How to Overcome the 5 Biggest Challenges Facing Your Business

Welcome to Dawn of a New Era, a business and marketing podcast with a difference, ranking in the top 5% globally for people who want to start, scale, and grow their own business. Dawn McGruer shares tips to improve marketing, motivation, and mindset, as well as her own real-life challenges and experiences as an entrepreneur. Guests include some of the world's most inspiring leaders too. So if you are an aspiring, established, or serial entrepreneur, this is your go-to podcast to fast-track results and rise to meet today's challenges and master the art of online influence and business success, and avoid common pitfalls along the way.

Never miss an episode and subscribe and listen at dawnmcgruer.com. Welcome to episode 55 of Dawn of a New Era. In this episode, we're going to look at the biggest challenges, and in fact, we're going to look at the five biggest challenges facing your business right now.

Many people talk about leads, revenue, all of these aspects that, you know, we're looking at commercially to assess how sustainable and profitable your business is. But let's dig a bit deeper and look at the root cause for those things, because in everything in business, it's cause and effect. It's all about different actions, different circumstances. And if you have listened to any episode before, you will know that my whole passion around business is that we have what we call the pillars of success, and three pillars of success that I always talk about are marketing, motivation, and mindset.

These three things are kind of what we would call the critical success factors, the pillars that are going to build the foundation to your day-to-day. Now, when we look at the challenges within business and we look at the effect, is that yes, many businesses are not generating enough clients to be sustainable and profitable. But where does this all come from? Well, generally it comes from things like, you know, when you start your own business as a founder, everything is dependent on you, and every single element of the business falls on you.

Now, that causes a huge amount of strain for anybody, even the most organized or experienced entrepreneur. It is tough in the world of business, and with this whole founder dependence, what we need to do is kind of shift some of that balance and start looking at what can be delegated. Now, if you are stuck in the issue whereby maybe you're a new business, or maybe you're pressured on the cash flow side of things, outsourcing seems like the most ridiculous idea. But actually, you need to try and find a way.

That you can boost your business by freeing up some of your time and looking at what are the activities that are revenue generating, what are the activities that are revenue draining, and start trying to think, well, is there a way that I could get either, you know, working capital into the business to start getting those activities out so that you can focus on the things that are going to make you money. I'm not ever saying to anyone, you know, to start accumulating debt, but Sometimes in the beginning, or even sometimes in the most established business, businesses need a little bit of a boost and a little bit of a help. And working capital means that you can put the money in, and then you can just put the money back into that loan account as and when you've got it. Now, it just takes that little bit of pressure off where this founder dependence can shift slightly.

Sometimes when you're stuck and it all comes down to money, it's very difficult to kind of get yourself out of it. So there's different ways and different means that you can use. Now, that is challenge number one, with hopefully a resolve of maybe looking at how you can delegate some of the tasks that don't need you, because you can't always stay the person doing everything. I know when I started my first business, I honestly thought, you know, like, oh, it's just easier if I do it myself.

You know, it's quicker if I do it myself, or I know it's going to be right if I do it myself. And it took me a long time to actually learn how to delegate effectively and actually move from being, you know, a business owner to a CEO and a leader. Now, number two, fatigue. It's something that every business owner, regardless who you are, where you are at in your journey, will experience.

Fatigue. It's burnout, but it can happen from different things. It could be pressures in other parts of your life. It could be pressures within the business.

It could be that you've got staffing issues. It could just be that whole kind of drain on your whole mental mindset. And this happens quite regularly. And one of the things that sounds strange is that when you are fatigued, you tend to try and get this sense of control and certainty back, which means that you're pushing more in the business, which in turn generates more fatigue.

So one of the shifts I took, because I've definitely hit fatigue, a bit of a roller coaster in my businesses from, you know, starting at 21 to what being 42 now, I've still not got it absolutely nailed, but I have got systems in place whereby Me and my team can recognize where we are fatigued, whether it's me, whether it's other people in the business, or whoever it is. But it is so important to kind of look at your energy flow and look at times in your business where you are in your genius zone. What are the things that light you up, motivate you, push you on? And again, it kind of comes back down to number one: is there things that you can delegate to shift you forward?

Are there things that are sitting on your to-do list that are just dragging you down? Are there things that are holding you back? Challenges like things like tech. You know, you always want to do something, but there is something standing in your way.

So have a look at it and think about if you are fatigued, is it down to time, tactics, or training? And what I mean by this is that if you are time poor, you feel like you've just got this endless to-do list, you need to go through a declutter and delegate. Now, if it's down to tactics and it's things that you just don't know how to do, again, is there another resource that you could utilize to harness the power of whatever you need, you know, to do? Honestly, there's been things in my business where I thought, do you know what?

If I could do this, X, Y, and Z, it would change this. You know, things I know that would have a massive momentum or a massive pivot for my business. And you have to look at outside of you and maybe your team and business sometimes. When it comes down to training, it could be your own training and it could be staff training.

