"... When is this financial downturn going to be over and did I think it was soon. ....You see, they were looking for wishful thinking, not a plan."
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Wishing is not a Plan

Wishing is Not a Plan

 

The other day I was consulting with a client of the firm about their business.  It is a janitorial services provider in Las Vegas, Nevada.  For many years it has been a good business, but today they are in trouble.  This is because their primary clientele has been realtors and title companies in that former boom town and now things are obviously headed south.  They have lost many contracts, more are dangling by a thread, and there is no end in sight.

 

So, I asked about their marketing plan, and of course there was none.  I took a look at the numbers and saw that they are blowing through cash like Grant took Richmond.  Therefore my recommendations revolved around marketing to new clients including a redo of their antique website, advertising which up to now has been absent, and tightening the financial belt while we wait for results of our efforts.  All in all, the plan was easy, traditional, and straightforward.   Of course, they didn’t want to do it.

 

Instead their comments and questions all boiled down to one point:  When is this financial downturn going to be over and did I think it was soon.  When I said no, they kept trying to mush me around to say yes.  You see, they were looking for wishful thinking, not a plan.  I have seen this before lots of times.  When faced with hard choices or doing the easy thing and hoping for divine intervention, most entrepreneurs in trouble will go for the heavens.

 

Not that any of this ever surprises me.  Before I was an entrepreneur I was a salesman and a really great one at that.  As a result when I would go to sales conferences and meet my peers they were always trying to find out the secret of my success.  You know, how did I get my clients?  They thought that I either had a secret plan or magic.  And when I told them I did it by cold calling and taking lots of rejection, their reaction was inevitably a rookie bass fisherman on a new lake asking the old pro for his secret spots.  There is no secret, just hard work and effort.  It is just that losers always reject that as it is too difficult for them to copy.

 

The moral to this story is easy.  If you face challenges you must engage and solve them proactively.  God is not going to intervene, the good times are not coming back soon enough to save you, and to think otherwise means certain failure.  Count on it.

Posted by Herb Kay on Thursday, August 14, 2008

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