Breaking Barriers: Overcoming The 4 Biggest Road Blocks To Business Success

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I'm your host Sarah Jolly Jarvis and today we're going to be talking about the four biggest barriers to business success and how to overcome them because really there's no point in me telling you what the problems are if I don't then explain actually how you can overcome them. So the key thing is here is where is your business at? So what is happening in your business right now? You may be aware of it, you may be just feeling like things are stagnating a bit.
So I'm going to go through the four biggest barriers that I see time and time again in people's businesses that are standing in their way of them progressing and getting that success that they are after. So first one up is getting started.
So we've all been there. We all had to start with that first sale and getting that business off the ground, creating that first offer.
But actually that can be a really, really daunting process. And that is why so many people think about starting a business, but actually never get around to doing it.
That process, where do I start? I get clients to start with the ideal customer and I run clients through a process called the make it happen method that I've put together to help people to logically step by step get to that point of getting that first paying client. And the thing is here, guys, if you take nothing else from this, it is the importance of your ideal client.
As I go through and I talk about some of the other barriers, it will come back to the ideal client and what you are doing and how you are marketing to that person or who you are serving, etc, etc. And so it is really, really key.
You might not know to start off with. Lots of people say to me, but Sarah, I don't know who my ideal client is.
Okay, but have a good guess. Okay, have a starting point because once you've got that starting point, it's like anything, it's like copy.
Once you've got something down, something down you can build on it but when you've got nothing you're just really really stabbing around in the dark there's so much energy wasted trying to market to everybody and the thing is is here is it's not about rationalizing down you are not a bouncer to your business you're not going to stop people from working with you because they don't hit your ideal client criteria. But that ideal client criteria gives you an idea of who you are best serving, who you enjoy serving, who you would like, you think you would enjoy serving.
And I've got a couple of clients at the moment who are going through the process with the make it happen method of setting up their business. And they've said, you know what, I think I want to work with these people.
And the vast majority of the time, I'd say probably 75 to 80 percent at the time those people go on to continue they were right they go on and they continue to work with those people but for others actually and then including one which is on working with me at the moment um she doesn't actually enjoy working with the customers she'd identified to work with they're not as committed as she'd like they're not as focused as she'd like because they're not at the right stage in life. So off the back of that experience, she's made a decision to tweak her ideal client just that little bit so that they're at a different stage in their life.
They've got a slightly different focus. And so she is able to better serve people.
People are more motivated to get the results that they are after. So with getting started, yes, it can be a real uphill struggle.
And also that whole really, in reality, it's the whole wood for trees. Where do I start? There seems to be so much to do.
Where do I start? So I'm going to go through that in a couple of episodes time. I'm going to be sharing with you the make it happen method.
And so jump to that, jump back to the menu and have a look at that process. If you somebody who is absolutely, totally new to business and watch that slightly extended episode.
For those of you in business, so you have been in a position where you have had a paying client and you're like, yeah, you know, Sarah, I'm not, I don't feel like I'm a newbie. I don't feel like I'm just getting started.
I'm clear with what my offer is and who I'd like to serve, or I've got a decent idea of who I'd like to serve, then this section is for you. So you've got another three options that may be going on in your business that is getting in the way of you achieving what you set out to achieve with it.
And you are not alone. There are so many people they set up in business and it is difficult.
It is hard work. It takes effort.
The thing is that, yes, I work part-time and yes, a lot of my clients work part-time, but that doesn't mean that we're not putting in the effort. When we are working, we are really working.
It's really focused time and I've worked really hard to get my business where it is and I continue to work really hard on my business. But sometimes it's really tricky to know what's going on.
And the second one that I want to be touching on is the roller coaster. Okay, so for some of you, you're probably already actually aware of what is going on here.
But you feel like you're on a bit of a roller coaster, you've got inconsistent, you're on that big dipper, inconsistent income. So you've got the feast months, the famine months, it's all going on.
And you're like, what is happening? I don't feel in control here. You literally do not only are you got those peaks and troughs of that feast and famine of that income, but you've also got that feeling of it being a bit like a roller coaster and that you are not in control.
You are on this ride, but you are certainly not driving it. The most likely cause of this is that you're not able to replicate success, okay, or be consistent.
