It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that life in our business would be much easier if we didn’t have competition, that’s one of the most frequently asked questions coming from people I have talked to: “How you beat competitors in a service-based business?”

“I have a lot of competition, and I just can’t continue to lower my prices,” said one of the people sitting next to us in a Café.

Of course, it made me curious since that is one of the biggest difficulties my clients face when they start working with me.

Solving this problem with the wrong strategy can destroy your business and your life.

How to beat competitors in a service-based business: what nobody tells you

One of the most common errors that service businesses make is imitating their competitors and doing the same thing they do, such as lowering their prices.

I’ve spoken with various people who’ve applied this strategy in their business for years, and the result is that they’ve taken their business to bankruptcy because most of the time there’s no way to reverse the lack of money in the business.

A few months ago, we decided to try going to a different grocery store to do the house shopping.

We are lucky to have many options to go to, all at similar distances.

Have you ever thought about what grocery stores do to standout?

What makes you choose to go to one place over the other?

In our case, we discover they’re many factors influencing how we choose where to go.

The one factor that seems to have more weight, is time.

We prefer to go to a smaller grocery store, which has less merchandise and purchase options, to devote less time to this task every week.

Imagine the following scenario: If a small store assumes that we all want to go to the same type of store as large as all of its competitors, we would lose our new shopping option.

But it turns out, we’re not the only ones wanting to save time, thousands of people think alike.

And that’s exactly how small grocery stores standout and succeed.

How to beat competitors in a service-based business (3 mistakes you should avoid)

1. How are you going to standout

If what you’re looking for if for your business to stand out and distinguish itself in the sea of ​​competitors, I want you to know there’s hope.

There is nothing worse for your business than the danger of imitating others.

The mistake many make is to think that it is about seeing what others are doing and trying to do the same.

There are two significant problems with imitating the competition:

The first problem:
You don’t know if their strategy works, so perhaps you are copying something that doesn’t work at all.

Remember, just because another business does it, doesn’t mean that their strategy works.

The second problem:
If you always copy what others do, you’ll always be behind your competition.

Neither of these two options allows you to grow or standout.

So what should you do?

2. Understand how your audience makes decisions

A few days ago I read a Google article describing how people prefer to research the product using the Internet, before buying it from the store, with the sole purpose of reducing their purchasing decisions and wasting less time. That proofs that my husband and I are not alone in this.

The purchasing process is easier when we have fewer options to choose from.

So how can you apply these processes to your service-based business?

When you know your audience like the palm of your hand, you know what’s important and what’s not important to them, which leads us to step 3.

But before continuing, I’d like to share an infographic illustrating: How to beat competitors in a service-based business (3 mistakes you should avoid).

3. Design a strategy which allows you to standout

The first thing your strategy needs is a captivating message, one which communicates with absolute clarity the reason why people should choose your business services.

However, it is ineffective to have an irresistible message if there’s no client traffic.

That’s why you need a strategy that includes both: a highly visible captivating message which allows you to stand out, and constant client traffic every day.

The combination of both is what will allow you to grow your business.

If you want to understand the steps you must follow to execute this type of strategy in your business, I encourage you to take a look at my FREE class so you can finally see the results you want.

Conclusion
It turns out that the best way to beat your competition is not to compete directly with it.

The moment you understand this, you can position yourself as a leader in your business.

What are you doing to stand out from your competition?

I thought it’d be useful to use a practical example to illustrate common mistakes made by service-based businesses with the idea that this post serves as a guide that will help you answer the question “What to do when my service-based business is stagnant?”

“The important thing is that we are trying to solve the problem,” the hotel manager told me.

If you know me a little, “trying” is not one of my favorite words.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to enjoy a few days at the beach. It was not a normal weekend, as it was a special occasion to enjoy together with my extended family, which had traveled from many places so that we could spend the weekend together..

Unfortunately on Saturday morning, there was a thunderstorm and the Hotel where we were staying lost electricity for a few minutes.

What to do when your service-based business is stagnant and what happens when small problems are not resolved?

It was nothing particularly serious, however, the hotel did not have WIFI during the entire day of Saturday.

Although this was far from ideal and probably affected many people staying at the hotel, I was determined to make the most of it and ignore the lack of WIFI.

