We’re drawing closer to fall which for my business tends to be a busy time – a time of renewal as business owners and managers get back from summer vacations… and begin looking forward to Christmas vacation.
I really got stuck on the idea of touching the pulse of as many savvy people as I could to really find out what the top issues are right now.
So last week, I did something that seemed logical at the time – I asked the folks on my list a very simple question:
What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now in growing your business?
Responses have been coming a *wee bit* more steadily than planned. There are definitely some common themes, and I’ve really enjoyed the chats and email conversations I’ve had, but it’s tough keeping up.
So I’m doing the only logical thing – I’m asking for your help.
Below, I’ve paraphrased some of the responses I’ve gotten so far, and even combined some. All names have been removed (to protect the innocent!) and the stories have been changed a bit to mask identities. But the concepts are the same.
***Yes, I have left company names out; in some cases I have materially changed facts (e.g. line of business) to protect identities. The concepts, I assure you, are still the same.
What I’d like from you:
- Read through the responses.
- Find one that you know how to solve, or for which you have a helpful suggestion.
- Leave a comment with your answer. (Remember, you can post under an anonymous “name.”)
- If your response is on this list, check back here for what people suggested.
Here are the top themes and issues people reported as challenges when trying to grow their business right now:
How to Find and Win Clients
Diversify or Die
As an ad agency, we’ve had some solid accounts in a few good markets for several years now. Frankly, some of our big name clients have been dumb and gone under these last few years. We DON’T want to follow their lead. We have to break into new markets. Two markets in particular we’re looking at are 1) game companies, and 2) clean tech companies. We have a lot of related experience that maps well. But how can we best communicate that and how do we best approach and position in these two markets?
- Ad Agency
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Too Affordable for our Own Good
Frankly, it often turns out that we’re quite a bit more affordable than our competition – and because of that we struggle! When buyers find out we can accomplish the same thing for so much less than the competition, they lose confidence instead of getting excited. We’re finding it challenging to find buyers who are cost-conscious and in search of innovation in a sea of buyers looking for tried-and-true. How do we profile and prospect for the innovator?
- CleanTech Public Utility Consulting Firm
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They’re There, They Nibble, They Don’t Bite
We’re recognized experts in our specialized niche market. Sure, the economy is down, but we’re still seeing lots of opportunity in our market place. The problem is nobody is taking advantage of it. Nobody is going after work! So it’s hard to find people who actually need our services rather than just “kick our tires.” How do we find, qualify, and land ready-to-buy leads into clients?
– Construction Management Consultants
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Diversify or Die #2
We sell heavy equipment to construction companies. Construction companies… are not buying. We need to sell to someone other than construction companies. Pretty simple. Other than there are a limited number of non-construction buyers and most of their budgets have been downsized, too. We’re already much more focused on service, overhauls, parts, and the like. But we’re all ears.
- Heavy Equipment Dealer
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Winning A Bid or Two
Most of the bids coming in on construction projects these days are straight out of Disney – complete fairy tales. On the one hand, you’ve got guys cheating the system by designating everybody an owner of the company so they don’t have to pay certain fees, taxes, and prevailing wages. On the other hand, you’ve got people returning bids below *cost.* I haven’t figured out a way to win a bid at break even, let alone a profit. Thoughts?
- Plumbing Contractor
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Cash Flow is King
Don’t get me wrong – we love big projects. But all the general contractors we do work for have stretched their payment terms out so long that it’s not practical to be in business with just them as clients – and they don’t seem to understand that, or care. We need faster cash. We either need from the general contractors, or we need it from somewhere else. For the moment, we’ve taken to focusing a good amount of effort on growing our service line back up because it provides same-day payment. Any thoughts on speeding up the generals, or cash in general?
- Electrical Contractor
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How to Survive on Fewer Resources
Do More With Less
Our clients have no budget for anything but the basics. That means we need less staff. But that means service sometimes suffers… putting us at risk of losing clients. Ouch. The questions are 1) how to accomplish everything at high quality with fewer resources, and 2) how to develop new business when people are pinching pennies?
– Professional Service Firm
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Striking a Balance With Resources
As technical consultants, we live on a teeter-totter. Either we have too many people and too little work, or we win a contract and we’re scrambling to find people. It never feels comfortable. To complicate things, we deliver best-of-breed results, so we’re not big fans of bringing in short term contractors to fill gaps due to the quality of work we’ve received. So what are we supposed to do?
- Technical Consultants
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Blind Resource Cuts
Our company implemented across the board departmental cuts. That means when engineering has the same workload but less people, the only resource we can use to make up the gap is technology. But IT was given an across the board cut, too. So they don’t have any resources to deliver what we need. So now nobody can get their job accomplished. People are overloaded. Profit falls. Morale drops. People leave. How do we convince somebody to stop managing this place like a Dilbert cartoon?
- Fortune 50 Manufacturing Company
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No Credit = No Sale
Our customers don’t have any money or credit to purchase from us, and we can’t get any credit to extend favorable terms or expand into new areas even if we wanted to. All that means sluggish sales and makes it hard to pay off the lines we do have. What can we do when it seems credit is the issue?
- Advertising Agency
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How to Do Marketing
Nobody Understands What We Do
We’ve created innovations in eCommerce and Fair Trade that are so revolutionary that they’re hard to put into words. We’ve put a great deal of effort into trying to communicate clearly about our capabilities, innovations, and what our platform can do. But it seems that we still struggle to explain them simply in a way that people understand and care about. As a result, it remains tough to find start-up funding. How do we crack this nut?
– eCommerce Start-up
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Re-Marketing
I’m trying to reinvent our message to get back in front of clients that think they already know us. There’s more that we can do for them. I’m trying to create campaigns complete with calls, emails, postcards, webinars - you name it – not only to capture new customers but to wake up established ones, too. How can I get going in a unified way?
- Non-Profit Advocacy Group
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Internet Marketing
I have inspirational art targeted at coaches, consultants, speakers, and bloggers. Whatever emotion you’re trying to elicit, I’ve got the perfect piece of art, paired with the perfect quote. Now what I’m trying to do is figure out the easiest and best way to run an eCommerce Marketing test to market my work. How do I get started?
- Artist
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How to Do Leadership
Getting Unstuck
Knowing where and how to grow, and how to start. Knowing that I can do it. Just simply getting unstuck.
- Professional Services Firm
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Finding Time to Delegate
The manager knows he’s spread too thin and needs to delegate more and “do” less, but he doesn’t seem to find the time. As a result, we two senior leaders aren’t taking an active roll. This is all made worse by the addition of two new hires that just slow things down, and a remodeling project that slow it down more. How can we get things moving again?
- Security Contractor
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