Categories
Website How To's

7 Signs Your Business is Stagnant

Self motivation and positive attitude are two very important aspects of a successful online business. I read an article recently directed to already established businesses that are stagnant. So your business doesn’t become one of these, here are a few sayings that you need to avoid now and in the future as you become more successful:

  1. We’ve always done it this way – If this is used as a justification about why something is done a certain way it probably means the company has forgotten the reason they do things a certain way. This also means they might be doing things the wrong way or there’s a better and more efficient way to do things. You need to constantly be studying, revising and testing new things to see what works. There’s probably always a better more efficient way to do things.
  2. Let’s save money on customer service – If you don’t take care of your customers, you may make an initial sale but you can rule out “repeat business”. Don’t make customer service so low in the priority order that it is seen simply as a cost to be cut: your customers will eventually go to a competitor that actually takes care of them.
  3. All we need is more traffic – Yes, traffic is one of the keys to success with any business, especially an internet based business. However, more traffic is often the mantra of companies who do not get the internet business model. Traffic is not the only metric nor is it a “perfect answer” to a badly performing website. I’ve worked with clients that say “If I can only increase traffic, my Internet business will succeed.” I wish it was that easy. If you aren’t getting traffic that actually DOES SOMETHING, the traffic is not too valuable at all.
  4. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it – Danger! Danger! Business should be a continuous search for better ways to do things, improvements and efficiencies. How can you serve your customer better? What new ways can you reach them? How can you get current clients to buy from you again?
  5. We will make it up in volume – If you are not careful with this one you might sell sell sell all the way to bankruptcy. Make sure, after everything is said and done, that you are making money. This is one reason finding good suppliers and manufacturers is such an important part of this entire process. Without good wholesale pricing, you are waisting a lot of time.
  6. This guy says he has a secret trick to get us top Google rankings – How quickly do you want to be banned from the search engines? It’s called “Black-Hat SEO”. Strategies to “trick” Google may work short term, but in the long run you will be banned. I told a client the other day, if a company ever says they can get you to the top of Google by a certain time, usually they are lying. Granted, there are “White-Hat” things you can do, but Google works on its own time frame of which we don’t have much control of. BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE!
  7. Don’t worry about sales figures, this is premium advertising – Sales is not a dirty word! In fact, everything starts with a sale. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tries to “sell” me on why they hate sales or why they aren’t a salesman. Everyone should have at least one sales job just so they understand how important it really is in everything we do. Negotiating prices, working with suppliers, interviewing for a new job position, forming a joint venture or partnership – all these things require effective salesmanship. So, if you think you’re weak at sales, it’s time to step up to the plate and MAKE A SALE!

Can you think of any other dangerous phrases to hear in a company? Please share in the comments!

9 replies on “7 Signs Your Business is Stagnant”

Got the template from a website but have been tweaking it – still work to do to make it most SEO friendly and visitor friendly. I’ve been down the Joomla road and will never go back 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and making a comment. Hope to see you subscribe to the Email Feed.

Hi nice post, i read your blog from time to time but i was wondering something. I also run a blog on a similar topic, but i get 1,000’s of spam comments and emails every day does that happen to you.. Any ideas to stop it? I currently have commenting disabled but i want to turn it back on.. Thanks!

You you should change the blog title Stagnant Business | Positive Business Mindset | Utah Online Marketing Consultant to something more generic for your subject you create. I loved the the writing all the same.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *