Module ten

problem-solving

 

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As much as you try to run your business like a tight ship, there might be times when you head below deck and discover a puddle of water. Before you panic and abandon the ship, it’s important to find out more. Is it a small leak, or is the base of the ship completely broken? Can this leak be patched, or is it necessary to rebuild?

Maybe you got a bad review. Or you sent the order late, and the client didn’t get it in time for their wedding. Or maybe you posted something on IG that was in poor taste, and now you’re too embarrassed to show your face.

We all have these moments. Running a business is personal and puts the business owner in a tight spot fairly often. You’ve got to strike the expert balance of being vulnerable while also being professional and poised, which is a tricky balance to strike. But when you encounter rough waters, you need to know when to right the ship instead of rebuilding it.

First, identify the leaks, find the source, and then patch them.

 
 

IDENTIFY THE LEAKS

As you amass better systems and organization within your business and you feel more capable of staying on top of all the critical components of your business, you should devote some time to evaluating your progress and areas for improvement. Keep an eye out for sticky situations or potential bottlenecks.

Are there any areas of your business that feel out of alignment?

Is there something on your One Day to-do list that you have a feeling could make a big impact but that you’ve been avoiding?

Does it ever feel like something is missing in an area that might be less strategic?

First, figure out what’s not working about your creative business, and then get down to the root cause.

I’ve been a creative mama entrepreneur for seven years now, and since I work with lots of other women like me, I’ve been able to see firsthand how a lot of these sticky problems manifest themselves. Here are the most common problems I see other creatives struggling with:

No Leads — You feel like you’re doing all you can within your business to get more recognition, spread the word, and deliver quality goods and services, but still, no bites. You’re not getting nearly enough inquiries for all the effort you’re spending, and you feel like you’re either missing something or there is a disconnect between you and your customers.

No Time — You constantly feel like you’re drowning in work, and maybe inquiries aren’t the issue, but you feel overwhelmed at the prospect of having to fulfill all the requests yourself. You’re only one person! You constantly feel burnt out and low on your most valuable resource (time).

No Clue — Nothing seems to be going right, but you couldn’t even begin to identify what area you should work on first. You’re new to entrepreneurship, and, while you are confident and capable, you simply don’t even know what to look for in terms of a leak or source. You don’t know what you don’t know.

If any of these problems resonate with you, it’s time to find the source of the leaks and identify a few actionable routes to work on patching them up.


FIGURE OUT WHY

Now that you've identified what the problem is (no leads, no time, or no clue), we can start to look at some possible culprits.

Your marketing isn’t producing as many leads as it should.

You feel like you’re bending over backward to get out several Instagram posts, Stories, or Reels each day, but your audience hasn’t grown and you aren’t seeing engagement on your posts. It can be frustrating to spend all this time preparing content with no return! The reality is that you might be emulating marketing strategies that don’t suit your business simply because that’s what you’re observing other people doing. 

There IS a marketing strategy out there that involves the right combination and frequency of content that’s perfect for you and your audience. You’ve just got to discover it for yourself.

Your website isn’t pulling its weight.

Your website is a landing page meant to draw in new eyes online. If you’re manually having to direct people to your website, you’re doing it wrong. Think of your website as casting a net out into the sea, versus casting a single line at a time. If your website isn’t reeling in new customers regularly, something is missing.

Nobody knows who you are.

Would someone walking on the street in your service area recognize your branding from a distance? Would your customers and potential clients stop their scroll when they see your face or your brand colors in a feed post on Instagram? If people can’t make a connection between what they’re seeing, what you offer, and who you even are, it might be time to evaluate a brand refresh.

The magic number eludes you.

Everyone has a price, but if your clients and customers aren’t digging your offerings, you might not have discovered theirs. We covered the relationship between value and price earlier, so if you can’t sell at the current numbers, you might need to consider playing around with the perceived value associated. Can you add more value and keep your prices the same? Can you drop the prices and remove some of the scope to make more for your time in your client’s budget?

You’re struggling with poor time management.

