinse and repeat until it does.
Take Action!
The real point behind all this is to get you moving, doing. Stagnancy is death to a business, no matter how on-point it may have once been. The business owners who see the most success are those that shift and change with the environment their in.
Website stopped selling? Give it a makeover! Social media not getting traction, try a different type of content. Seriously, the best thing you can do is keep doing and trying. Keep filing and getting back up. That’s how all of us find success, whether we make it look easy or not.
Last year, business slowed and made January a tough month. This year, highest monthly revenue yet. All because I spent the year preparing for it, trying new things, and pushing forward.
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