I talk to tradies every day and a lot of them (even ones that ring me) don't feel much urgency about their marketing. A lot of this comes back to the comfort of being average. However when bad things happen, average gets beat up.
In a previous article I talked about why you should do marketing even if you're booked out, and in this article I'm going to talk about why you should feel some urgency to do your marketing.
If You're Not Expanding, You're Contracting
When the Chinese virus hit Australia a lot of tradies went into contraction, and missed the perfect opportunity for expansion. When everyone is playing it safe, thinking small, that's your greatest opportunity to make big moves. You should always be moving forwards not backwards. If you're standing still, you're still retreating. Retreaters are victims. They get hit in the arse because they're always retreating!
Best known wins. Best known always beats best service or best price. Until you are best known you have marketing to do. Even when you are best known, you'll still have marketing to do. It's a way of life, a vital component of business.
Bottom line is, if your business revenue is flatlining and not growing year after year, you have a problem somewhere.
Time Is Not Your Friend
People have big misconceptions about time. What is time anyway? It's made up. Someone decided we have 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year to work with. I don't want to manage time, I want to create time. I don't need to balance a clock I need to shove more into that hour. People think either they don't have time, or they do have time, and can put something off. "Oh I'll do it another time...". Which is it? You have time or you don't?
The truth is neither. The truth is you have the present. The time is now. What you do today, what you do right now, determines how tomorrow goes. If you'll pay the price today, so you can pay any price tomorrow, that's where your thinking needs to be. Time waits for nobody, and thinking you should put something off until your 'ready' is complacency.
Expand not contract. Add time to your day to work harder when others are working less hard. We only have one shot at this life. We only have a limited amount of time on this planet. We need to make the most of it. And that means taking massive action, and taking action with intention and urgency.
Alan Frye