The Bare Naked Truth about Your Business
By Kevin Nations Posted on Sep 14, 2009
People Claim to ‘Look Good Naked’ when they peek ‘under the hood’ of their Business. But Do They? REALLY???
You see, the REAL challenge about truly ‘Looking Good Naked’ is when NUMBERS get involved.
In the PHYSICAL realm, when people say “Yea I look good naked!” – that’s really a statement of their self-esteem. They ESTEEM themselves good naked.
But when one asks – “what is your SPECIFIC body fat percentage or what is your EXACT weight?” and objectivity comes out of the picture, fewer people remain comfortable with the bare-naked-truth.
The same exists in your business.
Your REVENUES are a function of your ability to communicate and have people invest in themselves through your contribution.
Your PROFITABILITY is the function of your ability to communicate and deliver services at a fee that is higher than your cost of delivery.
BOTH of these SPECIFIC NUMBERS are a function of “How you REALLY Look Naked”.
In 2004, I worked with a number of small business owners to raise their sales. One of the FIRST questions I asked on my client intake interview was – “Tell me EXACTLY what your sales revenue numbers were LAST WEEK and tell me PRECISELY what your number of NEW QUALIFIED PROSPECTS were in the same period (the prior SEVEN days).
I CONSISTENTLY (FAR more than 50% of the time) got the same answer!
Wanna know what it was?
“Kevin, last week is not a good week to measure!”
Hmmmm – unless you were SUNNING on the beaches of Maui or sailing the Mediterranean, LAST WEEK IS YOU, NAKED!
THAT is what your business REALLY is. Not the fantasy of the result of the latest fad you’ve just begun to pursue, not the GREAT month you had back in 2006, but can’t quite ever get to happen again.
Repeat after me: LAST WEEK IS MY BUSINESS NAKED!
For those of you for whom this is NOT a pretty sight, don’t worry!
Beginning with WHAT REALLY IS is the BEST first step to becoming AMAZING.
You have been pursuing marketing ‘Prescriptions’ for some time now with NO accurate diagnosis.
“A PRESCRIPTION without DIAGNOSIS is MALPRACTICE”
Over the next few Blog Posts, we’re gonna examine EXACTLY how to diagnose where you REALLY are in your business and how to take your success to AMAZING places you’ve only fantasized about. Only this time it WON’T be a fantasy because it’s gonna be based on a NAKED starting point, a CLEAR ending point and a SPECIFIC path in between.
Interested? You CAN do it!
Here’s what you do next. Comment / Share this blog to make THIS post more powerful for everyone . Then stay tuned for the step-by-step process to move from SEEING what you want to ACHIEVING it!
Jacqueline Wales
Nov 1st, 2009
Kevin,
Admitting honestly where things are in business takes a certain fearless attitude and I ignored it for a while. Now I’m taking the pulse of the business regularly and although I’m still not thrilled with what I’m seeing, there is definitely improvement. Thanks for revealing the Emperor’s butt!
Jacqueline Johns- Your Happy Life Mentor
Sep 14th, 2009
Bring on the ‘how to’! And it better be good…..
Live Life Happy!
Elaina McMillan
Sep 14th, 2009
“LAST WEEK IS MY BUSINESS NAKED!”
“LAST WEEK IS MY BUSINESS NAKED!”
“LAST WEEK IS MY BUSINESS NAKED!”
Okay, it wasn’t easy…or pretty, but I repeated it. And you’re right. The only way to see results is to stop hiding out behind the smoke and mirrors of “perceived success” and start crunching numbers. Damn!
I guess the good news is this—it’s only when you truly own the what is, that you can begin to work towards on the what you want.
Can’t wait to hear the step-by-step process!
Philip Allen
Sep 14th, 2009
95% of business fail within 5 years because people have not been taught to understand what the meaning (represented by the figures) is.
Most small businesses are too busy providing their service to take the time to see if production, distribution, marketing, finance & support network of workers are growing evenly and that demand is their for their product so waste their time & money going from crisis to crisis.
