Double Your Profits in 2009 Part 1

Today was my day to talk to potential clients. I had a successful, determined woman we’ll call Sally, on the phone. I listened as Sally told me about her plans, frustrations and fears. You see she was determined to grow her company, but had a bad experience. Sally took steps that were intended to move her forward, instead things went wrong quickly and she lost $20,000.

I wish her story of loss was unique, but unfortunately I hear those kinds of stories all the time. Things like:

• I just spent all this money on my marketing, but all my expensive leads are all falling through the cracks because I don’t know what to do with them. Now I’m out the marketing dollars and I still don’t have any clients.
• I just hired this person, they messed up everything I gave them so not only did I end up doing it myself, but first I had to fix what they did so it took me more than twice the amount of time it should have.
• I have all these ideas, but I can’t seem to connect all the dots so I feel like I’m just going in circles. Nothing changes, nothing gets done . . .even though I spent a fortune on live events, coaches and products.
• I could easily get more clients just by asking for referrals. But I can’t because it takes so much time to close the sale time I don’t have and then I have no idea how we’d event fulfill the work. I’d really like to grow, but I just don’t see how it’s even possible.

You see, I felt for Sally when she was telling me about her $20,000 loss. Yes, that’s a lot of money, but the bigger loss was that her confidence in doing anything differently was shaken. If she gives into a fear of growth and expansion then that certainly will cost her a whole lot more than $20,000.

The answer to Sally’s problem (and the others listed above) is to be prepared for growth by making the shift from thinking about