7 things business owners say they struggle with

The 7 Obstacles Blocking You From BIG Success In Business - And How To Overcome Every Single One Of Them!

Dear Fellow Business-Builder,

I just finished gathering some “street-level stories” of how business people are coping these days, and I learned some sobering facts.

In this report, I want to tell you what I've learned.It might make a BIG difference to you.

But first I want to tell you this:

In 2006, I came out of retirement to start a new company called Creating Customers, LLC. I “un-retired” mainly because of my passion to see business owners and entrepreneurs thrive.

You see, I've generated six million customers across 35 businesses that I've started during my 38-year career. I've written and published my wildly successful book titled, “How To Get Customers To Call, Buy & Beg For More”, along with 300+ other information products. And I've been delighted to help thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs jump to higher levels of revenues with my business-building techniques.You can learn more at www.kenvarga.com.

I recently surveyed thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs about what they are going through right now- the good, the bad and the ugly.

I asked them what they think they need in order to increase their revenues. Copyright © 2011, Kenneth J. Varga . All rights retained. Page 1

http://www.kenvarga.com/

And then I spent several days sifting through the responses to understand what they felt they needed.

I noticed a common theme...in fact, I see

there are 7 major obstacles standing in the way of BIG revenues for just about any business person who is struggling right now.

In this report, I'll tell you what those seven obstacles are – AND I'll tell you exactly how to overcome every single one of them! I'll tell you what I've done in my own businesses – and the thousands of others I've helped over the years – to blast through these business obstacles and send sales and profits up, up, up!

The Good News Is…None of these obstacles are insurmountable. With the proper attention and experience, they can be overcome. Some of the obstacles you face can be overcome quickly and easily. Others may take more work, and you can show increasing success over time.. But they can all be overcome.

Be encouraged by that, my friend!

Sometimes, just changing our perspective on things allows us to see everything differently. When that happens, we can then come up with solutions we couldn’t have seen before.

What are the seven obstacles blocking BIG success in business?

Obstacle #1Strapped for cash

The # 1 obstacle many people are facing is being strapped for cash. Many felt they had opportunities they could take advantage of if they had the cash, but lack of cash was keeping them from growing.

Others felt that the business had become a black hole. It was sucking in their cash and not giving anything back. They didn’t know how long they could continue pouring cash into it to make it work.

A few people had products that would appeal to a mass market and needed investment capital to get mass exposure.

So, here we have two “strapped for cash” situations :

1) the business is losing money; or2) the business wants to seize opportunity and expand.

But, beneath the surface, what would you say is the fundamental reason for any business being strapped for cash?

My experience shows me that it's usually because the business owner has neglectedtwo business fundamentals:

1) “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me?”) and2) offers.

What do I mean? It's simple:

Whether you are trying to raise money from venture capitalists, or you are trying to get more customers to buy from you,

it’s all about the offers you make to them - and about what’s in it for them.

That’s where you start.

It’s not about your great product or service itself. It’s about what it means to the person you are asking to give you money, or the person you are asking to buy from you.

It means getting in their shoes, feeling what it’s like to be them…understanding their beliefs, their points of view, their frustrations, their desires, their fears…and then making them an offer which they can't easily refuse, and which you can easily and profitably provide when they buy from you.

If you don’t get that right, then getting that cash flow is going to be tough!Copyright © 2011, Kenneth J. Varga . All rights retained. Page 3

So, if you are strapped for cash, you’ve got to ask yourself - why?

The answer probably lies in the fact that you are not giving your customers (retail or venture capitalist) enough of what they want so that you are getting enough of what you want (investment capital or sales).

I understand there are forces outside of ourselves (like the economy) that have a big effect on what people are buying or investing in. But they are still spending money…on something. The big question you must ask is,

Why aren't they buying from you?But to answer that question effectively, you have to ask it from THEIR point of view…as THEY try to get THEIR needs met, with the limited time and money at THEIR disposal - not from your point of view...as you try to sell what you’ve got.

