Two Businesses. One Sizzles. One is a Fizzle. WHY?

 Once I gained a new client who owned a coffee shop in a strip mall. Across the road .there was a similar coffee shop that had a similar service. The difference between the two shops, however, could be seen in many ways.

My client's place was obviously in trouble. The place never had more than a few customers and yet they complained of having to wait too long for their orders. Regulars had stopped coming for breakfast because it took so long that they were often late for work.

Staff seemed to be over-busy and their body language showed that they were fed up. The service was poor and it seemed as though they had never received any training in alcohol or food handling.

The contrast across the way was awesome! There the atmosphere was absolutely sizzling with bursts of laughter, the buzz of happy conversation and the feeling of joy and happiness.

I thought, "I don't care what the food is like; I don't care what their prices are like; I want to be part of that crowd!

Yet the establishment was only three months old and twelve months ago my client's coffee shop was exactly like that. What went wrong?

Usually, the chief difference between the successful business and the struggling business is ineffective or lack of marketing.

While there can be other factors that affect the ability of a business to succeed such as the community's trading climate, unwanted products or services and cash flow problems, the number one difference between successful high-flying businesses and their struggling counterparts is good marketing.

If you are working 16 hours a day and never getting any time off. If you are worrying about your business even in your sleep. You will become stressed out of your mind. You have tried everything and nothing seems to work. You feel helpless to change the circumstances in which you find yourself.

As a client put it, "What do I do if there is nothing I can do"?

There is always something that can be done to improve any situation no matter how serious. Even if it is to formulate an exit plan where you conserve as much of your capital as possible.

However in any situation where you are going to continue to operate, the first thing that should be examined is your marketing.

Owners need to learn how to market their businesses and create a marketing system that keeps a steady stream of prospects calling. Please read some of my other articles on Marketing which gives some simple inexpensive marketing tricks that others have found to work.

 

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