9 Common Business Problems With Simple Solutions

Almost all of our most complicated life problems can be solved with simple solutions.

And, that fact couldn't be more valid in business as well!

The truth is that the most common business problems that entrepreneurs face on a regular basis can be solved with simple solutions.

This begs the question... Why do so many entrepreneurs face a laundry list of problems when the solutions are rather simple?

Here's the thing: The world has unfortunately been conditioned into thinking that, the harder somebody works to solve a problem or the more complex the approach they take, the more effective they will be!

However, that couldn't be less accurate.

As a result of thinking that complexity is the answer, they completely disregard the simple answers right in front of them!

If you're currently facing a problem in your own business, then solving it with simple terms is likely the answer!

With that being said, we're sharing 9 of the most common business problems entrepreneurs face that have quite simple solutions.

Got one of these problems going on in your business right now...? Here’s how you can overcome it!

Entrepreneurship is hard enough as it is.  Don't make it more difficult than it has to be by trying to solve your problems in the most complex way possible.

1. Business Plateaus

Is there anything worse than hitting a business plateau?  We and many other business owners have to say... probably not!

What makes a business plateau so infuriatingly problematic?

For starters, plateaus are almost always immediately followed by a period of rapid growth.  It's like going from feeling out of this world to instantly feeling like you're down in the dumps.

Second, many business owners often try dozens of different tactics and work harder than ever to get out of a plateau.  Unfortunately, most of the time their efforts work to no avail.

In short: A business plateau is the equivalent of spinning your wheels in the mud but not being able to get out of the mud despite how hard you try.

Here's the big catch... If you're currently stuck in a painful plateau, the truth is that you're probably stuck there because you're trying too hard to get out of it.

Believe it or not, but trying too hard to get out of a plateau by employing complex new business models or strategies will only extend the length of your plateau (or even lead to reverse growth).

That being said, the solution to getting out of a business plateau is to make small, simple changes to your business model.  The truth is that little tweaks here and there are what will help you pull your car out of the mud!

Sometimes, the 'harder' you work, the worse results you get.  And, that couldn't be more true for business plateaus!

2. Not Getting Referrals From Clients

Is your current customer base generating referrals for you?

If not, then Houston we have a problem!

The B2B business world is all about building relationships between supplier and customer companies.  

In the relationship, customers receive products or services and the implementation of them from the supplier.  On the flip side, the supplier receives an equivalently valued financial return and... what else?

Believe it or not, but if you're not getting referrals from your current customers, then your end of the business relationship is being jipped!

Given that you hold up your end of the business deal, it's basically a given that your customers should give you referrals, should they have them.

Does this have you thinking to yourself... What gives!?  Why don't I have any referrals?

You might not be getting the referrals you deserve for one of the following reasons:

1. Your existing customers don't have any
2. You're not asking for them
3. You're not serving up the perfect customer experience

We've said it many times before here on the Business Growth Insider, and we will say it again now… There is no such thing as something for nothing in this world.

If you want not only the financial reward that comes with being a supplier but also the referrals, then you first need to give your clients the best possible customer experience ever.

In short: Don't expect to get something from your customers without giving them something first.

Therefore, if you want referrals, then focus on giving your current clients the best possible customer experience ever.  By doing so, you will soften them up to give you referrals once you ask for them!

3. Not Having a Solid Business Strategy

So... There are business models, business plans, business tactics, business strategies... and many more fancy business words that you are probably aware of. 

But, the most important one of them all is business strategy!

A business strategy describes your approach to business.  It describes how you plan to set your company apart from the rest of the competition in your market.  

It highlights your company's unique value proposition, so that potential customers can easily identify what makes your business special.

With that being said, not having a solid and well thought-out business strategy is a major business problem!

Not having a strategy is like throwing darts in the dark and expecting to hit the target.  Not only that, but not having a strategy inevitably creates countless other business challenges.

If this message resonates with you, then just know that you're not alone.  The truth is that many large and small business owners don't have any business strategy at all.

Why?

Because, unlike business models or plans, strategies are often seen as less concrete.  Unlike a model or plan, it's not as easy as coming up with a flow chart or step-by-step plan and then putting it to work.

Rather, a business strategy is more like laying a foundation to build the rest of your business off of.  Unless you have a solid strategy put together, then it's impossible to know how to put together all the other elements of business, including a plan and model.

Furthermore, if you don't already have a business strategy, then putting one together ASAP is of the utmost importance.

