First of all, let’s clear one thing up. When I mean failure here, I mean proper failure. I mean out of business, doing something else, because in general, now for those of you that are in the world wide audience, we have different opinions in different countries over the way we look at things.
In the USA, in America, if you can make it here, you know very many people migrated to America and did their thing and did well. And so people will try try try until success. And that is great.
So failure is a path for success. Personally I think there’s no real thing such as failure. In that respect, in an entrepreneurial sense, in your own personal journey, there is either giving up or not yet succeeding.
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So, yes there’s lots of little fails and big fails in the journey but you either give up or you keep going. Until you succeed. But in this case, I’m talking about proper failure.
Businesses go out of business and people have to go do something else because when it comes down to it, money is money and it is needed quite often.
So what are the 3 types of failure or the 3 reasons for it Jon, you are asking. Stop beating around the bush, stop messing about, get to the point Jon. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you know how these things work, have to, I like talking.
So the 1st one. This will seem obvious but first of all reason for failure number 1. You are not solving problems. 2nd, I’ll come back to this. Reason for failure, number 2. You are not selling. Okay.
Reason for failure number 3. You are not making money. Now individually that may seem obvious but to a lot of people, it’s not. So let’s cover them.
You are Not Solving Problems
You have created a business or you have a business, you’ve inherited, you’ve bought, whatever it is. A business is the entity but it is all about your customer, the people, the person that is going to pay you money and pay your wages and the wages of your staff and keep you going.
If they don’t have a need for you or your services or your products, you have no business. So your business needs to provide something.
Now those customers, all those potential customers have problems. They have issues, they have things that they need because those things solve their problems.
It’s as simple as that. If your product or service is not solving the problems of your target audience, it’s not going to work.
Now if it is solving the problems but you are not able to communicate it, it’s not going to work. So think of that, this is, this may seem basic, but this could save and change your business. Think about it.
You Are Not Selling
Many many people are scared of selling. And personally I started, when I was 18, I was thrown at the deep end as a code calling door to door commission only salesperson.
So I quickly learned how to sell. I had no training and I had to figure it out. But I trained many people and I understand it is scary.
Most of us or most people are worried about what others think of them. And if you try to sell to somebody, a lot of people think well that’s not very nice, what would the person be thinking?
And that is a little psychological battle going on inside your head and so it stops a lot of people trying to sell.
If I said to you, sit down at your desk, phone, pick up the yellow pages, phone 5 companies and offer, tell them about your services. How many of you would be likely to give that a go.
Because you’re going to think, ‘Oh I can’t do that.’ Because you’re quite often also thinking of the spammy phone calls you get and what you get in response. But why would you act like that? Why wouldn’t you be, just have a different approach.
You can chat to someone in a pub, in a bar, in a shop, in a store, that you have never met before. Why can’t you do it on a phone? You don’t have to talk business. You have to build a rapport, a relationship and then you can get onto business later. It’s not all like this.
But selling, selling is a process. It is something that can be learned. But if you are not selling, if you just think people are just going to buy your product and service because it’s great. Because it’s there. It’s not going to happen. Sorry. It is not going to happen. So that was the next one.
You’re Not Making Any Money
Now quite obviously people go have business because they are not making any money. However you would be amazed how many do not realize they are not making any money.
Or think that it’s not important right now because they are doing other things.
They’re building, oh building a new website or getting some new brochures designed or something like that. They’ll come to the making money later.
When in actual fact, making money, specifically making money is the reason or is the thing that is going to keep your business and your life sustained.
So why not make that the priority. Forget about the new website, your new website is not going to make you any money even if new website launches tomorrow. It’s not going to make you any money. It’s just, the internet is just a channel to your market.
You can go out there, visit a potential client and try and explain what you do. Go to a trade show, go to a networking event, go to a chamber of commerce event, talk to people about what you do.
And try and get a customer. Just one customer. Once you’ve got one customer, try and get another one. Once you’ve got another one, try and get another. After a while, they’ll build up. Once you’ve got some customers and you’ve shown them and proven your service and you made money.
You can ask those customers if they can recommend you to others and get some more customers. And then it all comes along. But concentrate on making money. And that goes back to the selling.
You are not going to get those customers unless you are able to sell. So find out how to sell. And then you are not going to be able to sell to anyone, unless you have a product or service that solves the problem.
So find out what your potential audience needs. And then we are back to that meeting people. When you meet people, you can ask them what are these challenges, what are their problems and you can provide the solution. You see how it all links together, there’s no reason for failing.
Those are the main ones. Work on them, don’t blame your competitors. It’s not your competitors, alright. Your competitors have nothing to do with it.
They are doing their thing, you do your thing. They are not complaining about you as their competitor. Why should you? If they are succeeding why should you complain about them.
They are just people in your market. The more competitors there are in your market, it means the bigger the market is, the more sustainable it is, the better you are going to do.
If you think that by having no competitors, while you have got it all to yourself. Think about it. The reason you haven’t got any competitors is not because you’re a genius, and you are the only one who has thought about it.
It could well be, I mean it might be, unlikely it could well be that others have tried and there are no customers. It’s not a good product to be selling. Because it doesn’t make any money.
There you go. Anyway, think about those things. They really can save, turn around your business. And it’s so so simple.
Monday Book Recommendation
Today, I’m going to recommend one of the best books I’ve read all year. I’ve actually been waiting to read it for quite a while.
I’ve quite a queue, a list of books to read. It’s called ‘Oversubscribed’. And it’s by Dan Priestley.
Dan Priestley is an Australian and he spends a lot of the time in UK. Now I guess he travels the world.
So simply the best way to describe is lots of businesses have too many customers. They are oversubscribed. Do you think it’s a fluke? Do you think its luck?
Do you think there is a reason, have you ever contacted a restaurant and they’ve said, ‘Well we are booked up for the next 3 months.’ Do you get annoyed or do you think,
Wow. I want to be in there. How did you, why did you call that restaurant? Because someone recommended it, because it’s popular, yeah.
Have you ever called your hairdresser? How do you feel if your hairdresser said they had a 6 month waiting list. Would you be annoyed?
Would you go somewhere else or would you think they must be good, I’ll find someone for now. But I am getting in there. Yeah, exactly. Those type of people as Dan says, do not chase clients, clients chase them. This is a fabulous book, I recommend it. Oversubscribed, available in all your favorite book stores.
I’ll see you tomorrow.