Stuck...

[JoeyF]

This might sound like a weird spiel and if you feel like berating me after you read it, I totally understand...

I'm not even sure if i should be posting it but it will hopefully be worthwhile even if it is just to get something off my chest a bit...

Right now I'm in a weird spot.

I built a business that services other small businesses - i provide them with websites and leads.

The business is successful, with lots of clients paying me between £200-£500 per month retainer. My profit margins are 80%+.

I have outsourcers. My workload is minimal. I could probably get by on less than 10 hours worked each week.

Clients are very happy on the whole, they are receiving great value.

I am financially very secure, I have more money than I've ever had in my life (I'm 33 years old).

It took about 5 years to get here, there were some extremely bleak periods.

At one point a few years ago I thought I would go bankrupt and lose my home.

I survived and learned a lot in that period.

Now I'm doing well and I'm facing a whole new set of challenges.

I can't seem to scale my business.

Growth is slow, slow as hell.

Motivation to put in those 40-60 hour weeks that got me here is harder to come by.

I am aware that I'm not doing enough but I'm just not sure what to do exactly.

I've considered taking on an office and hiring sales staff. I even made a thread about it here and got some great advice.

After carefully looking into it I'm just not sure it's the right move for me. I may be dealing with some limiting beliefs around this.

My business is actually in growth, it's just very slow.

I'm getting new clients via referral occasionally.

My monthly residual is steadily increasing.

I'm making (by my standards) a lot of money for not much work...

Yet there is this sinking feeling that every time I get to Friday, I've done nothing significant.

One week rolls into the next. I'm spinning my wheels.

I can't believe it's May and so far in 2016, very little has changed in the biz, save for a modest increase in monthly residual.

I sometimes consider taking my attention away from this business altogether and starting something else - perhaps ecommerce, I don't know what I'd sell but a new challenge seems interesting.

I'm just not sure.

I'm in analysis paralysis mode and it sucks because I know right now i'm EXTREMELY lucky to be in a position where money is not an issue and I have all the time in the world to work on any kind of business I like...

Yet I feel like I'm squandering the time and I worry that I'm missing out on opportunities that are there on a silver platter for me.

I'm open to any thoughts at all.

Thanks for reading.

 

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[Almantas]

You could scale up your current business or/and side hustle. It currently seems that you are simply out of steam and things with your current business are getting too predictive/boring. Or...to spice things up and get a bit more excited about your current business... you could come up with additional services - to provide more value to your customers!

 

[Luke.]

Are you setting yourself targets or goals to achieve?

How do you see your business in 3 months time? 12 months time? 3 years time?

 

[SparksCW]

I was a bit like this, maybe not making as much money at the time. Although you don't say what region you're making so I don't know.

But come on, you can get a Basepoint (or similar) serviced office for £550 a month, plenty of other easy in-easy out business centres around. In one month, gone the next, nothing to lose.

Get an office, get a member(s) of staff, work hard and you'll grow.

Or take on a marketing company and re-invest all profits for 2-3 months. What have you got to lose?

Last year I took on a member of staff and moved out of my back bedroom into a proper unit (Basepoint). I had a 6 month plan and an agreement that if it wasn't working out we'd go our separate ways without any aggro.

We're 6 months in and I couldn't dream of changing it, people take us more seriously, better deals are done, the orders keep coming in. I'm even considering putting our stock into fulfilment and keeping the unit. Turnover has grown, we're steadily and slowly growing. I've decided to re-invest all profits for a 3-6 month period using a marketing company and various other ideas as like you I think growth is far too slow. I don't need the income so worst case is I lose 6 months profits... but will have a much stronger business moving forward.

Seriously though, if you're doing well, how much is left over after your core bills? How, really, will a serviced office and a sales guy affect you? Nothing is for ever, if it does't work out, change. Worst case you end up back at home making a decent amount for 10 hours a week? Best case.........?

 

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[Lone Wolf]

10 hours a week? Work harder.

 

[AndrewNC]

1. Set a very large goal, so large, and so emotionally desirable, that you don't want to go to bed at night, just so you can achieve it.

2. You're not feeling the pain for not taking action. You are comfortable.

Write a $5,000 check to a trusted friend and they cash it if you don't complete a specific task by a specific date.

That'll get you to take action.

 

[mammoth_hunter]

Get a wife and children, they'll it up all you money and you will sure feel motivated to grow the business .

Kidding aside, if you do not have a deep desire to expand the business, maybe it's time to focus on other areas of life.

 

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[JoeyF]

I was a bit like this, maybe not making as much money at the time. Although you don't say what region you're making so I don't know.

But come on, you can get a Basepoint (or similar) serviced office for £550 a month, plenty of other easy in-easy out business centres around. In one month, gone the next, nothing to lose.

