How to start over your business and create the results you want

Every once in a while in the life of a new business, the owner of the business might face the need to restructure the whole business to guarantee its survival. That need might have appeared due to business, employee, or process issues.

To the business owner there is a specific feeling that can best describe the internal, I mean inside their brain, environment: the feeling know as Overwhelm.

This feeling has its place during evolution and it has one message that smart entrepreneurs need to be ready to listen. It means there are too many things going on and that we need to focus on the most important matters.

Usually, there is a limited amount of processes, issues and tasks that can account for a big percentage of the critical things that needs to be taken care in order to solve the situation at hand. Many of you have heard of the Pareto Law, also known as the 80/20 rule. It basically means that up to 80% of the results you are getting are caused by only 20% of the actions taken. It also works for everything else in your business, 20% of your customers create 80% of your problems, 20% of your process generate 80% of the complains, 20% of your marketing efforts generate 80% of your results. The smart entrepreneur knows when to take a step back and reorganize his actions to deal with the most important issues at hand.

But what are the most important issues? Only you can answer that question but a good framework comes from taking a futuristic approach and focus on the question: what processes, business areas or capabilities due we need to have in order to achieve the future we deserve?

Answer that question truthfully and you have the beginning of a successful turn around. Otherwise, you’ll continue to focus on the needs of the moment, which as I have experienced are more than enough to fill 100% of your working hours, and will die the slow death of 90% of the business that open in this country.

Sales and Marketing more important than ever in this times

When small businesses face the reality of difficult times they look for ways to cut their expenses, and rightly so. Marketing is always in the short list to cut, and even though is not always the best thing to do, in many ways is a move in the right direction.

Most small businesses spend their marketing money with no tracking system in place. This means that the only have a feeling that something is working or not. Unfortunately, putting more money into something that is not working doesn't change the fact that it doesn't work. So when the feeling starts to go away, like in difficult times for example, then one of the first things to go is a big piece of the marketing budget.

But, what is a small business owner to do? Well, one of the things is to do more marketing but in a more organize way.

First, he should create a tracking system from which to filter the efficiency of each campaign. This can be as easy as asking the customer how did they find about you? Or it can be as elaborated as having different phone numbers and calls saved to get a more accurate picture of what's going on with each marketing piece. Second, is to get in the habit of creating at least two samples of each promotion with different offers, headlines or even paper or envelopes, and perform a test to see which one pulls more. Personally, I don't spend any money unless I can get a small test sample. Once the result is verified then I feel very confident about deploying as much money as I can into successful marketing campaigns.

Second, get as many different strategies out there with mini budgets for each one of them. If you think about it and take the vantage point of a long term view, finding the stuff that works can be as important for your business as finding what doesn't work.

And finally, make sure you have a compelling story to tell and a compelling reason your target should do business with you now.

Bets wishes and have fun and make more money with your marketing.