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Growth Was "Hurting" My Online Business. Is it Hurting Yours? 1997 was a banner year at JDD Publishing. Sales multiplied to a level five times the previous year. All the little tips and techniques I've been teaching, have really worked. So everything was great this year, right? Wrong. As many of you know, things can indeed happen quickly on the internet. As a business owner, it is almost impossible to be prepared for growth beyond reasonable expectations. "But what about all those people on the infomercials that brag of working a few hours a week and needing a rake to pile up the cash?"... I say *Baloney!* When your small business income grows, it stands to reason that your workload will rise proportionally. This is a fact of business, and is certainly true in cyberspace as well. So what's a business owner to do? (If you're not forced to face this yet, you will be eventually. On the internet, it may come faster than you expect. So read on...) Well, there really are just three choices you can make: 1. You can put in more and more hours and get less sleep. 2. You can scale back your marketing efforts to lessen your workload. (You'll also generate less revenue.) 3. You can get help. I learned that these were the three choices the hard way - by trial and error. You see, I started with number one, the less sleep thing. When number one started to unintentionally become number two, I figured I'd better go to number three. "What's that Jim? You lost me there!" I'll explain that a little better for those of you that didn't catch it... You see, as I put in more and more hours, the bulk of the work I was doing was not very productive. I was trying to do everything from administrative tasks to order fulfillment myself. What ensued was an involuntary cut back in my marketing efforts. Things like discussion group participation and other key web site promotion tasks were taking a back seat to these daily chores. Finally, I saw the light and decided I needed help. This was the only way I would be able to continue the rapid growth of my business. For me, getting help was the only logical choice. I've seen other business owners react to this same problem in strange ways. One fellow decided that he would stop using his 800 number for sales when the bill became too high. Since he had no web site with online ordering in place, this left his customers with only two options. They could pay for a long distance phone call or mail their order in. I slowly watched this business owner's sales deteriorate to near zero. Another fellow small business owner started to get so busy he decided to put his hundreds of daily email messages on eternal hold. As the email went unanswered, his reputation suffered and with it came lost profit. There will come a time when YOU will be faced with the same decisions that all growing companies face. When this time comes, remember, as a small business owner your efforts need to stay focused primarily on just two things: 1. Overseeing all marketing initiatives. In other words, the HOW and WHERE of selling your wares including everything from your unique marketing position to advertising plans to developing partner programs. and... 2. Growing your product line. This means adding new products and services regularly, whether you develop them yourself or acquire them through other channels, like reseller or partner programs. If the daily routine is keeping you from focusing on these two items, don't make the mistakes of other business owners before you. Instead of slowing down your business, get some help and go full steam ahead! -----------------------------------------------------------
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