Get an office, get a member(s) of staff, work hard and you'll grow.

Or take on a marketing company and re-invest all profits for 2-3 months. What have you got to lose?

Last year I took on a member of staff and moved out of my back bedroom into a proper unit (Basepoint). I had a 6 month plan and an agreement that if it wasn't working out we'd go our separate ways without any aggro.

We're 6 months in and I couldn't dream of changing it, people take us more seriously, better deals are done, the orders keep coming in. I'm even considering putting our stock into fulfilment and keeping the unit. Turnover has grown, we're steadily and slowly growing. I've decided to re-invest all profits for a 3-6 month period using a marketing company and various other ideas as like you I think growth is far too slow. I don't need the income so worst case is I lose 6 months profits... but will have a much stronger business moving forward.

Seriously though, if you're doing well, how much is left over after your core bills? How, really, will a serviced office and a sales guy affect you? Nothing is for ever, if it does't work out, change. Worst case you end up back at home making a decent amount for 10 hours a week? Best case.........?

Thanks a bunch for this post.

I think I need to seriously consider getting an office and at least one member of staff.

It would appear there are many benefits to it.

Aside from the obvious benefits of having someone to do the laborious part of the business (the sales calls) it would get me invested again in a way that was uncomfortable which might remove this feeling of being satiated that is killing productivity.

That being said, I am clinging on to this idea of being able to build my business to where I want without putting myself in the position of having to train and babysit staff and without being heavily tied to a single location.

Maybe that's unrealistic, but maybe not though?!

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[nradam123]

I dunno where I read this so I cannot give reference links. But read through ...
__________________________________
A bunch of people from a famous rock band were in their non-popular days. Everyday they had to travel between gigs in a rickety truck with all their drums, guitar, speakers and other instruments.

One day, in a severe blizzard somewhere ... nowhere ... their vehicle broke down. They had to travel kilometers on foot to reach the next gig. The whole team packed their instruments inside their backpacks and started walking against the blizzard. They weren't popular, they weren't making much money and their future was unsure. And they had to travel against this daunting blizzard to the next gig. Life was tough for sure.

On the way they saw a house.

One among the band members went to a closed window and cleaned the fog to see who is inside. Inside, he saw a happy family. It was the sight of a father sitting on a chair reading a newspaper, kids were playing, wife was keeping food on the table. It was a beautiful sight of a happy family.

And the band member looked at the family for a second and turned back to his friends and said - "Guys you got to check this out. These people live such an aweful life !!"
__________________________________

For some people a comfortable life is what they want. For others, that is exactly what they don't want.

So the actual answer for your question is, who do you want to become? And are you moving towards becoming that person?

Don't resist your true self.
What you resist will persist.

PS: All pictures used are from Pixabay and are free to use.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Stuck?
Unstuck yourself!

I'm sure your biz could benefit from Jay Abraham's strategies in
"The Sticking Point Solution" & "Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got".

Get them here for free: http://www.abraham.com/radio-opportunity/

 

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[SparksCW]

That being said, I am clinging on to this idea of being able to build my business to where I want without putting myself in the position of having to train and babysit staff and without being heavily tied to a single location.

Maybe that's unrealistic, but maybe not though?!

It's just an excuse, a limiting excuse.

I go to my unit 1 maybe 2 times a month...... I keep in touch daily with my staff via Trello and I reply to emails on the go. I could spend most of my time anywhere in the world if I wanted to. (want to be tied to a single location? get married and have a kid! that does a pretty good job of keeping me grounded.)

It might take a few months, or years to get to that point but it's no more or less possible than the way you're doing it now.

No excuses, you either want to grow, or you want to stay the way you are (and/or move onto another business).

 

[JoeyF]

Stuck?
Unstuck yourself!

I'm sure your biz could benefit from Jay Abraham's strategies in
"The Sticking Point Solution" & "Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got".

Get them here for free: http://www.abraham.com/radio-opportunity/

Awesome, I love Jay Abraham. Will check those out. Thanks for the link!

 

[JoeyF]

It's just an excuse, a limiting excuse.

I go to my unit 1 maybe 2 times a month...... I keep in touch daily with my staff via Trello and I reply to emails on the go. I could spend most of my time anywhere in the world if I wanted to. (want to be tied to a single location? get married and have a kid! that does a pretty good job of keeping me grounded.)

It might take a few months, or years to get to that point but it's no more or less possible than the way you're doing it now.

No excuses, you either want to grow, or you want to stay the way you are (and/or move onto another business).

You are talking complete sense, I'm getting to work on this now.

 

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[conquer]

Just Do It.

Research your successful competitors, test/tweak ideas and strategies.

I'd even go on Bizbuysell and research high cash flow companies like yours and pretend like you're a buyer to get insight on their business.

