I wish I’d built this when I started out

With the sun setting on the horizon a farmer pauses as he walks through his cornfield when he hears a voice say -

“Build it, they will come”

Just in case you’re not familiar with where the line comes from, it's from Field of Dreams.

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson's ghostly whisper in Kevin Costner’s ear is, like 99% of people when they start their business, a thought you’ve had yourself.

I certainly did when I decided it was time to quit the day job and start my own adventure.

In the film, Costner plays an Iowa farmer who’s sinking under the burden of debt and needs something to change and change fast.

So, he decides to dig up one of his fields and create a baseball diamond.

Madness, I know.

Of course it all works out in the end.

The “They” were the Chicago White Sox team from 1919 who are a story in themselves having got caught throwing a game in the World Series and became known as the Chicago Black Sox.

At the end of the film, a river of light flows from the car lights to the farm to watch them play.

And Kev gets to keep his farm because he charges them all $20 a head to watch the game.

Creating your business is a journey that is unlikely to go as smoothly as the plot of a Hollywood movie…even if you seem to be following all the right steps…mine certainly didn’t.

I tried leaflet drops and they sort of worked.

I ran some newspaper ads and they sort of worked too.

I tried Google ads and thought I’d cracked it until Groupon and other discount sites pulled the rug from my feet.

It was only when I discovered proper lead gen marketing and the power of following up that things changed.

Because the real leverage in any advert you run doesn’t come from the clients you get directly from the advert but from the email list you’re building.

If you’re making £1 for every £1 you spend on ads you’re in the money. 

Yes, you don’t need to make a profit from your ad spend.

The reason is that you’re building one of the most important assets any business can have…

An email list that’ll be the powerhouse that drives your business over the long term.

Over the coming weeks and months, assuming you are emailing your list at least 1/week, you’ll pick up more clients.

Because not everybody is ready to buy straight away and needs a bit more convincing that you’re the one who can solve their problem.

I had someone on my list for 18 months before they became a client but ended up working with them for 2 years and making £5k from that one client.

And that email list 

So, what are you waiting on?

Go build that email list and the clients will come.

Later

Colin