Business is never easy, but it should never be so hard. We get that. We know what its like, trying to grow and thrive, but feeling you’re lucky just to survive.

One day you have more than enough work, the next you’re scrambling around desperately to find the next piece of work to keep the money coming in and your team busy. It’s ad hoc.

You never know where or when the work will come in, and you end up doing anything you can get.

You end up with clients who are a poor fit, doing work for which you are ill-equipped, making little money or even losing money on the work.

You are stressed and exhausted, and unless things improve then you’re not sure how you will put food on the table, let alone pay the bills or your staff.

In an increasingly competitive environment competitors slash their prices in order to win the work. And inferior competitors win the work that you should have got.

Your work is being commoditized and it’s hard to get the prices and margins you want and need.

You find it hard to convert opportunities into paying clients. And when you do the deal doesn’t reflect the contribution of what you offer and what you do. You feel under-valued and under-appreciated.

Margins are under increasing pressure.

Clients are willing to pay less but your costs are not going down, they’re going up. You’re getting stretched thin financially.

Estimates don’t reflect the work needed. Scopes change. You incur unrecoverable costs in addressing problems caused by others on projects.

And clients, post-contract, pressure you to cut your costs further without reducing the scope of work.

More pressure, more stress.

You’re worried. Financially things are getting tight, and it’s getting harder to reduce costs without laying people off. You’re stretching your overdraft and credit limits. And your home can be at risk.

It’s an unpleasant place to be.

And when it comes to delivering on your projects nothing goes to plan.

Work is delayed, by the client or others. And this has a knock-on effect on other work with other clients. Your teams are not earning, but they still need to be paid.

You use cheaper, less experienced staff to do the work to try and recover your margins. But often they take longer than expected, make mistakes, and time, money and effort is wasted.

Your best people, to keep busy, do the work of less senior staff and are unable to charge out their full rate.

And your mid-level people, your power house, find themselves stuck between being too expensive for the work that junior staff are doing, and having not enough work to do as its being done by the top people.

So, they are squeezed out. Too expensive to keep in times of tight margins they are let go, and you lose the experience and engine-room of your business. And reduce your ability to win and service future work.

You’re in a quandary. You need your people, but you can’t afford them. If you let them go you can’t do the work, and you’re worried you will spiral downwards.

Letting people go will also impact their families. And these are people who have been with you for a long time. It’s not right or fair. But what will happen if you don’t do this? No easy answer.

You’re stressed and scared.

You’re worried for others and you’re worried that what you have built up over time will disappear. And that you will be seen as a failure by your colleagues, peers and family. And that you may have to go back to a job you hate in order to provide.

YOUR OPPORTUNITIES

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You want to be successful, and you can be. There are 3 things you want:

You want to be magnetic – attracting the prospects you want whilst repelling those you do not want.

You want prospects who want to work with you, who seek you out, and who are not price-sensitive.

And you want to reach more of them, more easily, in such a way that you stand out heads and shoulders above the rest of the competition.

Doing this allows you to create a reservoir of opportunity which you can tap into when you need it, without having to waste time, effort and money on those who are not a fit.

You need to know where your prospects are in terms of their being a real opportunity for you, and how to progress them into a paying client.

Doing this helps you to make both more and better deals and do so faster.

Trust precedes deals. You need not to be known but renown. Recognized as the leader in what you do in your niche and perceived as the “go-to” person. So, when prospects are ready to buy they’ll come to you.  

And you need to have self-confidence in your ability to sell and deliver, and for the customer to have confidence in you.

This allows you to win deals and projects where your value and skills are recognised and rewarded, and you have the roadmap, skills and confidence by which to sell yourself and your offerings without being “salesy” or weird. You’re perceived as the “premium” partner people want to work with.

So, you can charge what you’re worth, recover your costs, and be able to manage changes, variations and expectations. Setting yourself up to make good revenue, good margins, and to do great work profitably.

How you deliver on your promise can make you or break you.

You want to set-up the project to succeed, so you can manage it proactively, anticipating and planning for unexpected changes or risks.

You need to be able to continually improve how you deliver on what you do and how you do it. Because doing what you’ve always done won’t get you what you’ve always got. If you don’t improve, your competitors will.

This allows you to use your staff efficiently and effectively, both now and in the future, and to determine who and what you need to meet future changes in needs, requirements, technologies and skills. Great delivery, great retention, great business.

To find out more how we do this read on through the rest of Start Here.