Video transcription:
Today's question is: how do you make sure your business survives?
Small businesses are at risk. We're already seen stories in the news of local businesses closing their doors forever.
Look, in good times it's hard enough to stay in business, but the bottom line is: many more small businesses are going to close forever, so how do you make sure you're not one of them?
Hi, I'm Tom Malesic, Founder and President of EZMarketing, and you're watching Ask EZ. This is where small business owners go to get real answers to their marketing questions.
Are You Growing or Shrinking?
In college, I took a job selling Kirby vacuum cleaners door-to-door.
The biggest lesson that I learned from the owner of that business was:
Your business is either growing or it's shrinking.
It's never staying the same.
And he kept saying this phrase over and over again really to encourage the sales team to work hard every single day. Because if you didn't, one week you'd have great sales because you worked really hard, and then the next week, your sales would fall off because you kind of sat back on your laurels.
And that was a true statement for selling vacuum cleaners and quite honestly, it's a true statement for business overall.
Your businesses never stay in the same. There's no such thing as the "status quo."
Your business is constantly changing, whether it's customer churn, or new competitors coming into the market, or the coronavirus completely changing market conditions. Your business won't be the same next year, next month, or even next week as it is today.
Why You Don't Just want to "Survive"
With the pandemic, things are changing faster than ever and the momentum -- well -- it's against us.
"Survival" is not a viable strategy. Survival implies that you're trying to hold steady or wait-and-see. And what that really means is you're losing ground.
It's like being in the middle of the race and deciding to slow down and see what happens. Well, what's probably gonna happen? You're gonna lose the race.
If you're not actively working to grow your business right now, you're shrinking.
So what do you need to do to grow?
Adapt
For starters, you've already been doing it: you've adapted, right?
You probably have people working from home, or maybe you've shifted your staff. You've definitely changed your sales message in communicating with your customer, and you've learned to do a LOT more with a LOT less.
The key here is to be flexible and open-minded about changes you make to keep revenue flowing in the door.
Don't Stop Marketing
And of course, don't stop marketing. I get asked things all the time like: "I've been doing SEO or I've been doing Facebook Ads. When can I stop?"
Never!
You can't ever stop. In fact, you should probably be doing MORE marketing.
Because running a business is like pushing a big boulder up a hill. It's a constant battle, and the second you stop, that boulder is going to roll backwards, and a competitor is going to just fly past you.
and marketing are what keeps your business moving forward. If you've stopped over the past few months, you're going to need to push even harder to get it going again.
It's hard and it's exhausting, but you can do it. You just need to be totally committed to moving your business forward, not simply "surviving" and coasting.
Ask Us Questions!
I'd like you to know you're not alone. If you have questions about business, marketing, or anything else that's on your mind, contact us! We can help you push the gas on your marketing and get your business growing and in the right direction.
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