Getting into, staying within, and coming from, your customer’s point of view can be really tough to do by yourself on a continual basis. But you must find a way to do this in order to capture, keep, nurture – and, yes, care for your customers.

You can't afford to assume anything about your customers' needs, desires, fears, hopes and dreams. You must get out of your own head, out of your own way, and be open to challenging all your basic assumptions about your customers and prospects.

If you feel trapped by your own assumptions, or overwhelmed by your situation, then I know exactly how you feel. I've been there, many times.

How did I get un-stuck? I asked for help.

And guess what? I got it, every time. And I have profited handsomely, again and again, from my new knowledge. Expert help from a seasoned pro is worth its weight in gold.

However, if we remain trapped by our perspective, we’ll probably remain strapped for cash.

Obstacle #2Not sure who is the best

type of customer to targetThis obstacle often raises its ugly head when the business owner or entrepreneur chooses a product or service to sell before choosing the market.

See, when you choose the market first, the market can tell you what it needs and wants. It’s much easier to tell if you have been a customer in this market yourself, and been involved with the market for some time.

In a market like that, you come face-to-face with the frustrations of that market. Chances are you experience them yourself.

When this happens, you know how people feel about it, and what words they use to describe it. And you understand the subtleties.

With these advantages, it’s easier to sell your product or service because you know where to find your audience, you know where they hang out, and you know what they want…because you want it too.

Add to that the passion you have to change the situation, and you have a winning combination that will allow you to sell more successfully in your chosen market.

On the other hand, when you don’t know the market well, and want to sell to that market, it’s tougher.

Which Comes First?The Widget? Or The Customer?

Many start-up companies are in this situation. Some saw what they thought was an opportunity and created a product/service to fill the opportunity. Along the way, they made lots of assumptions and guesses about the features and benefits they should include in it.

Copyright © 2011, Kenneth J. Varga . All rights retained. Page 5

As they developed this product/service, they added more and more features to make the product/service better.

Months or years later, the product/service is finished and they now have a product they can be proud of.

Unfortunately, there are now so many features and benefits to this product that, when it comes to launch the product, they must face difficult questions like: Which features and benefits should they emphasize? To whom should they stress which benefits or features? Which part of the market will be most profitable?

At that point, too often the decision-making process involved in marketing the product/service becomes way too complex, time-consuming and expensive. Even the largest companies in the world have made this mistake – and lost a bundle! Don't you do it, too!

A similar situation occurs when a business finds a product that they fall in love with, or that they believe has the potential to make a lot of money, and then decides to sell it.

They have fallen so in love with the product that they feel everyone else will also.

The only problem is, they haven’t yet figured out how difficult, or expensive, that is going to be! How will they find enough people like themselves who will fall in love with the product? Where do those people congregate? What it will it cost to reach those people? What will it take to “make” them “fall in love” with your product? (or, at least, like it enough to buy it?)

This happens frequently in the network marketing field. People fall in love with the income plan or the products and decide that is sufficient reason to start a business. However, they haven’t figured out how they will find their ideal customer beyond their family, friends and acquaintances.

So, after letting all the people in their circle of influence know what they have, they are faced with a slowdown in recruitment and sales.

Who Do You Love More - Your Product Or Your Customers?

So, even though falling in love with a product or service is a good thing, it is not the only thing to consider when using it to generate business.

Without considering your customers needs, how will you even know if they will love - or even want - what you offer to sell them?

Here's the solution...

Make sure you know the answers to these questions:

• Who really is my target audience?• How large a piece of that audience can I acquire?• What’s most important to them?• What alternative products do they buy and how will I compete with those

products?• How do I differentiate myself and my product/service from those alternative

products/services?• What’s the audience’s buying process? (Many businesses miss this one.

When your selling process and the audience’s buying process do not match, no sale will happen.)

• What are the best marketing offers and techniques to use?

So, what do you do if you find yourself in either of these two positions…

1) as a startup with a product with such wide application that you don’t know who you should target first, or

2) as a business with a product/service in search of a market?

You must find customers!

