‘Overwhelm’ can bring a business to its knees. Could this smart solution prevent it happening to you?

Overwhelm, it’s a very real threat to your business, so how do you look to counter it in your everyday working practices?

Most solopreneurs, tradespeople and small business owners started their business with grand plans to have more time for themselves and their family, more money and a simpler life.

Five minutes into running their own career destiny they will have found out what you and I know well, that the reality is very different. As a business owner your time is not your own, it now belongs to your company, your customers, your team, your suppliers and HMRC. And, as weekends become just another workday and annual holiday allowances become just a nostalgic memory, it’s very easy to start to feel overwhelmed by the mountain you and your business need to climb for you to see any version of success.

Business guru and motivational speaker, Tony Robbins tells us that not only do 96% of all new businesses fail in their first 10-years, but the main reasons they do are fairly consistent.

Of the reasons he cites, five are relevant for us to discuss here:

1. A failure to understand your customer’s needs

If you appreciate what your clients need from you and how they expect it delivered you can know better how to find, convert and serve them. For most tradespeople and those in the construction sector, what a client needs from you will be largely similar – rapid response to a quote request, clear schedule of works and delivery that sticks to both budget and timeline. If you can deliver on these areas then your business will grow and your reputation will too.

2. Inability to scale

Scaling is a double-edged sword as not scaling means you remain small and unknown with limited funds, but scaling too soon, too fast or too far can bring a company down. The road to success is littered with the carcases of businesses with plans that proved to be bigger than their means. Scaling requires the right personnel, support, technologies and infrastructure to keep quality and cashflow as healthy no matter the size of the business.

3. Failure to convert enough sales

For tradespeople and those in the construction sector, clients are not only increasingly price savvy these days, they are also price sensitive. So, speed, accuracy and competitiveness within your quotation process is vital to your ability to respond to and convert new business and that new business is vital to the survival and hopefully growth of your company.

4. Placing too much responsibility on your own shoulders

Nobody can do everything on their own. Even the most successful entrepreneurs have teams of people supporting them, coaches and mentors guiding them and technology to pull it all together. If you try to do it all by yourself you will feel the strain which can limit the prospects of even a good business with a great person at the helm.

5. Inflexibility

Doing things the way they have always been done because that’s the way they’ve always done it is a self-limiting viewpoint. Overwhelm occurs when volume of tasks comes up against stubborn inflexibility to change. Customer preferences, methodologies, processes and technologies all change with time and embracing them is how you give your business a chance at competing in a busy marketplace and spreading the load that rests on your shoulders as a business owner. 

If you are looking for a way to unclutter your work life, to consolidate all your supplier’s pricing, to make estimation and quotation quicker and more accurate, to optimise your conversions by automating your quote follow-ups, to manage all your H&S documents, to spec out your projects, to schedule tasks for your team or yourself, and to banish to overwhelm we have the solution.

Custom Quoter was developed by people like you, for people like you – a powerful quotation, invoicing, price comparison and scheduling tool to help you not only win more projects but also to fight all five of the reasons why businesses fail listed above.

Give yourself the technological support your business needs to overcome the overwhelm and to drive your business to new heights. Take advantage of our FREE TRIAL today.