Until it does.

Something always gets in the way. It might be that customers aren’t buying the product that you know for a fact is amazing. It might be that your employees are total slackers and can’t get anything done. It might be that your board of directors is sending you in 20 disjointed directions.

Whatever it is, there is always something to threaten your upward progress.

The first step: quickly identify who is getting in your way. Now, hold on! Your first instinct might be to “fix” those people. Instead, take a minute to identify how your behavior is contributing to the situation. Every entrepreneur has his own unique way of getting in his own way as he strives for success.

Those customers who aren’t buying? They aren’t the problem; the problem is that you’re holding onto a product that is unmarketable. Pivot and change your product so that it appeals to paying customers.

Those slacker employees? Most employees at entrepreneurial companies are talented, but they suffer from a lack of clear direction and attention. You need management processes and systems so that everyone knows what is expected and you can measure their success. Then it will be easy to make decisions about who needs to move on.

Your disjointed board of directors? They don’t trust you! Figure out how to reassure them that you’re investing their money in the right activities and find a way to control your board meetings so they stay on-track.

Whatever the barrier, I bet there is something you could do to improve the situation. No, that doesn’t mean that I’m letting everyone else off the hook, but if you truly want great success, you must begin every problem solving venture by looking in the mirror first.

Only by constantly questioning your own behavior can you change the behavior of your customers, your employees and your business partners.

But after a while, the infatuation wears off, and we’re left with the day-to-day realities, hard work and frustration that come with running a business. We adopt dangerous habits of neglecting the parts that we don’t like so much and fail to give our business the attention it needs to thrive.

This Valentine’s Day, make a list. Write down everything that you love about your business on one side, and everything that sucks about your business on the other side. Now make a decision: based on this reality in black and white, are you committed to your business long-term? If you are, then you need to slowly but steadily work on a) expanding the parts of your business that you love; and b) fixing the areas of your business that suck. Don’t take the easy way out and say “yeah, but doing paperwork has to suck.” No, it doesn’t – you can find a better way to do it.

With this approach, you can fall back in love with your business. Given a commitment to continual improvement and ongoing investment, your business will shower you right back with everything you ever wanted from it.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

There is a critical difference between growing your business and maintaining a stable business. Both are challenging and require work, but there are significant differences in how you approach marketing for each.

To Maintain a Stable Business: figure out what worked before and do more of it. Continual improvement is required to stay afloat and make incremental gains each year. So if making 20 sales calls per week works well, bump the number up to 25. If your Google Adwords bring in new clients, bump up your budget by 10-25%.

To Grow Your Business: try something completely different. Introduce new products and/or switch up your pricing models. If you usually charge a high fee to a few clients, figure out how to charge lower fees to more clients for a net profit gain. If you’re stuck in a rut with clients who can’t afford what you have but the next level of client doesn’t know/trust you yet, find a way to prove your value to the higher end client. The scary thing is that growth often means sacrificing short-term revenue and/or profits, but the net gain will be worth it if you have a strategic plan.

The bottom line is that if you want to grow then you simply must do something new this year. Do something unexpected and fresh. It doesn’t have to be crazy or off the wall, but it should represent a significant risk for you. When you take a calculated, strategic risk and truly invest in its success, the rewards are more than worth it. I have seen clients double and triple their profitability in just a few months with this approach. I sincerely hope that you will do the same.

Here’s to a stellar 2012!

Top 5 Symptoms of Transition:

1. Revenue is fluctuating around a single point (i.e. not growing)
2. You spend all of your time “putting out fires”
3. There aren’t enough hours in the day, but you aren’t exactly sure what your employees (and you!) are doing every day
4. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself
5. When plans are made, they are seldom implemented

Sound familiar? If you are experiencing three of more of these symptoms, then your business is telling you that it’s time to grow. Yay! The challenge is that it needs your help. These symptoms tell us that your company is hitting some “speed bumps” and changes are required.

Want to grow in 2012? You need to manage these speed bumps to transition to the next level. Want help and ideas? Give me a call!

“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” -James W. Frick

What are your business priorities? Many entrepreneurs say their priority is to grow, but when we look at their financial statements we see that most of the money and energy is actually going into just keeping the business afloat – paying for existing products and business overhead such as rent, salaries, etc. If you want to actually grow your business, then you need to put your money where your mouth is and invest in growth strategies, including the following:

Product Development: To grow, you need to constantly invest in new (or at least significantly improved) products to offer your customers. You must invest in developing new ideas; they won’t just happen. Businesses that grow constantly budget for new product development in the form of prototypes, technology, testing, and customer focus groups. Of course, once you have the new idea you need to support it fully with business systems, employee development and marketing.

Business Systems: When building a home, you begin with the foundation and then raise the structure based on that foundation. If you decide later that you want to grow the home, you don’t just pull out some plywood and slap something together on top of your roof. Yet that’s exactly how most entrepreneurs approach business growth. Before you can add a second level, you need to fortify your existing structure so that it can handle growth, then build the frame and structure before you put up the drywall.

Employee Development: One of the biggest differences between large businesses and small businesses is the amount of investment the company puts into each employee. If you want to grow your business, then your people need to grow with you. Everyone – from the head honcho to the entry-level employee – needs training and development to ensure they can expand. Training and development is a bottom-line expense that (when done correctly) can make a huge impact on top-line growth.