But how do you find the right prospect to target? What do you do?

You test.

Here's how...


Six Simple Steps To Test Before You Invest

1) Outline who you think you ideal prospect would be.

2) Outline the various ways to reach that prospect.

3) Rank those ways in terms of the cost to reach those prospects, the time it will take to reach them, and the expected return on your investment.

4) Make your best choice and test it. Test it on as small a scale as you can.

5) If the test doesn’t work out, then take you next best “guess” and test that.

6) Keep repeating until you get positive results. Then scale up.

Does this take some doing? Yes, it does. But if you find yourself in the situation where you have a product with wide application or a product in search of a market, this is your best choice.

Would it be best to get help with this? You bet! I'll tell you how to do that later. Meanwhile, read on...

Obstacle #3Spending too much to get a customer

How do you know if you are spending too much to get a customer?

Well, you’ve got to know how much you can make from the customer first.

If you know that figure, then you know how much you can spend and still break even. And you know beyond what point you’ll make a profit.

Can you see how, once you know this “magic number”, it can be almost like having a license to print money?

The only way to do that is to:

calculate the Lifetime Value (LV) of an average customer for you.

I think many business owners bypass this step in their business, because they think they don’t have enough data to make the calculations, or it feels like they are guessing.

The fact is, if you are a new business, you won’t have much useful data to draw from – except, perhaps, data you have collected about your competitors or your industry in general. However, in a new business you are starting off with a lot of assumptions about how your specific business is going to perform.

So, calculating the Lifetime Value of a customer is no different. With a new business, you determine the Lifetime Value of your average customer based on what you think will happen in your business, and adjust it as you go along and discover what actually does happen.

If you are an established business, and you have data, this process is easier.

Either way, you must determine the Lifetime Value (LV) of your average customer so that you can judge how much money you can spend to get that customer.

Without knowing the LV, you are flying blind.

You should always be trying to get more and more accurate figures on Lifetime Value, because, with that clarity, you can be more aggressive in acquiring more customers. With more customers you generate more revenues.

Obstacle #4My marketing has stopped working or is producing less and less results.

This is frustrating! And it happens way more than is necessary!


You spend endless hours and too many dollars devising and testing marketing strategies. You finally find one that works! You go gung-ho!

Then after a while it stops working.

Now you have to find another one. What could be more frustrating!

Why did it stop working?

There could be many reasons, such as:

1) Everybody’s ad now looks like your ad…yours is not standing out.

2) The market has changed....and you haven't.

3) There are more competitors....and you are losing business to them.

Obviously, revenue drops when this happens.

What can you do?

You’ve got one good option…

Put a new strategy in place real fast!

But how do you get a working, profitable, new strategy in place fast…especially if you have to test a lot of them to find the right one?

This is something you must figure out to stay ahead of the pack, or you will be left behind before you know it.

Here are a two things you can do, starting here and now…

1) ABT - A lways B e T esting new strategies that you can ramp up as other strategies die.

2) OPE - O ther P eople’s E xperience . Talk with others who have gone through what you are going through. Find out what they did and what worked. You can use OPE as “leverage” to get maximum results in minimum time. That's because

business people with real-world, real-time experience can take you straight to the gold, without you having to dig the mine yourself.

Using their experiences, and verifying it with your own as you go along, you can come up with better solutions, apply them more quickly, and generate revenues faster.

Obstacle #5Not having “the next big thing” that “everybody” wants

Nothing excites me more than seeing a business where people are lined up trying to get in!

It could be a restaurant with lots of hungry people waiting to be seated. Or a car wash with lots of dirty cars lined up for their turn to be washed. Or a hot company like Apple with people scrambling to get their hands on their latest exciting product.

I just love it! I think “how great for the business owner! How great for the customers!”

Having a product or service that customers are begging for is the dream of every business owner and entrepreneur.

But it’s very rare that a product or service is a big hit from day one.

Typically, a business has to nurture its market, and its product/service, into that position. It often takes major dollars and “many moons” - more time than the average business owner has to wait!

