Every day a small business owner calls and says I want to “Grow My business” and yet I turn down at least 80% of them. This week, my wife said “Why do you hang up on at least a dozen business owners a day that call and say “I want to Grow My Business?”
The answer is simple, they call and say they want to “Grow my business” but they aren’t willing to do the work or follow my recommendations. If you call, within 15 minutes I’ll know if you are going to be the next Dominoes or the next Pets.com. You don’t remember pets.com? In the 90’s they were the chewy.com that we see today.
This year we have taken on just three new clients who were serious when they called and said they wanted me to help them to “Grow My business”. The rest were pretty quickly eliminated because they weren’t willing to do the work.
Our newest client, Hard-Yoga.com is a great example of a client that really want’s to succeed.
When I think I get it, another call comes in from a “lifestyle” business owner that quit working for thier boss to compete with them. With 90% certainty they felt their boss was “ripping people off”. With that same 90% certainty I know they won’t be in business next year.
So what gives?
When a small business owner is serious when they call and say “I want to grow my business”, I know they are serious within a few minutes. Monica Caroll of Hard-Yoga is one of those people. within minutes I knew she was willing to bet it all on her success.
One of the most important pieces of the success puzzle that Monica showed me was the support of her family. I can count on my fingers how many clients have come to me in 25 years and said “I want to grow my business and my family is on board”. Admittedly, in one of my early ventures, my wife was not on board and it is one of my biggest failures.
Is the support of family critical?
Hell yes it is. If you own a liquor store and your spouse or significant other is a big MADD supporter, how long do you thin that relationship will last?
The key to success is congruency. When you call me and you say ” I want to grow my business”, the first question I will ask is “is your family on board?”. If not you are toast, and yes I will ask them. I don’t take money from a customer that is not likely to succeed.
I do bet on longshots, if they are committed and their families are on board. That is maybe one client every three years though.
Sometimes I end up giving life advice to clients. Many years ago a guy approached me and said “I want you to help me grow my business”. On the surface he looked like he had a chance. Three months later I refunded all of his money because he didn’t want to make money and grow his business. He just wanted to be a cool business owner so he could play golf.
You can’t really know if a client is a good client until they buy your product and keep it. So how do you know if you are really ready to grow your business? The test is surprisingly simple. Are you ready to let someone else do what you do?
If you are, give me a call at 949-272-0611 and lets take your business up a level or two!
