There’s a cafe near where I live and the business owner is super demotivated and really can't be bothered with his business anymore. I've never been in there but a friend of mine has and they tell me that every time they go into the cafe he's demotivated, he never smiles and he just can't be bothered with customers. Why are you in business?
He’s now changed his offering, which is a great idea but the branding is the same. He still looks like he has no motivation when you go into the café, his offering really isn't anything innovative, it's the same old, he's just put an Italian flag out the front.
If you're not serious about making change in your business and doing it properly, then don't waste the time, energy, money and skills that you have to do that. No one wants to go to their morning cafe if you don't have a smile on your face, if you're not happy, if you're not talkative and you're not willing to brighten up someone's day.
Being a small business is a hard job, we know that, so if you're not committed full force get out. It's not for everybody, it's not for the faint-hearted. Business failure rates as we know are so high. It takes a special human being to create a successful and long-term business.
Now this is not to scare those that are thinking about going business but if you want a quick fix, you want to make money quickly, do not start a business find another way. Maybe win the lottery.
How to make marketing the key to your small business success
So I was driving to work this morning and I saw a van, it was a building company and it listed down on the side of the van all the services that it provides. Now, literally there were eight of them and it's funny because in our book Small Business Marketing Decluttered, we use a very similar example.
If I'm someone that’s driving next to that van how do I know what it is that that Building Company does? It does flooring, it does roofing, it does carpet, it does bathrooms, it does kitchens and it does everything possible that a builder could do.
Now if I want someone to work on my house, I want an expert and a specialist in and if I'm driving I don't have the capacity to take in eight things on the side of a van and decipher what the they do and how they can best help me.
Keep your message super simple, keep your expertise simple and make sure that you are positioning your business and your brand in a simple way in the minds of your customers that is different to the competition, so that you can stand out and give people the option to understand what you do and make a decision as to why they should choose you over your competition.