Big business also make self damaging decisions – (especially when based on greed of the ego) like the banks policy to mis-sell mortgages by basing commissions on getting extra customers instead of extra profit from getting the right customers and then compounding the damage by hiding the problem in complex packages and creating the Credit Crunch.
Kevin Nations
Sep 14th, 2009
Phillip
Maybe that’s why they call it ‘Crunching Numbers’!
K-
Kay Fontana
Sep 14th, 2009
Hi Kevin…another brilliant post! Your perspective on this topic is fresh and inviting. I have been looking hard into the mirror lately at where I am and where I want to be. I am anxiously awaiting more insight from you!
Thank you!
Kay Fontana
http://www.coachingforquality.com
Kevin Nations
Sep 14th, 2009
Thanks SO SO MUCH, KAY -
There IS a meta solution to this issue. One I’ve taught since 2003. And I’m about to release it in a MAJOR way that will ’shake the foundation’ of the marketing space in a QUANTUM way.
Kev
Mike
Sep 14th, 2009
You’re totally blowing my mind Kevin…
This is BIGGER than the last “ah-ha” moment I had with your last blog post.
I felt very uncomfortable as a result of your last post by admitting that I’ve been doing my clients a dis-service by giving them something I thought they needed, instead of being genuine and giving them myself and what they wanted (I hope that makes sense to you because it hit’s home for me).
Now I see that my ability to communicate with my clients could be at a much deeper level while serving them to a higher degree. Possibly, if I may be so bold to say, being directly responsible for helping them transform their lives. This is big!
If last week is my business naked, then I need to re-invent and innovate my business model because I’m not liking what I’m seeing. Oh, how I wish you were wrong, but you’re not.
Okay, Kevin… that’s twice you hit the bull’s eye. You only need one more for a “hat trick.”
It sounds like doing business this way is a lot more work for me and I already work myself to the bone.
How do I go about communicating my services in such a way that it has high value in my client’s eyes AND how do I do it with minimum involvement on my part?
I’m willing to go beyond my comfort zone, so don’t hold back now…
Peace,
Mike
P.S. Would you mind if I stole “a prescription without diagnosis is malpractice?” It would really fit nicely in my business.
Kevin Nations
Sep 14th, 2009
Lot LESS Work in just a bit Mike – Think about it. Once you’re ‘FIT’ how much effort do you need to put into, “Do I look good in those JEANS?” OF COURSE YOU DO – You look good in ANY jeans!
So the effort you put into being TRULY seductive DOES pay off!
As for the quote, I’d love for you to quote me on that at your leisure!
If you notice quite a few people quote my ‘Imperfect Action’ paradigm among others. You’ll also find if you quote that in Social Media, you’ll find FAR more of my clients than you’ve imagined that have heard it and will respond!
Keep it FUN!
Kevin
Julie Gabrielli
Sep 14th, 2009
Brilliant!! Thank you, thank you. I’ve only recently woken up to the power of — better, the meaning behind — business numbers. I just blogged about this very thing in the area of green business. How do we know how green is green? Well, by measuring. . . .
http://www.goforchange.com/2009/09/04/measure-thyself/
Kevin Nations
Sep 14th, 2009
Absolutely, Julie
Numbers aren’t as SEXY when it comes to painting a fantasy of how to get ahead in business.
BUT – they (numbers) are the PRIMARY FACTOR. “THE” primary factor when it comes to breaking away from what ‘has been’ into what ‘is NOW’.
It’s IMPOSSIBLE to move to GREAT heights while avoiding ‘The Numbers’.
giulietta nardone
Sep 14th, 2009
Hi Kevin,
Love this naked biz direction you’re going in because to be naked is to be natural. If we’re wearing a lot of small business make-up we may a) be trying to cover-up a wonderful difference that embarrasses us for some reason or b) be trying to prettify something we feel is unattractive.
Time to look in the biz mirror and see what’s really there!
Giulietta
p.s. be a fearless commenter! it’s the first step to liking your naked biz self …
Kevin Nations
Sep 14th, 2009
I like fearless commenters! Especially when they’re FIRST!