You are reading this because you probably want to know some different ways to jump start your business for the up coming year.
Trust me I know how you feel because back in 2007, If I knew the ways to jump start a business then…
I probably would have made more than $500 that year. But I was a newbie and very excited …
…and prior to kicking off the year with a new travel business I joined at the end of 2006, I had never did any kind of business in my life.
So as I sit here in my office, brain storming, I came up with what I think are the best five ways to jump start your business in 2014.
But before I reveal to you how you can jump start your business for success, let me share with you some of the crucial common mistakes people make so that you can avoid them on your journey.
Commons Mistakes People Make
1. Not identifying the right pocket of people
Have you ever heard this phrase “If you are marketing to everyone, you are marketing to no one”. Well this is one of the biggest mistakes people make when they are building their business.
Instead of identifying a niche group of people to market to, some entrepreneurs go out and attempt to market to everyone with little results. Granted they may even make a sale or two, but long term their business and profits may decline.
One thing that you may want to think about doing when you are trying to promote your business is to look at doing an exhibition booth to market your business to the right people. If this is something that you are interested in then you might want to check out something like these exhibition stand builders to help you brand your business.
2. Neglecting to be different
An example of this is pre-written auto responder messages that are never get customized. Let me explain….
When I first joined Empower Network, I was given the code to a list of about 100 emails I could use for my auto responder follow up messages. The problem was that, not only did I get them but every affiliate it seemed who joined Empower Network were given the same exact messages to use.
This created laziness amongst some of the affiliates ( including myself at the time) and this did not make us unique at all. So by not editing the follow up messages and not injecting one's own personality into them…
..you sounds just like everyone else – So I ask you…why would anyone want to buy from you?
I am sure this laziness caused leads to unsubscribe from list more frequently as well as potential would be sales being lost.
All this added together can hurt you big time when looking for effective ways to jump start your business..
I hope you understood what I just broke down to you because that's a big donkey ass problem if you are looking to brand yourself – Capeesh?
3. Not taking action promptly
In order to get any kind of result you have to take action. To many business owners don't take action promptly and swiftly and they lose out of business.
I believe in taking massive action to get the best results possible.
Think about it …why wouldn't you want to when you're a business..?
Now that I covered a few common mistakes we sometimes make when trying to jump start our business…
Let us now get into the meat and potatoes of this information.
Here are my top 5 ways to jump start your business in 2014.
Five Ways To Jump Start Your Business
1. Have A Why
If you are going to be in business you should have a reason for doing so. Starting a business without a sense of direction can become a disaster.
One thing it also can bring on is the acceptance of failure. Let's face it…. If you don't have a reason or a true goal why you are in business what is stopping you from giving up when things get tough.
So having a Why (reason to be in business besides making money ) is very important. Your why can be anything and that's for you to decide.
Personally mines just happens to be my 3 month old son who means the world to me. Since his birth he has become the major reason behind my success and also one of the catalyst to my 5 figure income.
( above picture: Shawn Andrew Johnson -my son )
2. Set And Track Your Goals
Now that you have your Why in place, it's time to set some goals. Goal setting is an important competent of your business success.
Setting goals help you hold yourself accountable. They also give you a laser targeted focus on what you should be doing, so you can only do those activities that will be beneficial to fulling your goal. Like for example I had a friend who was running a small business and he needed motor trade car insurance so he set himself a goal to get all of his vehicles insured instead of getting over ran by all of the other tasks his business required of him.
This way you can stay on course and track your progress.
All in all goal setting gives you a clarity of what is important so you can dismiss anything else that does not apply. For example, having a goial can show you what's missing from your business. This may be something like not excelling your business online through Google Ads. If you would like to know more about this then check out these PPCnerd Scripts.
3. Create A Map & Take Massive Action
This is where the rubber meets the road.
So now that you have your why and you have set a goal, it's now time to take massive action and start marketing your business.
Come up with some strategies you can start implementing right away. Map out the process as well as what you want the outcome to be.
After you have done this, its time to get the ball rolling. One way to get the ball rolling fast is to use social media.
The platform I recommend using is Facebook. This is a great place to market your business because it's the #1 most visited website in the world and it has millions of users connected to its platform.
