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Do You, Really, Have What It Takes To Run Your Business?

By Chris Makell

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 30Mar2011 Word count: 772 Viewed: 126 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

When you're starting, expanding or maintaining your business you will run up against challenges that must be overcome. Believe it or not, when this happens you are typically on the verge of a breakthrough to your next level of growth. But to you it just feels like hell! But as I've learned and Winston Churchill said it best, "when you're going through hell, just keep going!"

There have been times in my own business when I've questioned where's the next breakthrough! I've learned to manage the breakdowns, the challenges and appreciate how painful it is because I know what's on the other end of it. And you can too.

I'm sharing this painful but hopefully inspiring experience with you so that you can see that you're not alone. Here are three of my less than stellar results and how I learned from them.

#1 Gave a party and no one came

I recently participated in a book promotion and provided one of my products as a bonus. It was certainly a hit! A lot of people have subscribed to Radiant Business Strategies and received their product. To give them even more value, I decided to host a Q&A call to give them the opportunity to ask any questions they might have. I sent an email directly to those who subscribed for their gift. And when the time came, I called in to the conference number and waited 5 minutes, and no one showed.

I took a deep breath and made a decision. I recorded a few tips for getting the most from the product and sent it along to those on the email list.

My lesson - It doesn't matter whether they show or not because you can never know what might have happened. The timing of the call may not have been the best or the email may have slipped into the spam folders. The point is, deliver as promised because that's what your customers will remember!


#2 Designed with you in mind

As a business owner, it's important to get input from clients and customers, as well as to look at what's happening in the market and the challenges people are facing. The next step is to respond to the market's wants and needs, by designing a product or service to serve them.

Sometimes you can do just that and no one participates or buys!

Oh, this can and has happened to small and large businesses, so it's not too unusual. But it's no less painful. Developing programs that are meant to meet a market need, may come too soon or too late for your market to consume. And I've seen and experienced this with a couple of my own programs in the last 5 years.

My lesson - If my response was slow in delivering then it's a great lesson in implementation, in real time. And secondarily, it's an opportunity to re-purpose the program and deliver it as a product or bonus for clients who sign up for other programs.

#3 Oh no, we're losing altitude

When you're promoting new programs, products, changing directions or even surveying your list for new and fresh ideas to help them, you can sometimes see your subscriber numbers falling. I'll admit that the first time I saw that I panicked! For over 4 years, I'd kept 98% of my subscribers. Even when I moved from career coaching to marketing coaching, I didn't lose many subscribers. But of late, I see the number going up in the "unsubscribe" column.

My lesson - People like to make a change occasionally and they may want to go and learn from new people. That's ok. Also, I wouldn't want them to stay if they weren't getting value from what I have to offer. As my coaches have taught me, it's ok to lose some subscribers as long as you're adding in proportion to or better.

So there are my three examples where I had to check in to see if I have what it takes to run my business. I can tell you that I had always heard you must be resilient and let things roll off your back if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. That was certainly true in corporate and it was the reason I rose to a global leadership position. But when it's YOUR baby it's personal and whole lot scarier.

I hope you'll find inspiration from my challenges and breakthroughs and let it help you when you want to throw in the towel. Just remember…beneath the tears and frustration (and sometimes uncertainty) you can find the lessons that gives you the "balls" to face another day!

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