However, things took another direction on Sunday, when we learned that the entire Hotel network was not yet working, from the Restaurant to the Lobby.

I have to say that this made me curious, I couldn’t understand how a business like a Hotel could take a full weekend to recover from such a problem.

The impact on the entire business when problems are not resolved

The restaurant staff was stressed because their system was not working, in the same way, the Lobby staff had no system either. They could not process the check-out and had no idea which guests arrived at the hotel on Sunday.

Because they had no clear procedures to follow, clearly the staff was making unnecessary mistakes that were affecting their clients.

At this point, we had a couple of hours left at the hotel and my plan was not to let this bother me and instead just enjoy.

I’m not sure why, but the hotel manager decided to apologize to me, maybe because I was the only one that didn’t seem to be upset.

She explained that they were really trying but that the Hotel system technician had not yet been able to solve the problem. By now, more than 36 hours had passed and the technician had not yet reached the Hotel.

The manager proceeded to show me the server, and at that moment, the source of the problem became clear..

After I recovered from the shock, I asked the manager when was the last time they updated their system, the response was “3 years ago”.

Three years!

Nowadays, 3 years in the world of technology are the equivalent of 10 years, and it’s likely that 3 years ago the system was already out-of-date.

As expected, the reservation system didn’t run all weekend, so the Hotel not only failed because it was not prepared to minimize the impact of the problem for its existing clients but also, because it didn’t attract any new clients during the whole weekend.

In Florida, thunderstorms aren’t unusual and, although I understand they have a direct effect on the operation of the Hotel, it shouldn’t have caused such an unnecessary crisis to the hotel that weekend.

I want to use this example to illustrate the experience from the client’s perspective.

What does this have to do with the hotel’s online marketing strategy?

At that point, it didn’t matter how we arrived at the hotel, whether it was through social media, Google paid advertising or a travel website, the problem was that the Hotel was not even remotely ready to offer their clients the best possible experience.

It’s useless to have the best marketing to attract your ideal client if as a business you’re not prepared to offer the greatest possible service

Everything is related, and there’s no way to separate one thing from the other.

You see, trying to offer the most enjoyable experience is impossible when the technology you run your business with is out-dated..

It’s of no use to have the most solid marketing strategy if you don’t offer the best possible experience to your clients; they won’t come back and won’t talk about the amazing experience that they had.

After my conversation with the manager, I could sense that the problem was more complicated than it seemed to be, that’s why I want to share the following lessons.

What to do when your service-based business is stagnant (lessons from a weekend)

1. You need to get out of your comfort zone

I probably couldn’t hide my shocked when I heard that the system had been updated 3 years ago.

That’s like using a horse-guided cart instead of a car. Although using horses may indeed have some advantages, it has more disadvantages than advantages.

This is a common mistake made by countless business owners who don’t want to face that they are the problem.

Business owners are the problem because they’re afraid to change, to face reality and admit that they have a problem to solve.

Changing the hotel system is likely a traumatic and expensive process, but until they face the problem and solve it, the problem becomes bigger, more difficult to solve and – even worse – more expensive.

2. How long are you willing to tolerate your current situation?

Each person has a different tolerance point, the question you should ask yourself is how long are you willing to tolerate the situation.

You may be satisfied to attract clients to your business and cross your fingers so that there are no problems, but what would happen if you offered them the most enjoyable experience and those clients continued to hire your services and recommend you to their friends.

The problem of not facing reality and solving the crisis in your business is that your business gradually stagnates to the point where it is very challenging to do anything to save it.

Before continuing, I want to share an infographic that illustrates: What to do when your service-based business is stagnant (lessons from a weekend).

3. Are you changing at the same speed as your business?

I understand that not everyone is a fan of technology, but the sooner you change your relationship with technology the faster your results will increase.

Not following this is your biggest disadvantage.

Nowadays everything is interconnected, and it’s almost impossible to separate technology and marketing from the performance of your business.

Conclusion
The last thing a business is looking for is to stagnate, that is why it’s crucial to learn from crises and, once and for all, solve problems that don’t allow you to move forward.

Otherwise, the problems grow rapidly, sales decreases and not solving the problems is extremely expensive.

One of the most common questions I get asked is: Why my website isn’t bringing any clients.

