As the great Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” With all the moving parts of a business to look after (especially in the ramping up and scaling up stages), it’s no wonder that some things fall through the cracks, thus affecting your business growth and bottom line profits. Let’s examine five mistakes that will diminish your profits if not fixed right away.
- Inconsistent Marketing
It’s just not enough to publish one Facebook post or a couple of tweets every week. Likewise, ignoring your email list is also detrimental to your business. Research shows that sales conversions happen between the 5th and 12th contact, so you are missing out on revenue opportunities if you’re not consistently visible in front of your ideal audience.
If you don’t keep up with a consistent marketing plan, people will forget your name, will forget how they ended up on your email list, or forget why they’re following you on social media. These people need to be reminded of you yet again, and they need to hear and see your company name consistently before they decide to spend money on your products or services. A business coach specializing in marketing can offer strategies and solutions to make your marketing more consistent and more effective.
- Failure to Automate
Are you stuck in the old-school way of doing things, like making phone calls to confirm appointments instead of using an online booking calendar or SMS technology to send text message reminders to confirm? Even posting on social media can be automated using Social Pilot or Meet Edgar platforms. Yes, these automation tools cost money but compare the monthly or annual costs to the cost of an employee or a virtual assistant doing the same task.
A client of mine automated many of her business development and client onboarding processes, buying her back 25 workdays per year…! Imagine what you could do with an extra 200 hours of free time in your business? The old-school ways are much more time-consuming, thus costing you more money in the long run. If you aspire to grow revenues and/or scale your business beyond yourself, one of the ways to duplicate yourself is by establishing systems, processes and automation. Having these business fundamentals in place is an essential component to scaling sustainably.
- Poor Branding or Messaging
What is your company’s mission? What is your Unique Selling Point? Does your Market Dominating Position speak to the benefits of your ideal client profile’s “hot buttons” – the problems they have and don’t want and the result they want but don’t have? Revisit your messaging and business image if you can’t answer these questions (or believe that your USP can be a lot stronger).
Branding is more than your logo and business colors; branding is your overall image and what you promise to your customers. A business coach with expertise in marketing messaging can ask the right questions that help you drill down to those core principles that drive your business and set you apart from your competition.
- Bad Money Management
What processes do you have in place for bookkeeping and paying your monthly invoices? Do you track your income and expenses? Do you have a habit of buying training classes that you don’t have time to use? Do you know how much you’re paying in fees, subscriptions and transaction fees every month? There’s no reason you should be surprised at tax time with how much (or how little) profit you made in the last year. Businesses positioned for growth track key KPIs, review cash flow on a weekly basis and have effective money management solutions in place.
- Reluctance to Reinvest in Your Business
Think of reinvesting as a way to grow your business. Instead of taking the extra profits out to pay yourself every month, keep those profits and use them to hire a virtual assistant, marketing coordinator, purchase software or training tools that will help your business, or invest in a business coach. Each of these reinvestment options will help your business run more efficiently so you can have more time to serve your customers and prospects. Of course, you should pay yourself a salary every month. It’s the profits (or a percentage of the month’s profits) that should remain in the business to help it grow.
As an International Business Growth Coach and Award-Winning Marketing Strategist with over 20 years of experience, I work with growth-minded business owners and CEOs who seek better marketing, sales and revenue systems for more predictability, profitability, and scalability in any economy. My clients are typically seeking more traction and want to accelerate growth or scale and leverage their business to the next level of 6, 7, or even 8 figures.
They are typically asking themselves one of these questions:
- How do I create an effective sales and marketing strategy tied to my business goals?
- How can I grow my business faster?
- How can I build a predictable pipeline of qualified leads to increase sales?
- How can I scale my business beyond myself?
As a “Business Navigator,” I create roadmaps that ignite leaders to take inspired action to navigate their business growth on purpose, using strategy, systems and self-leadership. The average client who works with me gains more clarity, focus, objectivity and accountability to work smarter, not harder, so they can get noticed, get clients and get profitable.
Schedule a discovery call with me to discuss your future and support you to reach your goals with less struggle.