THE BIG DILEMMA: Too much work, not enough time.
I can also add another “not enough”, and that is profit. As a small business grows the work seems to take control of time and, in many cases, the cash flow isn’t enough to produce a profit, much less money to hire your first employee.
This scenario gets even more complicated because I advocate that 40% of your time has to be spent on marketing. Getting new business and delivering a profit is the goal of every small business. If you are out of time, are too busy running your company to market and are losing money every month, the best advice I can offer is to stop everything and regroup.
There may be several problem areas:
- Product/service: what is the sales price minus the actual cost on each sale?
- How much of your own time was spent in preparing the product/service for sale?
- How is your product/service delivered? (time)
- How does your internal system work? (from the time of a sale request to the final delivery) Make sure to look at the time and the process.
- Can your product/service price be increased? What is your competition doing? Review your value proposition.
- Create a profile of all past customers. Who are they? How did they find you? Why did they buy from you?
- Create an operational budget which includes not only the business but the amount that you, as a business owner, need to survive. This will allow you to determine the number of “sales” needed to reach a true breakeven point.
- Describe your current marketing plan.
I highly recommend that once you have reviewed each of the above points and obtained accurate information on each, then work with a coach/mentor to determine your next course of action. With this information an action plan can be developed that will provide a solution in the problem areas.
You don’t have to be alone. BizQuack is your support system.
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Tips & Advice by Nick Petra, CFP – Founder of Strategic Duck and BizQuack
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