So for example, you are in a position where you need clients. So you go out, you start marketing, you start talking to people, you're doing all the things that you need to do.
But you then get a client, which then puts you into actually actually delivery mode and then not only is it difficult then to switch from delivery mode to um back into the marketing side but you're also you know you're occupied you're doing the delivery and so your your eyes go off the ball as it were on the lead generation and talking to people and then before you know it you're coming to the end of working with that person or another month is now looming and you're in a position where you're like, I need another client. And so then you get back on the marketing, you get another client and the whole cycle continues.
So the key thing here is the ability to replicate that success and replicate it in a sustainable way. And sustainability is going to be a consistent theme in the next couple of things I'm mentioning too in that you know you need to be turning up online you do need to turn up consistently you do need to do marketing consistently yes you can get to the point where your business is ticking over and actually leaving things for a few weeks or even better doing the bare minimum isn't going to break the bank and people are going to continue coming in but that you're not probably not at that stage with your business yet and so it's very very dependent on you doing the work and doing those actions on a consistent basis you haven't got those lots of long-term marketing strategies in place this can often be remedied by looking at how you structure your day and how you prioritize your marketing.
Marketing probably isn't something that you enjoy. You do social media, for example, or you do other forms of marketing, but you're doing it because you have to, not because you enjoy it.
And so as soon as it doesn't become the kind of thing that you need to do through a sense of urgency, you drop it. So structuring your day so that you have time in there each day regardless of whether you are delivering for a client or not it's in there and you are able to allocate time to it would be my best suggestion would be a little bit daily there's also the structure where you can do it for one day a week really strongly and then you're just checking in so you've got that real focus for one day a week of doing your marketing getting your marketing set up getting the content set up being planning ahead rather than by the seat of your pants so that you can be in a position where things are scheduled or things are good to go and then it's just a case of putting it out and doing the interactions that I would always strongly advise for people to do and that's the thing is is even on your implementation days I get my clients to be putting out um putting out their content absolutely but that can be scheduled but going on to social media platforms and actually engaging with other people if you're not engaging you are quite quickly lost in that crowd which is a very very noisy place the online space is a noisy place and so you if you're not there turning up on a regular basis you can quickly go out of mind's eye so that roller coaster can definitely be taken under control by getting clearer on where you're allocating your time putting time aside for that so that you can be consistent and then obviously then you can replicate the success that you've already had now moving on from from that is the next barrier that I talk around which is the run ragged barrier.
Okay you've either got the wrong off or the wrong clients but you are super busy so you're unsure of how to scale, what you're doing is working, you're getting clients but it isn't sustainable and you're thinking you know can I actually even keep it up at this level let alone earn more from it or you know have I reached that plateau and it's like now what am I going to do because I've got no more bandwidth I've got no more time in fact if anything I want to reduce my time so most of the time when you are run ragged you are run ragged because of either the ideal client so you've got the that you're you're talking to you're attracting the wrong clients in and so they're higher maintenance than they should be for what you're offering or it is the offer itself and you haven't got enough structure around the offer to have clear boundaries in place so things are taking up more time you may not have processes and procedures in place for that offer either so it might just be that that structure does not work for you it might be that that delivery the modality of the delivery needs tweaking it needs to be put into a state where it can be scaled or it can it can just free up your time more and i've had clients i had a lady called geraldine a few uh like a few months ago actually and she was talking around she had a challenge with her business in that she was really busy she was doing really really well but she didn't have enough time she was working like six days a week she had a family she wanted to spend time with them they were growing up she wasn't seeing them and so it's about then readjusting that business so that you can get yourself in a position where the timings are working for you and that was a structural thing she took on staff we scaled up and made sure that the all the appointments and everything were done there was no diary paper diary anymore the appointments were actually put onto um a an actual tech system so that they were able to use the software and different people were able to access it and so the whole thing started to to work more seamlessly and then she was able to cut down her days while still taking them out same amount of money which was a fantastic position to be in but that delivery needed to be tweaked and she needed to actually stop delivering all the things and look at actually who else she could be using and how how we could still ring fence that income for her whilst doing that the other thing that might be getting you run ragged is the price. Are you offering too much value? If you are a woman in business listening to this, then the likelihood is, is that you are not charging as much as you could because we are not very good at charging what we, for the value that we provide.
