Think About your Business

Does above example sound like something that might be happening in your small business? Maybe you’ve got wrong people in wrong places, or maybe you are trying to do everything yourself and haven’t accepted fact you can’t be a copywriter/salesperson/accountant/operations manager effectively.

Remember, marketing will never solve an operations problem. It is critical that all small business owners remind themselves of this rule every time they consider a new marketing plan aimed at boosting sales or countering a downturn in business. Before you spend your money, ask yourself “What’s problem with my business” before you try to solve it through increased spending. If you can identify that problem lies with your operations, it can usually be repaired for far less than a new marketing blitz will cost you.

You can’t throw money at an operations problem and hope that it goes away. An operations problem is like a bad cut and marketing is salt in wound. Your business will be better served if you heal it first, then drive customers to your door.

6) Keep moving on. Very often, we take a “no” and we think about it…re-live it… plan what we’ll say next time…in short, we live event hundreds of times when, in fact, it was just, really, a few minutes in our life. The best antidote to this is to take next action, and next, and next. Keep moving forward and don’t dwell on past.

7) Broaden your definition of success. The number one reason people feel bad when someone says, “no” is because they feel a strong attachment to outcome. Instead of looking at outcomes, or being attached to how things turn out, perhaps you can look at success as getting out there in first place. How would it be if you went for effort rather than outcome, even sometimes?

8) Start a success journal - immediately. For every No you’ve ever experienced, you probably could list tens (if not hundreds) of situations in which people said “Yes!” to who you are or what you offer. When you feel upset or down about one particular situation, aim to list at least 100 things you’ve succeeded in already.

9) Shift your focus from what happened. Distract yourself by thinking of all good and fun things you want to attain or achieve. Whatever you think about gets bigger in your life, so make sure you’re thinking good thoughts. Take each experience as an isolated occurrence, not absolute, ultimate truth.

10) Commit to routinely attracting more customers than you need. “No, thanks” is much easier to handle – economically - when you have a steady flow of qualified prospects streaming in. If you aren’t in this position, be sure to revisit your marketing plan and recommit to daily marketing actions. It’s easy to get away from this when business picks up, and harder to generate momentum when business goes down.

Taken together, these strategies will help you overcome “No, Thanks.”while building a more successful business.

© 2003. Dr. Rachna D. Jain. All Rights in All Media Reserved.