We hear this from business owners a lot.

They tell us the story about how they had a fabulous product/service idea and they gained almost immediate market acceptance. Sales for the first two to three years were fantastic, with 2X or 3X revenue growth per year.

And then they hit the wall. Revenue stopped growing. ROI on advertising dollars started to decline. And now their cash flow is looking treacherous…revenue is even starting to decline…and their business that had been so good for a few years was in danger of failing.

Why?

As we work with these business owners to “unstick” their businesses, We have found a common theme across all industries.

The reasons for this happening are really very simple…

• The business has no REAL clarity about who its ideal customers are – and so it has concentrated on throwing a wide net, encouraging everybody to buy its products/services. This worked initially as the customer base was built up… but soon enough the business started looking like everybody else selling a similar product/service and was subject to competition from every new entrant in their space.

• The business has no real clarity about the problem that its products/services actually solve – because it has no deep clarity about its customers.

• The business has no clarity about why its product/services are the nest solution for its customers - because it neither understands its customers nor their real problem.

• The business has no clarity about how it should position its products/services in order to attract its ideal company.

• The business has not created a sales process that attracts the ideal customer in a scalable, repeatable and predictable manner.

In other words, the business has failed to follow a strategy, a plan, to ensure that it continues growing by becoming the expert in a specific niche that it can “own”.

Working with business owners who have fallen into this trap is exciting – because a business that has these issues is easy to fix, easy to kickstart and easy to grow…

However, it takes some effort, some deep thought and a willingness to reconsider “how” the business should be run in the future.

If your business is in this stage of stagnation, take action now.

Take a cold hard look at your customer base…

Decide whether it is full of your ideal customers…and if not, it is time to take appropriate action.

Understand your ideal customer, their real problem and why you are the best in the world to solve it for them. When you have done this, you will know how to attract them into your sales process, scale quickly…and return to strong revenue growth.

This is not rocket science…simply good business.