by Kelly K. O'Neil
Each year, my strategic coaches and I do hundreds of business assessments and strategy sessions to help entrepreneurs understand where they are going wrong in their business so that they can fix it going forward. If you are one of the many who do not have a marketing plan, marketing budget or any type of roadmap for the success of your business you are using what I call the "Cross Your Fingers" marketing strategy.
Don't feel bad. It is much more common than you think. In fact, get excited because now you know why you aren't creating the results that you desire in your business and the great news is, we can fix it!
I am a big believer in reverse engineering... designing your business and marketing strategy from where you want to be and working backward. And the truth is that almost every entrepreneur I have ever encountered (myself included) is not able to do it by themselves. There are several reasons for this:
1. Lack of Clarity: I always say... If you don't know where you are going, how are you going to get there? With clarity brings immense power to design your destiny. If you are not completely clear on exactly what you want your life to look, how can you design a business to facilitate that lifestyle? The answer is... you can't.
2. Lack of Expertise: You are brilliant at what you do, but unless you are a business and marketing strategist like me, you probably lack the expertise to create business models, revenue streams and marketing funnels easily and effortlessly that will get you from where you are to where you want to go. So you take an educated guess which if you are lucky works out, but if not it costs you lots of extra time, money and energy. Take my advice and hire an expert.
3. Small Thinking: Your thinking can only be as big as you allow it to be. Sometimes we need someone outside of us to challenge the boundaries we have created for ourselves. When I was at a recent event, I was sitting with a very well known marketer who I think is one of the biggest thinkers I know and who I admire and respect greatly. This person was saying that what they really needed to do was design one of their programs a certain way for it to be extremely impactful but quickly followed it up by saying, but nobody would buy it that way. My question was "Why Not? And Who Said?" In sixty seconds, the direction of that persons business changed. We are only limited by the confines of the limiting beliefs we put upon ourselves and the limiting decisions that follow those beliefs... which leads me to point number 4.
4. Perspective: There is one thing you will never be able to give to yourself... Perspective. This is why I work with the greatest coaches and consultants in the world. I want to bounce ideas off of people, take advantage of their expertise and have them tell me where my baby is ugly. This way I save a huge amount of time, energy, and money.
We all have a strategy. And the strategies we use define the results we are getting. If you don't have a clearly defined business and marking plan that is strategically designed to help you achieve the results you desire, then the strategy you are using is the Cross Your Fingers strategy for building your business.
And I will ask you, what I ask my other clients... "How is that working out for you?"
 Kelly K. O'Neil, Chief Strategy Officer, UpLevel Strategies, Inc.
Award Winning Strategic Coach and Marketing to the Affluent Expert Kelly O'Neil publishes the 'Arrive!' weekly ezine for small service businesses and information marketers. If you are ready to learn the best strategies to market to the affluent so that you can make more money and have more freedom and fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at www.uplevelstrategies.com.
|
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to info@uplevelstrategies.com.
