Does fear cause you to freeze like a rabbit in a squat?

You too can increase profits without necessarily increasing sales!

How?

The “Profits Leak Detective Newsletter” offers regular tips and strategies to help you identify and plug those leaking profits.

You may never have known you have them.

Subscribe to receive a FREE Case Study on the success of just one strategy.

BONUS free report “7 Clues to a Profit Leak”, valued at $47.

How do you know that you should be looking for leaks?

Are there some clues or symptoms that are telltales saying that a

bit of drilling down into your business might pay some dividends?

Possible leaks could be anywhere.

This report provides 7 clues that should put you on alert for a profit leak.

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"Adam, over the past six years, I've had the pleasure of 'bumping into you' on at least three business and marketing related forums. Your contributionsto discussions have always been courteous, astute, incisive and practical,delivered with good humour, and based upon 'real-world' business experience. You are clearly an experienced business professional who actually knows what he is talking about. I wonder if your clients know what a gem they have in you? As one business professional to another, I salute you.

Good Wishes,
John Williamson - The Wealth Coach
www.thewealthcoach.com
www.retaildisplaysecrets.com

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I just LOVED "7 Clues to a Profits Leak".

Steven Walker - Profit Improvement Advisors
Calgary, Canada

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You will be proud how your protégés are proceeding! We have expanded the business to Katherine and Alice (Tennant is also on the list). T he catering side of the business is far less stressful and is actually profitable, now that we only take the good jobs.
We will never forget the assistance you gave us in re-inventing our business!

Karen Sheldon

Managing Director

Karen Sheldon Catering

Darwin, Australia

+++++++++++++++++++

The chap is Adam Gordon whom I have known for many years. He is a former resident of Darwin having lived here for perhaps 25 years, is an excellent communicator and has a very good appreciation of small business, business plans and all that goes with it. In fact Adam is regarded as a business guru.

Charles Wright, QS Services, Darwin, Australia

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Thanks for the catch-up the other day. It's great to be working with a legend in the small business community.

AJ Kulatunga, BLKMGK ICT

Darwin, Australia

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The 7 Clues is a great.

What I like the most in the Seven Clues report is that it clearly explains that accounting is merely a subset of proper financial management and

that only the business owner can practise financial management. The accountant does the accounting, and in doing so supports the business owner's financial management. And the business owner uses the accountant's information, but relying on the accountant to do full-blown financial management is short-sighted.

The report nicely "grounds" an otherwise complex topic which many business owners are afraid of touching, so they often move ahead in blissful ignorance. The water hose and the soggy soil under the leak makes an excellent and easy-to-comprehend example, upon which the financial management concept is nicely built.

Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur Dynamic Innovations Squad
Personal and Firm-Wide Performance Improvement for Management Consulting Firms

Vancouver, BC Canada

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You have played a very important role in my development in business.

You were there with the right information at the right time, I thank you for that.
By adding the next level of systems, and marketing knowledge that you brought to the table we able to identify our objectives, acknowledge the gaps in our business and put in place the planning so as to achieve those objectives. Within 5 years we achieved 9 of our ten stated objectives. In that same year we won the NT Telstra Small business of the year"

Greg Haigh
Director - Trade Group
Regional And Northern maintenance services
RANms

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Recent newsletters include:

How well do you know your market?
How turning away customers leads to profits
How to create Superior Value
How to win against your competition
Do you need to make changes to your business?
"Our customers are costing us too much!"
Why competition is good news
What makes a web site effective?
Most businesses have one, but...
How to improve your quotations
How to raise prices without losing sales
Is your business resilient?
How to develop a new product in your niche
How big is your profit gap?
How discounting destroyed value
Benchmarking for best practice
From all customers to some customers
How to take the guesswork out of growth
Should your USP be based on logic or emotion?
How to triple your quotation success rate
How to dramatically improve your quotations
How to make more effective decisions?
How to develop your USP
Do you want to make better planning choices?
Are youmaking these mistakes in planning?
How to use SWOT properly
Does your sales conversation balance the scales of justice?
The perils of profitless cash flow!
So what is more important, cash flow or profit?
Are you getting value from your pricing?
Do you report to yourself monthly?
Follow the money trail!
Performance also counts!
Get more bang for your buck!
Without measurement there can be no improvement!
Where would your business be without customers?
Using your monthly report to improve your profits
Just who is your customer?
And what do you know about your customer?
How branding can increase your profits!
Can branding make you more money?
How to balance the value equation
Tilting the balance in your favour
How to pin the tail on the donkey
Are you groping in the dark with your real cost of labour
Mastering core marketing principles
Building a 5P marketing plan
Profit leaking processes
Should you be trying to increase or decrease cash flow
At times it is folly to hasten
5 steps to create your future
What will be the X-Factor in 2009
Lies, damn lies & statistics
How to use a squad profit leak detectives
Confidence leads to action
Increase sales - so easy to say
So you want to know how to increase sales
Is selling a necessary evil?

Does fear cause you to freeze like a rabbit in a squat?

Uncertainty causes fear

Recent events bought an earlier Profits Leak blog to mind. I wrote of the typical small business who concentrated on the job in hand, getting it right to make sure they make a profit, then moving on to the next job. They believed that's all that is required to build a business. After all, there will always be a job on hand, and one to follow it. Life goes on. Nothing much changes.

They couldn't see the risk their lack of marketing placed on their business. They relied almost entirely on word-of-mouth and repeat business to sustain them.

Because as you now well know, things do change. And the change can be dramatic. That earlier article pointed out that lack of marketing caused problems such as a lack of control over the future direction of your business. You are completely dependent on what comes through the door.

What bought this to mind was the sudden conversion of two clients, clients who in many ways typify small business operators. They are good at what they do, have good reputations, and for much of the time business has kept coming through the door. Life goes on.

Now, suddenly, both want a marketing strategy, they want to know their Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) or Unique Selling Proposition (USP). They want to know the best promotional tool for them to use. Above all they want a web page. Now that's a change!

So what changed? Well, that doesn't take much guessing. The economic conditions, Global Financial Crisis, call it what you will. It is not just the conditions but the publicity given by our politicians and media. And torrent of doom and gloom is creating UNCERTAINTY. No decision maker, whether they are in large or small business, likes uncertainty

Uncertainty causes fear, and fear can lead to freezing. Like a rabbit in a squat, don't move until the danger has passed.

Now that is all very well if you are a rabbit, but it won't do much for your business. If there are customers around, you want them to be your customers, not the competition's. But they won't be if they can't find you, and find out about you, and what you can do to solve their problem.

And that means you must develop a marketing message, sharpen the message so that it means something to your target market, and get it out via the most effective media for that market.

One of those media could, or really should, be a website. Many businesses are now venturing online as it is a cost-effective way to promote their business and target new customers. You probably realise yourself how often you look for a business's website when you want to find out about it. Yet a recent report released by MYOB has shown that 60 percent of small businesses do not have their own website. Maybe they haven't looked out of their squat.

Interestingly the two clients I'm mentioned are in a relatively untouched part of Australia as far as the downturn goes yet they feel the uncertainty. The positive thing is that they are going to do something about it, which is just what we suggested in a recent blog.

Don't let uncertainty cause you to freeze in your squat. You don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

PS You will notice a small "add comment" icon in above the header for this blog. This is your chance to agree or disagree. Whichever, your comments are very welcome.