5 Questions to Ask if Your Business Doesn't Seem to be Working

Sometimes despite our best efforts, it might seem like our businesses are not working.

This is no time to quit or decide you can't make it as an entrepreneur. Rather, it is a time to ask yourself these 5 questions that will help you diagnose the problem and turn your business around.

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Engaging, Fun and Informative! by MamaTriDOc – Aug 7, 2020 ★★★★★

Business details can often seem boring and intimidating - Dr. Una has a magical way of creating fun, excitement and painting pictures of endless possibility in her podcasts. I can't wait for each episode to learn more, dream bigger and take action to get things done!

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Transcript

Hi Docs, Welcome to the EntreMD Podcast where it is all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello hello everybody and welcome to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. As always, I am super pumped that you're here and I am going to start off today by reading a review by one of our amazing docs. And I want to say a big thank you to everybody who reviews, everybody who posts on social media like you absolutely have to check out this podcast and for you listening super grateful. Okay, so this is MamaTriDoc, I hope I said that right. She says, “engaging fun and informative. Business details can often seem boring and intimidating. Dr. Una has a magical way of creating fun, excitement, and painting pictures of endless possibilities in her podcast. I can't wait for each episode to learn more, dream bigger and take action to get things done.” Isn't that so cool? That's super cool. Thank you so much. MamaTriDoc, thank you for that review, totally made my day. I'm so happy that you're finding the podcast helpful. And you're taking action because that's what it's all about. Okay. 

All right. So today, we are going to be looking at five things to do when your business doesn't seem like it's working. Okay, five things you can do. And I want to start off by making a statement and that is our primary focus in our business is on the process, not on the results. Now, am I saying we don't focus on the results? Of course we focus on the results, right. But what produces the results process? So even when things seem like maybe they're not really really, really working? The question becomes, am I working In the process, am I putting my weight behind the process? Am I doing what needs to be done? If I am, then the results are inevitable, right? So process over results. So let's get into the five things that you can do. And they're actually questions. And for those of you who are listeners who are the EntreMD Business School, you'll recognize some of these because it's all part of your success path, right, the five steps that you're going to take. So the first question you ask yourself, is, Am I clear on what my business is? You might be going like Dr. Una, What kind of question is that? Of course, I'm in business. But sometimes what happens is we're focusing on multiple businesses at the same time. And because of that, we get analysis paralysis. We're not putting enough effort into any one of the businesses to make them work. So the question becomes, Am I clear on what my business is? Am I focused on one business? Am I Putting my weight behind one business, or am I trying to do so many things at the same time that I'm not doing enough action for any one of them? Okay. And you might think that this is a simple question, but it's a question that makes the difference between a profitable business and a business that isn't profitable. So am I clear on what my businesses I focused on one business? So you answer that question, like the come to Jesus question, right, honestly. And then if the answer is yes, then we go to step two, the answer's no. Then you want to pick a business, right? One of the things that, you know, anybody who's worked with me knows that, you know, we're gonna have to work through is we have to focus, focus on one thing at a time, we have to focus Alright, so that's the first one. The second question is, Am I clear on my message? Now we can do 10 podcast episodes on this. I'm just gonna give you the quick version. Am I clear on What my message is? Now to be clear your message, there are a number of things you have to be clear on, you have to be clear about the person you serve. Who's your ideal client, you have to be clear on who that is, you have to be clear on the problem you solve in their words, right? So not like they need a biophysical mechanism of managing their poor metabolism so that they can be at their ideal BMI. Nobody thinks about that, ever, right? They think I need to lose weight. They're thinking, I hate looking at myself in the mirror. They're thinking, I just want to feel better again, I want to have more energy. That's what they're thinking. I want to be able to chase my grandchildren. That's what they're thinking. So you need to be clear on the problem you solve. In the words of your ideal clients. You need to be clear on the outcome you give them, right. So whether it's weight loss or whether it's, you know, the marriage is fixed. Whether, you know, you drop this to them so that they can get rid of it in five to seven years, or whether you whatever it is you help them do, you have to be clear, but it needs to be in a way that it resonates with them. Okay, so Am I clear on what my message is: if you are not clear, then that's the place that you should spend energy and time and work on because a confused mind will not buy, a confused mind will not buy. Something that is crystal clear. Chances are it may be simple and sometimes we're like, that's so simple. I don't want to say it that way. Always choose clarity over a something being cute or something being poetic. It's always, always, always always clarity. Okay, so think about John Kennedy, what did he say? We're going to put a man on the moon. Simple. I mean, they had to do a lot of things to put it I mean, at that time, it was almost impossible to put somebody on the moon, right? But it's very clear, and you can get behind that right. Think of Geico: in 15 minutes we’ll save 15% or more on car insurance, and we've almost memorized it and we live by it. And for someone like me when I think about car insurance, I really only think Geico or Allstate, right? Because if you get an Allstate you can avoid me and like me, very simple, very clear. Very simple, very clear. Right? So those are the two companies I think about. Why? Their messages are so clear. Are they the best companies in the world? Probably not. But they're clear on their message. So if that's unclear, then you want to spend some time taking a look at that and working on doing a deeper dive on it. 

