From the desk of Lakshay Behl

Business Growth Is Simple...

It's like playing a game. Or a sport.

Once you know what you are doing, growing a business becomes fun. The bank balance becomes your scorecard. Sales come in automatically. Clients can't stop singing your praises, and prospects chase you with their wallets in hand. Customer retention is guaranteed. Attrition is low. Employee turnover is lower than Netherlands. Your staff's morale is high.

Bankers like you. They are happy to see you, and they know you on a first name basis. So do the suppliers, the vendors, the creditors and the debtors.

But only when you know what you are doing.

Most businesses are victims of their own lack of strategic systems.

Here's what you observe with most businesses...

• Not enough people come in. Whether it is an online business, or offline... you need people visiting your storefront in order to make any sales. Without traffic, you can have the best conversion system in place... and the best salesmen on the planet selling for you... If they don't have someone to sell to, they won't be able to bring in the money. As a consequence...
• Not enough leads. There just aren't enough prospects who are being sold to at any given time. You can't convert someone unless they are paying attention to you first. A lead is simply a person who has demonstrated, through their behavior, that they want to pay attention to you. But because you don't have enough leads...
• Not enough sales. It's no longer about being able to manufacture enough goods anymore. That was the nineteenth century. Today, if a company starts making extra sales, they can handle it. Or they can easily and quickly scale up operations to match the sales volume. Operational limits just don't exist anymore. It's the lack of sales that kills businesses today. There are always competitors vying for your clients like vultures out there. And they will steal your existing clients if they could. Supply largely overpowers demand now. Consequently...
• You are forced to slash prices. That's classic Economics 101, right? If there is low demand, but high supply, prices will go down. You honestly believe that lowering your prices will get you more sales. And you may even be right. If today you start losing money on each sale, you would get more sales. There's no doubt about that. As long as there is demand for whatever you are selling, lowering costs will increase sales volume in most cases. However...
• You then complain that all your customers are cheap. Well, you just attracted the "cheap" ones, didn't you. And then you trained them to be cheap, didn't you? When your USP is "low prices", you will attract people who are attracted to low prices. Quite naturally, these aren't likely to be the same people who buy premium products and services. Since you now have customers who only want cheap...
• There is no loyalty. Your people will jump ship the minute a competitor comes up with a cheaper offer. Hey - business is business! Their value is "who's got the cheapest stuff?" and whoever's cutting costs the most will get their attention and patronage. For a while, at least, until someone cheaper comes around. As a result...
• Sales are Always Unpredictable. It's feast followed by famine. Well... not exactly a feast. You can't really be enjoying scraping for measly cents on the dollar while having to deal with swarms of (quite ironically very demanding) customers. But there are days when you'll see crowds, and then there are days when nobody sets foot into your shop. Also...
• You Are Now Competing With Amazon and Walmart for lowest pricing. They are giants of cheapness. They have economies of scale. They have large distribution networks. They can afford to make two cents on the dollar. Even lose a cent on the dollar half the time. You can't.
• Financial Woes. You have to eat. You have employees to take care of. You have a family to take care of. Bills to pay. Rent to pay. Groceries to pay for. Kids' college funds to save up for. Kids' weddings to plan. Your own retirement to invest in. Creditors to worry about. Debts to pay off. Settlements to pay off. Vendors whose due date is imminent. Maybe parents to take care of financially. Not to mention that one relative who just refuses to work, and you have been supporting for years now. And quite possibly alimonies and child support payments too. But that's just the finances. All this leads inevitably to...
• Stress. Anxiety. Bitterness. Depression. Disorders. Lack of Impulse Control. Eating and spending disorders. Drinking problems. You may be prone to flying off the handle at any time. Even at home. Your kids start fearing you, and then soon afterwards, resenting you. So does your spouse. And then it's goodbye to familial and marital bliss. You come home depressed, angry and anxious... and you find even more anxiety, anger and depression waiting for you at home. You see, financial stress will always spill over into your familial life. As well as your social life. You are working longer hours, and so you see your friends less. And lesser. And even lesser. Until they just completely stop calling you altogether. They move on. It seems like life is moving on without you, while you are stuck trying to get those darn sales. And it's not just your own life that's in shambles...
• Staff & Employees Lose Confidence and Morale. They don't believe in your vision and your ability anymore. They don't think you can take care of everything. They don't believe that the company can recover soon enough. So they start looking around. For new jobs. And first to leave are the stars. The ones who really don't have trouble looking for a new job. Only those who can't easily find jobs elsewhere stay on. Or the very loyal ones. But even their morale is at an all time low. However, when your staff members are looking around for new jobs...
• Word Gets Out. Every time someone has told me they are looking for new "opportunities" or a new job... I ask them why. I ask them if it is because they don't like the work they are doing right now. Many times, the answer comes back, "We're not doing too well financially." Now... there's not an ounce of personal responsibility in their words. They say it as if they have no contribution to, or control over their current company's success. But I digress. The point is... word gets out. Pretty soon ... depending upon how big your market is... everyone knows about it. Your financiers, your vendors and your creditors too. Suddenly you credit lines start drying up. Your vendors are no longer as friendly as they were. The bankers have nothing but disdain for you.