“I don’t know why I made this decision. This is the worst decision I have made”, confessed the person with whom I was talking, a few minutes after we started to chat about the challenges in her business.asking me the question: Why my website isn’t bringing any clients.

When I talk to entrepreneurs about their businesses, they intuitively know that there is something that they are not seeing, however they cannot put their finger on the problem.

I am sure you can relate to the feeling.

It is pretty common to have this feeling when we make decisions and things don’t always go as planned.

From ordering food in a restaurant, choosing the destination of your vacation, accepting a job proposal, and even deciding to work with a specific client.

When things don’t look as imagine them, what happens is that at the moment we feel that the decision we made was not the right one, we cannot connect the points and realize that behind that decision there is a lesson that we must learn.

I frequently talk with people who feel terrible when we talk about their website, accepting that they made the wrong decision when hiring someone to design their website, which can be a hard pill to swallow.

The first thing, I want to share is that you are not alone, according to jpost.com: Why 99% of All New Websites Fail to Generate Lead.

The importance of rethinking the problem and changing your perspective

It is very easy to focus only on the problem and look at this as a failure so I thought it could be useful for entrepreneurs to read the following:

Why my website isn’t bringing any clients: Letter from a website to an entrepreneur

Dear entrepreneur, I understand your great disappointment.

I understand you put all your dreams and hopes in me.

But I want you to remember that I am only a website, I am not a machine of miracles or desires.

I understand your frustration, I understand that you worked hard on me, that you invested a lot of time and money and placed all your trust in me.

I want you to think that this is an opportunity to make things better, learn from the experience and next time focus on using the right strategy to start attracting clients.

Instead of giving up, learn from your mistakes so that next time you do better.

Remember that this is your dream and giving up and feeling like you failed is not the solution.

You are the only person responsible for your success, assume it and let’s move on.

I know that the way forward is not clear and that is why I want to offer you 3 recommendations to be able to design a website that sells your services:

1. Your website must be found

It is useless to have a website that nobody finds.

The sooner you understand that you must use your website as an attraction magnet, the faster you will get the results you want.

It doesn’t matter if your web page is well designed, it doesn’t matter if you think that the texts are well written, the only thing that matters is that nobody knows you exist.

2. Your website copy should not tell your story

Your website is not the place to talk about you.

I understand how difficult it is to understand, but the purpose of your website is not to talk about you. The purpose of your website is to connect with the people in your audience.

What people in your audience want and need is to be sure that you understand the problem they have and that you know how to solve it.

But before continuing, I want to share an infographic that illustrates: Why my website isn’t bringing any clients: Letter from a website to an entrepreneur.

3. Without a strategy, there are no clients

Having a client attraction strategy is the most important thing, it doesn’t matter if you have the most spectacular website if it doesn’t attract clients.

The lifetime of your business is limited.

What this means is that if you don’t see results, you will get frustrated and with time you will lose hope that this is something that you can do.

That’s why it’s so important to ask for help early in the process, so you can accelerate the learning process and avoid making unnecessary mistakes.

For more information on how to do it, you can read the following post: How to plan your online marketing strategy and always win.

Do you remember the first step you took when you were just learning to walk?

Probably not.

However, that was the first step that helped you take the second and so on and today you don’t think about it anymore.

Your first website is like that first step you took.

Because you did it, you learned many lessons that led you to the second step.

The key is to identify the lessons and always continue to work on improving your strategy to attract clients.

A few days ago I was having a conversation with a group of clients about how to plan your online marketing strategy and one of the common challenges that they all shared was finding the time to do it all.

In general, doing it all means: promoting the business, selling more and serving customers.

For most business owners it is easy to give priority to the clients and neglect the rest of the areas.

Going back to the conversation, one of my clients simply said: “I do not have the time to do everything”.

In a way, that’s exactly where the problem is.

Nobody has time to do everything

If there is something that separates successful people from those who are frustrated and stagnating, it is their decision-making skill.

In other words, their ability to discern what’s important from what isn’t.

3 tips to learn how to plan your online marketing strategy and always win

1. Always start with the end in mind

When we have a thousand things to do, it is extremely difficult to decide which one is the most important.

The reason why this happens is that when we are overwhelmed by the list of things in out to-do list, our mind does not have the clarity it needs to make these kinds of decisions.

