Most of the people going out with the intention of creating a business for themselves to live off of, the idea of it being a dependable income stream.
Business is always predictable, there are factors outside your control, no matter how savvy or capable you are. Simple truth. Very difficult to make it airtight.
However, you can get very, very close to dependable by designing it a certain way.
To make this happen, you need three things:
- A reliable, repeatable way to MEET your customer. And by meeting, a mean not just a passing contact, but to get into a situation where your interests have a chance to meet. This can be a webinar or a teleseminar. It can be a personal meeting in your office. It can be a very personally touching email, even. Then, if your offer is right, the next stage becomes possible…
- A TRANSACTION carried out smoothly. This seems like a no-brainer, but so many things can go wrong here it’s not even funny. And I’m not only talking about conversion tactics, persuasion and whatnot – and that IS a big part of it – there’s more. You need to make sure when there’s a contract drawn, there’s no way to turn back. Or when selling products, the possible cost of providing a refund doesn’t ruin your bottom line. Of course you need to provide a satisfaction guarantee, but in a way that covers your back – not provide unnecessary backdoors. And when this is done, all that’s left is…
- A 100% reliable way to GET PAID. Especially in online business, where all kinds of weird things can happen with merchant accounts, affiliate programs that hold your money hostage, weird account closures, and whatnot. That’s why services like Clickbank who have a deserved reputation for ALWAYS paying you every two weeks like clockwork… simply win out for a very good reason.
If you’re selling services, then you need a setup where you can be secure in the knowledge that your payment is in escrow and you WILL get paid for your work. Hoping your invoice gets paid is not a great position to be in – it doesn’t matter whether your client is big or small, new or already trusted.
That’s all there’s to it really.
Of course the details vary quite a bit depending on what kind of business you have, but as an entrepreneur you simply need to cover your back.
When your business has no single point of failure, then you can really sigh in relief, sit back and focus on providing the biggest value you possibly can. Safe in the knowledge that you WILL get paid, you’ll always have ample cash on hand, and your family will be fine.
And THAT is worth GOLD to any easily distracted business owner (is there any other kind?). 🙂
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