... continued from Cover
The lesson: Own your results, not your excuses. When something doesn’t work, look at what you can change: your approach, your process, your strategy. The only thing you can’t do is blame the tools. 12. Businesses, like people, get stuck unless you level up. There’s a dangerous zone most businesses hit somewhere between $2–$5 million in revenue. I’ve watched multiple clients hit this ceiling and stay there — or worse, start declining. The problem isn’t their product, their market, or their team. The problem is that the owner refuses to evolve. When I started Newsletter Pro, the business revolved around me. I could have my hand in every pot, and that works when you’re small. But there came a point where I had to decide: Did I want to stay a small-business owner running a small operation, or did I want to become a CEO building something bigger? The transition sucked. I had to let go of being involved in everything. I had to trust systems instead of my own eyes on every project. I had to stop being the star player and become the coach. Many entrepreneurs I know can’t make this shift, or won’t. They’d rather stay comfortable at less than $1 million to maybe $3 million doing everything themselves than scale to $10 million by stepping back. Here’s what I realized: If you don’t level up your skills, you cap your business at your current skill level. The company can only grow as much as the leader is willing to grow. I had to invest in learning how to be a CEO, not just a scrappy entrepreneur. That meant different books, different mentors, different habits, and, honestly, becoming a different version of myself. The lesson: Your business will hit a ceiling that matches your current capabilities. The only way to break through is to level yourself up first.
11. Own your results, not your excuses. Years ago, I was talking with a prospect who told me marketing never works for him. Then he asked me to sign him up for newsletters. I told him that was a mistake. He was confused. Why wouldn’t I want his business? I explained that if all marketing fails for him, newsletters would fail, too, because the problem wasn’t the marketing. Something was wrong with his methods or his business. He insisted on signing up anyway. After about a year, the same customer called and told me that the newsletter doesn’t work. I wasn’t shocked at all to get this call. I reminded him of our conversation when he signed up and told him, “You need to take a hard look at yourself, your services, and/or your employees, because it wasn’t the marketing that wasn’t working correctly.” I bring this up because there’s a flip side to the “launch before you’re ready” mentality that nobody talks about. When I started my company, we weren’t even called Newsletter Pro; we were Solution Marketers, a lead generation marketing agency that also did newsletters. It wasn’t the perfect name. It wasn’t the perfect positioning. The business model wasn’t dialed in. But I launched anyway because I knew waiting for perfect meant never starting. Here’s the difference between me and that prospect: When something didn’t work, I changed my approach. I adjusted the business model, tested different positioning strategies, and ultimately rebranded the company entirely. He looked for someone else to blame.
Continued on Page 3 ...
2
NewsletterPro.com
Building Relationships to Help Small Businesses Succeed.
208.297.5700
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator