Thriving vs. Struggling in Business 101

I want to talk about what everybody does wrong when it comes to starting or trying to scale a profitable business. Welcome to the Dean Graziosi show. All success starts right here. Okay. A conversation I heard last night between two people I know made me think I must do a podcast on thriving businesses compared to businesses that never get off the ground. Never get started. Never get one sale or a business started. And it never makes the money. Money that someone else is. Listen, if you have a business and you have business envy because there's other people in your space selling what you sell, talking about what you talk about, but they're crushing it. And you're not, my bet is that you've just been misguided, you've been mistaught, you've maybe taken too many economics classes or listening to the wrong advice on what makes a business work. So I figured I'd you show jump in here today and as quick as I possibly could, share the difference of those who struggle, those that never get off the ground, those that never start a business, those that just scratch their head, and those that start a business. And it seems to just be easy. Like the money starts flowing in, the company grows. Like, what the hell are they doing that I'm not? So you ready? Here's what I'm gonna do. I wrote down some things. First off, if you're starting a business or you have a business, make sure that you know the difference between want and need. So many people think I'm going to create a business based around this thing because everybody needs this. Well, everybody needs to stop eating so much sugar, everybody needs to eat healthier, everybody needs to go to the gym. But people don't do any of those things unless they want to. So don't get delusioned and fall so in love with your own product or your service, knowing that people need it because they probably do. But just because they need it doesn't mean they want it. And if they don't want it, they're not going to cut you a check for. So differentiate the two between want and need. This is the conversation I heard that sparked this training. A girl owns a jewelry business. She makes custom jewelry. It's amazing. And she wants to increase sales. She's a stay at home mom with a jewelry business and she's talking to another woman who she respects and as a businesswoman herself. And the conversation went something like this. Sales aren't working well. What can you do? Well, I'm trying to get into more retail stores. Okay, how do you do that? Well, you Know what? I think I'm going to change my entire design. I think I need different colors. Oh, really? What colors are you thinking? More gold? I'm thinking more gold, like higher end coloring. Oh, okay. And, and what else do you think? I think my logo, I think my logo is kind of outdated and I just need to get a fancier, like more crisp logo. Oh, yeah, crisp logo. That, that might be a good thing. What about if you tried to sell some things online? Yeah, I don't want to try selling online until I have, you know, a better packaging and more of the gold color and this new logo. And maybe if I get in retail stores, if I could just get it on someone's. On the countertop, people see it. Wow, I'm listening to this. I didn't say a word. And I realized so many people think of focusing on colors, artwork, logos, and then I'm going to take it one step further. Whatever it is that you want to sell or provide to other people or provide a service, make sure it's the best, make sure it's amazing. But once you do that, focus has to go off. And let me tell you the difference. A couple more things I wrote down here, I want to make sure is people with unsuccessful businesses also take opinions from the wrong people. They take advice from your parents, advice from your friends at a picnic, advice from people who pretend they know what they're doing, their co workers. If someone's not playing the game at the highest level possible, do not listen to them. If someone tried and failed, don't listen to them because they only know how to do it wrong. But people do all these things. They focus their energy, they want to make more money. They focus their energy on the wrong, on the wrong areas. They focus on the products, the color, they focus on the logos, they focus on the location or what their website should look like. And all this obsessive stuff that means nothing at the end of the day. They try to create something that people need. And people don't buy something unless they want it. And then when it's not working or before they launch, they ask an unqualified person. And then you wonder why your business doesn't work. And you feel like you're stuck at a job or stuck in a business that's not paying you anything. And if you have your own business and you're, you're working 40, 60, 80 hours a week and making less than you can at a job, then you just built yourself a job. You don't have your own business. So let's flip that. So what a success. If I was going to, if I was going to guide you on being successful or make a successful business work or you wanted to start something new, here's what I'd say. First off, try to think through if it's new business or even your own, how you can adjust. It is something that's future proof, right? It's hard to know definitively if, if there's going to be an industry transformer that technology is going to wipe out what you do. I mean, Blockbuster probably didn't