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Your business can only grow as big as the way you think about it

Your business can only grow as big as the way you think about it.

If what you've been doing until now is thinking of it as a bunch of technical things you have to hook together, that's only going to take you so far.

And the self-honesty required to admit this is where you’re really at...that's unfortunately rare.

“I'm making (some) money!” cries the coach.

Yeah, but…

If you want to level up, doing more of the same is NOT what's going to get you there.

Growth Attempts Ending In The Valley Of Death

The diagram below shows you quantities and revenue sizes of companies in the United States. Perhaps, as I was, you'll be surprised at just how few there are at the higher end.

verne harnish scaling up valley of death sales tactics business growth
(Scaling Up, Verne Harnish)

See the Valley of Death between each plateau?

That’s where you learn, adapt, change your thinking...or die.

This is why so many people try to grow, yet fail, collapse and fall back to the old plateau and say, “That didn't work.”

I've been around a long time. Been running my own business since 2012, after a 15 year corporate executive career. I've seen it all.

In the first several years of my business, until around 2016 when I worked for a full year with my main client being a Change Management consultant who only took care of companies of 1000+ staff, I talked “newbie talk.”

Meaning I shared tactics good for newbies. How to bring in your best prospect. How to qualify them. How to turn them into buyers. What to say. How to set up your sales page. What to write. The thing to say in the video sales letter.

All that stuff is still out there, in forum posts, videos and right here in blog entries. It's free.

No More Newbie Talk

Since then, as I scaled up in business, I moved on from “newbie talk.”

The things newbies struggle with don’t interest me anymore.

Instead, what I've been looking for over the past year or so are new ways of thinking.

People struggling with their business often find the treasures I bring back from this search “boring” and “philosophical.” That’s their mistake. And it’s entirely because of their billiard ball, “Newtonian Universe” point of view...that success is a matter of putting the right pieces together in the right order. That is simply not the case. That’s what newbies believe and what they concentrate on.

So anything else sounds like nonsense.

I admit it’s a bit frustrating. But occasionally someone comes along, someone usually with a lot of experience, who “gets it.”

One of the treasures I brought back--I went and Snagit-recorded about 25 minutes of this lecture--was a talk about how Germany, the Soviets, and the USA produced tanks in World War II.

Now what does that have to do with MY business, you say?

Well, it's an example of different THINKING.

Different Thinking About The Same Problem Leads To Different Results

The Germans built these fantastically-engineered war machines. High specifications. Many options. Very expensive...many times the cost of their enemies'. Long turnaround to complete production in factories with work stations rather than a single production line--much like a Boeing airplane today.

german world war 2 tank production scaling up business growth
(German tank production station, rather than automotive-style assembly line)

The Americans, lead by an amazing architect named Albert Kahn, designed single-line factories that made inexpensive, zero options, long production run vehicles to good tolerances.

The Soviets? Well, first of all they borrowed Albert Kahn. They were US allies at the time, seeing as Hitler was invading the heck out of the USSR. And they did a study. How long did a Soviet tank survive in the field?

They found out it was six months, and in combat 14 hours. So why build things to exacting tolerances?

The Soviets made factories that practically spat out good tanks. Made to acceptable tolerances, because who cares--they were going to be dead in six months or less. They focused on lowering costs, and boy did they lower them.

The end result was the USSR and USA churned out a ton of tanks and overwhelmed Germany’s production. The finely engineered tanks Germany produced ended up filled with unexpected road dust and out of commission half the time in the war in the east.

Can you see the differences in THINKING about their work here?

Can you see the TRAP Germany caught itself in with the desire for high tolerance, beautiful war machines?

Can you see how these modes of thinking might be overlaid on YOUR business...and which approach you might have been unconsciously using until now?

Say you're a coach. Have you been, without really thinking about it, running a:

A) highly customized, long deliverable, exacting program?

B) well designed but affordable, easy to fulfill program?

C) "gets the job done" (barely?), low cost, quick and dirty program?

Is this approach you've unconsciously taken on the right one to get you to the next level?

Are you ready to be self-honest, admit where you're at, see reality as it is...and adapt your way out of the plateau you've been hung up on, so you can move to the higher plateau you’ve been imagining?

>> Jason Kanigan is a business strategist and conversion expert. To book a consultation with Jason, click here. <<

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Advice for a New Agency Founder

"Any advice for a new agency founder?" This was a real question posted in a large agency group yesterday.

My Answer: Focus on REVENUE GENERATING ACTIVITIES.

Playing around with your website is not a revenue generating activity.

Fiddling with your offer is not a revenue generating activity.

Similarly, writing copy is not a revenue generating activity.

Cleaning the company bathroom is unquestionably not revenue generating activity. Yes, I have seen founders try to hide from their business by doing this.

However, getting conversations with qualified prospective clients is revenue generating activity.

new agency, open door, unlock new business, unlock new agency, open new business

Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

Focused Advice for a New Agency Founder

Know and apply the difference between Pay Time and No Pay Time. As a result, do non-revenue generating activities in No Pay Time.

Also, do not believe that "being busy" is "being productive".

Set a specific money target and go for it. "Trying to make as much money as possible" is no target at all and dumb. Your subconscious needs a target. To survive, you need a money target. Those who don't set a specific money target (which you can achieve and then raise) tend to lose a little or a lot of money month after month until they have to go back to a j-o-b.

Therefore, set your money target for at least 2X of what you thought. You are responsible for EVERYTHING now. You can't go down to the company storeroom and pick up a pack of pens and a notebook. You have to pay for all that stuff now. You need more money than you think.

