By their very nature small businesses have limited resources. Whether your business consists of one person or 30, there is always a long To Do List. Without very careful use of these resources, it is easy for a small business to fall into the feast and famine trap. This article outlines the feast to famine trap and how to avoid it’s pitfalls.
What is the feast and famine trap?
See if this sounds familiar…
- You do some marketing
- It generates some leads and you convert some into sales.
- Heads down; we have to deliver the sales, so we get paid.
But whilst you have your head down and are delivering what you sold…
- You don’t do any marketing
- So you don’t generate any new leads
Which means: no new sales and you’ve run out of work again. So you start the process again..
Marketing… Sales… Heads down. No marketing, no sales….
This trap starts happening either to very early-stage businesses, or to those going through a bit of a sales slump. If you’ve been through this (or are in it) how can you get out and avoid it in the future?
Why you need to avoid the trap
There are 4 primary reasons. Let’s look at them…
1. Irregular Cashflow
Never knowing how much money will be coming into the business from one month to the next makes it very difficult to plan for the future. You’ll probably end up with an overdraft for a chunk of the time (paying more bank fees). Whilst you will ensure you pay the staff, your earnings may get hit, at least temporarily.
2. Energy & Stress levels
Across your team, energy levels will rise and fall. Great when energy is high, but you know it can only last so long. If energy levels drop, service quality can easily drop too, threatening the relationship you have with your clients.
Your stress level is, almost certainly, going to be constantly high. You’re worrying permanently because of the fluctuating work and cash levels.
3. High staff turnover and Job insecurity
How can you plan, recruit and retain staffing when you’ve never quite sure how much work you will have next month? Your staff are also going to be worrying, distracting them from their jobs and impacting service quality – again.
4. Client satisfaction
Your clients will quickly see that you are really busy part of the time, as you are dedicating less time to them. They won’t like that and will start looking for alternatives.
How to avoid the feast and famine trap
If you know that the marketing you are doing is working, why not do it consistently? A consistent flow of marketing activity will deliver a consistent number of leads and sales. Easier said than done, we know, so you have three choices:
1. Dedicate time to marketing
By blocking out time in your diary – and not changing it – you are making marketing a priority and that will help you deliver consistent marketing and avoid the trap.
2. Add an in-house marketing team
These additional resources allow either them or you to do the consistent marketing that is needed to deliver the leads and sales you want. But it does mean recruiting (takes time and money), salaries (more tied up money) and, lockdown notwithstanding, desk space. All of which tie up valuable resources – time and money. This ignores the fact that finding someone with exactly the right mix of skills is going to be very difficult.
3. Outsource your marketing
Of course we are going to say this, but what other option is there? There are also a number of key benefits here:
- The outsourced marketing company can start immediately.
- They bring with them huge amounts of experience, working with companies very similar to yours.
- You get the mix of skills you need, and nothing more.
- If they don’t deliver, you can very easily get rid of them.
- When there is enough marketing requirement, they will help you recruit and simply walk away.
This is a common trap that many fall into but getting out needn’t be difficult.We hope this article helps and moves your business out of this trap very soon.
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