But everything changes, when you manage to change your perspective about the list of tasks and the most effective way to do this is to start with the end in mind.

And what I mean by this, is that the first thing you need to do is think about the results that you want in a specific period of time, for example during the next 90 days.

2. Having clear priorities is the path to success

Once you have clarity about your goal for the next 90 days, you can think about the results you need to have in the first 60 days to reach the final goal.

And you can continue doing this exercise, week by week.

Doing this exercise helps you gain clarity about which actions you need to take to reach your goal.

And those are the high priority actions.

All the others are simply tasks, but they are not the tasks that will help you achieve your goal.

Before continuing, I want to share an infographic that illustrates: 3 Tips to learn how to plan your online marketing strategy and always win

3. Reevaluate and make adjustments

Of course, this form of organization and planning does not work if you are not constantly re-evaluating the situation, the process and making adjustments.

Being flexible means taking the time to evaluate and make adjustments.

Being flexible means understanding that you will always face challenges and obstacles.

Not achieving your goal does not mean that you should give up or that you choose and unattainable goal.

It just means that you need to change what you are doing.

It means that you have the potential to discover and learn a new lesson and every lesson that you learn brings you closer to your goals.

 Conclusion

Having the time to do everything is impossible.

But not learning how to plan your online marketing strategy is not an option.

What separates successful people from those who never see results is that successful people understand that it is essential to develop the habit of identifying what action you need to take in order to move forward.

If you want to learn how to overcome the challenges of growing your business, you need to learn to manage your time and develop the skill of making decisions.

This takes practice and attention to detail and I am always looking for ways of learning how to overcome the challenges of growing my business.

Just like in sports, being able to go from Point A, where you currently are your business to Point B, where you want to go, requires that you develop new skills and become a new and improved version of yourself…

How to overcome the challenges of growing your business: what making coffee taught me about business

Last week, on two different occasions, 2 people to whom I prepared a coffee at home, told me that my coffee maker was slow.

I have to say that I was surprised by the comment, especially twice in a week.

And it got me thinking.

At home we use a traditional coffee maker.

We have tried the coffee that is made with the modern coffee makers that use the capsules for different types of coffee and the truth is that we like more the coffee that we make at home.

But the observation made me wonder if it was really time to upgrade out coffee machine and stop wasting time.

After all, nobody wants to waste time, right?

Since I am an analytical person, the first thing I did was to measure the time it took me to make coffee.

And it turns out that it takes approximately 5 to 6 minutes to make the coffee that normally lasts all day.

After measuring the time, I could feel a great relief

I told myself that if it was true that I was wasting time, then 5 or 6 minutes per day was not so serious.

After thinking about it a little more, I realized that for me that time is totally acceptable.

The truth is that I love making coffee in the machine that we have and it makes me smile every day.

The reason why I love it, is because it is a coffee maker that we bought during one of our trips.

And it turns out that every time I make coffee, it indirectly reminds me how amazing the trip was.

Not only that, but it also makes me think about future trips.

Every time I make coffee in that coffee machine, I feel grateful to feeling of freedom that I feel every day that I get to work from anywhere in the world and at the same time awakens my dreams about what is possible.

Thanks to the observations made by these 2 people, I was able to realize that there are certain activities during the day that fill me with energy, inspire me and help me feel good.

Preparing coffee is one of those activities.

And when it comes to these activities, I can’t and shouldn’t save time, because it’s those activities that help me stay connected to my dream every day.

How to overcome the challenges of growing your business (while staying connected to your dream)

If we are honest, we can say that growing a business is not a walk in the park.

Every day we have to face the ups and downs of the business, as well as our own ups and downs.

And learning to navigate that roller coaster of ups and downs is an important factor that differentiates successful entrepreneurs from those that stagnate.

1. Why do you do what you do?

When you have total clarity about your purpose, in other words, why you do what you do, everything becomes easier.

Being connected to your purpose is what will allow you to move forward and overcome obstacles.

Being connected to your purpose and your dream is exactly what will help you make your dream come true.

How to know if you are connected to your purpose?

When you are unclear about your purpose, it is when you feel like giving up. It is when you only feel that you are working too hard never see results you expect.