Also, please be aware of a little-known, dirty secret. Most of the time when we hear these success stories, the reporter is not giving the complete background story on the company. Many media people are in the thrall of some PR firm, and give glowing reports. Unfortunately, this conveys the false impression that the company became successful overnight.

But when we dig back into the history of the company, we learn of all the trials and tribulations the company founders went through to get to this point.


Why am I telling you this? It's simple.

I think focusing too much on the “big idea” can actually slow the growth of a company.

Why?

Because that puts our focus in the wrong place. It takes our eye off the ball…

the customer.

Instead of looking for the big idea, we need to be looking for the big WANT the customer has.

This may seem like a subtle difference, but it makes a big difference in terms of how effective you’ll be in claiming your big success.

You can think of it this way…

It’s the customer that pays you, not the idea.

The idea is the vehicle through which you get paid, but it’s the customer who reaches into his pocket and hands you the cash.

That’s where your focus must be.

If you focus only on the “big idea,” you can end up wasting your money and your life, running in circles, trying to find that one idea.

But when you focus on the customer, you focus where it matters…

on what the customer wants.

To learn what customers want, you have to get below the surface, to what really matters – what's going on in the hearts and minds of your customers. You have to learn to listen to the conversations that are going on in their minds.

Not only that, but you have to get to know the stories they’ve constructed about themselves and their lives, and then figure out how you can become part of those stories.

Luckily, it's no secret how to do this.

How can you do this?

Six Simple Ways To Get “Customer Intelligence”

1) Get face-to-face with your customers, and become part of their lives. Unless you do this, you’ll just be scratching the surface. You’ll be on the outside looking in, and you’ll end up guessing about them instead of knowing. This is the most effective way of all the six ways explained here..

2) Go to Amazon.com and enter keywords for the business category you are interested in. Then pick the top 10 books that show up in the search results.

3) Read the reviews for those books. As you read the reviews, look for the underlying beliefs, desires, feelings, and frustrations being expressed. Keep a list of these. After a while, patterns will emerge to help you start building a cohesive picture of your customer.

4)Join forums where your customers hang out. Reading their questions and answers, offers and requests, gives you information and insights about what makes them tick – and buy.

5)Ask questions on forums. The best questions elicit people's thoughts, feelings and experiences in the real world. The answers could be a gold mine for you.

6) Take surveys on new product ideas, prices, and product features your customers might want. Finding your customers' unsatisfied needs will give you clues about what products/services they might be ready to buy.


What's the point of doing all this?

It's simple, but paradoxical: The point is this:

If you focus your effort and intention on learning about your customers more than on the “big idea” itself, then the

chances of you coming up with a big idea paradoxically increase!

But more importantly, on your way to the big idea, you will come up with products and services that better suit your customers, and yield more and more revenues for you. Forget “the big idea.” Go for “the big money.” Your customers would love to hand it to you, if you offer them something they love!

Obstacle #6Not being different enough from my competition

In today’s age, technology has made it possible to duplicate businesses fairly rapidly, especially online businesses. Not only that, real-time information is so readily accessible that competitors multiply like jack-rabbits.

You may know that you are better at what you do than many of your competitors, but to the prospect who sees you as an insurance agent, a real estate agent, a web designer, or whatever category they apply to you, they don’t know the difference.

Once they categorize you, it’s hard for you to break through their perception and deliver your message.

So how do you get them to see you as different and to listen to you with different “ears”?

Here are two methods I recommend:

1) Never categorize yourself when you answer “what do you do?” Instead, give an answer that creates curiosity.

For instance, if you are insurance agent and someone asks what you do, you could respond with something like: “I protect people’s dreams.” The most likely thing to happen then is that the person will ask you what you mean. Then you can go into

more detail, giving examples of how you protect dreams. This creates more curiosity.

2) Do what I call “Be Extraordinary” - and what Seth Godin calls “going to the edges”.

Here's how this strategy works:

Take something that customers want, and go to an extreme edge with it. Make it so extraordinary that people can’t help but notice.