I met a millionaire with a net worth of 40+ million today who still works 50-60 hours a week to this day and he's in his mid 50's.

You either want it or you don't, the opportunity is there for the opportunist.

 

[JRGEKKO]

W

This might sound like a weird spiel and if you feel like berating me after you read it, I totally understand...

I'm not even sure if i should be posting it but it will hopefully be worthwhile even if it is just to get something off my chest a bit...

Right now I'm in a weird spot.

I built a business that services other small businesses - i provide them with websites and leads.

The business is successful, with lots of clients paying me between £200-£500 per month retainer. My profit margins are 80%+.

I have outsourcers. My workload is minimal. I could probably get by on less than 10 hours worked each week.

Clients are very happy on the whole, they are receiving great value.

I am financially very secure, I have more money than I've ever had in my life (I'm 33 years old).

It took about 5 years to get here, there were some extremely bleak periods.

At one point a few years ago I thought I would go bankrupt and lose my home.

I survived and learned a lot in that period.

Now I'm doing well and I'm facing a whole new set of challenges.

I can't seem to scale my business.

Growth is slow, slow as hell.

Motivation to put in those 40-60 hour weeks that got me here is harder to come by.

I am aware that I'm not doing enough but I'm just not sure what to do exactly.

I've considered taking on an office and hiring sales staff. I even made a thread about it here and got some great advice.

After carefully looking into it I'm just not sure it's the right move for me. I may be dealing with some limiting beliefs around this.

My business is actually in growth, it's just very slow.

I'm getting new clients via referral occasionally.

My monthly residual is steadily increasing.

I'm making (by my standards) a lot of money for not much work...

Yet there is this sinking feeling that every time I get to Friday, I've done nothing significant.

One week rolls into the next. I'm spinning my wheels.

I can't believe it's May and so far in 2016, very little has changed in the biz, save for a modest increase in monthly residual.

I sometimes consider taking my attention away from this business altogether and starting something else - perhaps ecommerce, I don't know what I'd sell but a new challenge seems interesting.

I'm just not sure.

I'm in analysis paralysis mode and it sucks because I know right now i'm EXTREMELY lucky to be in a position where money is not an issue and I have all the time in the world to work on any kind of business I like...

Yet I feel like I'm squandering the time and I worry that I'm missing out on opportunities that are there on a silver platter for me.

I'm open to any thoughts at all.

Thanks for reading.

What have you decided to do?

 

[JoeyF]

I'm looking at offices and going to hire sales staff to scale things up.

 

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[Jon L]

you could also sell your business, do nothing for a bit and then start something new...

 

[JRGEKKO]

This might sound like a weird spiel and if you feel like berating me after you read it, I totally understand...

I'm not even sure if i should be posting it but it will hopefully be worthwhile even if it is just to get something off my chest a bit...

Right now I'm in a weird spot.

I built a business that services other small businesses - i provide them with websites and leads.

The business is successful, with lots of clients paying me between £200-£500 per month retainer. My profit margins are 80%+.

I have outsourcers. My workload is minimal. I could probably get by on less than 10 hours worked each week.

Clients are very happy on the whole, they are receiving great value.

I am financially very secure, I have more money than I've ever had in my life (I'm 33 years old).

It took about 5 years to get here, there were some extremely bleak periods.

At one point a few years ago I thought I would go bankrupt and lose my home.

I survived and learned a lot in that period.

Now I'm doing well and I'm facing a whole new set of challenges.

I can't seem to scale my business.

Growth is slow, slow as hell.

Motivation to put in those 40-60 hour weeks that got me here is harder to come by.

I am aware that I'm not doing enough but I'm just not sure what to do exactly.

I've considered taking on an office and hiring sales staff. I even made a thread about it here and got some great advice.

After carefully looking into it I'm just not sure it's the right move for me. I may be dealing with some limiting beliefs around this.

My business is actually in growth, it's just very slow.

I'm getting new clients via referral occasionally.

My monthly residual is steadily increasing.

I'm making (by my standards) a lot of money for not much work...

Yet there is this sinking feeling that every time I get to Friday, I've done nothing significant.

One week rolls into the next. I'm spinning my wheels.

I can't believe it's May and so far in 2016, very little has changed in the biz, save for a modest increase in monthly residual.

I sometimes consider taking my attention away from this business altogether and starting something else - perhaps ecommerce, I don't know what I'd sell but a new challenge seems interesting.

I'm just not sure.

I'm in analysis paralysis mode and it sucks because I know right now i'm EXTREMELY lucky to be in a position where money is not an issue and I have all the time in the world to work on any kind of business I like...

Yet I feel like I'm squandering the time and I worry that I'm missing out on opportunities that are there on a silver platter for me.

I'm open to any thoughts at all.

Thanks for reading.

How many clients do you currently have?