You often feel like you’re just jumping around from task to task within your business without a clear idea of what’s moving the needle the most. You don’t prioritize your to-do list, and as a result, almost everything you do feels like “busy work” without an impact on your bottom line. If only you could clone yourself or slow down time!

Your independence is holding you back. 

Every successful business owner is backed by a village of support, whether that’s from team members, family and friends, or a community of fellow creatives. If you’re treating this like a solo mission, then you’re most likely going to feel battered, broken, and alone before too long. Looking for ways to share responsibility for the burdens you carry in your business is a great way to off-load and level up.

You still don’t know enough.

Not that you started your business too soon, but maybe your pace of education just hasn’t caught up to your growth. If you’re confused about where to turn next or what your next goals should be, consider asking. Seek opportunities to learn what you’re missing, rather than wandering through the darkness across a vast ocean without a compass or a map.


PATCH THE LEAKS

You can see how easy it is for a creative small business to develop a few “leaks” along the way, but they don’t have to halt your entrepreneurial journey! Let’s take a look at some easy fixes you can make to your current mode of operation to patch those leaks and course-correct.


Marketing Action Tasks

If you’re doing everything you can to market to your ideal clients and still feel like your efforts aren’t effective, it might be valuable to take a closer look at what you’re saying and where you’re saying it.

Evaluate where your inquiries are coming from and what sort of analytics you see on each marketing platform you use. Find the one that brings the most eyes to your business and compare that with the time you’re spending there, and then change up your marketing strategy to devote the majority of your marketing resources (time and money) to the platform with the highest return. 

  • Feel like IG takes up most of your time? Consider cutting the amount of posting you do in half and see if it makes much of a difference. Reclaim that time to try out a new marketing strategy like blogging or Pinterest.

  • If you’re unclear about which marketing efforts are most effective, include an input box on inquiry forms or ask every client or customer how they found you. Keep track of your lead sources in a spreadsheet or a notebook.

  • Pay attention to which content is getting the most engagement (it might not be the content you expect to garner much attention). Then, cater your content creation strategy to appeal to that same audience by using the same topics.


Website Action Tasks

Having a high-converting website is critical to your success as a creative business. When your website isn’t pulling its weight and acting like another team member, bringing in more clients and customers when you’re not working, then it’s time to have the tough conversation. You could “replace” this poor-performing team member with a new one or invest in its transformation the way you might take extra time to train a team member to bring them up to snuff.

Your primary goal should be to use your website as a tool to funnel potential customers where you want them to end up. That might be a contact form, your Instagram account, or your email list. Whatever your goals, keep track of your website analytics to determine whether your website is functioning in the role of concierge the way you need it to, and if it’s not, tweak it until it does.

We’ll talk more in the next section about turning your website into a funnel, but essentially, you want people who arrive at your site to be guided into taking action.

  • Is your Pinterest killing it when it comes to bringing in new website traffic, but then they all drop off and leave? Double-check that the pages they’re landing on have a clear direction or action to take so customers stay on your site for longer.

  • Do you find that most traffic that lands on any page quickly bounces? Maybe your site isn’t appealing or easy to navigate. Take a look at your mobile responsiveness and make sure there are clear calls to action through the pages.

  • You can reach a large audience by ranking higher in search engine results. Pay close attention to the next section as we talk about SEO and Google to learn how you can get more exposure for your site.


Branding Action Tasks

Cohesive branding will establish you as a more legitimate, trustworthy brand. If your audience isn’t clear on or doesn't connect with your vision for your brand, something’s got to change. Your brand should serve as a magnet for your ideal client, reeling them in by reflecting their pain points to them in a hopeful light that encourages them to take action to find a resolution.

We talked at length about branding in previous sections, but here are a few quick steps you can take to become more consistent and recognizable in your sphere.

  • Use the same colors, fonts, and styles for all your content.

  • Choose whether you want your brand to be helmed by your face or a logo, and then stick with it. Include your branding on every piece of content you create to share.

  • Show up on Stories more often so people can recognize you and connect your name and personality with the brand they’ve been following.


