our years in business. We have worked with business ventures of every kind, condition and category; the examples and methods we use will help remind that, no matter the desperation of your current status, you are not alone. If you are looking at creating a model to transform your business from simple success to stunning success—we’re here to help.
Get ready for the ten days that will change your business… forever.
Yours in Success
Spike and Darren
Introduction
Most people seem to believe that success in business is hard in good times and next to impossible in tough times. Yet if you look around, you’ll see that in good times or bad, business gets done and companies thrive.
Believe it or not, you have more control over the future of your business than you might imagine - regardless of the economy, competition, or your own marketplace. You and you alone control the destiny, the future, the performance and profit-potential of your business. This isn’t to say that every business will always do well, yours or anyone else’s. It doesn’t mean you aren’t, can’t or won’t be affected by challenges or changes in the future. Far from it.
But it does mean that the decisions you make and the actions you take or don’t take have the most significant impact on your survival or success in business.
During times of prosperity and in a surging economy, many companies do incredibly well, some even in spite of themselves. But in an uncertain, fluctuating, or fluid economy like this one, thousands of businesses can fall off the planet virtually overnight.
The companies that survive and thrive in tough times are usually able to do so for a reason — their willingness to adjust and adapt to a changing economy, market or environment. But what does it take to have not just the willingness but the ability to change?
The reality is this: any business that has a solid business plan, strong leadership, and a product or service that delivers value to a hungry market has a pretty darn good chance of success. Couple that with good marketing, effective selling, clear performance measures, and consistent management and the odds of success increase dramatically. Maybe you have all of these things and maybe you don’t.
What makes the difference is knowledge, making sound decisions and taking effective action. You need a good understanding of how your business operates or should be operating. You must know how to structure or restructure your business. You have to develop and implement plans for change and do what’s necessary to make money now and turn a profit in spite of it all.
When you sit down and really think about it, business is relatively simple. It involves the straightforward process of exchanging some product or service for something in return - usually money. You give value with one hand and receive value with the other. To succeed, you need to give equal or greater value to the other side and receive more than enough money in return to cover your costs for the value you provide. Simple? Yes, but not always easy.
This basic model is, in essence, all that business is about. In reality, however, we tend to over-complicate matters in business and in our companies. What usually causes the basic model to break down are things like inflexibility, outdated business plans or ineffective leadership. Over-dependence on too few products, services, clients or distribution channels can starve a business when the marketplace or economy shifts.
In addition, outdated information, poor planning or an unwillingness to face a new reality can kill an enterprise. Businesses are often choked by obsolete assumptions, indecisiveness, poor discipline and unfocused activity or the failure to apply their resources in the most effective way.
But a lack of effective knowledge, indecision and inaction could well be the most common reasons businesses fail. These also happen to be the very things ALL business owners can do something about. More information is available today than ever before. Experts exist on almost every topic, subtopic, and micro-topic or knowledge niche. Resources are more readily available than ever before.
Why, then, don’t more business owners simply learn what they need to know and do what they need to do? Why don’t they read the advice given by countless thousands of successful and experienced business people the world over? Why don’t they implement what they learn and take consistent, effective action?
A client of ours once answered that very question by saying, “I would do what I should if only I could.”
With the amount of information and easy access to knowledge, for some people the problem involves a lack of focus, direction or knowing where to start. For others, they simply don’t know what they don’t know or don’t realize there is always an answer for a problem or opportunity. Some remain blissfully ignorant of what they don’t know in business and what they should be learning; others pick up a book like this and get moving on a higher path to progress. They get into action and turn around their business as well as their lives. (Congratulations—that’s YOU!)
The business owners who do nothing often feel completely overwhelmed and uncertain about what to do next. They wallow in the comfort of doing everything they can based on what they have always done.
If you aren’t getting the results you want, sitting back and doing nothing different is the most expensive course of action. If you think education is expensive, consider the cost of ignorance. What are all the missed opportunities costing your business right now? What would your bottom line look like if you knew how to shave just 5% from your cost of sale? Or increase your profit margin by 10%? Or increase your client base by 15%? What would your business look like if you got your clients to buy more often, to buy more, to buy longer or to buy sooner?
Yes, these are the opportunities that await you if you are open to making some changes or doing things differently.
But still, some people still want to do what they have always done. So, consider these questions:
What would happen to your business if you were to lose just three of your best clients in one month? Chances are good that the majority of your revenue (and profits) are being generated by a small percentage of your customer base. What would losing your three best clients today or in the future mean to you and your business?
If you’re a retailer, what would happen if Wal-Mart moved in across the street? What would happen if your industry suddenly got affected by a dramatic change in governmental regulation? What would happen if the one method of marketing you’re currently using simply stopped working? If your most skilled and competent employee decided to leave and become your competitor, what would it mean for your business and how would you replace them?
Such can be the cost of doing nothing or assuming things will always remain the same.
Now that the threat of an unplanned possibility has just slapped you upside the head, it’s time to get back to reality. Sometimes outside factors (relationships, economy and competition) can make business overwhelmingly difficult. It can happen suddenly and without notice—do you have the resources to be prepared?
Conversely, sometimes those same factors work in your favor, and business booms. Do you have a plan of action that helps you deal with increased demand? What if you have a giant influx of orders and nothing in the warehouse or you lack the capacity to increase your service? What if you were immediately able to access all the capital you ever needed or wanted, how would you deploy it? What if through the process of reading this book you realized an incredible breakthrough in thinking
