Two reasons that may surprise you especially if you're a business owner.

I was just on the phone with a newspaper publisher trying to answer this question when I found myself getting slightly emotional giving him my answer.

It started 2 months ago when I got back in town from vacation.  My neighbor told me the fitness center across the street from us, where we were both members was closing it's doors at the end of the month.

The Deck Is Stacked Against Small Business Owners

No big deal right?  Small businesses close all the time.  In fact the national statistics on government websites tell you in their first 5 years of existence, over 90% of all small businesses either go bankrupt, go out of business, liquidate, close or just fade away overnight.

What hit home with me was that I KNEW THE OWNER of the fitness center.  It had been open barely 2 years.  The owner is a great guy.  His fitness center was top of the line.  He had spent a quarter million dollars filling it with the latest fitness equipment.

His membership fees were reasonable.  Plus his location was LESS THAN 100 FEET from a McDonalds.  If you know anything about locating your business, being near a McDonalds (or a Wal-Mart) is like being near a black hole in outer space.  They are super-electromagnets for attracting herds and herds of people.

Just Being Good At What You Do Doesn't Guarantee Business Success

Nonetheless after 2 years his high-end fitness center wasn't making money and so he shut it down, at great expense and heartache to himself and hundreds of his members. 

Now next door to him in the same building was a chiropractor's office.  My chiropractor.  When I heard about the gym I went to talk with Doc about what happened and he told me he was also shutting down his office in 30 days.

Although he had just moved his family 20 miles across town, his chiropractic practice wasn't exactly thriving either and when you did the numbers it wasn't worth it anymore for him to make the extended drive.

Again I KNEW this doctor personally.  He gave great service to me and his patients.  His fees were normal.  There just weren't enough patients to keep his office open anymore.

Does Everything Bad Comes In Threes?

Next door to him in this same building was a beauty salon.  Again I knew the owner.  Great beautician, great person.  Less than a month after the 1st two businesses left, she also shut down her business, ending it with the all too typical "going out of business sale".

Now if the location of these businesses or where I lived was in some high unemployment, poor demographic, rust-belt, dying urban community, 3 good business people closing their doors would be expected, right?  But reality is exactly the opposite.

I live in a fast-growing town just 15 minutes from the 12th largest city in the nation.  The county I'm in is thee richest in the state.  A few years ago it was listed as the 21st fastest growing county in the entire United States.

We're paving over cornfields and farmland as fast as you can build houses on them.  For pete's sake there's a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course 4 miles away from me where the custom homes start at $500,000.

There's plenty of people and money here!!  These business owners who are all great people and who I KNEW PERSONALLY were all great at their craft.  Cutting hair, great at fixing my back pain and great at designing a top-of-the-line fitness center.

And they were smack in the middle of a thriving local economy.  So why did all these GOOD PEOPLE I KNOW CLOSE THEIR DOORS?

Answer:  They Were DUMB When It Came To Marketing Their Businesses

When I say "dumb" I use the word as an acronym for Didn't Understand Marketing Basics.  What are the basics?  There are several but here are just a couple.

When you talked to them they didn't have or could not produce a customer, member, client or patient list.  As a result they didn't communicate regularly with them which is a recipe for business failure!

(Note: If you don't maintain a business relationship, people find reasons or excuses to not come back to you, not to maintain their membership or to go try out the competition.)

Their advertising, if and when they did any, wasn't compelling.  It blended in with the dozens of other ads making them invisible and they rarely paid for themselves.  They used their marketing tools very poorly.

They didn't have any written, consistent, ongoing tracking of why their customers came through their doors and did or did not buy or come back again.

And probably worst of all, they were DUMB because they made the common mistake entrepreneurs make which is spending too much time working IN the business as opposed to investing dedicated time working ON the business.

And if you don't know the distinction between the two, the odds are you'll be one of the 90% of businesses that fail .

So Reason Number One Why I Teach Presidents, CEOs and Business Owners FREE Programs On Growing Their Business

I guess it's the same reason some doctors go to underdeveloped countries and work on the sick for free.  They need the help.  Plus I think I have a soft spot for entrepreneurs. 

They risk everything to pursue the dream of building their own business against such horrible odds.  I've worked either for or with entrepreneurs all my life and they're a unique breed of people.

But it's not only that.  Unemotionally and logically speaking, these 3 businesses I just talked about should not have died. 

They all had very good reasons to succeed and succeed WILDLY!  They just made several fatal errors that combined, ultimately buried themselves in the failed business graveyard.

And there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of small and mid-sized businesses just like them that given the right training, they can not only survive but GROW and THRIVE, even in highly competitive environments.

These seminars are part of the training I think some of them need.

Call it my contribution to keeping the economy growing by helping those business owners yet to reach the Fortune 1000.

The Second Reason I Teach And Give Away Strategies, Systems and Business Tools For Free

One of my strongest business beliefs for growing a business or company comes from Napolean Hill in his book, Think and Grow Rich.  The belief is you should "give before you ask".  Modern day sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer calls it "give value first".

It's the most powerful strategy to set yourself apart from your business competition, to magnetically attract people to your company and to grow your business.

In times of war or a bad economy it protects you from your customers from leaving or trying the competition.  In a good economy it helps you increase your market share.

It can literally transform a stagnant business into a growing entity that becomes a cash-flow and profit engine for creating personal wealth for the owners (and employees in some cases).

I know it works on a daily basis for the regional and national companies I consult with.  So I know it will work for small and mid-sized businesses if they are looking to grow and are looking for a place to start.

Saying it another way, by offering these programs (A) I am revealing that I'm a convert of my own marketing system, practicing what I preach, leading by example and being completely transparent by delivering these programs and not expecting anything in return.

And (B) I'm simultaneously parting the curtain and demonstrating along the way, exactly how the "give before you ask" approach works by walking you through my own system as you'll see over time as you become part of it.

I Invite You To Register, Watch, Listen, Learn and GROW!

Successful business owners seldom make it on their own.  They build teams, internally and externally, to grow their business.  They must constantly look outside themselves and the business to grow themselves and their business.

Someone once told me that the BUSINESS will never outgrow it's OWNER.  The Growing Your Business tele-seminars and weekly newsletters are tools Presidents, CEOs and Business Owners can use to accomplish their personal and business growth.

Don't believe me.  Start carving time from working IN YOUR BUSINESS and spend some time working ON YOUR BUSINESS. 

Attend one of the FREE tele-seminars.  Take just 1 strategy, 1 system or 1 tool back to your company and implement it.

If you have questions or problems leave me a message at 317-713-1244 or ask me a question at www.AskJeffBell.com

The path to business growth starts with a single step.  If you've read this far, you've just taken your first step.  Congratulations!  I'll talk with you on the next tele-seminar.

Regards, Jeff Bell

Sales and Marketing RESULTS

PO Box 267

Noblesville, IN 46061