If you're not talking to at least two qualified prospects a day, you're bound for failure.

The Four Systems Every Agency Founder Needs To Be Concentrating On

Every business needs four systems:

  1. Lead Generation
  2. Qualification
  3. Closing
  4. Fulfillment.

Hardly anyone I've known over the past dozen years in the agency game thinks that way. They make things up as they go along. Then they end up with a sloppy set of processes and outcomes, and in fact are not even thinking of processes to make up systems at all. At that point they wonder why the business is slushy.

Be thinking every day about how you are accomplishing these four systems. How are you executing them, written in plain language first and then applying technology last? How can you improve them?

Advice for a New Agency Founder—What They Won't Tell You

Your business needs eyeballs (Traffic) and a way to turn some of those eyeballs into buyers (Conversion). Don't buy anything unless you understand EXACTLY where it fits in, in either generating Traffic or helping you with Conversion. Is there a hole in Traffic or a hole in Conversion that this thing can help you fill?

So many people buy a tech solution or other offer because the sales copy made it sound cool. They get things off Appsumo because "it's a deal". They have no idea where it fits into Traffic or Conversion, and therefore they never use it. I have watched people make this mistake again and again over 10+ years. Markedly, I have watched some specific people stay in the wrong mindset and remain broke for 10+ years. Don't be one of them.

Your job is to get at least two conversations with qualified prospects a day. "Qualified" means they admit they have a problem you can fix and want help fixing it; the size of the problem warrants your involvement; and they have a personality you can get along with. If you do this, you'll get 10 conversations a week. That's over 40 a month. Even if you suck as a salesperson, over a month you should land at least one client by accident. That's called a "laydown", someone who was waiting for someone like you to come along and wants to give you the money.

What New Agency Founders Need To Understand About Sales

A final mindset thing: There are without a doubt people out there who WANT to Give You The Money. They have money and they are desperately seeking Talent. "Please," they are praying, "send me someone COMPETENT who I can give this money to in exchange for them taking this Serious Problem off my hands." Understand, therefore, that they want this problem taken care of more than they want the money. Broke strugglers have an impossible time understanding this. Imprint it on your soul. Someone out there is desperate to give you money right now. You don't have to convince, force, or fool them into hiring you.

Print this out and tape it up in front of you in your work area. In addition, read it at the start of your day, the middle of your day, and the end of your day. Do not expect your mind and your memory to remember a darn thing on its own. For that reason you have to keep the instructions, the vision, the outcome you want right in front of you.

When I have not kept these principles in front of me over the past dozen plus years, I have forgotten them. That has led to trouble.

>> Jason Kanigan is a strategist who works with agency owners to increase the profitabilty and effectiveness of their organizations. Book a consultation with Jason here <<

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Feedback Loops: The Bane of the Experienced

emotional roller coaster broken feedback loop

Feedback Loops are the #1 challenge killing businesses I've seen in over 25+ years professionally. From startups through $100MM multinationals, feedback loops are the Achilles Heel of every organization.

I have also noticed that the awareness of this issue is a clear indicator dividing newbies from experienced executives. If you want to progress, you'd best start looking for broken or missing feedback loops...and fixing them.

You’re going to encounter this problem at every stage as you grow. It is not going to go away. You are not going to magically resolve it.

emotional roller coaster broken feedback loop

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Discovering and Resolving Broken Feedback Loops Is A Never-Ending Challenge

As your organization grows to each different size and shape, the feedback loop issue will rear its ugly head again and again. What worked before will break and things will start falling through the cracks again. You'll feel like you're on an emotional roller coaster when a feedback loop issue is near.

Here are a few areas where broken feedback loops impact your business:

> Accurate data needed to make decisions based upon

> Client updates and communication

> Information exchange ** between departments of your own business **

> Communication lines breaking

> Spreadsheets not getting updated in a timely manner

> Projects not updated or followed up on⏤the ball will NOT be moved down the field

> Individuals becoming sulky or afraid or overprotective of their interests or silo-izing and withholding information from other people inside and outside of your organization (it happened between the CIA and FBI pre-9-11 and they’re supposedly on the same darn side…think you’re immune?).

All this and worse will happen as you strain to grow. Do you recognize any of these symptoms?

This Is A People Problem, Not A Technical Problem

And I caution you now: what you think is a Technical problem is actually a People problem. It’s no accident the very first episode of my show is about this issue: You have a People problem, not a Technical problem.

Be ever watchful for the feedback loop problem.

When information is not accurate or available when you need it⏤you have a broken feedback loop.

When people are withdrawing from conversation and not sharing the truth with you⏤you have a feedback loop problem.

When the processes and systems you put in place are demonstrably not being followed⏤you have feedback loop issues.

Again, these are the bane of organizations tiny and massive, from little startups through large multinationals. I’ve seen and operated inside of all kinds, and there they are: the broken feedback loops again.

These issues will not fix themselves.

You must resolve them. They are the #1 problem you can solve in your business, because they lead to swift, accurate communication; fast decisions; good client relations; happy interpersonal culture in your business; and more multiplicative results. There is nothing more important once you are driving revenue that you could be working on than fixing broken feedback loops.

This is an epidemic to be identified and stamped out.

And you must take personal responsibility. Your COO, when you have one, should also be taking personal responsibility in doing so. And so on, embedded into your culture. If people are afraid to speak up, you’ve created that broken feedback loop and I implore you handle that killer problem right now.

What evidence have you seen of missing or broken feedback loops in your organization?

>> Want to explore where and how broken feedback loops are damaging your organization, its performance, and your client and partner relationships? Book a call with Jason to discuss. <<