The Biggest Reason Your Business Isn’t Doing Well

One of the biggest reasons your business isn’t doing well may be cause you are not focusing on the right thing.

Let me give you an example…

One of my team was on her way into the office when someone came out of their business and stopped her to ask her to tell her “boss” – that would be me – that I shouldn’t be parking my car where I park my car. It’s on the opposite side of the street from where our offices, and other businesses, are located.

When we first set up the office here, he told us not to park on the street in front of the office. I get that – this is a retail area and we’re in a storefront. So, now I park across the street. There happens to be one tiny little parking spot that most people don’t park in which is across from our office. I park there because I drive a little tiny red rocket that fits really nicely into that little spot. That’s where I was parked.

This individual stopped Adele to specifically ask her to tell me not to park there either. Now, why are they doing that?

Why are they focused on telling me not to park there?

I’m guessing – because of my extensive background in retail – that they want their customers to be able to park there. And they believe in some way that me parking there is potentially preventing them from getting traffic into their store.

If the real problem is getting traffic into your store the question is, will asking me to park elsewhere solve the problem?

I don’t think so.

This is a metaphor for things that we do in our businesses all the time.

We focus on some other problem instead of focusing on the real problem. In this case – and I’m assuming because I don’t know their business – that they want more traffic to cross the lease line.

So, what can you do to control more traffic to cross the lease line?

You can try picking on where other merchants in the community are parking…and then they probably won’t shop with you. Or, you can focus on, “What can I do to drive more traffic into my store?”

Can I do online marketing? Or social media marketing? Can I Periscope? Can I send out direct mail pieces? Can I have invitation-only events?

What are some of the things you can do and that you can control?

I’m using this as a metaphor. It’s not to about the guy. It’s not about where I park my car. It’s about what problem you are focusing on; that you think is preventing your business from growing, but is NOT the real problem?

We get distracted by what we perceive as a problem rather than focusing on the real challenge – how to get more business. If we focus on that we will be further ahead.

What will move the needle? Will me moving my car move the needle for that business? No!

Figure out what is going to really move the needle in your business and fix those things rather than focusing on things that, in the grand scheme of things, are no big deal.

There are really only three things you can do to grow your business and those things are all tied to conversion:

1.) You need to get more traffic.
2.) You need to convert more people.
3.) You need to increase the average price of what you sell.

If you do any one of those three things you can increase your business. This is what helps move the needle in your business, not who is parked out front.

I recognized this experience as a teaching opportunity because I know that we all sometimes focus on things in our businesses that are not really going to make a difference to our success.

Find the thing that is going to move the needle the most – focus on that, and let the rest go.