Feeling Stuck In Your Business? Find Out The 10 Steps To Solve This.
One of the problems I solve in my business is the problem that many solopreneurs and entrepreneurs face, of being stuck in their business, and not knowing how to move forward to get to the next level.
Last week a prospect contacted me and said precisely this, that she was looking around for a coach, because she felt stuck in her business. I will use her example in this article, to demonstrate a way forward if you are in a similar situation.
From the short conversation that we had, I understood that she had two things on the go:
One was music teaching and the other was art, that she created and produced as cards, prints and on other mediums.
She was wanting to see if she could wholesale her art and find more clients for her music teaching.
One of the problems with her music teaching was that the instrument that she taught was very obscure and most likely an instrument that not many people knew the sound of, or even knew existed. So this in and of itself, was going to be a challenge. Part of any marketing she did, would need to incorporate education and promotion around the actual instrument itself.
One of the problems with her art, was that some of what she had produced and tried to sell, via markets in Sydney, was seasonal, which limited her ability to sell it all year round.
She had reached a point in her business where she either had to make some changes and increase her income or find another income stream and or get a job.
In her heart of hearts she really wanted to continue with the music teaching and art, but felt stuck and did not know how to move forward.
If you are in a similar situation and feeling stuck in your business and don’t know how to move forward, most likely it is a Momentum/Marketing/Strategy issue. And in the mix somewhere, is probably a lack of confidence and lack of the right support and potentially feeling isolated.
Marketing Problem
To know what actions to take around your marketing, you need to know the answers to some fundamentals first.
Some questions to ask to gain clarity are:
Who is my target market?
How can I find them?
Where did my current clients come from? How did I find them or from which source did they find me?
Who are my current clients? For example what are their demographics (age, gender, interests, likes and dislikes, ambitions, online behaviours)? Do they fit within a consistent pattern?
Which companies or people that are not direct competitors to me, have my target audience on their database, or in their audience or fan base?
The answers to these will give you some clues as to where to start putting your efforts.
Once you know who to target the next thing is, which method will you use to approach them?
Some options are:
Social media groups, (social networking in FB groups)
Contacting them directly via email and phone call
FB and Instagram ads
Search engine optimisation and content marketing
LinkedIn emails and connections
Influencer marketing
A combination of some or all of the above
Once you know which method you need to work out:
What you are going to say to them?
What links and marketing collateral you are going to include when you contact them?
For example:
supporting flyers
social media channel links
website links
Review and testimonial links
You want to make it easy for your prospects to “check you out", so to speak, and do some research on whether what you offer, is what they are looking for.
The fact of the matter is, that each business is different and what applies to one business may not apply to another one.
So in the case of the music teacher that teaches a very obscure instrument, my first thought was remote music teaching. Her clientele could be anywhere in the world and may not live in the same city as she does.
So I quickly did some research, and low and behold I found a great article on teaching music lessons over Skype, which I promptly sent her.
Momentum Problem
Momentum is the opposite of getting and being stuck, it is something that builds upon itself. It is a sequence of continuous action towards achieving a result or goal. If you are not sure on your strategy, of course, this will impact momentum. Doubt kills momentum. But confidence on the other hand, in where you want to go and not only how to get there, but a belief in what and why you are doing it, fires it up.
How to Fix a Problem of Feeling Stuck in Your Business:
Step 1: First work out what is a good strategy for you and your business, which means where are you now and where do you want to go.
Step 2: Write this down.
Step 3: Write down what are some ideas of how to get there. Even if the ideas sound silly or you don’t know how to execute them, write them down anyway. Get them out of your head and into a list.
Step 4: Grade the ideas from least low hanging fruit, to low hanging fruit. In other words this means, what is the thing on the list that could get me the result the fastest?
Step 5: If you are unsure, do some research, spend some time researching online each one of your ideas. (But don’t get stuck in the research phase. Make it quick and to the point. This step could be counterproductive to getting yourself out of the problem of being stuck, if you never move on from research into implementation.)
For example, if we go back to the music teacher/artist example, the list would look like this:
Ideas
Music teaching - getting more students:
Remote music teaching over Skype
Youtube channel to help with the education and promotion of the obscure instrument
Contact music schools and find out if they have a teacher on their list teaching the instrument - ask them if you could do a promotion to their database in exchange for something
Contact community events and find out if you can go and do a free performance to get some exposure for the instrument and promote your music teaching
Active Instagram channel and FB page - update at least once per day
FB ads
Wholesale art B2B (Business to Business) - getting some orders for the art:
Depends on which of the art you wish to promote, as in the music teacher/artist example, she had a number of designs with different target markets.
Getting orders for the cat art:
Starting a t-shirt online store
Getting orders for the Xmas card designs
Dong joint ventures with schools, kindergartens churches etc offering to put their logo on the cards, for bulk orders
Finding online retailers that could sell it on their online store
Contacting newsagents that buy stock and finding out who are the big suppliers to these shops and contact them
Finding B2C (Business to Consumer) customers
Fb ads
Instagram ads
Optimising your Etsy shop and FB and Instagram pages and YouTube videos. Setting up all your channels correctly and not skipping any parts.
This is not an exhaustive list, as I only had one conversation with the prospect, but this is the general idea. More conversations would result in more ideas.
Additional Research and Education
Research and try to find a successful similar business that you look up to, and potentially could model, (it may not be in the same niche or have the same target market)
Lots of google searches with keywords such as: how to sell art wholesale, marketing ideas for gift cards, marketing ideas for Xmas cards, marketing ideas for handmade art, remote music teaching
Educating yourself: buying courses on Udemy such as how to sell on Etsy, or How to run FB ads, how to start a Youtube channel
Listening to podcasts
Joining FB groups to find other like-minded entrepreneurs that you can connect, learn and find a sense of belonging with
Now that you have worked out what you need to do:
Step 6: Break down the action steps into priorities and bite size chunks, that you commit to doing, at a specified time.
Step 7: Follow through on the tasks. If you need to break them down even further do that. The simpler they are, the better.
Step 8: Test and measure the result. Keep going with implementation and refining your ideas, based on what does and does not work
Step 9: Work out your daily, weekly and monthly routine tasks that support the ideas, and work out when each week you will be doing it, and how long this will take you.
Step 10: Commit to the routine.
After doing all of the above, and now that you have found a whole new level of business momentum, are you interested in maintaining it?
If you answer is yes.
Get some accountability. The crucial ingredient to staying unstuck once and for all is accountability.
Ways to do this are:
Engage a coach either one on one or in a group coaching program
Get into a mastermind group, which is similar to a group coaching program but a bit different
Find a business buddy
Start an accountability group
There is one thing knowing what to do and another thing doing it, especially when you hit a roadblock, which unfortunately will be inevitable.
If you are feeling stuck in your business reach out as there is nothing like having a dream and making it real. My direct mobile is 0414 707751.
Imagine yourself having achieved the thing you want in your business. How do you feel?
Remember that it is possible for you to have this!!