I'm constantly investing in myself and my team because I think it's really important that you have the confidence, which then in turn gives the clarity. It's one of those things that you don't know what you don't know. Sometimes just hearing other people's perspectives. You know, this is why I read a lot of books, listen to podcasts, I research online, I look at things on YouTube.

I am looking at ways of doing things better, more efficiently, more effectively, and Again, you need time to do some of that. So it comes down to, for me, about time blocking, diary management, but again, knowing the systems. In business, if I'd had somebody who was kind of going to look at my whole model and pull it apart, tell me what was going to work, what wasn't, you know, that would have been just the most epic thing I could have asked for. So whenever I'm developing products and services, I honestly go back to where I was at because, yeah, there's time and money, but it's the results I want, and I want that person, or I wanted that person when I was 21, to guide me.

And I think the thing is, is when we look at these first two challenges, founder dependence and also fatigue, these are all to do with your own growth and your business's growth. And I don't mean by employing lots of people, but you can subcontract, you can get other people on board, you can learn new skills. But the thing that would probably really have helped me in terms of, you know, my wealth and success is that every time I'm looking at my own business model, my clients' business models, you know, if we look at my program, the Power Circle, you know, the essence there is all about 10xing your wealth and success. But what is that?

Yeah, we know what the challenges are, but what is the transformation and results? You know, for me, it's always about sort of building the bridge. And the gaps that a lot of my clients have and I've had in the past, I've looked for mentorship and support on, is number three, money management, like, you know, looking at putting profit first. Who teaches you in business how to do that?

Well, you have to either get accountants to do that, or you have to learn from a mentor. And this is something that, for me, I, you know, as much as I'm sort of online marketing, I believe that the whole business mix in terms of what I teach my clients is not just about getting the business model right, it's about the strategy. And the things to do throughout. You know, if I'd started my business at 21, would I have got to the end result quicker?

Absolutely, without a doubt, if someone had taught me money management. Because I was always getting people involved, like an accountant, to do something once it needed doing. I wasn't looking at it in the reverse. And one of the things that I'm so passionate about across my programs is money management in terms of this profit first element, looking at the cash coming into your business and the cash going out.

And my whole ethos.

is about earning every day, so sell every day and save every day. Sell and save. Now, these two aspects are something that's taken me a long time to kind of really master how to manage business money. Because if you have started a business and maybe you're not taking a salary or things, you know, yet, that's something that's got to be the first part of what you do.

You know, looking after paying you first, number one, and then looking at, obviously, how you're driving money into the business each day and how you're saving money. It's something that I probably started off maybe looking at when I was doing my accounts. You know, now I'm looking at this each and every day across my businesses and across my clients, and it's about having these little tips and tactics about having pots for that and pots for profit and controlling your money. And it's strategy, yeah?

It's all of these come down to kind of navigating the pitfalls and having that outside, I suppose, eyes on your business has always been something that I think is important. I still do it with mine. I do it with all my clients. And if you take a step back, you're always going to be more objective.

When you look at your money management side of things, we have to look at your mindset for money as well. You know, how were you brought up? What's your feeling around money? Are you comfortable with, you know, affluence?

Are you someone who likes to spend? You know, what is your money mindset? And when you understand that, it starts to kind of fit into place. And this is all like a jigsaw puzzle.

And this kind of brings me on to number four, which is client dependence. Often in business, and I'm sure we've all had situations or times where we've been dependent on clients, is that if you're overly dependent, you're kind of putting all your eggs in one basket. And this is kind of something that we need to be aware of. And you want to be thinking about different streams of income because, tell you what, when coronavirus hit, a lot of my clients and myself were in a position whereby It is tremendously stressful to think about, you know, team members and, you know, what's going to happen.

We had no idea. But one thing that I knew, I 100% knew, was that I knew what our revenue was going to be guaranteed for the next 12 months. How? Well, part of our business model is payment plans, so that we know that, you know, someone signing up for something is splitting their payments, say into 12 equal payments and paying that over the term, and looking at what money is coming into the business each and every month.

Now, that gave me a great sense of assurance because obviously, you know, we didn't know how many people were going to come on courses, do things, or, you know, indeed what was going to happen. And an element of our business was face-to-face events and training. So we managed to mitigate the risk by having a spread of revenues. Now, I'm not going to harp on about, you know, passive income and recurring income because it's not one of those things you just switch on and off.

It takes time. But it's about looking at the business model and thinking about how does cash come into your business? Because if you did turn your business into, say, recurring revenue, then you've got to understand on the other side is what is the impact? Well, that would mean reduced cash flow.

So if someone's paying you all the money up front, then cash flow is great. But then if people are paying you spread over 12 months, there is an impact to be had. So keep thinking about the cause and effect. Not every business can do recurring revenue.

Not every business will have passive income. But there is different things you can do, and business models have been a speciality of mine for many years. Working in the agency, looking at different industries and niches, understanding how business works, and also this whole impact that it has. Because you can't make big changes without understanding what the goal would be in terms of how is that impacted for you.

