Fear or Stupidity?

There are many things that annoy me throughout life but what really makes my blood boil from a business point of view are STUPID PEOPLE!!!

Controversial I know but really how many of you have had dealings with another business owner, MD or even worse an “in house marketing manager” and thought “how have they got that job” or “how can they run a business like that”?  The answer is probably most of you, and those who said no are probably those people the rest of us are talking about!

Now it may sound like me being bitter to those companies who don’t take up our service but I can hand on heart say that this is not the case we have had many people who have declined our service because it is not for them, they don’t have the resource at that moment in time. These people are the ones who generally have made this decision from a business point of view; they have looked at the facts and made a proper decision.  It’s the people that book an appointment in my diary and arrange for me to call them, I then call them and they are “out” they “don’t know who I am” or just get downright rude and abusive before I have even had the chance to introduce myself properly.

The Reality is that there are now more “Business Owners” than ever.  Firstly the recession has had a massive effect, as more and more people are made redundant or have their salary reduced the need to make more money to cover bills becomes much greater.  So what can people do now that they couldn’t do 20 – 30 years ago?  Simple answer is they can set up a website at the drop of a hat for ridiculously low costs and don’t need to have a large investment in place for stock, marketing or resources in general.

So why is this a bad thing I hear you ask?  Well these people who have a little success initially then go blindly into marketing strategies that they don’t really understand, thus (specifically AdWords) more and more people enter the AdWords market place, YOUR bids are being increased because these people are trying the old adage of throwing as much money as they can afford at it thinking this is the way AdWords works.

I may be being a bit unfair to some of these people as Fear is the other factor that seems to blur their judgement when it comes to relying heavily on their ”New Business” as their only source of income. But they don’t seem to treat it as such.

What I mean is this, to be fair to these people the reason they have took this step is that they love their family and want to try and provide them with security but they don’t treat their business like they do their family home. For example if they have a problem with the plumbing and the boiler at home they will get a qualified plumber – most people would never consider fixing a faulty boiler themselves.  Yet, when it comes to their sales generation via AdWords they have a stab at it themselves.  But isn’t being able to pay the plumber, your mortgage or car finance just as important? So why don’t they have a look on Google at how to fix the problem themselves?  There are many YouTube videos to solve all manner of problems online but they don’t do this because the safety of their family is directly in their hands and they know they are less likely to resolve the problem safely compared to a qualified plumber.

So why when it comes to a problem with their business do they not put the same thought process into action?  As I stated above surely this is stupid?  Their own life and generally their family life and if they have many employees, their lives are at stake when it comes to their business success and the strategies they employ.  Now I have read many books on how to run a successful business and how to make money and the main point of all of them is that getting new customers is the primary focus for businesses. Marketing, marketing and more marketing.  We all know that the Internet is the only real way to get to market and that Google is still the biggest marketing tool full stop. But unlike the scenario at home with the plumber these “Stupid People”, if they are struggling with the likes of AdWords insist on trying to do this themselves or find the cheapest possible way to get help.  Why don’t these people look for experts in this market?  I don’t know whether it is a pride thing or a trust thing but at the end of the day it’s a decision that can be the difference between stupidity and intelligence or success and failure in business.

So ask yourself, when it comes to my business am I making decisions intelligently with all the facts or stupidly without the consideration of all it effects?

In a storm and most of the time business is just one storm after another, you don’t want encouragement yelled from the shore, you need a professional skipper on board who’s sailed a thousand storms and takes it in his stride as you navigate to safety.