Are you suffocating your business efforts?

Are you a business owner that provides a professional service and you know deep down you are scraping the bottom of the barrel because you are afraid of losing it all?

Living in the entrepreneurial space introduces us to a world of adventure and freedom, but there is always a risk before the reward. Many people quit before they reap their reward because of fear.

This demon called fear, "which sits upon a person's shoulder and whispers in their ear....

"you can't do it - you are afraid to try - you are afraid of public opinion - you are afraid that you will fail - you are afraid that you lack the ability to do it."

May I offer my observations and experience on the topic of business that got stuck in the growth process?

Over 18 years, in the professional services space, I have seen several things that owners do to suffocate their own outcomes. I want to share 3 with you today.

1. “Wait” Strategies

Most service providers are waiting for someone to call, click or refer them. They are “trying” lots of marketing gimmicks and growth strategies and waiting for the referral to come in.

Open doors do not equal valuable opportunities.

We ask for open doors all the time.

The only doors that open on their own are doors for consumers and those doors are traps.

Doors that open without any effort on our part were designed that way for one reason – to take something from us.

Don’t judge how great your service is by what doors open to you without you having to knock.

Most service providers are not really providing a service at all. They are warm bodies for hire at a negotiable price.

They are generalists that are seeking any type of work in exchange for money.

The greater the door of opportunity the more guarded that door will be!

2. “Hope” Strategies

A lot of owners in the service space are “hoping this works”. Their day is structured like this: Walk into their office at 9am and hope for a call, hope for a returned email and hope someone, from that networking event they spoke at last month, will message them today.

They do not have a predictable way to generate new business.

Did you know that your business will not grow without consistent new people who want your service?

60-90% of your new business will come from a cold market who does not know who you are or what you do yet?

There is ancient proof from the greatest leader of all time that says, “and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.”

We know that knocking requires more than one action.

To walk up and hit a door one time would not be considered knocking.

By definition knocking is a repetitive action.

The idea “of knocking on doors” is not popular because it requires the owner to take action, consistently.

However, “pounding” the pavement is not a predicable way to generate new business on demand.

There are new proven methods that work on the owner’s behalf, but require the owner’s concentrated effort to work well!

3. The Beggar’s Strategy

So many service providers are begging people to hire them. Every post there is an offer, they email daily to ask for appointments, they do a live video everyday with a call to action.

In the ancient text the leader says, “Ask – Seek, and then Knock.”

The instructions that come before the door is opened seem to be backwards.

Think about it. If you were going to borrow a book from a friend your journey to their house would start with what you need – the book.

Based on what you needed you would then knock and then when they finally open the door you would ask.

The natural order appears to be: seek, knock and then ask.

However, the proven process I follow puts “ask” upfront.

This order of: ask, seek, knock makes me a messenger not a beggar.

This changes how I view opportunities.

I don’t, “knock on prospects doors” asking for something, but offering something of real value.

I am a carrier of something valuable.

I begin with good questions and I seek to understand what my target market is wanting. I am obsessed with their desired outcome and how I can be a provider of that outcome.

I spend the time seeking to understand if what they want is what I can provide.

Seeking is not something we do much of in business anymore.

To seek is to take an active role.

To do whatever is required to locate what we are looking for.

It involves research, asking deeper questions, reading, asking hard questions of ourselves and getting our hands dirty.

The knowledge to seek comes from asking good questions.

Seeking keeps us from blindly searching for opportunities.

The ability to clarify purpose and then clarify pursuit is a rare thing that people desire.

However, they just don’t know who to ask or how to seek.

The awareness to seek comes as result of the asking.

Consequently, you will show up with your gift and say, “here is how I can help” and you will not be showing up with your burden saying, “buy my stuff.”

Now, when you approach doors that are move valuable you cannot expect them to be standing open.

Knocking requires courage and it’s awkward and uncomfortable.

It requires you to be vulnerable and to face your fear of rejection.

But the vision changes when you see the difference between knocking because you NEED something and knocking because you HAVE something to give.

When you seek to understand by asking, researching, proving and concluding you can help a group of people in the world…

Then you are not standing at people’s doors empty handed looking for them to fill your hands.

What you found in your seeking is connected to what is behind that door.

You are the solution knocking.

Doesn’t this change how you see the opportunities to grow your business?