If you this is how you feel, my recommendation is that you spend a little time thinking, why is your business important to you? And what was the reason you started this business in first place?

2. How to make each day count

It seems that the only way to win in this game is to win every day.

What this means is that although things do not always turn out as we expected, we always have the opportunity to learn lessons. Developing that ability to always find the lesson, is precisely what allows you to win every day and what helps you to make every day count.

Before continuing I have created an infographic that illustrates: How to overcome the challenges of growing your business (while staying connected to your dream):

3. Surround yourself with people who understand your dream, believe in you and support you

This is perhaps one of the most important steps.

Human nature often causes us to be extremely critical of ourselves.

So critical that we sometimes give up before trying and many times even before starting.

Another common problem is to seek the approval or support from your loved ones and when you don’t get their support, you feel hurt and defeated.

The huge difference that separates successful people from those that give up is that they know they a coach or mentor that believe in them. Having someone who believes in you will help you to stay committed to your dreams.

Having that support makes all the difference in the world.

If you want to learn more about this topic, the following post will also be helpful: 3 Mindset Shifts to go from employee to entrepreneur.

Conclusion

Learning how to overcome the challenges of growing your business is an ongoing process.

I want you to think if you are spending enough time doing the things that inspire you and feeling connected to your purpose, in other words remembering why you do what you do.

Taking time to do things that make you feel good is the gas you need to face every day challenges of your business and keep the vision of where you want to go.

As in life, having a business is not a race against time.

And learning to enjoy the process is more important than reaching the final destination.

I fully understand how important it is for you to know how to attract customers to your service, and I will show you how you might be looking for the solution to your problem in the wrong place.

Today is Sunday, and there is someone who is happy and seems to know exactly what day of the week it is.

Our dog loves weekends; somehow, he realizes that we are a little less rushed and knows that he receives more attention.

One of his favorite activities is going out to the patio and spending time outside.

I sat watching him while chasing a lizard.

All his attention was on the lizard that seemed to fool him easily.

First, I was impressed by the level of attention and dedication to chasing the lizard.

As far as I could see, the lizard had achieved an escape route, and without his noticing, it fled.

The point is that he kept looking for the lizard in the exact same corner.

He was so focused chasing this particular lizard that he didn’t see anything else around him.

On the other side of the patio, I could see how a family of iguanas and a bunch of other lizards were passing by. But our dog was so obsessed with the first lizard that he couldn’t see anything else.

This experience made me think about how this is what happens to us when we have a problem, and all we do is think about the problem itself.

What does lizard chasing have to do with business

If you focus only on the problem, the only thing you are going to see is the problem.

You will not be able to find a solution to the problem.

When I talk to business owners who want to grow their businesses or who are considering starting their own business, we usually talk about the problems they are facing.

After doing this for many years, I’ve noticed that the people who only focus on the problem are those who end up stuck.

These people devote all their efforts and energy to talk about the problem and don’t spend energy on exploring a solution or even seeking help to solve the problem.

So how can you apply this to your business?

3 Steps to follow if you want to learn how to attract customers to your service

1. I don’t know what to do to reach my audience

Many times people feel that this is their biggest problem.

When I ask them exactly what they mean, their answer is something like this:

“I’m tired of knocking on doors, without having results, I don’t know how to reach those people, and I don’t know which are the steps I need to follow.”

So their attention is in not knowing the steps and that’s where they get stuck.

How to move your attention away from the problem
I want you to imagine: What would happen if you only concentrated on taking the next step?

2. I am not good with technology

This is also a common problem; it turns out that many of us were not born with a laptop under our arm.

But when you only see this as a problem, it turns out that the problem has no solution.

How to move your attention away from the problem
What would happen if instead of thinking that this is a problem, you could see that the fact that you are from another generation allows you to have a lot of advantages in your favor? Not only because you have more experience but also because there is a market of people precisely like you who need your services.

Before continuing, I have created an infographic that illustrates: 3 Steps to follow if you want to learn how to attract customers to your service.

3. I am not an extrovert

Many times people feel they don’t have the right personality. Either because they are not extrovert or feel they are not good interacting with other people.

The reality is that doing business online, definitely requires you to change how you think, and as long as you think that you are the problem, you will not be able to move forward.

