I actually watched, really quick side note, I saw a, I believe it was a Shark Tank. It was a company that they had that one of the sharks invested in.
And the couple that was actually in charge of it, that was managing it, did not know how to manage it properly and they ended up having to refund hundreds of orders for this one particular product and it was just creating really bad reviews online.
Customer reviews were horrible. So, it took them months, months, if not even nearly close to a year, I think, just to rectify that because it was actually a big problem because they couldn’t fulfill orders and they weren’t meeting deadlines. So, growing fast may sound wonderful.
But if you can’t handle it, you can’t handle it, you don’t have a staff, you don’t have the management skills, it’s gonna be a big problem. Now, next up, sales are great, but the lack of sales can obviously be a huge problem as well. So, not having enough sales, that is something, and I know you’re probably thinking.
«Well, that’s a no-brainer. «Why would that even be on the list?» Well, if you understand that you need to get out there and hustle your product, if you have to be online and you’re on social media promoting a product, you need to understand that you have to do that day-in and day-out.
And the lack of sales obviously will hinder your cash flow. And if cash flow dries up, well, so does your business. So, if you’re not on top of the fact that you’re aware, your sales may be great in February/March, but April comes around and you’re dragging and you’re wondering, «What can I do,» you need to start figuring it out quick.
And you should have already in place when you first start your business, you need to have a social media presence, you need to have the ability to market your product. Even if it’s not online, if it’s a local market and you’re in grocery stores, you need to get down there and start hustling your product and making sure that you’ve got people sampling it and trying it.
Everything that you need to do that possibly, to get your sales up and running and maintaining them at that level, you need to be doing it. Now, maybe you’re not good at that; that’s fine. You need to find somebody then who is and you need to figure out how within your budget to have them do it for you.
So, you don’t have to be a marketing genius to do it and you may not even have the skill to do it at all, but if you understand that the lack of sales is a huge problem when it comes to cash flow and if you don’t have cash flow, well, you don’t have a business.
So, that’s something you need to seriously give a lotta thought to, that the moment you see sales are kind of lagging or maybe you have a product that’s seasonal or something to that effect, you need to get out there and make sure you’re doing everything you can to sell, sell, sell. All right, so number five.
Think of this. You need to understand what you’re really good at. You may be good at a lotta things, but maybe something that’s underestimated, you need to understand that administrative tasks, the day-in, day-out bookkeeping, for instance, maybe it’s working with customers, maybe it’s answering emails.
Anything that’s administrative that maybe you’re not strong at doing, you need to find someone who is and you need to get them in your business and you need to have them do it, because they can add up very quickly. For us, for instance.
I’ve been trying for years to try to maintain the books, until just recently we started incorporating some new software to keep track of sales and to do a lotta that administrative stuff automatically, which has worked out really great, and we’re still learning to do it.
But know the things that you’re good at. And if you’re not good at administrative things, that can be a problem and create a business that would ultimately close its doors if you’re not maintaining it, if you’re not doing it day-in and day-out. So, if you’re not good at doing the administrative stuff, don’t bother.
You can definitely find someone to do it for you. That leads me up to number four. Trying to do everything and be everything to everyone, that’s going to make your business drag and it’s going to create a really bad way for your business to grow.
And if you try to do it all when it comes to, (laughing) I can attest to this, trying to do everything myself along with my wife, just the two of us, it creates this environment of ultra stress and you’re pulling yourself in so many directions, which you don’t need to do that.
So, again, knowing what you’re good, things that you’re really strong at doing, maintain those and do them, but don’t be afraid to bring other people onboard to help you do the task or do the day-in and day-out work or expanding your business and you wanna bring more employees.
You can’t do everything, especially when your business begins to grow and it’s expanding, you can’t maintain that for a long time. I’ve actually attempted that myself and it’s burnout, burnout, burnout.
So, anything that you’re good at, always give yourself a thumbs-up and focus on that and do those few things that you might be good, but don’t try to be Superman every moment of the day because you will burn out and that means your company will. It won’t be around.