💡 Business Tip - Fix Your Flat Tire (Issue #47)

Find and focus on the real problem

I’m a fan of Josh Spector’s newsletter. Recently, he shared an analogy from JK Molina about fixing the “flat tire” that might be holding back your business “race car.”

If you make the mistake of “fixing” a tire that is already okay, you’re still stuck with one tire that is flat. You’re not going anywhere. You fixed the wrong tire. It’s also pointless to put more air into a tire that is already doing its job.

You have to identify and fix the right tire. In terms of your business, your tires might be as illustrated below.

1. Impressions - You need people to see your posts. They need to know you exist.

2. Engagement - You need to get people to engage. That’s how you attract leads who want to learn more about your product and talk to you.

3. Conversion - You need those leads to become buyers.

4. Loyalty - Your business grows with repeat business and referrals.

If your business isn’t thriving, where is the real problem? In the example above, you should work a bit on getting better engagement and more leads. But your bigger problem is conversion. People aren’t buying.

You need to figure out why so you can fix that tire. Maybe you need to improve your offer, test different pricing, or work on your sales pitch. Getting more impressions or leads won’t help you if you can’t close the deal. Fix that conversion tire first!

It’s a useful analogy that will help you focus on solving the right problems in your business instead of trying to improve everything—or the wrong thing.

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I’m Larry Cornett, a coach who can work with you 1-on-1 to design, launch, and optimize your business. You might also be interested in my “Employee to Solopreneur” workshop. I live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and Great Dane while running my businesses 100% remotely.