How to move your attention away from the problem
What would happen if you focus on seeing the positive side of your personality? And you work on the areas that you would like to improve on. If necessary, always seek help from an expert or a person who is good at what you think you are not so good at.

Conclusion
When you only focus on the problem, without realizing it, you get stuck, and you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

You dedicate all your energy to worrying, feeling frustrated and sad.

You spend sleepless nights thinking about the problem and imagining all the bad things that will happen if you don’t solve the problem.

I want to invite you to consider that maybe the solution is in front of you and you can’t see it because you are so busy thinking about the problem instead of thinking about the solution.

If you found this post helpful you might also be interested in the following post: What to do when your service-based business is stagnant

I have looked at my watch about 10 times in the last half hour.

And if I’m going to be completely honest, I’ve been waiting for this moment for the last 48 hours.

You see, 2 days ago it rained, nothing too bad, but apparently it was enough for our Internet modem to stop working.

If this would had happened 5 years ago, this problem would have only affected me.

However, nowadays, we are all so used to being connected and using the Internet every day that when the Internet stopped working it didn’t only cause me frustration, but it was also a big problem for everybody in my family as well.

We suddenly had a wide variety of questions to answer, from where will I do homework for school, how I will study for an exam, watch a movie, buy dog’s food, pay bills, send emails or even make calls with clients.

All these things in just a few minutes become problems.

After countless hours of frustration I realized that in this particular situation, I needed to change my perspective.

Of course, it is easier to say it than to do it.

The way in which I normally change my perspective is by asking myself questions like:

1. What can I learn from all this?
2. Is there anything I can or could do differently to avoid being in this situation?
3. What can I focus on to be productive and work on what I have yet to finish?

And that is how I came up with this post from a total state of frustration.

In my mind, I told myself, the worst thing that could happen is that this will be one of those posts that nobody reads because it will only live on my computer.

Why your business isn’t growing (and how to fix it)

When we have a problem and we can’t figure out a way to solve it, it’s common to feel both confused and frustrated.
Obviously staying in that state does not help in any way.

I will share with you the 3 steps that I followed to change my emotional state and my results.

1. The frustration of not being able to move forward

Just like it is frustrating for me not being able to use the Internet freely every day.

Something similar happens when businesses do not know how to take advantage of the Internet every day to grow, sell more and attract new customers.

The feeling of frustration is similar to that felt by people when they make the mistake of thinking that it is possible to grow a business without knowing how to attract customers using the Internet.

This uncomfortable experience has given me the opportunity to experience the feelings that entrepreneurs go through when they have been working for years to grow their business and still have no results.

This situation has allowed me to feel the frustration of not being able to move forward because my hands are tied, simply because there is a greater force that is holding me back.

In my case, this major force is the idea that it is difficult to function on a daily basis without being able to use the Internet freely.

But for many entrepreneurs, the frustration is not knowing how to use the Internet to attract clients.

In many cases, these entrepreneurs work more than 40 hours a week, they have a huge responsibility and they are sacrificing their family life without seeing any progress.

Most of the time, they have established businesses that they started years ago.

There are more businesses in this group that you can imagine.

And I know because every week I have the opportunity to talk with them.

These entrepreneurs invest all their energy and resources to work harder instead of solving the real problem they have in front of their eyes and accept that the world is not what it was 10 years ago and that the way they used to do business is simply outdated.

In the same way, our day to day life has changed and living without internet doesn’t seem possible, we must adapt our businesses to the new age.

2. Talk with others about your problems

If we had decided not to ask for help from our neighbours and friends, we would have not been aware that our home was the only one that didn’t have Internet because of the rain.

The same applies to business owners.

Nobody suspects the level of frustration that these entrepreneurs face every day.

From the outside, it would seem that these entrepreneurs have a successful, established business and this, in turn, makes them feel even more alone and makes the problem even more difficult to solve.

During these days, it was necessary and important to have the support of other people who helped us find solutions to this setback.

In our case, very soon the problem will be solved and probably in a few weeks, we will forget the challenges that we faced during the last days.

If you have a business and do not know how to attract customers using the Internet, you need to ask for help and do everything possible to solve the problem instead of hiding it, crossing your fingers and wishing that the problem disappears on its own.

The truth is that the problem will not solve itself, in fact, it will get bigger and harder to solve.

