If you don’t want to read it, you can watch this video.
We’re going to talk about how to scale your business up and make more money and actually work less. Let’s say you’ve got your business up and running and you’re working 70 to 100 hours a week. In some cases, you aren’t earning any more money even with all the hours you’re working. In the worst cases, you’re losing money. If any of the above situations sound like you, continue to read this blog because I have a solution to your problems.
Let’s talk about your business. You’re working. You’re struggling. But for some reason, you can’t make any more money. You’re putting in more hours. You’re advertising more, but you’re stuck. You’re running your business like it is a hustle.
I know you should hustle to get your business up and running, but the same energy that it takes to start a business is radically different energy than it takes to grow or maintain a business. The problem is that many successful business owners don’t know how to scale their business. It is critical to scale if you want to move forward and be successful.
Let’s talk about the power of a referral. There are many people who talk about “word of mouth.” Referrals are extremely powerful. You must remember, that when you set up a system, it is not effective immediately. If you are caught up in a tactic driven business where running an ad or a sale to get immediate results is your idea of building a business, then you will be forever chasing your tail.
Now going back 100 days or so when I first started inserting an automated referral mechanism in my business, I’m starting to see fruit. This is the beauty of it. Once you begin it and you make it part of the corporate DNA, then each month, the referral base widens.
For 90 days, I’ve just been maintaining and building a certain level of discipline to keep doing this. As I discuss this, I’m talking to business owners. It is incumbent on you to put that level of discipline on yourself and spread it around your organization. If you don’t do this, you’ll become a tactic driven business again.
To grow your business professionally, you’re going to have to start automating and growing systems, processes and formats for automatic growth. As long as you’re pushing the growth using a tactic, you’re always going to struggle.
Let’s just say you have an advertising agency and you are a one-man shop. When is the last time you ask a client for a referral? When is the last time you ask a client for more business? When is the last time you followed up with a client who said “No?” Do you realize that 99% of salespeople do not follow up with a prospect who says “No?”
I’ll tell you a little story. When I was selling office furniture in 2000, there was this guy I called 38 times. I got his business on the 38th call. The first three times were friendly. Then it got contentious. It became a game for me to get an appointment with him. Finally, when he was in a jam because he was lied to by another salesperson, I got the business on call number 38. While this is an extreme example, I put that out there to show just how hard it can be to get business.
Things have changed a lot since 2000. The decision-makers are smarter and more insulated today. You’re going to have to be really diligent to get new customers. This brings up referrals as a good way to get new business. If you can get a new customer from a referral, why don’t you have a system in place to do that?
As I revamp this channel and blog, I’m starting to implement sales processes and systems. This is what you have to do to grow your business. If you’re going to be tactically driven, you’re always going to be chasing the newest shiny object. If you create a referral system and more company value, you will automatically embed growth in your company.
I sat one of my clients down who was interested in growth and told him what he needed to do was to call up all his past clients. I told him to say, “Hey, I was just thinking about you. I was looking at the last time we did business. Do you have any needs or do you know of anyone who can use my services?”
He did that and he made 180 calls in the first week. Then he did $70K in new business as a result of calling those old clients. It is surprising that people do not do this.
One of the things you have to understand is that when you are putting together your business, you have to start embedding systems immediately. A lot of people want to grow their business really quickly. In order to accomplish this, you need to start embedding automation and a referral mechanism. You also need an objection mechanism and a system to handle different important issues that impact your business. It is important to remember that growth isn’t an overnight scaling event. It is gradual.
The first system you need in your business is an automatic referral system. It has to be present in every transaction. It has to be present in every bit of copy. If you do this, you could potentially quadruple your business. I’ve seen it.
Many business owners don’t stick with the fundamentals. If you’re a business owner and you’re struggling, the number one problem is you don’t have any systems in your business. That’s not to say that this does not happen on occasion to all business owners. But, if you continue to feel overwhelmed every day, then you don’t have enough systems. After a certain period, you should not be feeling that way. If you are still stressed out and overwhelmed after a couple of years in business, or after 15 years of business, then you’ve created yourself a very, high-paying job, but you haven’t created a business.
By adding a referral mechanism to your business, you create a passive income stream in your earned income stream. This can literally double or triple your income without hiring another employee or spending more money on advertising. That’s how powerful systems, automation and delegation are.
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Great information.