The Top Three Challenges Every Business Owner Faces Are…

  1. Presentation of marketing planFollow-up
  2. Promotion
  3. Planning

I had to smile when one of my current clients told me these were her problem areas – because she felt other entrepreneurs were totally on top of each of these. I was able to reassure her that EVERY entrepreneur feels they could do better. In fact, from the ‘outside’ she was doing an excellent job with regular email updates on specials and new offerings to her mailing list.

What needed to change was her mindset that she needed to ‘do-it-all’. She has employees, and it was time to discuss what should come off her plate. As CEO, her job is to make sure it gets done, not that she do it all herself. Of those three items, there is only one she cannot substantially hand off: the planning.

When she defines a follow-up sequence (in her case, a mix of printed postcards and email reminders), and what triggers each, an assistant can easily take over running a report monthly and getting the follow-ups done.  And by creating a marketing calendar for the coming year (something we will do in our next session), it will be clear what promotions need to be scheduled – and who should be responsible.

It’s the planning that enables a business owner to offload. The next time you feel overwhelmed, don’t think “I have too much to do to spend time planning.”; your reaction should be “I have too much to do not to spend time planning!”

Comments

  1. Erin Hattonsays

    Very good advice – thanks for posting this! As a not-very-business-minded person, this kind of thing is the last thing I think about.

  2. Melissa Wrightsays

    Each stage of entrepreneurship brings a new set of challenges to face and overcome. It sounds like your client is lucky to have your help in creating a game plan for the whole year and to help her to push through the things that are holding her back.

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