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Small Business Marketing Ideas
How is a Leaky Home linked to Your Business?
Leaky homes.
They’ve ruined lives, bankrupted honest hard working people, and made headline news for the past few years.
But how did the leaky home’s start? And why is this related to your business today?
Leaky Home Syndrome
The leaky home began with a dream. A dream of a new house and a new future. The house was designed, built and only after a number of years did the proud home owner realise a dream was in fact a very costly nightmare.
So how did this come about? The dream was real. No doubting that. The house was designed, though only later did the owner find that the design wasn’t ideal for its environment. The design was then built, and again, it was only later that we find the use of the wrong materials in very key areas of the home’s structure. The right use of the wrong materials over time caused slow, very real damage that bit by bit, gradually over time, unnoticed. Until one day, the slowly eroding damage causes a home owner to notice a strange patch on their ceiling, another sees a trickle of water running down a wall, one I know had no warning prior to the ceiling falling in on their dinner table whilst entertaining six guests.
This has a direct relation to most business owners today, with critical lessons - I’ll share the what and why shortly.
The momentum of news headlines grew for the leaky buildings, the governments got involved, so did a whole lot of lawyers, and really the only beneficiaries were the legal profession, as the builders had long gone out of business, or liquidated to protect themselves, and the home owner has been left with the proverbial can to carry.
So how does this relate to a business?
Before I explain, did you know that large studies have been undertaken which prove that 80% of businesses fail within their first 5 years? And did you know of those that make it past 5 years, 80% of those fail in the next 5 years?
So that’s a reported fact that 96% of businesses fail in the first 10 years. 4% are successful. That news doesn’t make it into newspapers.
So why is that? It’s the leaky business syndrome:
Leaky Business Syndrome
Most business owners start with a dream. A dream of following a passion and a new future. They build a business to follow that dream, and ultimately the business fails, leaving their dream in ruins and a large financial burden.
So why would someone with a dream work so hard to fail? To simply answer, they didn’t know what tools and materials to use to design their dream business that would deliver their dream into a reality.
The business is designed at the start, usually in more haste than the house design, and usually this design develops over time - building the home while you’re living in it (so to speak). Most of the time, the passionate business owner is an expert in their own product or service they want to sell and the materials needed for a sound business (ie. tools, methods, processes) are put in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The E-myth, a famous business book puts it nicely: "An excellent operating system is more important than the company’s product."
It’s not the business owners fault - They don’t know that there are people out there who can help them, a business architect if you will, who can help them make sure their design is right, and send them happily on their way. There are some good ways forward - Pete can show you:
A Story about Pete
I’ll use one business owner I know, I call him Pete for the purpose of this article. And before you learn about Pete, the lessons shared are for any business and industry, not just his.
Pete has a passion for clothes - he’s a clothes designer, and a very good one at that. So he starts off on a path of following his dream of owning a fashion retail store. What Pete didn’t appreciate in the early days was the technical aspects of running a business. Whilst Pete was an expert in making and design clothes, he didn’t know how to design a business. He didn’t understand how to best use the areas of marketing, sales, finance, technology, managing operations and managing staff (aka the building materials) to best design his business (aka the home).
Over time, little by little, Pete’s decisions started adversely affecting his business. Sales plateaued, profitability reduced, the hours needed in the business went up, Pete worked harder and harder without improving the sales considerably, profits start reducing.
Every day became harder, deep in the forest, and Pete was not able to see past the trees.
Is there good news in this story?
Yes there is.
Did you know that it’s usually cheaper to fix a leaky business than it is to fix a leaky home. The cost to fix the home where the ceiling landed on the guests? $ 400K. The cost to implement a focused marketing strategy to improve visibility, increase customer traffic and ultimately sales with Pete? $ 2K.
Little by little, Pete is seeing improvement with the right help in the right areas at the right time. He is starting to reduce his hours, he is starting to have more time for himself and his family. He is starting to see the forest from the helicopter.
Do Pete’s early struggles sound familiar?
A Business should be your way of sharing your passion with others, not a set of concrete boots that over time drags you down.
Here’s an easy question for you: When was the last time you could take a break without having to worry about your business?
“To keep yourself motivated and healthy, it is important to take holidays and get a break from work.†- And that’s from Richard Branson - he’s got the same number of hours in the week as you and I do, its impressive what he’s done with his efforts - so how do we get close to that?
Following a passion should be hugely rewarding and fulfilling. It will be challenging work, don’t get me wrong, but it needs to be rewarding.
Finishing with the Emyth: “If your business runs your life, you do not have a company, but rather you have the worst type of jobâ€.
We only live once, so let’s help ourselves, our family’s and each other enjoy every moment.
- JM
P.S.
Kiwi’s love to give everything a go, a bit of number eight wire, and “she’ll be rightâ€. That attitude can often be a curse: Don’t be afraid to ask for help or advice. Understanding your weaknesses and getting support in those areas are what helps you move towards the 4% of successful business owners out there.
Good luck!
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