You get up every day and work hard in your service-based business. You make phone calls, send emails and texts and you still do not feel like you are getting ahead.
You have so much skill and knowledge to share, if only you could get people to just give you a chance.
That phone is starting to feel really heavy. You don’t even want to answer it even for friends and family because they might ask you about how your little hobby is going or ask you when you are going back to work a real job.
You have tried just about everything the gurus have said. You have spent a lot of money trying to learn everything you can from the experts and you are still struggling like Jennifer who is a life coach and has attended summits, training, and followed the gurus for years. Spent a lot of money but has yet to make enough to cover all that training let alone all her own bills. Being woken up nightly wondering how you are going to make all this workout.
When Jennifer heard me speak, she reached out and asked if she could chat with me.
We sat down and I listened. She shared how she has tried everything. Bouncing around from one guru to the next and none of the ideas worked long. She said she felt like a “loser” and asked how I can be in business so long and be successful, while she just struggles every day trying to get one new client.
I first asked her what she wanted to do. What she really wanted to do with her business. She shared that she just wanted to work with women and help them have the opportunity to stay home and raise their kids and make money to pay her bills.
Then I asked her what she has tried and has any of those ideas worked for her in the past?
After that, I asked about the ideas that seemed to work for a short time, how much time did she put into that idea before she moved on to the next idea? And that was her biggest aha!
Just like Jennifer, YOU are not a loser!
The world is turning so fast with social media and public opinion that we all feel like we have to change fast and act on a dime. And yes for some industries like medical, mental health, and tragedies that need to be addressed, that is exactly what needs to happen. Fast-paced and urgent changes need to happen fast.
For most entrepreneurs, it is important to make changes in order to grow but you don’t have to keep going at an instant rate. The next new thing will be replaced with the next new thing as everything is always evolving. But your next new thing can move a little slower. First, you will want to find something and stick with it for a little while. Every day work on the same tactic and stay consistent. Consistency is more important than instant changes. You can create wins by doing what is tied and true. Making small changes along the way towards the big change keeps people from having whiplash following you.
What are a few ways to be consistent in your business? These are a few that helped Jennifer shift from chasing the next big thing to creating consistent results in her business.
- Make 5-10 phone calls every day until you run out of people to call.
- Network weekly to find new people to call.
- Send emails that keep every person you have called informed and inspired by you.
- Check-in on people. Basically, call and see how they are doing. Don’t always call to sell a product, call and see how they are doing with what you are sending and find out what else they need to be hearing from you.
An example of this with Jennifer is that she picked one area of her business that she liked to help the ladies with. She called all the people she knew and asked how she could help them feel like they were making ends meet. If they were men she asked them too. And asked if they knew any ladies that she could connect with. Every person she spoke to she asked if she could add them to her list to share her hints, tips, and ideas on her topic with them. She sent them a link while she was on the call this them with a free gift and let them sign up directly to her. This helped her CRM maintenance stay clean.
She started creating likability, and trust and she started growing her list. She stayed connected with her list, became consistent with doing one thing, and ended up having more clients than she needed. That is when she added the next idea to her business. Keeping her first system going and then adding one new piece versus constantly changing products and services and creating confusion with the people she was building trust with.
She wasn’t a loser – she was just on the “next big thing” merry-go-round and couldn’t find her way off.
You are not a loser as an entrepreneur! Don’t ever think that again! You are a normal person trying to figure it all out. Hopping from one thing to the next thing. Pushing yourself to the brink of reality and you may even be at the point that you feel like quitting. You may wake up in the middle of the night asking yourself how you are going to get that next bill paid. Constantly asking yourself how you will ever get your credit cards paid off.
Maybe it’s time for you to get off the merry-go-round and create some simple consistency in your service-based business and let go of feeling like you are losing in business.
Looking for a great coach who will work with you individually to find the right strategy for you and your specific business? Reach out and see if we are a great fit and let’s get you on the path of consistency and success.