Cutt’in Thru the B.S. Today!

Someone asked me a great question the other day. They wanted to know why so many entrepreneurs were failing in their business. So many things prevent businesses from being successful, but there is one key thing that stands out.

This one is big too. Soooooo many people say they want their business to work, but few every take the steps to make that happen. It’s like the boy or girl who cries wolf. At some point you either have to stop talking about it altogether, or go for it.  But just talking about it alone makes people want to run from you after a while because they don’t see you taking action! (they will never tell you this, but I will).

See, the knowledge to run a profitable business is out there, it is a blueprint that myself and many other people follow.  So that is not the issue, it’s no mystery.

The REAL issue normally resides within the aspiring business owner. The unsuccessful entrepreneur second guesses themselves.  They find reasons and excuses as to why they can’t do something.  They convince themselves that the only reason someone else is successful is because they got lucky, or they have money, and anything else they can think of to let themselves off the hook.

They believe they can figure out how to run a profitable business by opting into a bunch of people’s lists, studying their free giveaways and following what they do. Never gonna happen.

They spend countless hours working on busy work, like logos, and forming LLC’s, but nothing substantial that brings in new clients. They do not invest in themselves, yet they want others to invest in them. They surround themselves with other struggling entrepreneurs with the exact same habits and beliefs and together they whine and complain about how hard it all is. They support each other’s nonsense.

They attend countless networking events because they were told that is what you need to do in order to be successful, but rarely if ever does any PAID opportunity come from it.  Simply because they gravitate towards networking events put on by people who are not successful themselves. Go figure!

They lower their rates all the time in desperation of just getting someone to work with them. They speak at events for free and are too afraid to charge for their appearances. They allow others to manipulate them into giving away all of their expertise for free, usually being told they don’t have the “budget” to pay them, but can you please just speak to our people anyway? Who does that?  You are running a business, come on!

Oh and for the entrepreneur who says they are not “in it for the money,” please spare me! People have real bills to pay and children to feed! Helping others is an amazing benefit of doing your work and a definite motivator to keep you going, but to go around shouting you are not in it for the money is probably the reason nobody feels the need to pay you!

I could go on and on all day, but I think you get the point.

If I just described you, don’t be alarmed. I have been at this for a while and it is a common theme.  But the GREAT part is there is an easy fix.

See I don’t care who you choose to work with, but you MUST find someone to arm you with the MARKETING knowledge you need to profit in your business. You MUST value yourself enough to know you are worth self-investment.

If you have been stuck in the habits and cycles of the “unsuccessful” entrepreneur, it really is time to just stop.  It is 2013 and it’s time to make some major adjustments, unless this is in some odd way fun for you? But I doubt it!

And if you don’t….you will forever be stuck running a hobby, but definitely not a business.  And I don’t want you to be the boy or girl who cries wolf that everyone runs from. I want to see you succeed at thing “thing” you say you are so passionate about!

Cheers to Business, Beauty & Balance,

Vicki

Tags: African American women entrepreneurs, black business coach, black women entrepreneurs, life coach, marketing, Maryland women business coaches, Maryland Women Marketers, MD women entrepreneurs, superwoman, superwoman lifestyle, Vicki Irvin, woman marketers, women network groups, women networks, work life balance