How to Get Unstuck. 25 Ways to Get Your Business Growing Again. By Barry J. Moltz

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Adrian Parrish
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1 How to Get Unstuck 25 Ways to Get Your Business Growing Again By Barry J. Moltz

2 The only way out is through. Robert Frost For small business owners who are stuck, but find a way through.

3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements Foreword by Rieva Lesonsky Introduction Chapter 1: You Treat Your Business like It s a Job Chapter 2: You Think that Your Latest Successful Windfall Will Last Forever Chapter 3: You Think Someone is Coming to Save You Chapter 4: You Let Today s Emergencies Dictate Your Plan Chapter 5: You Never Take a Break or a Vacation from Work Chapter 6: You Take Dangerous Risks Instead of Calculated Actions. Chapter 7: You Think the Only Alternative to Success is Failure Chapter 8: Your Customers Can t Find You Chapter 9: Your Fear of Rejection Stops You from Selling Chapter 10: You Keep Calling People Who Don t Respond Chapter 11: You Stop Marketing as Soon as Your Revenue Increases Chapter 12: You Are Always Selling Product Features Chapter 13: You Are Selling a Product that can be Purchased Cheaper Elsewhere Chapter 14: You Go On Social Media Sites Without a Strategy Chapter 15: You Hate Your Customers (and Maybe Even Your Employees or Vendors) Chapter 16: You Only Hire Employees Who Are Weaker Than You Chapter 17: You Allow Lousy Employees (and Customers) to Overstay Their Welcome Chapter 18: You Hire for Skills, not Attitude Chapter 19: You Are Always Telling Employees What to Do Because You re the Boss Chapter 20: You Think Customer Service Is a Cost Center

4 Chapter 21: You Never Ask for Help Chapter 22: You Allow Personal Use of Smart Phones on the Job Chapter 23: You Don t Know How to Read Your Financial Statements Chapter 24: You Think Business Is About Growing Sales Chapter 25: Your Fixed Overhead Costs Are Too High Afterword Endnotes

5 Foreword Stop Struggling, Help is On the Way Being a small business owner is like living the opening sentence in the Charles Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us... Sound familiar? When we start out, we re filled with hope, positivity and optimism. We experience those amazing days when it seems nothing can stop us as we move ahead. And then comes, as Dickens writes, the season of Darkness, where even the smallest hurdle looms like Mt. Everest. And in an instant, we re stuck. It s like treading water we work and work and work and yet we never move ahead. Nothing is more frustrating. Especially since getting stuck often takes small business owners by surprise. We re not aware of what we did to get in this situation, and we have no idea how to get out. Yet, with every passing day we know, if we don t get unstuck, we re going to go under and lose our businesses. But how how do we do that? How do we get unstuck? The life of a small business owner can be a lonely and isolating one. So often we don t have anyone to tell us the truth, to show us what we did wrong, how to make it right and make sure we don t make the same mistake again. In short, we don t have but we do need our own Jiminy Cricket. You all remember Jiminy he tried to keep Pinocchio out of trouble, rescued him when misfortune befell him anyway, and helped him realize his dream of becoming a real boy. Unfortunately, most of us don t have a singing cricket to save us. But we do have Barry Moltz. Think of Barry as your own Jiminy Cricket. In fact he wrote this book, How to Get Your Business Unstuck, to help you the same way Jiminy aided Pinocchio. From the moment I first met Barry, he told me his mission was to help small business owners get unstuck and move forward once again.

6 Barry believes there are 25 all too common ways small business owners get themselves in a morass. In this book he not only identifies the problems, he offers the solutions, accompanied by real-life case studies of companies just like yours that once were stuck and broke free. Every small business owner will recognize himself or herself in these pages. Are you afraid to turn down business? Do you have a social media strategy? Do you (or your employees) secretly hate your customers? Do you think it s a sign of weakness to admit you need help? A yes answer to any of those questions could indicate you re stuck. Don t worry, help is on the way. You can get unstuck. You already took the first step by buying this book. Turn the page and let Barry Moltz help you. As Jiminy once said, You can't shoulder all by your problems alone, ya know. Rieva Lesonsky CEO/Co-founder GrowBiz Media SmallBizDaily.com

7 Introduction You would not exactly call your business a smashing success, but you have made enough money over the years to keep your company going. You have always weathered the ups and downs, but recently, it has become more difficult to grow a profitable business. Every month, you are in the habit of searching to find new customers and revenue to keep your business going. You are constantly worried about cash flow and replacing the employees who always seem to quit or get fired. The company is not growing the way you thought it would when you started. You wake every morning feeling like you are on a never-ending hamster wheel. You have tried many things to turn it around, but you have failed. As a result, both your energy and interest are waning. You and your business are literally stuck. After running your company for many years, it has sapped your energy and life out of you. You keep looking for that magic bullet that will be the tipping point to take it to the next level. You hope the next big customer or new employee will make the difference. Unfortunately, that brave knight on a white horse never seems to come. You are at the point where you aren t going out of business, but you re not getting rich either. While this scraping by gives you a job, you are not building a sustainable business. The worst part is that you see few opportunities to grow the company or a way to earn a living elsewhere. Do any of these situations sound familiar? You are not alone, and help is right inside this book. Many small business owners have felt the same way as you do. They have not been able to get unstuck and start growing again. But the tipping point is as easy as recognizing what is holding your business back and what changes need to be made to turn it around. This book reveals the 25 most common reasons why companies get stuck and how to fix them. Case studies also illustrate success stories. There is no need to read this book sequentially. There may even be some repetition in the topics because small business owners tend to approach the same problems from slightly different angles. Pick the topic or particular symptom that most closely matches what you and your company are going through right now. That is always the best place to start.