Marketing: The marketing landscape has become noisier and more crowded every year, so it is more critical than ever that you take a long, hard look at your marketing activities. What is your annual marketing budget? Are your marketing efforts translating into the sales you need to grow your business? If not, then it’s time to make sure the budget is appropriate and the tactics maximized. Given the fast-moving marketing environment, your company’s marketing efforts should be critically evaluated at least twice per year.

If you are wondering why your business isn’t growing the way that you want it to, then take a look at the budgets assigned to each of the above. Want to know how to plan, implement, measure and fund growth? Give me a call!

Most business owners do the exact same thing: they spend 80% of their time focusing on the weakest elements of their businesses.

The sad truth is that most of that time is spent running in circles; very little progress is made when we focus on weakness. Conversely, we make massive gains when we focus on our strengths. If we learn to flip the equation around and spend 80% of our time working on what already works well, we will find greater success in business and in life.

Most entrepreneurs naturally fall into a pattern of focusing on just one of the upper two circles, but the third circle (what the market will pay for) makes the critical difference in working smarter, not harder. You can spend a lot of time working on an amazing project that you personally love, but for which the market is not willing to pay. Another mistake is to work in the bottom circle without regard for the upper two. That means that you are trying to reach a market need but you have no natural talent or interest in the product you’re offering.

Either way, you’re probably working way too hard!

As I mentioned last time, I’m gathering a small group of entrepreneurs for a lively discussion about how we can work smarter, not harder, and succeed in business. We will focus on these three circles and figure out where you should spend your valuable time and start growing with less effort.

What: GrowHow – Work Smarter Not Harder Group Meeting
When: Monday, July 11, 2011, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: West Los Angeles (RSVP for details)
RSVP: to vginsburg (at) swellstrategies (dot) com by June 30, 2011

There are more ideas and more entrepreneurs than ever before. Our customers are overwhelmed by choices and hear very little above the deafening marketing noise that has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. You can “put your nose to the grindstone” all you want, but working harder simply isn’t the answer in today’s market.

The time has come for entrepreneurs to evolve. We are no longer our own personal sweatshops. Working harder, longer hours is not the path to success anymore. Instead, we have to get smarter. Smarter about how to build our companies so they will succeed in this crowded, noisy marketplace. Smarter about how to attract customers, spend money, and hire employees. Smarter about how we grow.

The stakes are higher and the barriers greater than ever. But the promise of entrepreneurship is just as sweet as ever for those who adopt the new paradigm. If we choose the smarter path, we will succeed in building businesses that make us happier, healthier and wealthier.

Will you join me?

What: GrowHow – Work Smarter Not Harder Group Meeting
When: Monday, July 11, 2011, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: West Los Angeles (RSVP for details)
RSVP: by June 30, 2011

LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE – RSVP TODAY!

For more ideas on this topic, check out this blog post.

1. Cost: a small business should expect to pay about $3,000 per month; large businesses pay more than $12,000 per month; massive corporations pay more than $30,000 per month for a PR firm. You need to commit to a minimum of 6 months to see any meaningful return, and 12 months is the suggested minimum investment.

2. Timing: expect a good PR hit (i.e. meaningful media coverage in a significant media outlet that reaches your target audience) to take at least 6-12 months to develop, which means that you could pay $18,000-$36,000 for one good hit. Now, of course, that might be the hit that doubles your business, but see below for more on that.

3. Impact: only in very rare instances (i.e. getting on Oprah) does a PR hit make a significant difference in sales. The media audiences have become scattered and specialized over the past 15 years. Instead of a single big hit, it’s more likely that you will get multiple small hits that reach small audiences. Often PR doesn’t directly impact sales; it is typically most effective as a brand-building activity.

4. Contacts: PR firms pay for access to media databases of journalists, but very few PR people truly have an “in” with a journalist. Journalists are chronically overworked and underpaid, and there is a high level of turnover, so long-term relationships are rare. Many small PR firms can’t afford the media database and use Google searches to populate their media lists. Both ways work, and almost anyone can build a good media list.

5. Press Releases: very few PR hits are generated by press releases. In fact, most are generated through individual story pitches made to a single carefully selected journalist. Because of the nature of information dissemination today, journalists are not limited to press releases to find news, and in fact many actively refuse to read press releases unless they are from large, nationally-recognized companies.

I am telling you this not because I don’t believe in PR … I absolutely do! But for many small businesses, hiring a PR firm will result in a low Return on Investment. There are lots of simple, easy-to-do activities that you or one of your employees can do that will get the same, if not better results for your small business as a PR firm could at a fraction of the cost.

Intrigued? Give me a call if you want to hear more about how you or one of your employees can do PR for your business!

• Identify specific revenue goals.
• Set specific mini-goals and lay out detailed tactics for each person involved.
• Hold 20-minute weekly sales meetings to review goals, tactics and progress. Hold everyone (including yourself) accountable.

Of course there are additional steps involved, but these three are the true drivers of significant top-line growth. Give me a call at 310.453.7008 if you want to brainstorm how you can apply these three rules to your business and drive sustainable growth in 2011!