What Business Are You Really In?

If I asked you what business you are in, what would you say?  Now I know many of you reading this are thinking, I already know what business I am in.  I’m in the chiropractic business, or I’m in the retail business, or I’m in the…(x)…business.  Although that might be the product, or service that you provide, it is not the business that you are in; it is what you do! The business that you are in is measured by the value that you bring to the marketplace, or that you provide to your customers.

Let me give you an example:  A sign company that we recently worked with figured out that they are not in the sign business.  They are really in the marketing, brand building and return on investment business for their clients.  Wow, what a difference!  Now that they know what business they are in, they can start asking themselves what else they could do to help their clients market and build their brand more effectively, while improving (their client’s) return on investment.  They could expand their product offering by having in-house graphic design, offering tradeshow booths and supplies and possibly provide marketing workshops.  This would not only increase their revenues, but would be able to provide some of the tools that their clients need and are already looking for.

Look at your business not only from today’s perspective, but also in one year, two years and five years.  If things keep going the way they are, what will your business look like in the future?  Just look at the manufacturers of carburetors and camera film, to see what happens when you don’t look ahead and determine what business you will be in down the road.  So look ahead and determine what business you could be in and also what business you should be in.  Just because a sign company could also be in the advertising agency business, doesn’t mean that they should be in this business.

Figuring out what business you are in, can literally mean the difference between success and failure, so you need to spend some time to come up with the answer.  If you are in the Multi-level/Network Marketing business you need to realize that you are really in the “Recruiting” business and not the business of selling goods and services.  Although many network marketing companies have some great product offerings, in order to be enormously successful in this industry you need to be excellent at recruiting and then training your recruits on how to recruit.