8 1. You Treat Your Business like it s a Job You are so desperate to earn enough money to support your family this month that you don t make any future investments that would result in building a stronger business. As a result, you say yes too quickly to what customers want you to do for them. Your business has drifted from your original focused mission, and you are not sure where it is headed. 2. You Think that Your Latest Successful Windfall Will Last Forever Once financial success comes, you think you have found the magic formula and you have the Midas Touch. You feel you will never fail again, and you start to believe your own press. You begin to surround yourself with yes people who tell you how great you are no matter what happens. 3. You Think Someone is Coming to Save You You are desperate for that magic bullet. You keep thinking the next employee or big customer will turn around your business. You keep looking for the white knight to ride into town to make everything OK. 4. You Let Today s Emergencies Dictate Your Plan You start your day by checking Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Your daily plan falls apart 15 minutes after arriving at the office. You are addicted to multitasking and constantly let yourself be interrupted by people and electronic notifications. You think that by juggling multiple balls in the air, you will be more productive. 5. You Never Take a Break or a Vacation from Work You have a fear of falling behind or missing an opportunity. You let technology invade every part of your life. You measure success by being busy, not productive. 6. You Take Dangerous Risks Instead of Calculated Actions You think success is about taking gigantic risks, so you waste your resources by jumping in without first testing the water. You take courses of action that satisfy your ego but don t help your business. 7. You Think the Only Alternative to Success Is Failure You are afraid of being a failure, so you don t know when to quit or admit it s over. You stop taking risks. And as a result, you keep going, despite increasingly low chances of success.

9 8. Your Customers Can t Find You You are marketing where customers can t find you when they are looking to buy. Your business never gets into the maybe pile and, therefore, never has a chance of being chosen. 9. Your Fear of Rejection Stops You from Selling You are afraid of the word no. You think that when they reject your product or service, they are rejecting you personally. This prevents you from spending the necessary time doing sales and marketing. 10. You Keep Calling People Who Don t Respond You keep calling or ing big customer opportunities that never reply. You hold onto the idea that they may still be interested if you bug them enough. This prevents you from talking to other prospects that may be interested. 11. You Stop Marketing as Soon as Your Revenue Increases That is, you only market when you have no revenue, but as soon as you get customers again, you stop marketing. This keeps the sales in your business flat. 12. You Are Always Selling Product Features Your product is superior in every way to the competition, yet you only tout your product s features instead of its benefits. With the Internet, prospects can research your features on their own. You are not giving them what they really want value. 13. You Are Selling a Product that can be Purchased Cheaper Elsewhere You think your product is unique and that if you build it, people will come because of how incredible it is. Unfortunately, your product has become a commodity without any real value, so customers buy it cheaper elsewhere. You cut your prices, but it is becoming difficult to stay profitable. 14. You Go On Social Media Sites Without a Strategy You think you don t need a strategy, and besides, surfing social media is a lot of fun! You become more interested in gossip than helping business prospects. You think the sole purpose of social media is to sell your products.

10 15. You Hate Your Customers (and Maybe Even Your Employees or Vendors) It s hard to admit, but you really hate your customers. You think they are whiners and are always impossible to please. Come to think of it, this is exactly the way you feel about your employees and vendors. 16. You Only Hire Employees Who Are Weaker Than You You are afraid of people knowing more than you or making you look bad to your peers, vendors, or customers. As an A Player, you only hire B or C players in supporting roles. You continue to use a hub-and-spoke organization where all important decisions come through you. 17. You Allow Lousy Employees (and Customers) to Overstay Their Welcome You don t fire employees, even though everyone knows they are doing a bad job and hurting the company. You can t admit you made a mistake, for fear of the repercussions if you actually let them go. 18. You Hire for Skills, not Attitude You are in a rush to hire anyone to fill a job. You only ask questions about skills and past experience in the interview process. You never discuss their career goals or how they fit into the company. 19. You Are Always Telling Employees What to Do Because You re the Boss You think being the boss means ordering people around and threatening them if it does not get done. This is the way it was done at your last company, and it seemed to work well enough. 20. You Think Customer Service Is a Cost Center You are so busy bringing customers in the front door; you leave the back door wide open for them to leave. You spend all your resources on attracting new customers and don t focus on keeping the ones you have.

11 21. You Never Ask for Help You believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness. You think that small business ownership is a solo sport. You are the biggest I in team. 22. You Allow Personal Use of Smartphones on the Job You do not have any rules in place, and you do not monitor their usage. You can t help think that this activity keeps them distracted from effectively doing their jobs. 23. You Don t Know How to Read Your Financial Statements You never review them or ask for help to understand what they mean for your business. You believe the numbers that are in your head, rather than the ones on paper. As a result, you make all business decisions blindly. This leads you to borrowing and spending money based on expected results, which gets you into debt. 24. You Think Business Is About Growing Sales You are so focused on growth and the sales top line (and want to brag about it), that you forget all the other financial measurements. As a result, you never seem to have enough cash to run your company. 25. Your Fixed Overhead Costs Are Too High Either you didn t forecast your sales and expenses correctly, or you let your ego control the checkbook. You don t know the difference between fixed and variable costs.

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