Is it any wonder, then, that most companies that have unpredictable sales are on life support... and die out sooner or later?

There only three, and exactly three reasons for business cataclysms. 

1. Bad Positioning. You attract bottom feeding customers and repel premium price shoppers. You bust your hump trying to make a sale and a dime of profit while your better positioned competitor acts snobby and still gets the sale - making himself prosperous in the process. You watch helplessly as your hard fought and hard won "clients" just wander around and buy from the even cheaper guy across the street. Repeat business is a pipe dream. Rejection has become your lot in business life, and you convince yourself that "that's how things are for everybody". Even though deep down you know that's not true.
2. Bad Strategy. Good Strategy is equally as dependent upon your circumstances as it is on your resources and skills. Great strategy doesn't make the big mistake of assuming that the customer is hanging around in a vacuum waiting for you to make an offer to them. Great strategy is formulated with advanced foreknowledge of what other competitors are saying, and how to out communicate them. Great strategy is formulated in order to maximize the impact of each dollar spent, each word spoken and each minute devoted to interaction with the audience. Great strategy is being frugal whilst appearing to be lavish. It's eliminating waste of all kinds and in all forms.
3. Bad Systems. Or complete lack thereof. You want adventure and a little bit of uncertainty is welcome. But if that adventure comes at a cost of certainty regarding sales and cashflow, then that is an honest consequence of a lack of solid systems. Systems that facilitate growth. Let's be honest here. You don't really have a business until it can run without you. If you are required for the day-to-day, what you have is a job. Nothing more. Maybe a high paying job. But a job nevertheless.

Stable businesses. The idea sounds great. You have a company that works on its own. It doesn't grow, sure, but it doesn't deteriorate either. It's "stable".

Except it does not exist.

Nature Abhors A Vacuum

-Aristotle

Either There's Hypertrophy
Or There's Atrophy

At any point, either your business is growing. Or it's shrinking. Either your marketshare is expanding, or it's receding. It's just like the muscles in your body. Either they are undergoing hypertrophy, or they are atrophying. But what is never happening is "stability".

The only constant is change.

Here's what it means for you...

If your business's bottomline isn't increasing right now, it's decreasing by default. If your marketshare isn't expanding, it's shrinking automatically. And if your advertising is not making you money, it's LOSING you money.

That's it.

Anybody who tells you otherwise is a liar. 

Now, they may lie for a good reason. For instance, a guy who wants to sell you advertising will tell you, "You need to continue spending $10K a year on advertising in XYZ media even though you haven't seen any boost in sales at all. Why? Because most of our advertisers report a boost in sales after a year. That's how long it takes for your prospects to remember your brand."

But their reason is good enough for benefitting them. Not you. 

In fact...

My mother had a vivid imagination. She fancied herself a successful stock trader and stock market investor.

Why?

Because in 1991 she bought invested $1000 to buy stock in an Indian bank's IPO (Initial Public Offering). She held on to the stock for years. Then in 2005, almost sixteen years later, she sold her stock for over $9,200.

Great, isn't it? That's almost an 16% per year rate of return, annualized.

Well, here's what she didn't know...

The inflation averaged between 8% and 9% on an average in India between the years 1990 and 2005. The prices of goods had soared. And the NIFTY (Indian equivalent of S&P 500) had returned, on an average, 15%. In addition there was also a small dividend that many of the stocks on the index paid... which the bank didn't.

In other words, if she hadn't picked out a particular stock... and if she'd just invested in an S&P 500 hedge fund (known as a BSE NIFTY mutual fund in India)... her returns would have been nearly identical.

Around the same time, a friend's father had started a small business with a tiny $2000 capital. By 2005, he was taking home over $1,000,000 in income. I knew this because my Dad also invested $500 in that business a few months after it's launch... in exchange for a 2.5% stock. He continues to own his stock even today... and enjoys a nice chunk of cash each year in the form of a dividend.

The difference between Mom and Dad? My mother listens to her stock broker while buying stocks. My father does his own careful analysis.

Here's my point...

It's Easy To Deceive Yourself

Most people do it most of the time.

And most people let others deceive them most of the time.

For instance... 

