I often draw on my nearly two decades of experience working in nonprofit management and fund development as I work with other types of businesses and focus on my own business. One of the lessons I learned early on is that people do not like to give money to an organization or project they think is struggling and/or failing. It is only rarely that it works for an organization to go out and tell the public that they are losing money and the doors will be closed if donors don’t quickly cough up the funds to keep the doors open. People want to support something that is viable, functioning, and successful; people want to back a winner.
This does not mean that I am encouraging you to be dishonest and tell everyone that things are fabulous if they are not—but airing your financial struggles and dirty laundry to your clients or customers is not the way to build a strong and loyal customer base. If customers are going to have confidence in your business—and, let’s face it, it is sometimes tough to have confidence in a business that is brand new and small—they need to see your successes and feed off of your own self-confidence. You may not feel like a winner all the time—but your clients and customers don’t need to know that!
Find ways to share your successes and growth with your customers and clients. They will respond positively to your good news. This is why people in consulting and other small businesses tell stories about how their businesses struggle along and then after a few successes, things take off—momentum builds up and people start to spread the word that you and your business is a success and more and more people will want to get on board. I am not urging you to cover up your struggles or lie or create an illusion that your business is bigger than it is—just let people know what is going well and keep the chaos behind the scenes.
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