It's not about our worth, okay? It's about the value that what we are providing the service or the product is is providing is being charged for and so what happens is is you over deliver because you want people to get results but you're over delivering at a lower price point which means you don't have that bandwidth to get support in to do the things that you don't need to be delivering on because you know in honesty, like your social posts and things like that, they don't have to be scheduled by you. You don't have to be putting out invoices, for example.
Somebody else could be doing that. Somebody else could be scheduling emails and sorting all that out for you.
There's no value being added by you being the person who's doing it. If you are in that run ragged position, and to be fair, the rollercoaster position, coaster position then you know do reach out and get help from someone obviously this is something that I help with but if I don't resonate with you right now then why are you listening to my podcast but in reality you know if I don't resonate with you and you're thinking you know what Sarah I'm not sure about working with you um but I like your podcast then um find somebody who does resonate with you and and see what information you can take up free.
But the quickest results are made when you work with somebody and you get their eyes and their opinions on your business. But make sure it's somebody's value, somebody's opinion that you value, because otherwise you can send yourself down a completely wrong and totally out of line track.
So find somebody that you're aligned to, reach out to them and see what support is available, even if it's something to aspire to. The fourth thing that I wanted to cover as far as a barrier is concerned and what people come to me with is I've tried all the things, okay, but I have no idea how to make this work.
I get a little bit of positive response. I feel like I'm getting a bit of traction and then nothing seems to happen from that.
Now you can kind of fit in two camps here. You can fit in the camp of it used to work, but now it no longer does.
In which case review what you, what did work? What was, what was the scenario then and how might it have changed? So if circumstances of the environment changed for your ideal client, has your ideal client's priorities changed? Are you still marketing to that same person? Did you change your mind on who you wanted to work with? And now you're in a position where you're not quite getting that same traction because it's not resonating in the same way. So review what worked, why it worked, how it worked, in what environment it worked.
If you're thinking, you know what, Sarah, I've never really got this ticking over nicely. I've never felt confident in my lead generation and in being able to generate income and it be sustainable then look at that offer and your messaging okay have you got the right audience you're putting that messaging out to the right audience you're putting the right offer out to the right audience you can have all that beautiful copy everything can be really perfect but if that offer does not resonate if you're not providing for example the right outcome or you're not stating an outcome at all with what you are offering then what do they know what they're exchanging their money for and i would say that is the biggest challenge when people come to me saying you know i've tried loads of things and it's just not resonating it's just not hitting home i'm thinking of getting a job then that more often than not it's because they're not actually very clear on what outcome they are providing in exchange for their ideal clients hard-earned money so in that case reassess the offer but absolutely if you've tried all the things and you are not getting anywhere and you are feeling like giving up then do reach out to somebody who can help you.
Now, ideally, yes, that's someone like me, a business mentor who has been there, done that, helped loads of other people. But for some people, for some of you, that might not be an option.
If things aren't going well, it's about their income. Where do I get the income from, from all these things? And so you can look to speak to somebody who is in business who you you know you rate uh you can also get so much information from people who you know do charge for their services but also provide information like I'm doing on this podcast but you know at the end of the day you've got to think why are you doing this when those moments we all have moments where we think you know what I just give up I've had enough um but you've got to think back to but why why am doing this when those moments we all have moments where we think you know what I just give up I've had enough um but you've got to think back to but why why am I doing this why is this important to me what do I want to do and always have that at the front of your mind ideally have it on a post-it note and have it in your office so people can see because that can really help you to feel focused and to keep going but reach out to somebody that you rate and ask them for their opinion if it's somebody who does this as for their living then look at their free stuff and and absorb that value and you know if you're at them when you become in a position get their help if you want it okay next week we're going to be talking more around why are you doing this and how to have it all? Because, you know, you can, that's the ethos of you can, is that it's the idea that you can have it all, but it's understanding what is all, what is my all, what is the thing, all the things that are important to me? Because it might seem like quite a lot, but actually when you start digging down on it, it tends to come under sort of three or four core things that you are aiming at.
So that's what we're going to be talking about. I'm going to have a guest on next week, Amanda, and she's going to be talking through your values with me.
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for that's it for me guys have a great rest of your week bye for now