The Secret Sauce To Grow Your Business

There is one particular concept when it comes to marketing that really determines if small business owners achieve the results they want, or if they fall short of their goals. It is a concept that is unique to a business owner, the decision-maker in the business. It’s part of every marketing transaction, but it is where most business owners fall short.

The concept is self-awareness.

One of the best things about being a small business owner is the freedom that comes with being in the driver’s seat of your income-earning life. You decide your work hours. You decide your pricing strategy. You decide your future. Included with this great responsibility of being the chief decision maker is also being 100% accountable for every action, or inaction. There’s no one to keep you on track – you have to do that yourself – and staying committed to the decisions you make and the actions you choose will often take more energy than any of your other responsibilities.

Evaluating your accountability is an exercise in self-awareness. Only when you are aware of your habits and tendencies can you find solutions. The longer you keep pushing them aside, the more you continue to spend your energy treading water instead of getting somewhere.

An Example

A business owner was looking to expand her business to include a new service. She was very clear on what she wanted to offer and she had done the research to ensure it would be a successful venture. What she required was a marketing plan for the new service; she wanted to know what to do to get the word out.

We brainstormed options and chose the tactics that were most likely to be manageable. We created a one-page plan that could be easily implemented. The business owner agreed to the plan.

For the first month, it went seamlessly. She followed the plan and started to build a great foundation. The second month, it tapered off a bit and some things were being missed, but some work was still being done. By the third month, there was no marketing.

When we met again, she confessed to not being accountable for doing the marketing. She believed it was a good plan and she desperately wanted to get the service promoted to people because she knew there was a need for it. But the days she had set aside to do the marketing ended up being spent on more pressing issues. The frenziness of running a business caught up to her on other days. She tried to reset but it was like the universe was against her for trying to do this great thing.

What’s Really Going On?

There was nothing about the marketing plan that was causing concern. The business owner had already committed to the ideas and even after three months, she still felt they were the best ideas to implement. She wanted to do the marketing work, and she didn’t know why she wasn’t succeeding.

So what was really going on?

First, the business owner was someone who liked to respond quickly to issues. She was known for her promptness and her customers appreciated it. The challenge was that she often left things unfinished because of an interruption that could have waited 30 minutes. The solution we chose was that she could still be a prompt responder, without being an immediate responder. In the morning, things could wait until 11am. In the afternoon, things could wait until 3pm.

Second, the new venture was bringing in $0, while the current business was doing well. It is not natural to spend money in the area of the business that produces the lowest result. With a new service, we needed a new evaluation tool. The solution we devised was to achieve a certain number of outreaches in a week.

Third, the business owner needed someone to be accountable to, other than herself. She needed to build a new habit, and to make it happen in the most efficient way, she needed to answer to someone to get her brain trained in a results-based way. The solution we came up with was to have weekly meetings that overviewed her past week. If something wasn’t accomplished, it got put on the current week’s list. There was a maximum of three carryovers, and then she had to let something go if it wasn’t done.

The Result

The thing about marketing is that it takes time to work, however, the business owner had some immediate results from the outreach efforts. She stayed on track with the marketing plan and decided to drop a few of the ideas because others were yielding better outcomes. After three months, she was deriving an income from the service and now had a foundation upon which to build moving forward.

She had gotten unstuck and had moved from knowing what had to be done to being accountable and doing it. She decided to stay with the weekly meetings to maintain the progress.

Being Accountable Happens in Many Ways

To build the habit of being accountable, you can start in a few different ways. You could make a weekly goal sheet and then review that sheet every week, noting the goals achieved and the items carried over. Commit to doing that for three months. You could find a buddy who also has to be accountable and be each other’s person to report to on your individual initiatives. Or, you could invest in someone to keep you accountable – a coach or mentor – so that you have “skin in the game” as well.

Whatever method you choose, commit to it. Most people won’t stay with it, so if you do, you’re ahead of others who aren’t prepared to be accountable yet.

Do marketing better. Pick up a copy of Forward Thinking for Your Business. You can order today at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Ingram or contact Jennifer directly.

If you need to book consulting time with Jennifer, email her at [email protected] or call 613-312-7824.