There are other ways to market , but in my opinion this is the fastest and freeiest ( not a word ) way to connect to others outside of making cold calls, prospecting in the malls and attending hotels meetings ( if you still do those ).
If you want to become a Facebook Guru, without spending a bunch of money on courses…
Grab Social Lever which is an easy to read and cost effective Facebook marketing course by GVO CEO Joel Therien. I personally own the course myself and it's a steal for just $2.95.
Grab your copy for $2.95 by purchasing through my link here. In the comment section of this blog post leave your receipt number and I will send you my Facebook bonus to help you suck up leads from Facebook like a hoover vacuum cleaner.
4. Reassess
Now that we have determined our why, created a goal to be tracked and took massive action, it's time to grade our results. This particular part of the equation is simple and takes little time to evaluated.
I called this the see whats working or whats not working phase in building a business. Here you are basically grade what kind of results you got from your marketing.
Based on your results you may have to tweak what you are doing to get better results. You will know this by tracking different areas in your business.
Once you made the necessary changes in your building process its time to move on to the next phase.
5. Wash Rinse Repeat
This is the last phase which you basically repeat steps numbers 1-5 until you find the right chemistry in your business. This may happen quickly or this may take time, but over all this will vary from person to person.
However, once you do find that formula that works, you can scale up with your marketing ( implement more marketing tactics), push the pedal to the medal and watch your commissions pour in like water out a faucet.
This process works better when you have a high converting offer that is top tier in profit. If you do not have a high converting offer that pays top tier commissions watch this video.
So there you have it – five ways to jump start your business in 2014….
UPDATE!
Get A Coach
One element I did not include at first in this blog post was to get a coach. My friend Mark Brown brought to my attention in the comment section.
Not sure how I over looked that import part of the ways to jump start your business in 2014, but its a must if you are looking for success.
Here is why…
Having a coach who has been where you are trying to go is a big plus in your business. This gives you an advantage big time because they can give you valuble information to help you shorten your path to success.
By sharing their mistakes as well as their successes you can come up with a game plan on what to do and what not to do to achieve your goals. It is also important to follow their dirrection and not go off the path.
Reason being ( if you knew what to do you would already be where you want to be ).
Doing what I just said will put you so far ahead of your competition who is teaching themselves instad of having a coach or mentor.
So yeppers, get a coach and make it happen!
Now all you have to do is go out there and take action.
C Your At The Beach,
Daaaaaaang, this is good! I thought I was doing all of the steps until I got to reassess, which is a major deal. The common mistakes are great…my takeaway from those….know who you’re talking to, otherwise you aren’t talking to anyone! great reminder
Thanks Felicia.
I wish i had this insight back in 2007 when I was getting my feet wet in the industry. But since I didn’t I can help others go around the pitfalls that I encountered so they can reach success faster. Glad you enjoyed this. Thanks again.
Hi Shawn,
Great post the only thing I would add is: “Get a Coach” or “Get Coached” – many times in life and in business when folks get “stuck” they just don’t know what they don’t know and a Coach can fix that situation for them which allows for more action and bigger paydays 🙂
Happy New Year my friend,
~Coach Mark Edward Brown
Great point Mark!
We all need a coach. Even Michael Jordan had a coach – so Mark you are correct. Not sure how I missed this important part of jump starting a business.
Thanks for your input brother and Happy New Year to you as well!
Great post Shawn and I totally agree with Mark also, I think finding a Coach or Mentor to model after, learn and most importantly implement what you are learning is going to be one the the most crucial aspects to your success.
Having that strong WHY is also what will push you to the next level.
Thanks Lori and YES Mark was correcto mundo on getting a mentor.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your feedback.
Shawn… Shawn.. SHAWN… you did that thing bro.. and you now what I’m talking about. You are right on the money.. yet I have to admit.. I’m in love with your why.. I mean how can he be that precious.. yet the thing that I found was my main mistake at the beginning was talking to everyone.. and not my market.. mainly cuz I didn’t know who I was.. better yet who I wanted to talk to.. lol. Yet the minute I got a mentor all that changed.. awesome post.. keep smiling