Here’s a well-know example…

When Federal Express first started, instead of just delivering packages like their competitors, they guaranteed to deliver it on time.

Their slogan was: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there”, and they delivered on that promise.

In addition, they instituted a follow-up system where they called you. They also put in place a confirmation and tracking system that none of their competitors had.

In other words, they protected you, they tracked your package, and they could tell you where it was at any time.

They set a standard that none of their competitors could come close to living up to, at least for a while.

Federal Express took the delivery of packages, added next day delivery, guaranteed the delivery, and kept you from worrying about where the package was because you could track it.

FedEx took the ordinary delivery of packages and took it to a heretofore unheard of edge…guaranteed next day delivery. And they backed up that edge with tracking and confirmation.

What element of your product/service can you take to an edge and Be Extraordinary?


Here’s another example…

This example involves a clothier that I worked with. I had him offer free alterations for life to his customers. That’s right, for life. (We added the element of time and took it to an edge.) How often do we put on a few extra pounds and need alterations? The customers came in at any time they wanted and they got styling and fashion tips. They would get their clothes pressed while they waited.

If they happened to be going out, or if they happened to be there at lunch and their shirt, or tie, or even their pants were wrinkled, they would be given a robe to wear while the clothier pressed their item.

Extraordinary? Sure. An edge? You bet.

The clothier doubled their business in six months!

They just extended themselves at the highest level possible, and they also did wardrobe consulting for their customers, absolutely FREE. They even came to your home and looked at your existing clothing wardrobe, made notes, and then came back and laid out all kinds of possible matches, contrasts and complements.

They would even come to your home at night if needed.

In other words, they did whatever it took to serve their customer at an extraordinary level. By doing this, their business grew by leaps and bounds.

Can you go to an edge like this? Sure you can! How will you do it? Who do you know who has gone to the edges, and been extraordinary? What can you learn from them? How can you apply it to your business?

Obstacle #7Too many choices. Not sure what to do next…

Information overload will probably be with us for the rest of our lives. I suspect that the amount of information that becomes available will continue to grow exponentially.

Recognizing this, I believe it will become more and more important in the coming years to remain focused on what we are trying to accomplish, and not allow ourselves to be overcome by everything that can distract, de-rail and defeat us.

In order to do this, we must be constantly reminding ourselves about why we are doing whatever it is we are doing.

Then we can find and use the information we need to be successful and happy, and let the rest go by.

Here are the two essential keys I have found for avoiding “information overload”:

1) Collect information “just-in-time.” It is so easy to collect information “just-in-case.” We see something that we don’t really need right now, but it’s interesting and we may want to refer to it some day. So we copy it and save it to our computer, or we print it out and file it, or we read it and try to retain it.

The thing is, after filing that information away on our computer, in a folder, or in our minds, we will forget that it’s there. Or worse, we won’t be able to find it later when we are looking for it. Too much time may have passed and we now forget where we put it. Even if you find it, it may be incomplete or outdated.

Never fear – we can find the latest information, when we actually need it – and we can do it a lot more easily as search engines improve over time.

So instead of being an “information pack rat,” work only with “just-in-time” information---just the information you need to move the current project forward right now. Ignore everything else.

The other thing to do…and this is important…is to

2) S eek help and advice . Don’t try to do everything yourself. This slows down your progress.


If there is something you are unsure of, or don’t know, ask someone who knows. As a matter of fact, ask several people who you know are qualified to give you helpful answers. The most qualified people to ask are those who have “been there, and done that.” - those who have faced and overcome the same obstacles you are facing now.

An experienced advisor can help you sort out and select what is reliable and powerful information – and what is mere theory or opinion. Then you can act right away to increase your chances of BIG success. This will speed up your progress. And save you from wasting your money, and suffering unnecessary grief.

Of course, you can try to solve your problems, and find your way, all by yourself. But please realize you are taking a big (and unnecessary) risk, because the “lone wolf syndrome” is one underlying reason why many business owners and entrepreneurs fail!

