Sometimes running a small business can be an air punching, fist pumping, heart racing delight.
And at other times, it can be an utterly draining, exhausting and problematic nightmare!
I’ve been in both places and I’ll bet that you have too. Running a small business is a bit like nurturing our health. If you tend it thoughtfully, diligently and with love, it will thrive. If you take health for granted it may struggle, limp along and fail to survive.
Is it time to get a real job?
On those tricky days when unexpected bills drop onto the mat, the diary is empty and those booked in don’t even bother to show up, it can feel like the end of the world.
During my 3 years getting established in this niche and very exciting sector, the Old Boy has told me many times to ‘go out and get a real job’! It makes me so mad because he doesn’t understand my underlying passion for what I do! He enjoys the high salary and benefits of a large company and to receive this he only need turn up and complete the daily given tasks. So he has no comprehension of how hard we must work to keep attracting new people into our businesses.
I could have given up on my dream to work with Osteopaths after 6 months or during that tricky first year. But I didn’t. Perhaps the fear of failure was more scary than the fear of the real job!
It turns out that I have a knack for spotting the opportunities which may be right in front of a Client’s nose but which they are just too close to see. Some have even been located within large buildings with thousands of staff but who had an almost empty diary. Some have been in rural areas and struggled to find enough patients. Some have been within a highly competitive area and don’t know how to stand out from the rest. Others have left a thriving business to move areas and then wondered how on earth you start from scratch!
Indeed some Clients do come to me in quite a desperate state. They are at that point where it’s decision time; either make this work fast or go and get a real job stacking shelves or something equally banal!
Not on my watch you don’t!
Running a small business can be a flipping lonely place!
When things are not steady and the business is ricocheting between bleak and dismal, it can feel like it’s all our fault. We doubt our abilities. We question our business sense. We wonder why we ever thought we could be successful in our own right.
Our mind monkeys love all this drama and go into overdrive. We can end up tormenting ourselves that our competitors must be better skilled than us. We toy with slashing our prices to see if that will work. We wonder if, in starting up by ourselves, we’ve made the biggest mistake of our lives.
On bad days, when the bank balance is giving us heart palpitations, visions of working the supermarket checkout can haunt us. Or that patronising look from our normally supportive partner which says you’re just not cut out for this are you dear?
The pain/shame/loneliness/overwhelm/failure feelings
Struggling to keep that business afloat can feel like a monumental and never ending task. Feeling overwhelmed with all that needs doing but not knowing where to begin or even sticking our heads under the duvet and feeling sick with worry can drive us further into the abyss.
If our family or friends have little or no experience in running a small business, they can end up either giving no advice, or worse, giving useless or counterproductive advice. Then the doubt creeps in about what we should or shouldn’t be doing to improve matters.
It can feel like a very lonely place and we begin to wonder whether this uphill grind is really worth the toll on ourselves and our relationships.
But there is always a solution!
Often it’s actually a series of small steps which lead us out of the despair of an ailing business and away from the ‘real job’ we dread resorting to. And there is no shame at all in reaching for help with this. Because the crucial element to business building is always targeted marketing but when money is tight that is always the area which tends to be sacrificed.
Time and again in recessions, I’ve seen businesses dump their marketing department first. Of course very quickly that impacts on sales and soon the whole company fails. Perhaps all they really needed to do was to make their marketing much more strategic and impactful to get noticed and drive sales.
Taking positive action to move away from that ‘real job’ feels amazing!
Put your favourite uplifting music on, have a dance around or do some exercise, lift your energy up a notch and get cracking!
Step 1 – plug the leaky bucket!
Take a look through your last 3 months bank statements and identify ALL areas of unnecessary costs and eliminate them. There may well be subscriptions for things that are no longer needed. There could be standing orders and direct debits for stuff you just don’t want anymore.
Then check all services and suppliers and see if you can reduce your costs. I recently did this with my internet provider. I’ve got the same service (supposedly faster) but I’m saving a whopping £64 per month!
Step 2 – market yourself like crazy!
Crank up that FREE social media marketing machine and start posting items of interest to your Perfect Patient. All vague and bland stuff is OUT! Make your images strong and words direct. Write mini blogs giving advice, post them and re-post them! Make sure you are well known in your immediate area – get out and shake some hands. I ask my Clients to buy a gorgeous book purely for marketing strategies. Do a brain dump of ideas. Write a list of thrilling blog titles or the types of advice you give over and over to patients. Post about this and any other healthy and diet tips you have. Share all this generously and you will reap the rewards.
Step 3 – rinse and repeat!
Keep doing that in every spare appointment slot. Ask yourself what can you do right now to get your message out there. Because that’s all the real problem is. People in pain don’t even know you can help. So keep taking action. Maintain a high profile and be consistent and persistent in your marketing and things will turn around very quickly indeed!
And if you’d like quicker results but aren’t sure how I could best help you reach for success, then drop me a line and tell me confidentially about your situation.
Alternatively jump into my popular and fully supported online course ‘Osteobiz Backbone Basics’ and you’ll become a marketing guru in just four weeks! (This coupon code will give you £50 off and there’s an installments option too! Just type in BACKBONEDEAL on the order form)
