What Are You Struggling With?

Thad,

My biggest problem at the moment has been being able to work ON my business instead of IN my business. But as a martial arts instructor (but I’m sure just about any service provider will fit there) it’s challenging to simply hire someone to take your place or train a replacement for a couple reasons (but there’s more):

1) You have great rapport with the students and parents. I’ve had many parents ask if I’m going to be here for a long time because they like the way I work with their children.

2) People like you and trust you – a lot of being a successful instructor is people looking up to you as a role model.

These make it hard to simply put out a ‘help wanted’ ad because you need a mix of skills: motivation, leadership, communication, and physical showmanship and skill.

However, I want to be free of HAVING to teach in the next 18 months – I want staff trained up so I can move on to other things, and open more schools. So my biggest challenge are:
1) Getting cash up to a point that I can hire someone
2) Finding someone that has the skills I deem necessary
3) Finishing construction – which will go a long, long way towards improving 1 and 2.

I do have a program I’ve developed for teaching self-defense to professionals but I know the first letter needs work and I don’t have much in the way of follow-up pieces yet. I can get you a copy if you’d like to see it. I have a different letter for the parent’s market that I’m getting ready to launch – just need to set a things in place in preparation (have all the included giveaways, uniforms, DVDs and such).

Anywhooo – I can go on and on but this is a good place to stop. Three areas need help and I have two prongs of attack: high-end self-defense seminars for a quick cash hit and my regular program to build volume and steady cash flow.

Looking forward to feedback,
A. Nony Mouse

What am I struggling with…..boy, what a loaded question. The market has truly changed for us in real estate, and what keeps me awake at night, and causes a lot of pain, is to try and stop the bleeding right now!
When you depend on cashing out properties from your lease optionees, and then the market changes, that stops the cash flow!
But guess what, every obstacle is just simply a challenge, and an opportunity. the pendulum has swung the other way, and if I find the opportunity in this [and bet your bottom dollar I will], I will come out the other end shining like a brand new silver dollar!
There,I spilled my guts, and it feels good. The thing is, you can’t keep a good man down. I’m optimistic about the future, and right now I’m going to do what Thad and Dan Kennedy have always preached…whatever is hot, and in the news, piggyback it and use it to its fullest…
More on that later…

http://www.KnoxHomeBuyers.com
http://www.StopPayingRentNow.biz
http://www.MakeMoreWealth.com
http://www.u1stfinancial.net/debtprisonfree

I used to think that I struggle to keep my pipeline filled. Marketing seems to be the answer. After listening to a call between Bill Glazer, Dan Kennedy and Robert Ringer I realized what I really struggle with – ACTION! It goes even deeper. I’m always busy doing things I thought were related to building my business but in reality those were just activities. The key for me is to focus on the specific things that will cause my prospects to engage and become customers. Those are the actions I need to be taking. The other “activities” are simply noise that fills my day. So I guess I really struggle with sorting the activities out of the list of actions.

I think my biggest struggle right now is trying to keep a positive attitude in the downward spiral of our Real Estate market.

The area in which I work keeps having more and more jobs disappear. With this, the buyers go away too. When the buyers go away, the inventory goes up, and then our cashflow goes down. It seems to be a viscious cycle. I’m trying to figure out how to make what few buyers we have come to me rather than anyone else.

I’m learning and hoping that I can achieve this type of sequence of events:
1. Get the few buyers we have to come to me.
2. Sell them houses.
3. My cashflow goes up.
4. When cashflow goes up, my attitude improves and then I’m able to work better because I can foresee a result. When sales are so few and everyone else in the industry sings doom and gloom, it’s VERY difficult to not be drug down as well.

Thad,

I struggle a lot. Here are my top three:

1. I would like to create multiple streams of income. I have seen programs to do Google Ad Sense Sites, programs to do affiliates. How do you know what actually works?

2. Market research. How do you know if a product will sell without actually creating it? The testimonial contest produced zero participation. I can imagine a polling contest also having zero participation. It is like I am shooting an arrow in the dark.

3. Info Marketing. How do you do this?

Thad, right now the biggest struggle I am having is making sure that I am working on the highest priority project and delegating the other tasks. I know that Dan says to never delegate the marketing, so that is what I am trying to focus on. I do however find myself thinking about what to do next, and it is really slowing my progress. How do you set your priorities each day, and make sure you are making progress at the speed in which you desire?

I am digging deep to come up with the most accurate answer to this question because I think I struggle most with my fears… and self confidence. When I really think about it, I am fearful about failure and fearful about success. Crazy huh… I think I know myself pretty well and I am a big picture person. I thrive on change and can create efficiencies easily. Although I struggle with marketing. I’ve never been exposed to marketing and never considered myself a marketing type of person but… I know that’s where I need to give most of my focus. I’m working on that NOW. My real estate investing business focuses primarily on pre-foreclosures/short sales. Obviously this is a good time for this business right now and I know I can easily have a steady stream of short sales coming to me if I marketed appropriately. Right now I get a great response from my handwritten letters but who wants to continue something that takes so much time and is terribly boring AND it’s quite difficult to do a good mass handwritten campaign. In addition I do have a postcard campaign and ads in the Dispatch and local papers. So, to summarize, my stresses and challenges are #1. streamlining successful marketing to bring in a constant steady stream of clients #2. Letting go of the fear of “can I do this?”, “can I manage the pressure of growing the business to success?” OH… there’s one more challenge I didn’t mention. I am juggling a fulltime job while running my business on the side. Boy, that’s a big one!