Over 20 years running a business consultancy I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Frankly when we started I had absolutely no idea what it would take. I’d moved out of the
corporate world and thought, “I’ll put out a shingle – and people will come to me”. Boy was I wrong.
But that isn’t the half of it. I’d read Michael Gerber’s, “The e-myth” but hadn’t really internalised it. Nor did I focus on marketing.
Given this, looking back, these are 4 major mistakes I made. Tell me if you can relate.
#1 Not being crystal clear on what I wanted from my business. Was it a lifestyle business or did I want to scale and eventually sell – or anywhere in between.
So I went down rabbit holes because I’d never had sight of the big picture. I love options. Lots of them. So I chased bright shiny objects. Strategies which led to not doing any of them well. And felt overwhelmed.
I had to learn to decide. Prioritize what I should be focusing on. And ditch the rest. BTW, the word decide comes from the Latin decidere which means to cut off – limiting your choices.
I’ve learned to regularly come back to what I want to achieve, where I am now and the gap. What’s going to be most effective bridging it
For me it’s always increasing sales . And regularly asking myself where I’m focusing my time and if that’s the most important thing I should be doing.
#2 Having an unclear value proposition.
Everyone has competition. What made me stand out? Why would someone come to me over everyone else in my space? It took me years to understand the confluence of my expertise (I’m a life long learner), my experience over decades and my essence – who I was uniquely as a person and how clients either vibed with this combination or not.
#3 Focusing on the wrong metrics.
What was I measuring?
Social media vanity metrics such as “Likes” and “Views”? Nice to have, but were they leading to engagement and meetings with good prospects?
Sales conversion rate? How many meetings converted to clients?
Lifetime value of my clients? How long were we engaging and how could I increase this? BTW, I’m happy to report I’ve had clients for over a decade.
# 4 Not creating 90 day implementation plans with accountability.
I’m a big picture thinker most of the time. And while I can be quite anal about certain things, I found it’s critical to work out 90 day priorities and get things done. Whether it was me or something outsourced.
Frankly, this is the most fraught area for me. There’s a simple rule with accountability. Only one person can be ultimately responsible for a task – and it’s ether done or not.
If any of this resonates, and you’re finding yourself in the same boat, work directly with me on your focus and strategy. We’ll distil exactly what you need to concentrate on to efficiently get ahead.
Contact me on +61 414 913 334 for a confidential discussion and we’ll take it from there.
