Good old 2020. Quite a year so far, right? Not nearly even summer yet and we are moving into more and more uncertain times.
As a business owner, you feel this pain more than anyone else. With all of your usual financial projections and sales and marketing strategies moving into the unknown – what are you supposed to do?
I’ve been interviewed a few times over the past month and people have asked me “What will business look like when this is over?” Others have asked me an even more important question – “What will I need to change?”
Simple answer to all of this? I honestly don’t know what the future holds. But what I do know is that by identifying what I can control and leaning into those elements of my business, sales, and marketing strategy I can make strides to not only reinforce my company but make sure that it is prepared for any unforeseen bumps in the road that may occur.
In a previous blog, I mentioned that I am calling this a “Refocusing Revolution.” And I think that this is just the time to dive into this subject and shed some light on the next steps you can take to make your business more powerful than ever before.
Right now, you probably have more time. But time is moving faster. Odd, right? Before you seemed to pack so much more kinetic motion in your day: going to the gym, commuting to work, walking around the office, shopping at the mall after work, grocery shopping, commuting home, picking up the kids, going to the dog groomer, and more.
But now in the age of working from home, if you are working full-time, you are discovering that your days are filled and are a bit more productive. Why?
Space.
Silence.
Stillness.
While not every remote work scenario has these, you are not having people pop into your office for a quick chat. You are not having to multi-task during a meeting. Things are different.
This is where the Refocusing Revolution comes in.
Now without the distractions of busy office life and other office-based stressors, you have the time to refocus on what is most important for your business.
And you have some clear ideas of what they are. Most of them are in that “ideas” folder on your desktop or in your email provider. They are in your Google Drive and to-do lists.
It’s time to take your ideas off of the shelf and use this time to get busy with them. For example, at The Go! Agency we are pros are coming up with killer marketing and sales strategies and executing them for our clients. But when it comes to our own business, sales and marketing strategies sometimes get left on the shelf.
Remember the shoemaker’s kids having no shoes?
We have taken this time to make bold moves in terms of our project management system to streamline costs and processes. There were large marketing strategies that we have taken off the shelf and built so we can start them immediately. I began writing my next book which has been on the back burner.
Also – there were three services that we wanted to fully develop that would level things up for us, now and in the future. We did that and then we launched them.
None of this would have happened as quickly without this time of reflection and refocused creativity.
But – what happens if you don’t have a list of ideas? We would suggest to examine everything that you’re doing and see what can be improved or streamlined:
- Have a brainstorming session with your team or some of your key team members. Outline some potential new ideas, outline your challenges. Perform a SWOT Analysis and see what your competitors are doing. Take this seriously.
- Next up – examine your current tools, and find some backups. Also, see if you can condense any of your tools into one different system.
- If you think this isn’t important – ask yourself this: What would you do if you were told Dropbox is shutting down in 2 weeks? Do you know where you’d move your files? What would you do if you were told that your email marketing platform is going out of business? Do you have a backup tool already identified?
- Examine your processes – can anything be streamlined? What process (or processes) do you or your team dread? How can that be improved?
- Look at your products or services. What can be improved? Can you create a bundle of services? Should you create a new level of service (either higher or lower)?
- Look at your current clients & customers. What other challenges are they facing? How can your business be a solution to that problem?
This should get your creative juices flowing and hopefully, the ideas will start to manifest themselves. Be an active part of this Refocusing Revolution and do your own audit to see how to most effectively build more support and success into your business today.
If you find that one of the projects or ideas you’ve shelved involves executing a marketing campaign that you’re scared to do or just don’t want to do – don’t hesitate to reach out to my team. We’re here to help handle as much of it for you as you want. Or, if you’d like for me to evaluate your strategy and execution plan, I’d be happy to be a consultant to your team.
