It was the day after we had to close the business and blatant reality was dark. Winter was turning slowly to spring and by that I mean the 8 foot wall of grey ice next to our driveway was finally melting. I had read every power of positive thinking book out there and some twice while trying to convince myself that there was a silver lining. I kept asking myself why I had failed. All comparisons to Edison's 8,000 light bulb tries failed to cheer me up. I was supposed to be successful. I had watched others succeed and had confidentially joked with them that I would invite them to my castle in Ireland someday. Now, someday seemed to be never ever day. What had I missed? The answer would not come and the reality of failure was painful. I decided to go for a walk. After all I had no business to claim my time and nothing else to do. I was walking along taking in the beauty of the mountains trying to feel something, and looking at the positive side that I at least had time to take a walk finally, when as if pushed hard from behind I fell into the post-snow thaw mud. I just laid there wondering why I should get up. I laid there face down stuck in the mud and cried and cried. When I was finished feeling sorry for myself and grieving my lost business I suddenly knew, I knew why I had failed. I knew the one strategy of success we had neglected which had caused the failure and it was embarrassing. We had a good product/service but it all had come down not doing this one thing. I had gotten so busy that I had forgotten, put off, not placed the importance into "marketing" my product/service. How many years had I wasted in doing the efforts of business only to find at the end that my product/service was worthless when not sold into the hands of consumers? If consumers did not know about my product then I wasn't selling and if my product wasn't selling than I did not have a business. Like, I thought, as I started extricating myself from the tear and snow laden mud, me, no business.
What an idiot I am, I thought as I sat up. I have years of award-winning marketing experience and I, the self-professed marketing guru even failed. What about my colleagues who had less knowledge and experience? I thought of my many entrepreneur friends and the advice I had given them. Had I followed that same advice myself? And, why hadn't I? No money and no time for marketing popped into my head before I could stop it. I knew better! Aside from being mud-caked I was embarrassed and mad. And right there in the mud it hit me. I knew exactly what we could have done right. I knew exactly how I could have been a million billionaire. And I knew exactly what I should have shared and shown by example to my entrepreneur friends. Really it was like that, startling and immediate, like sun rays filling my mud soaked soul. I got up, hobbled home, threw my clothes in the rubbish (I could because I knew now that I would be a success and could buy new clothes) and sat down and wrote an outline. Why not? I had the answer to make any company rich and successful. I wrote it, I applied it and within one week I was bringing in money again and selling my new business product/service. I was making money because my product/service was in the hands of customers. When it worked and worked fast and well, I decided I needed to make up for the bad example I had been and share this plan with my entrepreneur friends. I followed this very same plan below, written from my muddy notes. Here it is unbelievably simple and powerfully effective and something any entrepreneur with a product/service can do.
Now here is where you probably are thinking, "I don't have the money for marketing!" and I am going to shout back, "Yes, you do!" and even more painfully "Yes, I did!" I did have enough money for marketing, we all do, in my case I just did not take the time.
Time is one resource we all get FREE and we get to control. I can hear you all shouting now. "Time! I don't have any time! With being the accountant, the president, the client relations, the production manager and the financier in my business, how would I have any time?" Some of you are shouting and you have a staff! Staffs take a lot of time, I know, I know. And, it gets crazy loud here from female entrepreneurs, "Aside from my business, I have a family to love, organize, focus on, feed!"
To all of you, I know, I know, believe me I know. Remember I was the failure in the mud. I was right there with you as oddly trite as this may read I am going to keep you from falling in the mud!
From here, despite your shouting, what you are going to read will help you and your business succeed. It will help you in 24 hours and it will take 24 hours. Already I have applied what I have known learned and experienced in two months since my business closed. In my new business venture I am already as successful as I was after a few years and now am ready to be one of those million billionaire success stories and so will you. Believe me there is enough money in the pie for all of us to be very, very, very successful and all we need is everything we were doing and this additional 24 hours.
The key I recognized while in the mud is based on time and effort not money. You just need 24 hours this week or whenever you are ready to start. (Do it sooner than later please, mud is so uncomfortable!) Can you spare 24 hours to make your business a success? All of you are nodding your heads skeptically. Could 24 hours really make a difference? YES it can it will and it doesn't matter how you divide it up but you need to commit to take 24 hours out of your schedule this week to FOCUS on marketing, focus on 24 hours to Zero Down Marketing. You can break it up for your convenience though stopping life for 24 hours to do this seems incredibly dramatic, I think the sooner the better. That castle in Ireland is waiting!. You can do two days of 12 hours. You can do 4 days of six hours. But you will need 24 and not a minute less to start your "24 hours to Zero Down Marketing" process for your company.
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