Basic and Difficult: The Best Solutions Are Usually Timeless
A challenge for you, if you’re up for it.
Think about a problem you’re currently facing in your business.
Not enough leads, gross margins out of whack, quality issues in delivery….whatever it is.
Ask yourself, “Do I already know what I need to do to fix it?”
Most of the time, the answer is probably yes.
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Basic…and difficult.
That’s the solution to a majority of the problems we face in business. All the knowledge in the world is at our fingertips.
But we often lack the wisdom to actually use it.
We’d prefer to lean into easy answers. Cool, sleek solutions that promise outsized return for very little effort (although usually plenty of investment).
A few years ago, I asked a colleague of mine with a bigger business about their marketing strategy.
“We’re spending a million dollars on digital,” he told me.
Oh.
Not in my budget, and not in the budget for many of my clients, either.
His business grew. And it would have been possible to jump to the wrong conclusion: if I had a million dollars to spend on ads, I could grow that much, too.
But what else was he doing while his digital campaigns were up and running?
Writing a book.
And marketing the crap out of it on a national speaking tour. Visiting 50 different chapters of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).
The foundation of his success was basic…and difficult.
Digital marketing was valuable but not a silver bullet. Even a company with $1 million to spend on ads still grew by having its CEO out there in person, shaking hands and building relationships.
That work is hard. People don’t want to do it. It’s difficult to scale.
The silver lining is: if you do the basic and difficult thing, you can win.
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Entrepreneurs are rightly accused of chasing shiny objects, especially when it comes to the next best growth strategy.
But if the latest greatest trend/technology/tactic sounds too good to be true, it definitely is.
You can work smarter. You can work strategically.
But you must work if you want to succeed.
Back to the problem you thought of at the beginning of this newsletter. What’s the most basic solution you can implement that you already know will be effective?
Start there.
Start today.
Start.
