Gloria's husband's business was sick and she reached out to me this week from a distant community.
"We are struggling and we need help," she said. "We are losing money right now. Can you help us, Dave? We need to get the business working or we are going to have to shut it down!"
Even though I had a sense that they couldn't afford my services, my heart went out to them and I responded "of course I can help!"
You see, I know what it is like to be in that position. Years ago, when we opened our second location in a business, we lost a lot of money in the first couple years. The bank manager called me on a regular basis, sometimes at home.
It was really stressful, and it affected my health and my relationships.
The stress had built up as a result of Gloria's husband's struggling business and it too was affecting their relationship and his health. Maybe you know what that is like, too.
As a business coach, the first thing I do is learn as much as I can about the business. We had an in-depth conversation about the business. They told me that it was well located, they had some great staff and awesome customer service.
The business was so busy, that some months of the year that they had to turn work away, but it was so slow in others. There had been a downturn in their community, sales slowed, Gloria's husband hadn't been able to take wages in three years.
The family lives on Gloria's wages from an outside job. The business needed another $6,000 per month to break even and get the bank off their back. They needed to do something drastic to turn it around.
In analyzing the business through our discussion, I realized that a big part of the problem was that Gloria's husband didn't believe in advertising or promotion of the business. He thought like many business owners, that if you open the doors, your customers will file in and buy from you. This had worked at first because he had a lot of contacts, money was flowing in the community and he had some larger buyers.
Often what works in the past or during start-up phases of a business isn't enough in the more mature stages. Lately he had spent money on radio advertising with no results.
Once I understand clearly what the biggest issue is for a business owner, I work with that owner to figure out all the ways that the issue could be fixed. My premise always is that the owner knows the business better than I do but I can bring some outside ideas.
In Gloria's case we came up with six possible ways that they could increase sales that were specific to their business. From there we took the best idea, broke it down into smaller steps and finally they committed to doing something in the next week that they thought would make a difference in sales.
The idea they came up with was fantastic, creative and not costly. It was aimed at catching the attention of their potential customers and calling them to action. I am sure that they are going to get results if they follow through with their plan.
In Gloria's case, while it was a breakthrough, the solution to the problem was quite obvious and relatively simple to implement. In other businesses, it can be more difficult. The point however, is that often times we think we are stuck with what looks like an unfixable problem to us and we struggle alone in our minds trying to find a solution. This causes us stress that affects our relationships, families and our health.
Sometimes we need to get out of our box and think in different ways to figure out a creative answer around our problem. This might mean we need to ask others for help, ideas, or solutions. This in itself can be humbling, but if we want to grow and move forward in our lives, in our relationships and in our businesses, we need to take that first step.
Are you ready yet? Reach out to someone today who might help you break through what ever is holding you back in your life.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is a certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Reach out to [email protected].