Pricing Action Tasks

Your audience might be seeing a disconnect not in how you market to them, but in what specifically you’re offering or the price point at which you’re offering it. Maybe they don’t recognize the value of what you’re selling, and your job is to convince them. Or maybe the price is out of their budget, but they could benefit from a smaller, more entry-level version.

  • Experiment with how you offer your products (entry-level offerings, trial-size, gift bundles, productized services, etc).

  • Try implementing a pricing model that includes an extra value-packed, more expensive offering alongside a pared-down, cheaper offering to drive traffic to the middle package.

  • Add testimonials to your site to show what other people found value in.


Time Management Action Tasks

If you feel like the time spent running your business doesn’t match up with the return you’re getting, consider whether you’re investing your time in the right areas. One of the ways a lot of business owners fail is by devoting too much time to marketing in the wrong places, but there are more aspects to your creative business than just your marketing.

Do some research into the tools you’re using (or not using) to run your business and find ways to automate or streamline your processes. Is there a tool that can do something for you so you don’t have to do it by hand?

  • Research products or programs that can take on a recurring task for you, like email reminders, writing shipping labels, or even doorstep post office pick-up.

  • Complete the Time Prioritization Worksheet (below) to understand how you should prioritize your to-do list to make the biggest impact on your business in the smallest amount of time.

 

Outsourcing Action Tasks

Bringing on other people to help you run your business doesn’t mean it’s not yours anymore. The greatest transition as an entrepreneur is when you can move from doing it all yourself to outsourcing tasks to people who can do a much better job at them than you.

Whether you’re off-loading tasks to a third-party agency to handle in their entirety or hiring an assistant to do the things you don’t have to do personally or aren’t passionate about, lightening your load means you’re working smarter, not harder. You still own your business and have full creative control, but letting go of the pride of being a solopreneur will only help you move forward on a more successful trajectory.

  • Complete the Outsourced Tasks Exercise to understand what you should prioritize outsourcing first.

  • Give yourself a deadline to complete a certain task alone to see if you can improve your efficiency, and if not, then figure out what you need to do to outsource it to someone else who can do it better.


Education Action Tasks

Google and YouTube can get you pretty far in your small business education, alongside books and podcasts. There is a ton of free information out there that can make you a more successful business owner pretty quickly. However, if you've hit a wall and can’t seem to understand where you should prioritize your further development, you might need to learn from some qualified experiences personally.

Dedicate time and resources to continually investing in your personal and entrepreneurial education. This is critical to your success as a small business owner. The entrepreneurial landscape is always evolving, especially within any given industry, so if you’re relying on the same strategies and insights that got you to where you are today, you’ll be out of touch fairly quickly.

  • Create a To Be Read list of business education books (a few of my favorites are Atomic Habits, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Building a StoryBrand, and The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster).

  • Keep tabs on specific topics that are emerging as a pain point for you and courses you find that might address that area of lack. For example, if you feel that online marketing is a concept you don’t know how to implement, you’re in luck because my Online Marketing for Creatives course bundle is included in your purchase of this course! Download it here for free using code CMAFREE.

Beyond those courses of action to patch any leaks in your business, remember these tips to keep troubleshooting and evaluating ways you can improve:

  1. Always keep trying. You have an obligation to give your business (your ship) a fighting chance against oncoming storms or cracks in the hull. 

  2. Continue to test out solutions. If you find that half as many Instagram posts don’t change your engagement that much, consider scaling back your efforts again to reclaim even more time.

  3. Dedicate yourself to continued growth by joining networking groups, and communities of like-minded creatives, and pursuing education in all forms. Even if you’re having a lot of success, you can’t know what’s out there for you until you seek it and discover it.

The reality of running a creative business is that you don’t have all day to spend on creating content and restructuring your business, because you’re already spending all day creating sandwiches and restructuring Play-Doh creations. The name of the game is efficiency, and you can recognize great efficiency by dedicating a good chunk of time repeatedly to evaluating your business and areas for improvement.

Problem-solving doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Instead of looking at big problems as projects to undertake, look for the tiny tweaks or steps that can compound over time. Keep evolving, honing in on the strategies that are working, and replacing the ones that aren’t.