15 Red Flags Your Business is Floundering & the Foundations You Need to Find Your Flow

Yay, you’re here! That means we can have a heart to heart about what it takes to have a profitable, long-lasting business!

We can be honest it’s not all a bed of roses and frankly, sometimes there are more thorns than anything else. And often, it’s beautiful. The rewards, the freedom and flexibility, the hands-on impact you get to make… that’s amazing.

Hopefully, no matter the roadbumps, you nearly always know you are doing the right work for the right people.

But Do You Get Stuck?

Are you worried that you are going to be sitting here a year from now with your business (and life) in the exact same damn place? Do you feel like you flounder at times? And do you feel like you are at risk of not moving forward, meeting your goals, or getting out of a rut?

Hey, it happens. My 10-year business celebration is coming soon and I can attest, there have been best of times and there certainly have been slumps too. BUT… even in the slumps (and some are car wreck doozies – literally), my business always has flow and makes money.

I want your business to successfully ride the waves of real life too! So, I’m going to show you how.

Businesses Can Grow In Spite of Ruts, Slumps & Challenges

Life isn’t perfect, neither are you. Those are the facts. But none of this is an excuse to stop your business growth. The beautiful thing is you do not have to stop, flounder or stay in a rut.

I’m giving you permission to embrace the deep freeze moments in business for just a few more minutes… and then commit to warming up your flow so you can find your grit again… and grow.

It starts with some brutal self-honesty about what’s not working.

15 Signs Your Business Foundation is Floundering & Flirting With Danger

1. You have low profit margin and limited revenue streams.
2. You’ve become short on new ideas and creativity.
3. You don’t know why your strategies are or aren’t working
4. You notice a slow down in new clients, fans and/or champions.
5. You have reduced revenue from best customers.
6. You are uncertain what your strengths are.
7. You face panic when life hands you lemons and you still have to pay the bills.
8. You are over committed and the ½ assed results show it.
9. You live in overwhelm and constantly lack focus.
10. You re-create more than you market and promote.
11. You don’t know the next step.
12. It feels like a risk to take the next step.
13. You think you have nothing to say (or you don’t know how to say it).
14. You stopped practicing and evaluating what’s working (and not)… or you never started.
15. You collect knowledge and expert opinions more than take action.

My mission is to offer you the antifreeze and find the flow to create success on your own terms, no matter what life or business throws at you.

INTERVENTION:
First Step to Fixing Your Foundation is to Stop the Hustle Hell

Hey soul sister, if you are still here after reading that statement above, we’re meant to be. I am a recovering ‘hustle addict’. It doesn’t work for everyone to go all freaking in all the time. In fact, for me, the hustle has hurt my business over and over again… I can’t keep the pace. And I don’t want to… but not because of the pace. I don’t want to because it’s not sustainable!

Sustainable Businesses Are Built from Sustainable Lifestyles

So, what do we know for sure?

1. Your business foundation is floundering.
2. You are a success-craving entrepreneur who doesn’t want to hustle.
3. You have a very busy life with little room for hiccups that life hurls at you (but recognize they happen anyway).
4. And, in spite of the realities of success-driven vs no hustle, you are still capable and committed to fulfillment, joy and prosperity that comes when life and business flow naturally together.

If that’s sounds lovely (and like you), then buy into the possibility that you can succeed at whatever pace you like… as long as your foundation is solid first!

If hustle and working harder is not the path out of a floundering business deep freeze, then what?

The odds are that you didn’t build your business with a system and structure designed to weather the real storms of life (and business), you hit bumps, steer off course, don’t know how to get back on track fast enough and either freeze (or end up in a new direction).

To have a successful business flow, you first need a solid business foundation. Tweet This

Yep, you need a solid structure and system to navigate your business. From that structure you can then flow, pivot and progress to success. You can sign up for my Free 7-Day Audit Challenge to take a closer look at your business foundation and figure out what’s working, what’s not. It’s easy… and yep, it’s free!

Not sure you want another ‘freemium’ in your inbox? I get it. Make yourself a promise though… you won’t buy the latest and greatest planner, strategy guide, or coaching course without doing some kind of business audit first. Deal?! (it’s a waste of time & money to invest before you know what’s broken).

Here is a bit of an insight to what the 7-day audit I’m offering is all about. I’m offering worksheets to check off, in detail, the critical elements of these business foundations to see what you have and what you’re missing.

Required Foundations to (Re)Establish Your Business Flow:

1. Create a Brand Compass: Your brand is the guidepost from which all success in business grows. ALL of it. Clearly identifying your values and every single way those values are portrayed across your business creates the perception and impact you want to have with audiences. When this is consistent, over time, your reputation, trust-accepting and ease in business grow incrementally.
2. Commit Time to Grow Your Own Community: Constantly nurturing champions, fans and customers builds loyalty to you. Constantly nurturing new fans and future customers builds future business. Community building is a heart-centred approach to marketing and sales. It’s also a heart-centred approach to doing business. Communities can be literal (in person meet-ups, Facebook groups, etc) and can be developed by virtue of dedicated relationship building and connection.
3. Decision-Making Framework: The biggest freeze comes from lack of decision. Learning when to say “hello yes” and “heck no” to ideas, opportunities, activities is critical for fast-forward momentum in business. Using your brand compass, your assets and capacities will make this an easy process.
4. Pure Marketing Knowledge: You don’t know what you don’t know… so you need to learn. The more you know about what marketing activity is designed to do and what it can achieve for you, the better equipped you are to decide how to allocate your time and money to get the results you desire. Do you follow trends or go old school? Education and experience are the only ways to know for sure.
5. Selling from the Sweet Spot: Finding comfort in selling yourself comes from knowing the sweet spot in your solutions,
   products or services that you LOVE providing and customers love receiving. When you know your sweet spot, you can build that elevator pitch, create scripts and find comfort in the activity of ‘getting the sale’ more frequently, with greater ease.
6. Content & Things to Say: In this social media world, the more you can share your talented ideas, inspirations and solutions, the more you win. “Content” aka the things you wish you could write and say to your audiences with ease is your best business friend. Your website is nearly free real estate . The social media world is your playground to capture the attention of fans and readers and invite them into your life, business and world.
7. Systems, Tools & Technology: Ugh. I hate this one. Truly, I do! But I can’t avoid it and neither can you. Your business life is better when your goals are achieved with the best website, software and support tools … doing what you need them to do. There is no doubt, when you adopt simple systems, tech and tools to help you do your job better, you instantly find time and relief (after the learning curve).
8. Evaluation: Okay, I left my favourite for last. The thing is chickie, if you have created any part of Flow Foundations 1 through 7, you are in GREAT shape to propel forward with greater flow. That is, IF you evaluate what already worked well, what didn’t and you know why. I firmly believe recreating and starting over is a waste of time because I KNOW you have all the info you need at your fingertips to figure out what’s next, you just need to take the time to properly assess what you’ve already done well.

Speaking of evaluation, this is a great time to bring up my FREE 7-day audit challenge again! It’s ready, it’s easy and it will help you get unstuck, stop floundering and figuring out EXACTLY what is needed for your very next steps to create the version of your long-lasting business that will feel best for you!

You were not born to kill yourself over your business. You were not born to make your business ruin your life. You were not born to have to hustle harder to find the magical unicorn of success to be more fulfilled (you already work hard enough).

You also were NOT born to simply collect knowledge, seek advice, get stuck, stagnate… and freeze. You were NOT born to hoard your talents, your words, and your inspirations.

You WERE born to learn while doing, take action, building on successes. You were born to flow. Get that foundation solid and flow will happen. I promise.