But even if you are successful, if you depend on yourself only, you are stunting your growth, and cheating yourself out of your chance for the really BIG success you could be enjoying..

Why?

Because no matter what you do, you will always see things only from your perspective. This means you get a one-sided view of things, no matter how much information you gather.

If you want to come up with out-of-the box solutions, you need other perspectives. Other people can provide different perspectives that allow you to see more than you can ever possibly see from only your point of view.

Most of us were taught from an early age that it was a sign of weakness to need help, or to ask for it.

The fact is, it’s just the opposite.

It takes a strong person to admit that they need help - and an even stronger

person to go get it when they do.

So when you start struggling with an issue, get help as quickly as possible so you can keep the momentum going in your business and toward your goals. Spend as little time as you can trying to figure it out on your own.

Get input. Use other people’s experience. Most people are glad to help.

What's Your Next Best Step?Which obstacles are you facing? What's the next best step for you to overcome them? No matter what is keeping you from making more money, your best bet is to find a guide who has already faced and overcome the same obstacles - and then ask them to guide you past them. This will give you the quickest, easiest, least painful path to more profits.

If you were going on an African safari, would you go by yourself, or would you hire a guide?

If you were going to climb Mt. Everest, would you do it on your own, or have someone who’s been there take you?

Without a guide, you’d be flirting with “death”.

If you are serious about taking your business to the next level of revenues, you too should have a guide. It gives you the best chance of success, since you are going into new territory.

Here’s the irony…if you choose not to get help, you are actually choosing to stay stuck. You are making staying stuck more important than increasing your revenues.

Is that what you really want?

Think about it carefully. Shouldn’t you find the best person available to help you get unstuck so you can move forward?

This could make the difference between struggle…or even failure…and the ultimate success of your company.

What would you choose?Copyright © 2011, Kenneth J. Varga . All rights retained. Page 19

A SOLUTION

I’m putting together a new program to help you get past any obstacles in your business, including the seven obstacles I mentioned in this report. I want to personally guide a small group of motivated business owners and entrepreneurs to BIG success. This will be the culmination of everything I've done in my four decades in business. I will let you know more about it in a few days.

Since you won’t want to miss the other obstacle-busting information I’ll be sending out….starting in the next few days….you want to get on my priority list now. Make sure you are not left out. Just go here and enter your name and email address while you are thinking of it: www.kenvarga.com/unstucklanding

You owe it to yourself to at least check out what I’m putting together. It may be just what you are looking for.

To your success,

Ken Varga

P.S. Within the next few weeks I’ll be sending out some additional revenue-increasing ideas you’ll definitely want to get your hands on. So make sure you get notified by joining my list at www.kenvarga.com/unstucklanding

(SEE THE NEXT PAGE FOR A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME)

http://www.kenvarga.com/unstucklanding

http://www.kenvarga.com/unstucklanding

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME…

One thing that pains me (that I actually hate seeing) is walking by a business that has only a few, or no, customers on its floor. I think of the damage that can occur for its owner and his/her family if that problem continues. I immediately want to fix it.

A business is not a business if it has no customers. And because of my passion to see small and mid-size businesses thrive, I decided to come back out of retirement in 2006 and start a new company called, Creating Customers, LLC.

Prior to this, I had generated 6 million customers across 35 businesses that I had started during my 38-year career. I had also written my flagship book, titled, “How To Get Customers To Call, Buy & Beg For More”, along with several other books and manuals.

Some of the businesses I built included: two banks, a basketball league, an airline, an insurance brokerage, and a multi-level company.

So I felt I needed to continue to share what I know for the next few years on as wide a scale as possible before finally retiring. And even though I want to affect as many businesses as possible, I know that with each business I help, I am making a big difference not only for the business owner, but for his/her employees, family, suppliers, and everyone that depends on that business for their livelihood.

If your business is not growing as you know it should, I am here to help.

You can email me at [email protected], or visit my website at www.kenvarga.com


http://www.kenvarga.com/

mailto:[email protected]