To do so, get together with your sales and marketing teams to brainstorm what makes your company unique.  Then, decide how you are going to highlight that uniqueness to your potential customers.

The simple fix to not having a strategy is to make one!  Even if it's not perfect the first time around, you can update it later on.  An imperfect strategy is better than no strategy at all.

4. Ghosting Sales Prospects

In addition to hitting a plateau, is there anything worse than getting ghosted by prospects?

And, not just ghosted by any prospect, but by one of your most qualified leads?  Probably not!

If that resonates with you, then just know that we feel your pain.

And not only do we feel your pain, but we've also got the perfect tactics you can use to get your ghosting prospects back in your hands, including:

1. Sending them a photo or video of yourself
2. Taking to social media to reach out to them
3. Sending them the dreaded postcard message

While these tactics are all great for getting ghosting prospects back in your hands, wouldn't it be better if you could prevent ghosting from happening in the first place?

The truth is that, not only can you simply prevent prospects from ghosting you in the first place, but you can also reduce the amount of time it takes to convert them into paying customers by implementing specific tactics into your sales strategy. 

Here's everything you need to know about how to kill ghosting for good!

5. Struggling to Capture New Customers

Entrepreneurs can have the best business strategy, plan, and model ever.  BUT, if they don't have anyone to buy their product or serve, then it's all for nothing!

That being said, there are many business leaders out there who struggle with the most basic and fundamental part of business... capturing new customers!

And while they're struggling to find buyers, they feel like they’re jumping through hoops and over mountains to capture them, only to have their efforts fall completely through.

So, what's the deal here?  Why do so many entrepreneurs struggle to gain new customers despite working so hard?

The truth is that most entrepreneurs who struggle to get customers are really shooting themselves in the foot!  

Instead of using basic, proven-to-work sales outreach tactics, they come up with these long-winded plans thinking that they will be effective only to have them fail.

They have the idea in their minds that... The more complicated their outreach plan looks, the more effective it will be!  Unfortunately, reality hits them when literally zero prospects respond to their initial outreach.

Furthermore, if your biggest challenge is gaining new customers, then ask yourself whether or not you're killing your potential by making outreach more complex that it needs to be!

Are you adding countless useless steps to your process thinking that they're necessary when in reality you're just wasting time?

Here's the thing: If you're jumping through hoops trying to capture customers only to fail, it's probably because you're making things WAY harder than they need to be.

Your solution then is to scale back your outreach process by making use of simpler sales tactics.

Believe it or not, but the simpler you make things, the more likely you are to reach success.

6. An Ineffective Marketing Strategy

Have you and your marketing team spent weeks putting together the perfect marketing strategy only for it to hit the fan?  Even worse, is a failed marketing strategy a regular occurrence for you?

If so, you're not alone.  

The truth is that there is a common reason why so many marketing strategies do end up failing.  And, that reason is that it is highly overzealous.

By overzealous, we mean that the center of the marketing isn't your product or service, but a bunch of pizzazz!  As a result, your potential customers don’t have any clue what you have to offer them other than a bunch of zeal.

The simple solution is to scale back your marketing strategy.  You can keep some of the pizzazz, but you must make sure that your product or service stands front and center.

To scale back your marketing strategy, do these three things:

1. Stick to a few key marketing channels
2. Utilize your own LinkedIn page to propagate the marketing content
3. Narrow your messaging down to highlight your single primary business solution

Even though you might be tempted to create the most outlandish and flashy marketing strategy there is, it'll likely fall through in the end.

The simple solution to turning your marketing strategy around is to, well... keep it simple!

7. Plenty Of Knowledge… Not Sure What to Do With It

Our society is more educated than ever. Only 20 years ago, not even 45% of adult Americans held a college degree.  Today, that number is close to 65%.

So, it's no secret that we're more educated than ever!  But, the question is... Does getting more education and hiring more educated employees help businesses solve problems more effectively?

Here is what we have to say: Having knowledge doesn't mean anything unless you know what to do with it.  To put things more simply... Education doesn't mean a whole lot unless you put it to use!

Unfortunately though, our current education system isn’t as good at teaching people how to apply knowledge as it is equipping people with knowledge!

Therefore, going and getting an 'eduction' doesn't necessarily mean that you or anyone else has the kinds of problem solving skills necessary for business.

With that being said, if education isn't the entire answer, what is? 

The answer is to empower yourself, your leadership team, and employees with the tools necessary to know how to solve problems.  This kind of empowerment fosters a company culture where everyone knows how to put their education to use.

