Well, that happened!
The Attract Clients Like Crazy boot camp is over, and it’s been an intense four days of strategizing, brainstorming, and deep dives into the how-to of building the marketing and lead generation machine for our businesses.
Adam gave the morning floor over to Melanie Benson Strick, “The Entrepreneur’s Success Coach” (that’s her at right), and most of the insights and important bits of info I’m taking home from the day came through her, including:
1. New stats on small business failures. According to Melanie, the SBA’s latest study found that 33% of all new businesses fail within two years of forming, and the number goes up to 56% after four years. That’s a heck of a lot, but it’s lower than the numbers I’ve heard in the past. And the two biggest reasons why they fail? Lack of marketing, and lack of financial resources.
2. When it’s okay to be brutal. In the corporate world, we wouldn’t put off until tomorrow what the boss asked us to do today. But as our own bosses, we’re much more lenient with ourselves and let things slide. And we let life intrude because as small business owners, we wanted a more unstructured life. But we all have to make money, and that means being brutal and ruthless with our time management. When it’s time to work – in our business or on it – we need to be comfortable setting the boundaries with friends, family, and random people who come crashing into our days.
3. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Our friend and Birthing Business owner Sheri Menelli also took the stage for a half hour to talk about her experiences in marketing to doulas and midwives, and brought home the importance of continued contacts with your target market. Even by doing things imperfectly, the fact that she maintained contact with her audience (not to mention, she had something of value to offer) led to success in her business.
It’s so different from last year, when I first came to this boot camp. Lani and I are in such a different place in our business, in our marriage, and in our personal development. It feels like I’m seeing and hearing everything through new eyes this time around.
We’re coming to the end of our Platinum VIP Mastermind time with Adam (and potentially moving into a new arrangement), and as long as it took me to come up to speed in our business, I think it would have been years longer if it weren’t for him.
And this happy little scene of people saying their goodbyes was somehow much less intense for me as it was last time. I was in a much more vulnerable place last time, doubting myself and my ability to really own and run my business as an equally contributing partner in it. Now, things are so much different, and so much better.
