Stop selling; start growing! Selling is pushing what you have. Growing is creating a bigger future- a bigger, safer, more profitable future to SHARE.
Lane’s company delivers manufacturing expertise for clients who lack the economy of scale to make sophisticated engineering and equipment investments cost-effective to produce small runs of one-off products.
In good times, outsourced manufacturing is an easy “sell”: Lane produces complicated manufactured parts so his customers can deliver turnkey solutions to their end buyer and earn premium profits.
In uncertain times like today, Lane’s client prospects – typically with revenue of $7-$25 million annually- are slow to make the decision to outsource. Instead, Lane’s prospects focus on keeping their own operation running and their staff employed and end up squeezing their own profitability in the process.
Why on earth would Lane’s prospects hurt their own profits? They fear their customers and prospects will not buy; they see a small future.
How can Lane grow when his prospects are not growing? How can YOU grow when your prospects are not growing?
Don’t waste time with the wrong people who will not change the future.
As an Entrepreneur, it’s your job to declare the future and then move the promise of that future into the present. Invite your three counterparts to participate. Who? Your customer prospects, funding sources and employees.
Rule 1. Seek out decision-makers at your customer prospects who are equity holders in their company.
The future cannot be calculated or analyzed. The future can only be DECLARED.
Declaring the future is the job of the equity owner, the fellow business visionary.
Rule 2. Seek out sources investing their own money who see themselves benefiting from your company’s success.
Reach out to customers who need your solution to their market pain, vendors whose services are components of your solution and other players in your eco-system who value your company’s future. The interdependent players in the same eco-system are the ideal source of “safe cash” for you because your success is their success.
Rule 3. eliminate the vision gap.
As the business visionary, you can see the future, but are you leaving the rest of your team blind? Make the future visible for others by translating it into the universal language of business- dollars and cents. Share with your team your company’s revenue out 10 years in the future, assuming all the resources needed to grow were your own. Share your Optimum Growth Strategy- the one that delivers the highest return with the lowest risk. Now you empower your employees to make prudent decisions day-to-day in line with that future.
When you declare your future, share it, and invite others to participate in it, you attract others and create a synergy where 1+1 exceeds 10! Profitable growth, faster, safer than you ever thought possible.
The future starts with YOU. And that future is contagious! Let’s face it- we entrepreneurs are the solution in this economy (because we are the only ones that can change the future) and we have a big job to do!
Changing the future happens in an instant. Changing the future happens when you declare a goal and take committed action toward it. Its effects are continuous. The future is contagious. Pass it forward and you become a magnet for the big futures of others.
Stefania Aulicino, president of CapitalLinkUSA ensures business owns get cash to keep control of a bigger, more profitable company, faster, safer than they ever thought possible- in any economy. Let us help you become a magnet for non equity and equity sources to fuel your growth. Please explore our tools, solutions and consulting options tailored for different growth stages and different budgets: www.CashAndControl.com
