Are You Trapped In Your Business?

Have you ever felt trapped? Like you couldn’t get out of a certain situation?

We have been visiting businesses at their locations throughout the last few months and so many people are feeling trapped by their business, their location, their circumstances, their cash flow, their lack of understanding about marketing and more…

Many business owners are trapped and they feel like they can’t get out, but there is GOOD NEWS! You don’t have to feel trapped. There are answers to the things that are causing you pain. There are networks of business owners who have solutions. There are business gurus who really know their stuff. There are MasterMinds that you could attend. There are marketing service providers who really do produce. Don’t give up. Have hope. You can learn and life can be good again. Growth can happen. You can make it!

Why Do You Feel Trapped In Your Business?

You Got Tricked

Some people feel like they did not know enough about the business they bought before they bought it, or they did not do enough research about their market before they got started. Is this you? Do you know someone who feels this way? Maybe they should meet someone who is successful in this industry and learn some new tactics. You are there now, so it is time to get over it and move on. Make the best of it and start making some money.

Doing The Same Thing Over And Over

Are you trapped because you are doing the same thing over and over? If you want to double your revenue than one thing is certain; you can’t keep doing what you did last month. To double, you need to figure out what is selling, what is doing well, and double the efforts only on that activity. You need to stop doing the time wasting activities that are keeping you from doubling your effort on the income producing activities. That sounds easier than it is, but it is that simple. If you have not yet found a good income producing activity to focus on, then you need to change. You need to keep trying things until something works.

Doing the same thing over and over is boring. It will keep you exactly where you are at, and it is even Einstein’s definition of crazy. You can’t do the same thing over and over and get a different result. Change is uncomfortable, but necessary, if you want to succeed.

Passion Is Waning

Passion is from the inside. You can’t blame anyone else if you are losing your passion. So dig down deep inside and find out what drives you. What excites you about your business? What do you look forward to? Out of all of your tasks, which ones do you enjoy the most? What do you want to do more of? If your books are driving you mad, then hire a bookkeeper. If you have no time to write your blog articles, then hire a writer. Focus on the things that you are passion about and particularly focus on the ones that generate revenue, because increased revenue will make you feel better about your passion.

Money Is Tight

Money is tight for lots of people. Get over it. If I had a dollar for every person who told me that they could not do what they wanted to because money was too tight, I would already be a billionaire. So what! Money is tight. Make more money. Think bigger. Smaller sales keep you stuck in smaller problems. So think smarter. How can you sell some larger ticket items? How can you package things in bigger packages? How can you create reoccurring revenue? Can you figure out a way to get residual income coming in? If you want to learn more about residual or passive income join a MeetUp group to place Cashflow 101. It is a great game and you will learn to think differently.

Thinking bigger is part of your solution for cash flow, but being smarter is also important. Plug your holes. Where are you losing money? Where are you losing time? How is lost time costing you money? Look over your bank fees. Look over your income streams. Where is it going out faster than it is coming in? What can you do to fix it permanently? Brainstorm on that until you find an answer. Get others to brainstorm with you. Join a MasterMind group. Pay some money for it so it works.

Do what you can with what you have. Start somewhere, but get started. Excuses earn no dollars.

You Are Locked Into Your Space

If you are stuck in your office or your location then you don’t own your business. Your business owns you! Worse yet, you are a lone sheep waiting for a singular wolf to eat you. You won’t even see it coming because you have nobody in your life to warn you and your head is down looking at the ground instead of looking ahead of you. If you want to succeed in your business you need to get out of your location and network with others.

I have a great friend who was a florist for years who joined our business network. She learned a lot about how to do business while she was getting warm leads from the network. The leads gave her immediate revenue. The marketing knowledge she gained gave her more revenue. She became one of the highest producers in her industry, but she got something even better. She was mentored for success from other business owners. When it came time to sell her business she knew what to do. Therefore she got more for her business than just what the realtor told her that her business was worth. She had a real business that she was able to sell. If she had not left her business two lunch hours a week to go to networking meetings, none of that would have happened.

If you are stuck behind your counter then hire someone and get out of there. You can’t work “on” your business while you are stuck “in” your business.

How Do You Fix Your Problem?

Change something. Look for solutions. Don’t sit still in your problems and assume there is no help. There is funding available. There are investors out there. There is good business advice from business owners who have been there. There is so much help out there. Ask and ye shall receive.

Stop Being Cheap

This is a huge trap business owner die under. “I can’t afford to do any marketing.” Without marketing you will die. If you can’t afford to pay someone then you need to do 8 hours after your 8 hours of work to get your marketing done. It won’t do itself. If you don’t know what to do, then take some courses. Learn to use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They are free platforms, but the time it takes to do the work is not free. It will cost you something. Either you need to do it, or you need to pay someone. The cheaper the service, the least effective it will be. Find the money or find the time. There are no short cuts on this one. Just because you have set up your business, does not mean anyone is going to come to you. You need traffic. Either you get it from putting up good signs beside a major highway, or you get it by putting up big online signs and pointing people towards your opt in methods.

“I only do word of mouth marketing.” Good luck with that. How is that working for you in this down-turned economy? What you really mean is “I am too cheap to pay for marketing so this is my excuse.” This trap will kill you. Stop it. Join a networking group so you can find good marketing experts who are accountable to the network. Use their services. Get your marketing planned. Assess the results. Then plan again. When you find something that works, rinse and repeat.

A good networking group provides real "Word of mouth" advertising. One mouth talking about you is useless. You need a network of many mouths intentionally talking about you. That has huge value. Success doesn't happen by accident or osmosis, it takes work, planning, and more work. If you want word of mouth advertising then go find a group that works and put those mouths to work for you.

AM I BEING TOO HARSH FOR YOU?

I am a bit passionate about business. It is true. I won’t apologize though for speaking the truth. People fill their heads with the stuff that sounds good instead of looking for what would make a difference.

6000 businesses went out of business in the last 12 months in Calgary. That hurts me. It is so unnecessary. Many of these could have been saved if they had sought out networking relationships early in their career instead of just waiting for the economy to take them out. If you know someone who is trying to reach a goal, have them connect with us. If you know someone who needs more cash flow, send them over. If you know someone who needs a POS machine or funding, send them my contact info. If you know someone wanting to start a business, please connect them with us before they lose their shirt.

Business owners need to help each other. We want to help you.

Get out from your trap. Help someone else out of their trap.