“Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.”– Roger Von Oech
If you stay plugged into current events, whichever side of the political aisle you frequent, it’s very difficult not to give in to the increasing climate of fear.
But you must.
This is the same kind of message which my Print Newsletter clients and Email Marketing clients are consistently getting out to their business owner contacts–stave off this incessant fear and get MOVING on bringing in new business!
[We recently got this note from Valerie Galey’s assistant regarding the emails they send out to their biz owner clients:
“We have received great feedback from our clients as well. They email testimonials (which we would never normally get out of them), they email back questions that they normally forget to call us with, and it generally helps us stay in contact with them without having to take our time to physically contact them, because we know that doesn’t really happen with life right now. We really appreciate all that you do!”]
So…one of the reasons I make it a point to stay in close contact with YOU is to build our relationship so that you can trust the things I say–but even more, I get to act as your “coach” in your marketing efforts–so that you know you’re not alone!
And, it’s important your clients feel the same way. Valerie’s certainly do!
But getting back to the fear issue… I’ve got some words on that topic below in this week’s Tax Business Strategy Note, and I’d love your feedback!
[PS–And, in case you wanted an update on our adoption which I referenced last week…we passed court! Those two little ones are *officially* ours. We’ll be traveling next month to get them, and I’ll give you a chance to hear more about that journey in the future, if you’d like.]
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Nate Hagerty’s
“Profit For Life” Business Strategy
How You CHOOSE To Respond To This Climate is EVERYTHING!
The choices you make NOW have the greatest impact in your life LATER.
I personally don’t believe that there are any victims in life, there are only “volunteers who choose to feel victimized.”
We choose to “get a bad deal” on a purchase of office equipment if we don’t do our homework ahead of time before the sale is made. We chose to put up with the “mean” irate client that yelled at us in the lobby of our office today. We even chose to have employees steal from us because we were too lazy to set up some kind of accountability system which “checks” for possible theft each day.
You see, we make good and bad choices every day. Sometimes we even let “life” choose for us, by not making a decision at all!
One major example everyone in the tax business can relate to is this…
It was April 30th, and you had “fresh in your mind” all the things you want TO DO to improve your tax business for next year. You even have them written down this year. And eight months go by and it’s January 1st again. Well, what happened?
You chose not TO DO almost everything on your “to do” list that you were committed to do last April and May. That’s okay though. Business is not so bad. You’ll lose a few clients and you’ll pick up some more to replace them.
It was your choice. (You made your bed, now you get to sleep in it.)
Do me a favor:
I want you to CHOOSE to actually try something new to market your business! (And I don’t mean right before next tax season, I mean NOW!)
I don’t care how good your tax business is right now, you can ALWAYS get a little bit better! If you just do a few little things each year, you’d be surprised how much of a difference it would make in your overall profitability of your bottom line.
I know from personal experience. The years I choose to DO what I planned to do are the years the tax business whose marketing I directed ran the smoothest and made more profit. Yes, I know about making choices. I’ve made plenty of good ones and plenty of bad ones. All I’m asking you to do is choose a direction and actually go for it.
Don’t do “nothing” and let life choose for you! And another thing…
Self image and “FEAR” affect everything from your goals to how you grow your tax or accounting business!
If you have in your mind that you are a certain type of tax/accounting business owner that can’t change, or that you are a “200 or 300 client” operation and that’s all the clients you feel you can handle, well–YOU’RE RIGHT!
Until you change your thinking and your self-image, you will have a hard time doubling or tripling your business (and keeping it at those profit levels) for any extended length of time.
Why? Because none of us can outperform our own self image for any extended length of time!
I can help your business to get 1,000 new clients over the next three tax seasons, but if you don’t think you could handle the growth of new business or you don’t know how you would oversee the added employees, then guess what?
You won’t do what it takes to get there, because it doesn’t match up with the image you have of yourself.
Did you know YOUR “FEAR” of the unknown will also “stunt” your tax business’ growth? Fear is NOT a bad thing. It can be healthy at times. But if fear is a problem for you because it paralyzes you from taking action, then let me fill you in on a “little secret” of what fear really stands for.
FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
That’s right! 99% of what you fear never comes to pass anyway, but the “fearful” information you have in your head makes it seem real!
You see, I’m going to suggest you to do a lot of different things to achieve success that you probably have never done before. If you are paralyzed by fear, then you will NOT benefit from this information. Why? Because you’ll be too scared to DO anything I suggest.
Look, everyone has fear. We are all human. It’s how you DEAL with fear that sets apart the successful people of the world. They actually fail MORE than anyone else every day because they are not afraid of it! (It doesn’t mean THEY are a failure.)
When a successful person tries something and it doesn’t work out, that’s fine. It’s called a result. You have good results and bad results. Successful people don’t see a bad result as negative. It’s just new information that can be used to get better results in the future!
If this FEAR issue is a big problem for you, I recommend that you send me an email, and let me know. I’d like to pray for you (not on the phone with you–unless you’d like), AND pay attention over these next few months, as I’ll be delivering you further information on getting past your fear.
Remember: How a person handles failure (usually perceived through a poor self image or fear of the unknown) determines how much success he or she can have.
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I’m truly dedicated to your success!
God bless you,
Nate Hagerty