Are You At Risk?
Let me first share with you a quote from a very distinguished professor named Arthur Combs from Northern California University.
He said, “Our whole entire educational system is built on right answers which produces a great fear of making mistakes and stifles creativity.”
So, the question of “are you at risk” is really a question of “Are you out taking risks?”
Many times we are afraid to take risks and sometimes our decisions are not really conscious all the time.
Sometimes it’s really a subconscious thing because we’re afraid of what the results might be.
Maybe we’re afraid of humiliation.
Maybe we’re afraid of looking silly or looking stupid or looking like an idiot or whatever the case may be.
So, sometimes we become afraid of taking risks, like in a business.
Some people are extremely comfortable with the planning phase, the preparation phase, the thinking-about-it phase or talking-about-it phase, and they never really just go out there and do it because they’re afraid of making the mistakes.
They’re afraid of the risks that they’re going to be facing, and are saying to themselves, "Oh my gosh, what if this doesn’t work? Look at all the different people that are going to see me. They’re going to look down on me. They’re going to think I’m stupid. They’re going to look at me as a failure."
In other words, there is some subconscious learning that has come from school.
It’s not that school is bad, but sometimes the way we learn things can have a very negative subconscious impact on us and it can have an underlining effect on our activities and our behaviors or can affect how we’re thinking and how we’re feeling.
So, the question is, could there be something you have subconsciously learned that is holding you back from taking the proactive type of risks that you need to take to succeed in your business or other areas of your life?
I have three questions I want to ask you:
- What’s the reward for taking a risk?
- What’s the punishment for taking the risk?
- What’s the reward for not taking a risk?
One Focused Hour A Week Will Almost Quadruple Your Small Business Income!
In your business, does it feel more productive, to be fulfilling the orders, or spending half a day on marketing or planning?
You see, the majority of people go into business to escape working for a boss, or the long commute to work or the 9 to 5 boredom. They want freedom, flexibility and a better income.
So, they take the incredibly gutsy move and go it on their own. They step right out of their comfort zone and they become the boss!
They are enthusiastic, because everything is new and exciting. Their mindset is in exactly the right place, and they attract the orders with their enthusiastic personalities. This could be as simple as attending a networking function, or dealing with the local printer, who knows someone that requires their services or product.
They are dedicated and everything gets done just right. The orders flow in, the business owners are happy, the suppliers are happy, now it’s time to fulfill the orders.
So the mindset changes from “let’s go and get some orders” to “let’s get these orders filled.” The conversation changes at the networking functions and the local printer, to “Wow we’ve got all these orders to fill” and they inadvertently stop attracting any potential orders, with what they are saying.
Eventually they get all the orders filled and realize they need new orders. So they change their mindset and off they go again. The problem is though, that every time they go back to the “let’s get some orders” mindset they get less and less enthusiastic.
Why? Why do they get less enthusiastic? Because when they are fulfilling the orders they are in their comfort zone. That’s what they know best and humans will always gravitate towards the comfort zone.
When they are marketing or selling, it is outside of their comfort zone. It becomes a lower priority and a task that is only completed when they have their back up against the wall.
When they first started the business their back was firmly up against the wall. There was no comfort zone. It was a case of “Get out there and get those orders” or we don’t eat, basically. But, when the orders are flowing the comfort zone is the fulfilling of the orders, so the selling gets neglected.
Small businesses have an extremely high attrition rate, especially in the first 12 months of operation. Going from being comfortable one week with lots of orders, to the next, where you have to go and make new sales becomes too hard.
Sales will have huge peaks and troughs when plotted on a chart over 12 months. Emotions will be just as wild trying to deal with this, but there is a very simple solution.
No matter how insanely busy you may become, always set aside one focused hour a week for new customer attraction. Block out that hour, on the same day every week, for the next 12 months.
Treat that one hour like a prized possession, because this will be the secret to leveling out those sales and emotional peaks and troughs. This will be the secret to the longevity and success of your business.
In this hour find a place that you will not be disturbed or distracted by absolutely anything and focus intensely on attracting new customers, that’s all!
This may be by producing a new ad, hiring a copywriter to produce a direct mail piece, calling 10 potential customers, writing an article for the newspaper or engaging a joint venture partner or anything else. Make it your goal to attract at least 5 new customers every week with whatever you do. Over 12 months you should have attracted at least 250 new customers which will compound because they will tell their friends.
Your total focus in that one hour should be generating new relationships and attracting customers that have never dealt with you before.
Now you are probably thinking, if I’m so busy fulfilling orders how am I going to deal with the extra orders? Well, that’s where your growth comes in, that’s when you hire people, sub-contract the work out or find creative ways to get the orders filled.
It puts you in a very powerful position because you get to call the shots. You decide which customers to deal with and which ones to send to your competitors. You can negotiate better discounts with your suppliers and generate more profit.
You gather momentum and it will be very hard to slow that momentum down.
It’s easier not to set aside the hour, especially when you have orders coming out your ears. But if you want to survive and be successful it is critical that you have a system in place to constantly attract new customers.
And the thing is… new customer attraction can be accomplished in as little as one focused hour per week. One hour per week is the difference between having a business that plods along and having a business with highly profitable work booked for the next 12 months. A business where you get to decide which customers you want to deal with, a business that charges a premium price and a business with a far greater value.
Block out that hour in your diary now. Do it for every week for the next 12 months, no excuses because it’s going to quadruple your income, guaranteed!
How to Create a Flood of Customers & Cash Into Your Business Quickly & Easily
Are you self-employed, working long hours and seem to have no money left over after paying the bills?
If you believe you should be earning much more than what you are or working a lot less for what you are earning, then this will be the most important information you read all year!
You see, by simply improving 4 areas in your business, you will multiply your bottom line beyond belief! Not by 50%, 100% or 200%, but by more than 400%…
My name is Ian McConnell and I’d like to share some interesting information, that will be of massive benefit to you.
Over the last 10 years I’ve started small businesses from absolutely nothing, built them up, generated a great income from them and then sold them off for an even better cash payout.
The businesses varied from service type businesses to a manufacturing business, with many online businesses in between.
Being a technical person, it was natural to stay with what I knew. But over the years I learnt about ROI – return on investment and leverage. I also realized that I could sell the business, benefit from a big pay-out, enjoy some time off, and then start another business with better potential.
You see, in each business I owned, it didn’t matter what industry or market I was in and it didn’t matter if I was offering a service or a product, the money was always created by attracting lifetime customers, in a cost effective way.
How Many Businesses Do You Know That Provide a Product or Service That is Not The Best,
But They Consistently Out Perform a Competitor Offering a Higher Quality Product Or Service?
Most of the time, the reason is because customers have either forgotten about the business offering the better service, or they just don’t know about how good their product or service is!
Business success, in any business whatsoever, is guaranteed by:
- A constant flow of new enquiries every day.
- A high conversion of those enquiries into sales.
- Constantly increasing the repeat sales from your customers and
- Constantly increasing the transaction size – getting customers to buy more each time.