Cut Out the BS
I was told this yesterday. Suddenly things became easier.
As founders, entrepreneurs, and small business owners, we have big dreams. We see the potential of what we are doing and work hard every day to make it a reality.
But one of the hardest things about running a business… well, is running the business. We wear multiple hats: accountant, marketer, webmanager, content provider, expert in our field, graphic designer, inventory stocker, telephone answerer, appointment setter… the list goes on and on of what we do daily just to keep things running.
Too Busy being Busy
I’m finding this overwhelming hustle to be a universal truth.
The people I am working with in my new micro-community, Marketers In Mind, tell me the same thing over and over: I’m too busy to get to everything I want to get to.
As a matter of pre-planning for my community, they have all expressed where they want to be by the end of this 6-month program, but we’ve also talked about “the beyond.” If they had unlimited budget, time, and personnel, where would their business take them? That’s my job: helping them design their lives by helping them create the structure to achieve it.
Often, though, we feel the push and squeeze of our dreams bearing down on us like some great external pressure cooker. We know what we want, but we have to do SO MUCH to get there, right?
SO MUCH to do it can be paralyzing.
Cut Out the BS
Yesterday was our community’s first Weekly Workshop, and it featured business mentor Pam Hoelzle of Dear Rockstar. She gave lots of amazing guidance but the one thing that resounded throughout the micro-community was when she said, “Cut out the BS.”
She told us to identify and focus on the things that are actually producing revenue and develop those first before branching out to expand our business model. If we try to do everything at once, nothing will get done well.
How many times do we get bogged down in all we WANT to do instead of saying, “This is working, so I’m going to own this space first and then continue to expand from there”?
Work on What is Working
So stop whatever you are doing right now and say to yourself the ONE THING that is actually working well for your business. What is bringing in revenue?
Without revenue, your business is dead, so this has to be your first priority until you bring in enough to have some breathing and thinking space. IZEA’s Ted Murphy explains this extremely well:
Own the Funnel
Once you have that revenue funnel identified, focus your efforts on growing it and “owning” the space. 99% of your marketing should be centered around solidifying that revenue funnel before you move to the next. Business suddenly seems much simpler when you have less to focus on and a clear cut path to follow. Work on what’s working and cut out the BS!
Next time post I’ll write about pain points and how Pam says we should be using them to guide our next business steps, too.
In the meantime, we’ve got just a few spots left in our marketing group. Click here for more information on Marketers In Mind and how I can help you accelerate your business goals.
Until then, may your marketing be meaningful and your time well-used.
