Any business venture starts with a vision. The vision is nothing more than an idea of an entrepreneur to bring something to the world that will make it a bit better. It’s the case with me and my business, and I’m sure it is you as well, n’est-ce pas?
However, ideas are worthless without execution. And the ingredients of the secret sauce to any successful execution are consistency and persistence.
In other words, what you need to do as a business owner to be successful long term is show-up and follow-up.
Why? Let’s explore this a bit more below.
1. Showing up
According to statistics, only 50% of businesses last more than 5 years. Most times, it’s not because the idea itself was wrong or broken, but rather the execution of bringing that idea to life became the reason of failure, and then the owner gave up.
The fact is that the most successful entrepreneurs don’t give up. They keep showing up treating roadblocks and challenges as lessons to get better. Giving up on your idea without trying to re-execute it in a different manner isn’t going to bring you the results and life you envisioned for yourself.
And so what that the first few attempts don’t work? Think of them as these many steps that brought you closer to the solution that will work. In case you didn’t realize this, all highly successful people have encountered many failures and roadblocks on their journey to success. Just take Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, or J.K. Rowling as examples. In the end, what separated them from the others was grit, willingness to improve, and belief in their cause coupled with consistency in showing up.
Imagine if an Olympic Athlete gave up after the first, second, or even 10th lost race. They’d never even qualify for the Olympics.
Another critical aspect of consistency often overlooked is habits.
And by habits, I mean establishing routines, processes, and systems in your business life that will make the executions of your ideas easier and faster.
Such systems will allow you to get up every day and know what to do rather than waste energy thinking about how to make your goals happen. Let’s come back to our Olympic Athlete example again for a moment. Just imagine if every day after waking up they had to think about ‘what I am eating today?’, ‘do I have training?’ ‘what type of training?’ How much time and energy would they waste? Just thinking about it makes me tired.
If you research any of them: Michael Phelps, Penny Oleksiak, or Usain Bolt, you’ll see that they have an end goal in mind, plan, and habits that support its execution. That’s precisely what makes them successful.
So now, how about you? Do you have an end goal in mind? A plan to get there and routines that will facilitate the daily execution? Habits that support the consistent showing up in your business no matter what?
If your answer is ‘no,’ ‘not really’ or ‘kind of,’ then maybe it’s time to change that: the sooner, the better.
You don’t want to lose the opportunity the New Year is bringing to rethink how you’re running your biz and what improvements you can make. If you’re a bit like me, I’m sure you’re serious about your business and want to succeed. And the only roadblock to that is that you don’t know where to start then the solution is easy.
I know that a FREE Brainstorming Session with me will get you going. Please don’t lose any more time. Click here to schedule one.
2. Following-up
The second key ingredient to a successful business is following up and persistency with it. Why? Because for one, there is no business without customers, and two people are busy.
That’s why, especially when it comes to sales, follow-up is vital.
Focusing on the initial contact is easy. After you’ve had the first call, meeting, or sent an e-mail to someone important. Taking this action makes you feel good about yourself. You’ve done your job, you’ve pitched and reached out. Now you probably think that all you have to do is sit around and wait for them to respond. But if you do that, what happens next? Nothing… crickets …
And that’s the problem. People are busy. It’s your job to make it easy for your potential customer to do business with you, to even remember you. I understand that you don’t want to be “bothering” people. We all want to avoid being annoying at the risk of getting rejected.
The key is to keep your follow-up short and sweet yet to remain persistent showing that you care.
The data doesn’t lie. 80% of sales require 5 follow-ups after the meeting. 63% of people requesting information on your services or products today will not purchase for at least three months – and 20% will take more than 12 months to buy. So, don’t give up on them!
To put it differently, if you’re not following up, you’re leaving money on the table with people who already know you and started to trust you.
Moreover, if your follow-up strategy is aligned with who you are, they will start liking you and buy from you in the end.
If you agree with me here, then I want to challenge you to follow up with at least 5 of your contacts right after you’re finished reading this blog 🙂
And if you’re not sure how to start or what to say, then it’s time for us to chat. Even in my FREE Brainstorming Sessions, I help entrepreneurs to get results in their business. Don’t miss out on this and book one here.
Final Thoughts
In case you’re close to giving up, keep in mind that your business idea is not wrong or broken, but rather the execution of bringing that idea to life might need to be changed. Change or improvement in execution will create an entirely different outcome, one perhaps much closer to what you originally envisioned. To achieve that, you need to keep showing up in your business for your customers, including the follow-up. At the same time, to maintain consistency, you need routines, disciplines, and systems that work for you.
If business success is your goal, then don’t waste your time anymore, take the last two months of the year to create that for yourself. And if you need help to start, just reach out. I will be happy to help.
