Are You Running Your Business Like A Frat House?
April is spring break for colleges and I noticed that most entrepreneurs struggling in this economy are running their businesses like college frat houses.
Brace yourself this may be a little controversial but sometimes instead of giving you “professional book smart” tactics, I have to be blunt and give you down and dirty street smarts.
Here are 3 strategies that will occur during Rush Week at UNLV in the coming months and hopefully you can learn from these horrible examples how to run your business right.
1. Frat BOYS – Only selling to the easy ones?
In a Boys will be Boys mentality, many college boys are not really confident in who they are and tend to target the “Easy Girls”. Hopefully, you are not making the same mistake. Selling only to easy customers would be to target customers by selling PRICE only. When you are the lowest and cheapest, you may be signing lots of new clients, however, they are not keepers. They are not customers for life. These customers will leave as soon as there is another offer for similar services that are cheaper than yours. This may immediately help with cash flow, however as a long term strategy this will not work. The analogy – the “easy” girl is not the girl you take home. If you only sell PRICE, your business will not survive. There is only one Wal-Mart.
2. FRAT BOYS DO Not pay attention to what is important
As typical Frat House Antics, living in the moment can be dangerous. Just like for an entrepreneur. Attention should be focused on figuring out a way to bring back customers again and again to buy your products or services. It should not be on making the sale today. As well as what are the long term goals and what I call “FUTURE MONEY”. It is difficult to drive your car if you are always focused on the rear view mirror. You must be planning for what will happen next month. That does not come from living in the moment and just handling business today. Creating your Marketing PLAN and implementing it solves this problem.
3. FRAT BOYS – Hit it & Quit It mentality…
I warned you this was going to be a bit controversial. But the real gold in any business is not to keep getting new clients and have them buy once. The KEY to building a million dollar business is to build a relationship with your existing customer so that they trust you. Getting your customer to come to you first is the real KEY. Even though, I never sold telephone systems, my customers were trained that anything that had to do with telecom to ask my opinion. They trusted my information and as soon as you become a trusted advisor, chasing customers and chasing money is no longer in your daily activities.
It’s ok to grab an occasional beer, but always strive for building a long term relationship
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Gucci Shoes on June 5th, 2010
Thank you for posting this it was helpful for a paper I am currently writing for my finals. Thanks
guccishoes on May 27th, 2010
Thanks for making such a valuable blog, sincerely Kobos Mathers.
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