If you ask a stockbroker whether a stock he's trying to sell will go up in value, you get a YES inevitably. YES is the only response from him that you should expect, and that you will get. He won't tell you, "Buy this stock. I don't know if it'll go up, or down, or sideways, or do a somersault, or crash and burn... But I am going to make a commission when you buy, and therefore you should buy it."

If you ask an ad rep (or an advertising salesman - no difference) if the advertising will produce sales... you should always expect HIM to say YES. He's got vested interest in selling the advertising to you. He has no reason to lookout for you. If the advertising produces sales, great. He'll be back for more of your dollars. He'll not hesitate for one second before taking all the credit for producing the sales. If not, oh well... there's a sucker born every minute, right?

It's like asking a real estate broker if the house will go up in value. What is the response you are expecting? "I don't have any idea" may be the most honest response he's got, but he ain't giving that one to you.

Now...

At this moment, you are wondering who would be foolish enough to fall for those traps. But the truth is that you, me, all of us have been taken for a ride by hucksters throughout our entire lives. And there's just one reason for that...

We Were Complicit In Their Seduction Of Us

We were.

We allowed them to seduce us and to deceive us.

We didn't believe the ad rep because he was such a great salesman. We believed him because we WANTED to believe that advertising would produce sales. We HOPED that MOAR ADVERTISING would be an answer to our sales troubles. We needed for it to be a solution. That is the only reason why it worked.

The only reason why we listened to the stock brokers incessant babbling is because we needed to feel reassured about our own investment decision. We were already thinking about investing. We already had some cash set out for that. We wanted to invest. He just gave us a convenient reassurance. If the stock went down, at least we'd be able to blame him instead of ourselves, right?

Well, that's some dark psychology.

Let's put it to your advantage...

Customers want to buy.

They are getting anxious because they have the money. They need someone to take it from them.

Buying is a national sport of ours in this era. Especially in the western world.

Buying feels good.

Buying produces stress-relieving hormones.

Buying is an activity that feels like accomplishment.

Buying is addictive. Highly addictive. Pretty much like crack cocaine.

If they don't buy from you, they will buy from someone else.

All you really have to do is make them a relevant offer. Then position yourself well to take their money. On your own terms.

I, and my entire team will work with you on your business with the following objectives...

• To build automated customer acquisition systems. These systems get you clients. New clients. Regularly. Predictably. On command. Do you know that even if your marketing budget is as little as 5% of your largest competitor's budget, you can still topple them over?
• To harness the forces of nature. Like 80/20. Compounded. So that your work load is reduced by as much as 80%. Imagine spending 80% less time and effort on your business. While making more money than you do right now. While building a stronger brand than you have currently.
• Utilize the economic factors. The single most abundant resource in the world right now is capital. Governments are printing paper money like there is no tomorrow. As if there are no consequences. But there are. For those who don't realize the impact of all this funny money and paper printing. You can print dollar bills, but you can't really print value or wealth. Today, savers are punished and spenders are rewarded. Those who are focusing on the assets' side of their balance sheets are bound to be the big losers. Now is the time to harness what a client of mine calls "Free Debt." Guess what? Free debt is easily available. And it's the easiest way to grow your company right now. Like I said above... Strategy isn't created in a vacuum.
• Loyalty through premium pricing. People are irrational. Their irrationality stems from their emotions. Therefore their irrationality is predictable. For instance, do you know the simplest way of doubling your income is simply increasing your prices? Really. It is. Go ahead. Try it. Increase your prices. Now, I'd have to take a deeper look at your business to determine the percentage by which you should increase prices. But for the most part, increasing your prices will increase your income. Faster. I and my team will implant several loyalty creating practices within your business... so as to instill deep loyalty and reverence amongst your clients towards your company.
• And much, much more.

Bottomline... 

If I decide to work with you, by the end of next year, you'll be working way less, and enjoying way more... while making way more money than you are making right now.

Business may not be just about money, but money is the single most important scorecard that shows you exactly where you are at.

This program is for you if all of the following points apply to you...

• Your business is established. By that I mean that your business is doing at least $1,000,000 in EBITDA AND $2,500,000 in sales.
• You are the primary decision maker. I only work with primary decision makers. I don't work with committees. I don't do "meetings". I don't work based on opinions of teams. That's not my style. If it's yours, find someone else.
• You are willing to act and implement. If we start working together, and I find that you are yourself becoming the main reason why I or my team can't act quickly enough... and make enough changes on a company wide policy level... we'll have to say good bye. I am open to the idea of discussing pros and cons of every situation, but if I am to be responsible for your results, I must have the power to affect changes as well that influence the said results. 
• You are willing to work on my timetable. That means adjusting your schedule to meet mine.