see, you know, itunes and Netflix coming. They should have, but they didn't, right? Kodak, who invented the digital camera, said no one will ever want digital cameras. They didn't see that coming either, right? Taxi cab drivers probably didn't see Uber. But there are some things that are evident that are future proof, right? Some things that people always need, they'll always want, I should say always want and desire. So make sure that what you're doing falls somewhere in that category. So that's the first thing. Make sure it's something people want, like I said, not just need it, but they want it. Now here's the thing. This is where if I was going to, if you were going to start a business tomorrow, I would say what you should do above everything else is find the closest competition that's successful, even if it's not the exact product, something similar, and stalk them, stalk every bit of their marketing over everything else. I mean, every detail. Don't just look and say, oh, they're using blue and logos. No, look at the wording, look at the messaging. Why are they getting people to take action? What does their first website look like? Their opt in page? What is their registration page? If they're an online business, what is their follow through? What does the sales video sound like, look like? What does it talk about? What are the keywords? What are the headlines? If you get an email from the company, what's the subject line? What's written in the email? What does the link look like? And then I would order the product, do what entrepreneurs do best, cut a check for speed, order the product, order the similar product or something in the same genre. How does the product get there? What are the shipping options? How long does it take to arrive? When it arrives, do you get an email and what's the email say? Does it offer you additional products? When you order the products, does it offer you additional products at a discount or additional services that you can help with? When the product gets there, dissect it, pull it apart, Then as far as product goes, how can you improve upon the product? How can you put a unique twist on it? How can you go upstream and make it one step better, disqualifying the competition, making yours the universal piece. What I'm saying is most people focus on the products, the colors, the look, the feel, ask opinions. Most of your energy has to be obsessed on the marketing to get people to want what it is so you can serve them. Yes, make your product the best on the planet. But once you do your product, your service, your idea, your company, the houses you sell, whatever it is you want to do, make sure it's the best. But once it's the best, your obsession has to be on marketing. Marketing and sales are the oxygen for every successful business. But people will spend 90% of their energy on the completely wrong things. Go, oh, I'm just going to put it out there and if I build it, they will come. If I put it for sale, they'll take it. That's simply not true. That's Field of Dreams. That's a movie with Kevin Costner. If you build it, they will come. They won't come. They will never come. You focus on marketing. Read books on marketing, read books on copywriting. Find competitors that aren't even in. They're not competitors, they're not even the same genre as you. But they're killing it online or killing it with their retail store and see what they're doing, see how they treat their customers, see how their customer service sounds. Guys, if you want your own business to thrive or you want to start your own business, you got to throw away most everything you're taught because they're all wrong. What is it, 70% of all businesses fail within the first five years? This is why the focus is wrong. Listen, are there outliers where you build it and they come? Yes, that's one in a million. Then there's another gazillion people trying working their asses off. I'm not saying it's laziness. Sometimes it's the hardest work ever. But if it doesn't sell, if people don't buy it, people don't talk about it, if people don't refer it, then it's just a really great idea. And then once you start, once you start getting marketing going, once you start, obsess on the numbers, obsess on your sales numbers, find out how much it costs to acquire a customer and then obsess on different pages, on different writing, on different headlines, on different emails to get that cost per acquisition down, whether that's buying houses, whether that's selling, selling people a book or information, product or nothing. Online, a retail store. See what it costs to get a client. Focus on marketing. Focus on sales. Stalk your competitors. Stop asking the wrong questions. Start reading books and following people who are crushing it. And keep listening to this podcast because you know all success starts here. If you like today's podcast, then you're gonna love being a part of my texting community. What's that mean? You could text me right now at 480-400-9019 or it should be below right here. And it comes directly to my phone. Doesn't go to my team. It comes to me. I've been absolutely loving the interaction. I send out some cool things about once a week. I text nothing but things to get your week going, to get your mind thinking. And when we have new videos and things like that, I always text my community first. It has absolutely been a blast and I'd love for you to do it right now. Text me 48 oh 49019 do it. Text me.