This kind of empowerment is only found in the best kinds of business training programs.  And, we're not talking about a simple webinar with some worksheets.

We're talking about the kind of business training that completely changes the way people think, so that they start to make use of the knowledge that they already have!

If you're serious about reaching your business goals, then consider making the simple decision to invest in a top-level business training program.

8. Time Management (Never Enough Time to Do Everything)

We're going to take a stance right now and say that, if you're reading this and are a CEO, then odds are that time management is a daily struggle for you.

Unless you're a unicorn, trying to fit a day of work into a 24 hour period is probably like trying to run up a mountain backwards and with your legs tied together!

Sound familiar?

Now, there are two simple solutions to solving time management issues, one of which is usually highly undesirable amongst business owners.

The first and more favorable of the two is to invest in new technology that helps automate pieces of your business process.  

Whether it's sales emails or bookkeeping, a small investment in technology can take serious cake off of your plate!

The second and less favorable of the two is to hand over control of certain pieces of the business to your team members.

Why is this so unfavorable?  For some CEOs, having to give up control over even one piece of their business feels like giving up a piece of themselves!

While giving up control might be a short term mental challenge, it can end up saving you A LOT of time and decrease stress in the long term.

No matter what you do, there will always be 24 hours in the day.  How are you going to make the most of them?

9. Constantly Shifting Business Plan

Does this situation sound familiar to you: After putting together what you think is the most genius business plan, you all of a sudden start to second guess yourself.  You feel like your plan isn't going to help you achieve all of your goals because it simply isn't complex enough.  Moreover, you don't think that it's going to help you check all the boxes that need to be checked in order for you to get to the next level.  As a result, you change the plan over and over again.

Having a business plan is like having a blueprint for all of your company's daily activities.  Without it, you wouldn't know what you are doing or why you are doing it.

Unfortunately though, many business owners struggle on a daily basis with shifting their business plan.

In their mind, it's never good enough, so they're constantly making changes to it.

If this sounds even remotely familiar to you, here's a hard truth you need to swallow: Your business plan is NEVER going to help you check all the boxes because you will NEVER be able to check all the boxes.

Because, once you check the first set of boxes, you'll quickly realize that checking them created a whole other set that now needs your attention!

For example, let's say you are growing your business and doing all that needs to be done to grow.  Once you get to that new higher level, you quickly realize that you now need to find more employees, that there are supply chain disruptions, and your staff is burnt out.  Before you know it, you have even more boxes to check than you did before.

Bottom line: You can't always be shifting your business plan to be able to check more boxes because there will never be a plan to help you accomplish everything!

Once you realize that there is always going to be something else to do, you stop changing the plan on a regular basis.  

While it might be stressful in the short term, in the long term it'll create more stability in your company.

Always remember that there will always be more to do, and that changing your business plan to fit all your tasks in isn't going to help solve anything.

You Can Solve It All By Learning the World's Top Business Strategies

When you change a few fundamental parts of your strategy, expand your network with power players, and understand how to utilize a "Wedge Strategy" so you can start to position yourself and your business like a top 1% business, you solve the majority of the challenges we spoke about.

Then you can focus on what really matters to you and your business. Instead of constantly putting out fires, chasing down prospects, worrying about the economy, and everything else taking up time in your day.

When you are able to make these shifts everything changes...

Most companies never figure out how to position themselves in the top 1%, and many take decades to make it happen. However, serial entrepreneur and strategist to brands like PepsiCo and celebrities like JLo, has you covered.

Brian developed a program called BOLD CEO Accelerator. And it's helped hundreds of companies stop ghosting, grow sales, and position their companies in the top 1%. In fact, at the time of this writing it's generated over $152 Million in sales for the companies that have joined.

If you're ready to focus on growth, solve problems quickly, and you want to learn the tactics typically held secret by Silicon Valley - then take a look at the BOLD CEO Accelerator program here.

It's Everything you need to Explode Your Sales & Grow Your Business in 30 Days (and beyond). Check it out.

Final Thoughts on Common Business Problems With Simple Solutions

Don't let cultural conditioning make you think that complex solutions are the cure for your problems.  

If complexity helped people overcome their problems, then there would be more people with fewer problems in this world!  Plain and simple.

Not only will complexity not solve your problems, but it'll likely leave you feeling completely exhausted and frustrated (to say the least)!

Solving business problems effectively requires simple solutions.  Additionally, if you want to run a successful business, then simplicity will be your best friend!