Before we continue, I want to share with you an infographic that illustrates: Why your business isn’t growing (and how to fix it)

3. How to cross the bridge of fear

What can I focus on to be productive and make progress?

That was exactly the question I asked myself a few minutes ago for the hundredth time, when I started writing this post and when I made the decision to look for the lesson I could learn.

It turns out that closing your eyes so you do not have to see the problem, never solves the problem, but rather makes it bigger.

Crossing your fingers and wishing the problem goes away on its own never works.

Talking about the problem, complaining and not doing anything to solve it does not work either.

And if I have to be honest, that was a little bit what I was doing until I realized there were other things I could do.

Like, for example, try to see what I could learn from this situation.

That small change of perspective helped me realize that there is always something we can do.

In the case of these struggling entrepreneurs, they know deep inside that the answer to their problems is to learn how to attract clients online.

However, opening the door to that world paralyzes them with fear and doubt.

In their mind, this decision involves a huge risk of investing time in money in a project that may not work.

What they don’t see is that not solving the problem is worse.

It turns out that the decision of postponing the project has a much greater risk. The risk that their business will continue to sink and that your competitors will continue to grow because they are taking advantage of all the opportunities that they are losing.

What would you think if I told you that the only thing your business needs now is for you to make the decision to grow?

If your business is similar to others, all you need is more clients and it is your responsibility as a business owner to ensure that you leave the doors open for your clients to find you.

The good news is that doing this exercise not only helped me put my frustration in perspective, but it also helped me write the post.

Better yet, I just received a call from the technician letting me know that he is on his way, which has restored my confidence and hope that very soon everything will return to normal.

And from today I will make a special effort to be thankful every day that the Internet works.

No matter what your business is, the question: how to take my business to the next level is probably responsible robbing you of more than one sleepless night.

Perhaps you have so many ideas that you have a difficult time choosing the best one, or maybe you feel like you have tried them all without any results to show for.

And right now, you are in place, where you feel lost because you don’t know how to solve the problem.

From my experience, what’s happening here is that in order to really go to the next level, something needs to change within you.

Something needs to change in the way you see things.

The first step is to recognize that you need to get out of your comfort zone.

And let’s be clear, nobody likes to be taken out of their comfort zone.

There is nothing like the discussions you have with yourself.

You probably know what I’m talking about and you can recognize the following question:

Shall I do it or not?

This is nothing more than an argument that occurs between your desire to succeed, and the fear of failure.

The voice of your desire to succeed should sound like this:

I have this great idea, which I’m sure that many people would be greatly interested in. In fact, people would be crazy if they didn’t realize how great this offer is.

The voice of fear sounds like this:

Are you crazy? Why is someone going to be interested in what you have to say? You’re nobody. People don’t know you and nobody is going to trust you.

The truth is we need tools to be able to hear both voices without going crazy.

Decision making is a problem that affects 98% of managers, according to Forbes.

Which voice will you listen to?

Have you ever thought about why there are times where deciding what to do is easy and, other moments where it just isn’t?

For instance, it may be that you’ve been considering that you want to have your own business; for some people, it is obvious that that is what they want, they don’t think about it too much and they just do it.

For others, it is a difficult choice to make, perhaps they’re in a stable job and leaving work requires taking a risk.

Maybe they are full of doubts and don’t know if it’s something they can do. And as a result, they don’t.

This type of situation is repeated every day in our lives.

I want you to take a few minutes and think about the following:

What are those situations in which you feel paralyzed or stuck and you naturally can’t take the next step?

Some examples of these situations may be:

1. Start your own business
2. Offer a new service
3. Make an investment to improve your services
4. Hire or fire staff
5. Invest in Marketing to promote your business

No matter which one you identify with, the challenge is what to do so you don’t feel stuck or paralyzed when making decisions.

I want to share what has helped me get clarity in those moments of indecision were all I heard was “Shall I do it or not?”.

How to take your business to the next level (in 3 simple steps)

The first step is to identify that you’re listening to three voices.

1. The first voice is the voice of the people around you

They can be your classmates or relatives. It’s important to understand that the person who’s going to take the decision is you.

Others may have the best intentions in the world. However, they’re not in your position and, although the intentions are good, in most cases they are not the best recommendations.

