Can your start-up business survive the first two years?
Ninety per cent of businesses will fail to make the first two years. Only five per cent of the remaining survive in the next five years. You have a better chance of picking a winner at the Melbourne Cup, than succeeding in business. Why is this so? You started out with passion, drive and fresh ideas only to get battered by an indifferent market. As loud as you yell, no one hears you because you’re competing with all the noise. If only people could see, or hear your message, it would make all the difference. Your message is lost in the crowd. I know it’s sounding all doom and gloom, but all is not lost. You see most of your competition have given up, they’re just hanging by a thread, hoping and wishing they will magically snag a big contract. Oh, where is your fairy Godmother when you need her? So what does this mean, you now have an opportunity to take more business from your competition? The biggest crime you can commit in your business is letting a bean counter determine your marketing. They believe all advertising is a waste of money and will slash all your marketing spending. They could be right if it were referring to image advertising instead of direct response. Slashing expenditures has never been a path to growth. The good news is if you know how to find the right people and send them the right messages, you will have less businesses competing with you. Your business will capture a larger share of the market, making more sales, larger profits and saving you money as well. It’s criminal how much money is wasted bombarding the world screaming “BUY ME! BUY ME! No one is listening. These untargeted messages are swallowed in the maze of confusion – there buried in a sea of noise. If you ask any small business owner “What’s the number one problem in your business?” You get three stock answers that’s common to most, they are… 1. Not enough sales 2. They want (or the business needs) more cashflow 3. The sales process takes too long When you get it down to the brass tacks, , all the above three stem from the same root problem — not talking to qualified prospects. If you’re not talking to people who are looking for a solution, then you’re wasting time and money. Sending the right message to the right people is the number one secret in marketing. Get this right and you will dominate your market because you’re tapping into the conversation that’s already going on in your prospects head. If you don’t send out the right message to the right people, then you’re wasting your time.