Number 3: am I showing up on platforms, am I showing up on platforms? Right? So what I mean by that is, now I'm clear on my business. I'm clear on my message, am I out there saying that clear message from the rooftop and that rooftop can be email, it can be social media. It could be live streams that you do. It could be being on a podcast, it could be being on a physical stage. It could be anywhere. But if you're not out there, then you end up being the best kept secret because nobody knows that you're there. Right? So am I putting my message out there? Am I put in my message out there? Am I shouting it from the rooftops? Okay, I get asked a lot. Like, how can I get clients without marketing? And I think about it for two seconds. And I'm like, you can't.

You can't you kind of have to put yourself out there. And sometimes it's like, oh, my gosh, I don't want to do it. But you need to remember that it's not about you. It's about the person you want to help. We're doctors and we help people and we love to help people and we would almost pay any price: we will come to work earlier, we'll leave later, we'll learn more, we'll call up colleagues, we will do all kinds of stuff. And we do that we put ourselves out there with reckless abandon, because we're thinking about our patients. And our business is the same. When you focus on yourself, you hide, when you focus on your clients. This is why it's imperative. It's so important that you're clear on the problem you solve. You think about them and the problems that they have, and you can reach out and help. Okay. All right, so am I showing up on platforms? Number four, how do I make money? How does my business make money? Is that private practice? Is that coaching? Is that consulting? Do I have a physical product? Did I design an app? Am I monetizing a blog or a vlog or a podcast? How does my business make money? Right? And you need to be clear on that. Because when you're on your platforms, you need to be telling people this is where to find me. And this is how we can work together. Right? And you might be like, but I don't want to do that. But you owe it to your people. So let's think about a personal trainer, a personal trainer came up, he did a really good 45 minute talk. And we're all inspired. And we're like, we're going to get rid of this COVID weight… (I'm recording this right smack in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic), and we're going to get rid of this COVID weight, and we're going to do all this stuff, and it's gonna be good. And we were all inspired. Now, the best way that the personal trainer can help us is by saying, and I have this Bootcamp, that is for eight weeks, and you should come join me. And the reason why is because even though we were inspired in those 45 minutes, we kind of need some more, right? We need more in his case, we need more coaching and more accountability and community and stuff to pull it off. And so one of the best things he can do after giving that 45 minute talk is to offer us the opportunity to work. And if we're not clear on how we make money, how we serve, then we don't do that right. And if we don't do that, Then it'll seem like things are not working in our businesses. 

And then the fifth thing is, am I leveraging systems? Am I leveraging systems? So if you're building out a business that could mean for my quality of life, don't I need a virtual assistant? Or do I need to build a team? Or if you want to practice, is it time to get a practice administrator on board? Or where do I need to bring in automation? Because I mean, residency we work 80-hour workweeks, right? We know what that's like. And we don't want to build businesses and go back to 80 hour workweeks, right, so am I building systems, that one will give me freedom as my business gets bigger, and two would multiply my impact because now I don't just have my 24 hours, but I have other people's 24 hours to use and I have systems that are automated. So it seems like for every hour I put in it's almost as if I put five or six hours in because I have all these other systems working for me, right? So this is a way to kind of look at your business and go like, Okay, why isn't this working? Right? And invariably, you would have heard about something maybe you're not clear on what your business is, or you're not clear on what your message is, and, and then it's time to just go tweak a little bit, focus on the process, tweak it and make it better. Okay, so now the EntreMD Business School, these five things are five stages, right? So, you know, stage one is where you explore, you're trying to find your business idea. That's stage zero. And then stage one is the message stage where you get crystal clarity, do a deep dive on what your message is. Stage Two is your platform stage where you dominate this, you know, the platforms, whether that's email or podcast or blog or Facebook Live, social media, the whole nine yards, like so your message is everywhere so your people can find you. Right? And then stage three is your moneymaker. Like how does my business make money? And then stage four is your systems right? How do I do it? The team: How do I work? Automations, right. So what I want you to do today is I want you to step back and I want you to grab pen and paper and I want you to kind of think on paper, right? If you do it on a computer, that's fine, but kind of think and ask yourself these questions and find places that you're not quite doing what you should do in your business and then just do a little tweak, and then you'll find that things will start working again. Okay. All right. So if you do this, you can actually go like, oh, wow, we turned it around right smack in the middle of a pandemic. We still made it work. Alright, so go do your homework. All right. And I can't wait to hear your story. Actually, this story I would love for you to share with me. Okay, so Dr. Una, at EntreMD.com share your story of how you apply this and how it changed your business. And if you're like, Oh my gosh, I would really love to do deeper dives on all these things, then you're welcome to check out the EntreMD Business School. We'd love to have you in it, it is EntreMD.com/business, and it would be wonderful. And that's what we work on all day every day. All right. So thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget to share this with a friend and say, Look, go check it out. But maybe you feel like your business is not working. You can do these little tweaks and make it work. And as always, I'm rooting for you.

If you love this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe, share and review it on iTunes. As you go about your week. Remember, you're not just an MD you're an EntreMD. Don't forget to tune in next week for another great episode. Until next time,