Some days I feel an urge to dig holes for a living

90% or more of running a business is getting the customer and working the back end (if you’re a smart business operator)

I had a business for 12 years, went from 0- $500,000 in TO then back to almost zero again. It was service orientated (which I would never do again) but it was just as stressful making $500,000 a year as it was making almost nothing because of all the tasks you have to do as well as the work itself.

Most people who fail in business do so because, while they may not have what others want, it’s also because they wrongly think that having a sign and a shop is all you need.

You have to actively attract customers, keep them and work them. If you have something people want, sure it’s a little easier, but still it’s not plain sailing.

Systems that make the getting of the customer and the keeping of the customer easier, seem to sell really well, because it can make that most important aspect of business, simpler.

Don’t Microsoft spend 10X the development cost of their software on marketing? They spend 10 million on development and 100 million on marketing.

My customers were 95% business owners and less than 5% actively contacted their past customers to increase their profits, but that in itself can be the most profitable part of your business.

Your past customers know you, trust you, have bought from you. You’ve broken down so many barriers with them, but once they walk out the door after the sale, you go off and throw more money at trying to get new customers.

Hardly any company I dealt with in 12 years ever sent me special offers or anything like that, they just expected me to come back. And customer loyalty is at a historic low, more and more people ar searching for better service, better deals etc.

On supplying pre-qualified customers………wouldn’t that be great! Imagine if there was a business that did that all for you? You just got the fax or email with all their details.

A business locally tried to do this….they advertised that if you wanted a contractor, you rang and then 3 or more contractors would call……the contractors paid to be on the books. Problem was you had to wait for the contractors to call (contractors are notoriously unreliable)I tried this and had to wait three days to get 2 calls from contractors to quote…..the company went broke.

Once you’ve got customers and sales, then you can worry about the work, supply etc. But having the products or the skills with no customers, you won’t be in business for long.