Will it take longer? Will it be harder? You know, will it impact on the flow of cash coming in? How are you going to mitigate that?

So there's always this cause and effect to consider. I'm thinking about client dependence. So having lots of different, obviously, revenue streams coming in is going to be great, but is that possible? You know, is it possible to have payment plans?

Is it possible to get a mix of this? You know, and it's about balancing this the whole time, which brings me on to number five: balancing quality and growth. How is it going to work? So, you know, founder dependence, we're delegating things out, we're getting over fatigue by looking at the way our calendars are structured and time blocking and taking time out, also looking at the time tactics and training within the business, and then looking at money management and how our clients are coming into the business, the business models we have, and the streams of income.

Now, number five, balancing quality and growth. You know, as a business grows, what happens is that maybe the fact that you're not founder dependent anymore, that means you're not dealing with the clients, that how is customer experience changing? Is it keeping at the same quality now that you've got other team members dealing with it? Now that you're going through a growth phase, are you giving that personalized experience and interactivity that you wanted?

So it's always about looking at things in micro tasks and looking at the momentum of your business. And the way that I do this is that every day I look at this sell and save as a primary. And as long as a business is always selling something and saving something, it would be very difficult not to be moving towards, obviously, growth and progress. Progress, you know, and ultimately being a very successful business.

But it's about understanding your business and keeping an eye on each of the elements enough as a founder, as a business owner, or as a marketeer, that you don't necessarily have to be involved with it day to day, but you need to understand where everything is at. And the things I always look at is obviously, you know, the sell and save, of course, looking at how do we each and every day move somebody from our prospect list into being a client. What are the activities? Could it be a discovery call?

Could it be a masterclass? What are those activities? And then from a saving point of view, how can we strip out some of the costs, make the business more effective, make it more efficient? How could we balance the growth?

You know, do we need to get other team members to earn more? Do we need to look at other automations within the business to balance the quality and growth of the business? Do we have the expertise for money management? Do we have the expertise to deliver everything that the business needs to grow?

So it's about doing daily audits, and it sounds really odd that you would even think about doing a daily audit, but a daily mini audit, or a micro audit, as I call it, is perfect for just getting a sense check, but keeping in touch of reality of where you're at in business, because you could get caught up very easily in an endless to-do list. These activities may not have any impact on your business, and in fact, a lot of studies say that 80% of people's to-do lists are actually vanity or futile tasks that are not driving the business forward. So what you need to do is just sense check every day: are you taking one step further forward to that business goal? What are the three aspirational goals that you have in life?

What are the three business goals you have? And how are you moving forward? What are the exact tactics and actions to do this? Now.

There is lots of people out there who are very successful in business, and it's about understanding all of the different elements that aid this success. Now, these are the biggest challenges, and these are the things that I know if you make changes to, that you can get quite big differences in terms of results, and they can really help in terms of your goals. I'm always focused on the whole transformation, your whole end process. And when I do a program, it's about what is that person going to get.

It's not just about the challenges; it's about where is that person going to get to? You know, if I said to someone, if I gave you a step-by-step plan for the next six months that is going to help you 10 times your wealth and success, most people would say yeah. And this is why things like the Power Circle program are successful, because they give people not just the understanding of the challenge, but they tell people that you have the bridge to actually move them forward. And in every single day, you know, if we're looking at things like client dependence, money management, fatigue, founder dependence, balancing quality and growth, these things need addressing, and they can't be skipped over.

They can be for a period of time, but then pressures will start to appear in the business. And I think for me at the moment, you know, if we look at what is having an impact, for me and all my clients, it's about presenting ourselves powerfully online, because there's a huge, huge power of online marketing, and it's about reaching and growing your audience and turning those connections into clients. So for me, strategy is going to play a big part of it, but getting the business model right first of all will be central to where everyone needs to be, because if you've got that right foundation layer, it's easier just to kind of put those building blocks on and move closer and closer to those end goals. And of course, your goals will always change, you know, as your business evolves.

But just think about doing a little micro audit today. See where you're at now.

If you would like to learn more about moving your business forward, if you want to learn more about 10xing your wealth and success, and you're ready to take those steps, then you need to make sure that, number one, you join me in the Marketing and Motivation and Mindset group on Facebook. Just search my name, Dawn McGruer. You will see the group come up. Connect with me personally on LinkedIn and subscribe to the podcast because there are big changes coming.

The Power Circle is launching in September 2021, so it is going to be a huge, huge concept change in terms of, you know, the branding effort that we've put in here. It is amazing. All of the team members and the partners who are involved in the program, some of the world's most inspiring leaders, and I would love you to be part of it because, as I say, it is all about making big changes and all of these powerful ways of presenting yourself online to really scale and grow your business. So I hope you enjoyed the episode, and join me next week for some more marketing, motivation and mindset chat.

And don't forget to connect with me on social media. Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era podcast, and for your free checklist to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit and success, and join our community, go to dawnmcgruer.com.