The other two times you are inside your mind.

2. The second voice is the voice that has crazy ideas

The voice that tells you that you should leave work, that you should invest, that you need to hire someone to help you, that you need to fire someone because they are not doing their job.

That is the voice of your intuition, and that is the voice that guides you and shows the way.

And friends, this is the voice we should hear.

Sometimes one way to hear that voice is to put your hand on your heart and just listen.

But before continuing, I want to share an infographic that illustrates: How to take my business to the next level (in 3 simple steps).

3. The third voice is the voice of fear

This is the voice that tells you that you are crazy, that you will lose everything if you dare to carry out your ideas.

It’s the voice that argues with your intuition.

The voice that does everything to keep you safe, no matter if that involves not moving forward.

To be able to hear this voice and negotiate with it is one of the most valuable skills you should develop in your business.

Otherwise, if you don’t learn to negotiate with the voice of fear, you’ll never grow, you’ll never move forward.

And you’ll have that feeling of being stuck, that makes you feel helpless and that you are not living or taking advantage of the potential you have.

Conclusion

The problem you face when answering the question: how to take my business to the next level is that it’s really difficult to go through this process alone, doubting everything you think and letting yourself be dominated by fear.

I learn a lot from these conversations.

These conversations help me understand the challenges and issues that they are going through and it gives me ideas for the content that I can create to help them solve the problems they are facing.

A while ago, I noticed that there was always one question that stood out.

The question had to do with how to make better decisions.

I have to be honest, when I started receiving these questions, I was not sure how to answer them.

At first glance, it seemed almost a philosophical question

Since I specialize in online marketing I didn’t expect people asking me about how to make better decisions.

However, the questions kept coming.

So I started talking more about the marketing decisions that people make every day, the problems that occur when they do not make decisions, and even worse the problems that arise when they make the wrong decisions.

After talking about this topic for a few months, I discovered that behind this question lies a bigger problem.

Most people still have an employee mindset instead of an entrepreneur mindset

A few days ago I decided to share with entrepreneurs who are part of my community the lessons I have learned, that have helped me change my way of thinking and have had a big impact on the way I make decisions.

1.Asking the right questions

I have noticed that when we are unsure of what should be the next step or which direction we should go, it is because we are not asking ourselves the right question.

For example

Instead of asking the question: What is the probability that this will work?

Which is probably a very difficult question to answer.

Why not ask a question like the following:

Will this help me get closer to my goal?

Asking better questions is the best exercise you can do in your business, not only because it will help you make better decisions, but also because it allows you to learn and see things from a new perspective every time.

2.Learn to trust yourself

If you are reading this, it is because you have a dream. The dream of making your business grow or the dream of starting your own business. Neither of these two dreams will be possible if you do not have confidence in yourself.

Think about it, for a business to be successful it is necessary to make more good decisions than bad ones.

If this is true, for your business to be successful, you need to learn to make those decisions.

If you want to learn to make better decisions, your business does not need your husband or wife to make the decisions for you, your business needs you.

Each time you make a decision you will learn and gain experience.

That is the only way to develop confidence in yourself.

Before we continue I created an infographic that illustrates: 3 Mindset Shifts to go from employee to entrepreneur

3.Understand the cost of not moving forward

Usually, people do not realize that not making decisions is also a decision.

When you postpone the decision to promote your business online for a few months or years. In your mind, this might not seem serious since the business still survives and generates profits.

But in reality, it is pretty serious.

Because every day you lose customers, you lose sales and you lose the opportunity to learn about how to promote your business online.

Worst of all, every day that passes is a day you do not face your fears.

Meanwhile, your competition is learning and taking the lead.

This type of advantage is not something that you can recuperate from once you decide that it’s time to jump into the water.

That’s the kind of advantage that makes a huge difference.

Conclusion

All decisions involve risk and uncertainty.

Learning 3 Mindset Shifts to go from employee to entrepreneur is what will allow you to make better decisions.

Everything you are looking for is on the other side of fear.

This becomes evident when you ask the right questions, when you learn to trust yourself and when you understand that the most important thing is always to keep moving forward.

When you give up on your dreams, you are the only person who will live a life of regret. It

Are you willing to shift your mindset from employee to entrepreneur?