SMALL BUSINESS PAINS

In the past three weeks I have held 3 educational sessions aimed at small business owners. At the start of each session I asked them to share their name, product/service and what their biggest challenge is today.

Total attendance over the three sessions was approximately 50 people, evenly divided between the 3 sessions. About 85 percent of those present stated that their biggest challenge today was how to “obtain more customers”.

The three sessions I presented were on Time Management & Productivity, Effective Networking, and Content Management & Blogging. Each presentation was a little over 60 minutes with a lot of very important” How-To” information. Each topic outlined the steps needed in order to master that skill and to use it as an effective new customer generator.

To my disappointment, less than half of those in attendance took notes and very few asked any questions after the presentations. Success does not happen because you hear a lot of good ideas; they have to be incorporated into your business and then implemented.

Growing a small business requires 10 times more effort than any business owner thought it would take. It’s easy to get discouraged and to spend time looking for a miracle. Instantaneous solution  to your current business challenges instead of dedicating yourself to doing what you know you should do to be successful.

My message today is simple: each one of us will experience some discouraging times in our businesses. A possible fix is to reach out to another BizQuack member or to your mentor, or to me. This will allow you to step away from people involved in the challenge and now you can look at it from a different perspective and work on the challenge.

After the Christmas Season, we will be starting a major campaign to grow our membership. A good place for you to start is to welcome each new member as they join and share your stories. Developing business friendships and strategic alliances within BizQuack is a good way to gain the support you need to overcome challenging issues. Make it a point to reach out to an existing member each week, starting now. It will make a difference in your 2018 bottom line.

If there is enough demand we can put together a 2018 planning session for our members during the first two weeks of December. Please let us know if you have an interest.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt