On the Edge of Success?

Photo by Ishrona 

Working with small business owners, it’s pretty common to see a good or even great idea, a passionate owner or business team and…unfortunately less than stellar results in terms of revenues or profits.  They are one big breakthrough away from really hitting it big – they’re on the edge of success, but they can’t quite get over that last hump.

There’s a lot of potential reasons for this, here are just a few off the top of my head:

  1. Focus is on features, not benefits – there’s no way to attract customers when they can’t clearly and easily see what’s in it for them (which by the way is the only thing that matters).
  2. Lack of capital to really build up presence and momentum.  It takes longer than it should to establish relationships and build up trust and a reputation, and since time is money, that longer timeframe often leads to a shortage of cash.
  3. Lack of follow-through on prospects or even existing customers.  How many times have you heard about the great solutions provider that doesn’t call back in a timely manner and loses out to whoever actually happens to answer the phone when the customer is in pain?  Or the customer that just not ready to buy yet, but by the time they are, they’ve forgotten all about the guy they met 3 months ago that was a perfect fit.
  4. Exhaustion – trying to do everything yourself (and struggling with a lack of success) is a sure recipe for wearing down.

I ran across an e-book the other day (fittingly called the Edge of Success…) that does a nice job of outlining 9 key points and a ‘secret’ that business owners should be employing to get over that hump.

There’s an obvious and not so hidden agenda from the company authoring the e-book to get you to consider their software solution, but I did find a lot of value and good points within the 57 page document.  Yes their solution can help with a lot of what they recommend, but they do a great job of not obviously selling and it comes across as very genuine and educational.

I can’t speak for their software, but the ideas around systemizing your business and implementing automation for marketing and customer service are right on the money and definitely a blueprint for success.

Take a look for yourself at Infusion Software and download the e-book, I think you’ll get a lot out of it.

Are you on the edge of success and not sure where to go from here?  I’d love to hear about it – share your stories here!

Shawn Kinkade  www.aspirekc.com

2 thoughts on “On the Edge of Success?”

  1. Clate Mask says:

    Shawn,

    I definitely agree with your (off-the-top-of-your-head) reasons for why small businesses don’t land the success they’re capable of. Those are many of the same reasons we’ve seen here at InfusionSoft over the years. I wrote this book because it’s a shame so many entrepreneurs don’t break through–I’m hoping this book will help them.

    Glad you liked the e-book. I like your blog and I’ve added you to my reader.

    Clate

  2. Clate,

    Thanks for the comment and the sign-up, I imagine I will be doing some future posts relative to the e-book as well, there’s a lot there I could cover. Thanks so much for distributing it.

    Shawn

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