In my 30+ years working with small business owners, I have seen that there are two main reasons that their business ends up struggling to survive.
The first is a failure by the owner to understand that everything they hate or that is going wrong in their business they caused! I discussed this at length in my weekly profit tip email. Email me (wayne@wjb-cpa.com) if you would like a copy and to request that I add you to our weekly mailing list.
The second main reason is that business owners don’t change until they feel the pain! During good times, like we had before 2007/2008, money was easy to get, people were spending and just about everyone was making profits. It is hard to change when things are going well. But, now things have changed and to survive companies have been forced to change.
Over and over I see struggling businesses that had a business model that was too dependent on “one thing” to survive. One major customer, one major product line or one major sales prospecting method was responsible for a large part of their sales. As Dan Kennedy states, "This is a disaster waiting to happen."
I have one client where 100% of his income is from one large company. His business ends if they take this function back internally or find someone who will do it cheaper. Now is the time he should look to diversify or to add another customer. But, he says he is too busy working the job for this.
Another client has a supplier who is now selling directly to his customers at what it costs him to buy the product. This has reduced sales dramatically and he is scrambling to find another supplier so he can defend his customers.
When the no-call lists went into effect many telemarketers ended up losing a great way to sell their product. The same thing happened when new laws were passed limiting the use of faxes. If this is was the only way you had to prospect for customers you felt it. Do you have multiple prospecting tools to reach potential customers.
Moral of the story – don’t wait for the pain to change!