I wanted to talk about today was how to save your business and profit during these challenging times. I feel like I’m a man on a mission right now and we got to save small businesses from this dire economic threat.
Clients come to me because they are looking to grow their business and make more profits with fewer headaches. I do marketing consulting and have a digital agency to help back up the strategy that we implement.
Only we can solve, save each other and help each other. A few thousand dollars means a lot to a homeowner or a small business. What kind of help is available from the government such as the loan programs from the SBA?
Only we can help ourselves and each other move forward.
I’m going to tell you a story about myself. In 2006, I started a gym. Now if you remember, the bubble was about to burst. Okay. So I invested $13,000 a month in rent and cam charges $500,000 dollars worth of equipment.
I racked up about 30 grand in credit card debt and this was during 2005 – 2006, and things were booming. I also invested in real estate. I Did all these different things and then the market crashed and we pretty much lost everything.
After I lost my business I sat on the couch, growing a beard in a bathrobe and was depressed for a year.
I had to start over and decided since I had no money and I didn’t have any credit and I had no job, I started doing fitness training in parks. Now, this is back before CrossFit and back before boot camps were already a thing. Nobody was really doing it yet. They were in California, but not yet where I am in Washington state.
So I start running around like Forrest Gump, who’s running through the park and there are people following him and all of a sudden his hair’s long and he’s got like a big tribe of people behind him.
I literally did that in parks and before you know it, we went from one or two people thinking I’m a weirdo to 198 people showing up to an event that we had for charity and raised a whole bunch of money for local charities. Then, we had a Bootcamp that raised $14,000 in a month.
It was a really exciting change and that Phoenix burst out of the devastation that was right there in front of me and I could’ve just done nothing. And so we can do it. If you’re a small business owner, you’re wondering, how do I keep my lights on? How do I pay my rent? What am I going to do? You can pivot, you can pivot. There are many ways to pivot.
This is a message of hope because we will get through this.
I have set something up for business owners. If you’re a business owner, you might be interested. I created a website just for you at this time.
- FREE OPT-IN
- FREE downloadable PDF
- FREE VIDEO INCLUDES – The Top and best tips on how to survive and thrive as a business owner during challenging times.
AS SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS, WE HAVE MADE IT THROUGH TOUGH TIMES. We’re going to do it again.
LEARN THE 80/20 RULE
Richard Koch popularized it in America and has some of the bestselling books out there. He wrote the book The 80/20 Principle. The Secret To Achieving More with less. I may be working with him soon. He is amazing.
- The 80 20 principle in business basically asserts that 80% of outputs come from only 20% of inputs.
We think that if I put in eight hours of work, I should get eight hours of pay, right? But if you’re a business owner, and I do this effort and I put a lot of effort into it, then I should get a result. It doesn’t work that way.
- It turns out that 20% of what we do is the most important and all the other stuff is trivial so I’m going to show you how to pivot to making your time matter and how I do it too.
I’m a marketing guy so I focus on the following.
- I look at leads generation
- Marketing
- Planning
- Strategy
- Ability to help businesses get new clients, customers
- Studying marketing channels
- Paid Ads, SEO
- What produces customers
If you own a tiny business, you need to focus on
- Referrals
- Advertising
- Producing more customers
What is generating customers right now?
The 80/20 rule is more important here because there are about 20% very specific things you can do to succeed during an economic crisis and a lot more you can do that actually wouldn’t result in much.
This is where I recommend you attempt to pivot. I know a business that went from manufacturing couches to making masks. I currently have a dentist that needs to stay in business although they’ve been shut down. Well, one thing he can do is continue emergency services.
- Take advantage of advertising “emergency services” if it is relevant for your business.
AS SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS, WE HAVE MADE IT THROUGH TOUGH TIMES. We’re going to do it again.
After 911, everyone thought no one was ever going to do business again. But we got through it.
Advertising Costs Online have plummeted.
- Costs are so cheap to advertise.
- 6-minute videos can be seen but only cost a penny to make. It literally cost a penny to make an entire infomercial.
- Average cost of a TV ad is $90-$2500 but is not viewed because people don’t watch commercial TV.
Advertising with social media is far greater.
- Everyone is at home at this time.
- Everyone is watching videos.
- Quality content is being viewed.
- Advertising is at low cost.
- Never is a better time to reach people.
If you are a business owner and you are trying to pivot, you are trying to grow while simultaneously cutting cost, then you need to check out challenging time.com or Stoddardagency.com
You are welcome to contact me and I will give you a free consultation. NO OBLIGATION. STAY POSITIVE. TOGETHER WE WILL THRIVE.
