Do you feel lost because you are thinking “I should be earning more in my business”?
You might be thinking – I should be making more money or I should have more clients. Where are they?
I’m going to focus more on sales mindset on the podcast
I thought it’d be really helpful to start focusing more on some of the mindset conversations that you just might not even be aware of. This episode is a big one. You might be feeling of loss or a frustration, or even anger, because you “should” have more money, more clients, more business. Yet you’re just not seeing the results.
The challenges of navigating a “post” pandemic and needing more clients
I’m going to give you three tools to get started. This is a big conversation. People are trying to re-examine; What are we doing around COVID? Are we just going back to work and going back to normal? Or is it going to be hybrid where we’re in person for some things or working from home for other things? I get that as an entrepreneur, it can feel really scary, right? And overwhelming.
Idea #1 – Write down the feelings that you are experiencing
The first thing is to call out what is going on. Take a moment when you finish listening to this podcast and jot down some feelings and some thoughts about what is actually showing up for you. Far too often, we are running day to day and getting the list of things done. You’re always running, running, running.
I get caught up in the rat race, too
Before I even sat down to record this podcast, I was working on my recertification for my minority women business status. I realized that I needed to get another document notarized. There’s always stuff that has to get done. And it puts pressure on you when you look at your bank account and think – there should be more.
Your first step is stepping back and name what is showing up
First, you have to call it out. You have to be willing to acknowledge what exactly is showing up for you. What feelings are coming up for you? What emotions are coming up for you? What thoughts are coming up for you? Good or bad? Just take a moment, jot them down and be clear about what are experiencing.
Don’t take action first.
Far too often, when we experienced these points in our business, people want to just jump on and add a strategy.
- Or a tactic.
- Or let’s do this.
- Or let’s buy this program.
- Or let’s go to this event. I’m going to find some clients to this event and I’m going to change things around.
I commend you for wanting to do the outreach to make that happen. But, sometimes it might be something else that’s going on. We’re not taking time to really pause or be reflective.
I give my coaching clients this advice to pause and reflect
I find with my coaching clients – that when they actually sit down and do a couple of activities – they start to see patterns. What are they doing on a weekly basis? What happens when they start showing up for their business on a weekly basis? And start calling out some of the patterns that they are seeing in their business? O M G. It changes the whole conversation.
It won’t change your bank account tomorrow but…
I want to be clear. If you are reflecting on what’s showing up:
- the emotions and thoughts
- some of the habits and patterns
It’s not going to change your bank account tomorrow. I don’t want to give you that false belief – ie. if I just sit down and journal everything that’s going on, I’m going to make money tomorrow. Not necessarily!
You’ll know the TRUE source of the problem
But what it will do is it will give you the opportunity then to actually fix exactly where the problem may be showing up. Rather than trying to throw spaghetti at the wall and hope that whatever it is that you’re actually doing works. You’ll have a better sense really of what’s going on. You’ll know what’s really at the core of your frustration or your anger or your sadness
Idea #2 – Assess: What are you doing with marketing and sales?
What does it look like? We could dive into a whole three hour workshop on this idea. What are you doing on a daily basis? On a weekly basis? On a monthly basis when you show up in your business around marketing? From building awareness about your brand to what you have to offer to making sales requests? When you look back over your calendar, what are you doing specifically in those areas?
How are you spending time?
Far too often, people will spend their time on one or two activities, and then expect thousands of dollars to come. So when you have a gap – ie. where’s the money – you need to really step back and look at what you’re doing.
Does your business need to send out more proposals?
For example, service-based businesses often use proposal to bring in more business. Let’s call it out. How many proposals, contracts agreements have you sent out this month? Hmm. And be clear. This is not a game of more, more, more. I want to be very intentional about this. I’d much rather you send out two or three really well-written proposals to clients that fit your ideal client profile, rather than sending out 10 mass produced.
Do you show up around marketing when you are busy?
Do you find a way to show up on the days that you’re working in your business? For example, I enjoy operations. With a lot of my clients, I wind up doing a lot of operational tasks. So I just fall into that comfort zone with my own business. Let’s try to check off all the boxes. With my earlier example of getting recertified, I needed to get that paper notarized.
But am I actually spending any time doing outreach to prospective groups that might benefit from working with my company? Am I scheduling any coffee chats? That’s a trick question, but you kind of know where I’m going with this.
Be honest about the time that you spend on marketing
A lot of times we are frustrated about our cash flow. But the truth of the matter is we haven’t spent a lot of time on the marketing and the sales.
Don’t think you need to spend hours and make a pitch to every single person that you meet.
But I do challenge you to assess. If this is a stumbling block – which by the way, it’s for many – get help. You are not alone. I actually got interested in sales coaching because, I saw a lot of people loved their work but didn’t like doing the sales. I had the firm belief after being in business for years that there was a path for the business owner who doesn’t like sales.
Quick example of marketing when you are busy
I was talking with a client and she was working with a big client. I was super excited for her because the cashflow is rolling in. But when they finished the project, she was exhausted. Here’s the interesting part about businesses where you have very large clients and then the project ends. If you don’t find a way to do business development DURNG the project, it’s going to be really hard to get that next big project. It’s just the nature of the beast.
So we spoke briefly about it. She was putting in 12 – 14 hour days. In the past, it would lead to a few months of relaxing after she finished. But, she decided that she would start doing 1-2 marketing tasks every week – during those long days and hours.
Take the time and assess
If you don’t start really assessing what you’re doing and being very clear and intentional, when you start looking at your cash flow over time – you are going to see major gaps.
You can get the cash and the clients coming in on a more regular basis. But you have to be willing to take a step back and really honestly, look at what you’re doing.
Idea #3 – Start small but consistent
If you’re frustrated or feeling lost because you’re doing all of this work and you don’t have the clients and then you step back and you assess and you say, oh my gosh, there’s so much I need to be doing…..start small.
Start with one of the first things that you outlined that needs work:
- I’m not following up with people.
- I’m not reaching out for referrals.
- I don’t have any systems in place.
- If a new client says they want to hire me, I don’t have an onboarding system
We often ignore small and run at full speed
Small, but consistent matters.
Instead most of us tend to operate in these bursts of energy. I call it an entrepreneurial seizure. I used to see it years ago when people would sign up for 40 hour programs. And at the beginning of the program, they’re raring to go! Give me an assignment and I will conquer the world. And then halfway through the program, the homework is turned in less and less frequently. The absences start happening. You realize how much work it’s really going to be. So I’d much rather you start small and stay consistent. Don’t run with these giant big plans and you don’t maintain.
Start with follow-up
I find that following up with former clients that I’ve worked with from time to time is key. I don’t have to spend hours on trying to find all of these brand new people. There is this interesting premise that starts to happen where you’re always staying top of mind. Based on the law of averages, clients start pouring in and then opportunities start happening.
If you are trying to launch something new
Let’s say you have a business that’s running really well. The numbers are coming in. But you are working on a new product launch. And this thing is hard. Go through the three steps
- Call it out – See for yourself what is showing up for you about the frustrations that you’re dealing with
- Take a moment to step back and assess – Even if you just show up on a weekly basis and just report back on what you’re seeing. This week I had zero interest. This week I had zero interest. Hey, one person was interested in this week. I didn’t get a sale, but at least I got interest, which that’s always.
- Start small with your sales and your marketing work – I work with my coaching clients to help them create a custom sales plan in this area. And if that’s something that interests you, I want you to reach out and make sure that you reach out to me to see if we could be a good fit to help you with that.
These can be some powerful, next steps, guys that can really transform your overall business and your overall brand.
So sending you major success and happy, happy cashflow.
