Help my business grow”, she said and down the rabbit hole we went.

Not so long ago, we had a meeting with Barbara and Steve, a married couple who had bought a franchise and were struggling with making a consistent profit. When asked what they wanted most, the wife blurted out, “Help my business grow!”

She quickly caught herself, turned to her husband and looked him straight in the eyes and said, “Help OUR business grow”. He smiled at her knowingly, then began explaining how they came to be in the business and the struggles they were having.

Barbara had started the business and he had jumped in to help. The plan was to build the business so they could get out of their regular jobs and slip into retirement with some income and a business they could sell later.

Keep in mind that the issues we discussed at that meeting are virtually the same issues we’ve discussed with thousands of business owners over the years. Business challenges generally remain consistent regardless of the type of business or size and regardless of whatever trends, dilemmas or technical issues you are facing or have faced.

Make profit, avoid loss.

What it takes to do that boils down to true value differentiation.

Not a logo.

Not a fantastic website design.

Not a tagline or Unique Selling Proposition.

True value differentiation defines your brand and what your market thinks of you.

How effectively do your products and services fulfill the needs and wants of your prospective customers?

Do they do that in a way that makes your version of it stand out and make it more desirably unique?

Do you effectively communicate that uniqueness to your target market?

Maybe.

Businesses like to say they do, but most don’t get that far. They focus on subjective statements that no longer carry any weight because they lost their impact years ago.

For example, many businesses claim great customer service is what makes them special.

But customers already expect great customer service. If they don’t get it, you’ll see their negative online reviews.

So that’s not really differentiating, that’s just claiming to do something better or at a higher level without defining what the benefit to the customer really is.

That’s like having a shouting match with your competition:

YOU:  “We have great customer service.”

THEM:  “No, we have better customer service!”

YOU:  “No, WE have the best customer service!!!”

And it just gets louder from there – with both sides losing sight of what the customer really wants.

In this example, “better” and “best” are subjective or a quantity of something that can be easily matched.

Remember, if your competition can match your claims in the minds of your customers, you are not differentiating.

Barbara and Steve were working the business part-time as a side-hustle to their regular jobs, hoping to get it going to the point of becoming full-time income.

They had tried the various marketing suggestions the franchise had made for new franchise-holders, but nothing seemed to stick as solid, ongoing ways to get steadily increasing sales.

We addressed each issue they brought up. We made suggestions based on what we knew worked with other businesses in similar situations. We explained, sometimes in great detail, what to do and say, when, where and how.

They nodded in agreement and confirmed that our logic and approach was more than sensible.

Their response to our helpful recommendations was this…

“We like everything you’ve explained. We now understand why we’ve struggled or outright failed at some of the things we’ve tried. Can you do all this for us?”

Our reply was, “Yes we can, although it would be to your benefit to do most or all of this WITH us so you learn how and can wean yourself off our services at some point – unless you want to keep paying us indefinitely.”

Our next obvious question was, “Do you have a budget for this type of work?

The husband replied, “We’ve run out of money with what we’ve tried on our own so we really don’t have any funds set aside for this work. But if someone can do it for us and it produces results, we can pay from those profits. We just need someone to help our business grow.”

Sadly, we had to explain that if we wanted to grow their business for free, we might as well just start our own version of their business. The time and effort it takes for us to invest in their business, a business we don’t want to run ourselves, is time we can’t invest elsewhere.

SIDENOTE:  Not having an interest in doing anything other than what we already do, our clients are always safe. They will never have us as competition. We also eagerly sign a non-compete whenever requested.

Various of the above story are very common. It goes to show that many people who have a business never realized how challenging it can be to have a successful, growing company.

Most businesses have web sites with similar capabilities. Anyone can do social media, video or other content marketing, or send email and text messages.

These tools are NOT differentiation – especially VALUE DIFFERENTIATION.

This scenario plays out like many others regardless of the specifics to the type of business for a number of reasons:

• People face many of the same issues, no matter what business they are in.
• People make many of the same mistakes no matter what business they are in.
• People fail to take skillful, strategic action and instead think tactics are the best activity.
• People don’t understand or accept that having a differentiating strategy guides your tactics.
• People too often procrastinate to the point of digging a hole too deep to get out of before it caves in on them.

In the case of Barbara and Steve’s franchise, business opportunities and/or franchises usually want you to buy into their concept regardless of whether you have the skills, know-how, persistence, etc., needed to be successful in that particular business.

Of course they say they’ll train you. But seldom does the marketing know-how these opportunities provide position or differentiate the business they offer any more than the competition.

In other words, you’re buying a pre-commoditized business with most franchises and business opportunities.

To get an advantage in the marketplace, you’re expected to find a great location or develop insider relationships or networks that prevent you from having to do any real marketing or selling.

And when the competition moves into your area and copies what you do, the playing field levels out and the real struggle to grow, if not just survive, really begins.

You need the drive and marketing chops to succeed in today’s business

You can’t underestimate the effort needed to win and win consistently.

If you don’t know where to start, we can help.

We begin with an initial conversation to determine if we are a good fit to work together.

What we start with is based on your business and your specific situation.

We have to work with what you’ve got and where your business is now to grow it into what you want it to be.

We’ve doubled business in as little as 3 months.

You need to contact us to find out what we can do for you.