Ten ways we are making our businesses HARDER than they need to be

Written by Julia Bickerstaff // September 3, 2014 // Premium // No comments

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 Google+ 0 Pin It Share 0 0 Flares ×

Hello YOU from the Artful Business Conference! Thanks for popping over!

Here are the 10 ways we’re making our businesses harder than than they need to be!

1. We don’t realise we are in SELLING!

Gah! We ARE in selling. Every day we have to *think* about selling. But it’s not so bad. Here are some blog posts which might help!

10 Marketing tips for a little business like YOURS!
The easy-peasy way to do 15 minutes marketing a day
Help! My marketing’s not working!
Stuck for marketing ideas? Do this!
The BEST way to do marketing
A fabulous little marketing tip!

2. We don’t set goals

Goals help us focus. Otherwise we can get a bit scatty! Here are some goal-y blog posts!

The 100 day journal
How to make your goals more achievable
Diary of 1000 sales
Turn your dreams into a plan

3. We do everything OURSELVES!

We don’t need to be experts in WordPress and graphic design and we don’t need to do data entry and…….well, I’m sure you can think of LOTS of things we don’t need to be doing. It’s not thrifty to do this stuff yourself. It’s *wise* to pay people to do some of it for you!

4. We price too LOW!

Here’s an old post about why discounts don’t work. Read it! Low prices really do make making money HARD! And here’s a collection of pricing posts you might like!

5. We sell stuff people don’t really WANT

Ugh. I hate saying this. But it’s true. Sometimes we make and create stuff that other people don’t want. It’s hard ‘cos so much we read says “follow your passion” and “do what you love”. But our customers need to love it too. Do yours?!

6. We get fixated by COMPETITORS

We just so don’t need to do this. We never really know what’s going on in someone else’s business. So run your own race and be happy being YOU!

7. We don’t ‘Look After’ our existing customers

OK ‘look after’ is a bit of a euphemism. We DO look after them. We just don’t kinda sell them enough stuff. I know up selling and cross selling sounds yucky. But YOU can do it in a nice, meaningful way. YES?!

8. We offer too much choice

Not only does this make life tricky for our customers (the paradox of choice) it’s tough for us to do! Try making less options and see what happens!

9. We obsess over our weaknesses

None of us live in the right location, have enough cash, have enough time, know the right people…..and it’s OK! We can still do really well!

10. We’re perfectionists

Oh yes! Most of us ARE! We make every job 120% perfect when our customers would have been happy with 80%. Does this matter? Yup, ‘cos we’re doing extra stuff that our customers don’t want and don’t pay for. UGH.

11. We don’t take the ‘business’ side seriously

Here’s a little extra one I popped in! I don’t think it applies to YOU ‘cos you are reading this AND you went to the Artful Business Conference. But anyway, here it is. We need to take the ‘business’ side seriously. That means investing time and money to become better business peeps. It’s worth it!

WIN

Fancy winning a copy of How to Bake a Business? Just send me a note (you can use this) telling me what your business is called, what you sell and how we met (Artful!) and you’ll go in the draw. EASY!

Special discount

You can also get a special little discount on our Healthy Income Program! You can get the first month half price just by being part of the Artful Business Conference! YES! No draw! EVERYONE gets it!

Wanna know more?! Just have a read of the info HERE to see if you like the thought of the program. If you do, reserve your spot HERE and then contact me to tell me you’re from Artful. I’ll then give you the info you need! Oh yes, and don’t panic, there’s NO commitment to join the program if you reserve a spot!