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Small Business Advice on Why Referrals Are Not Enough

By Allison Babb

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 22Jul2009 Word count: 434 Viewed: 139 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

A majority of entrepreneurs I've worked with admit that word-of-mouth and referrals are their primary ways to attract new clients and customers.

Referrals should be a part of your business life for sure, but too often I see it become the only way to bring in new business.

Here are 3 reasons why referrals are not enough...

Who's at the Steering Wheel

Many of my clients secretly confess that relying on referrals leaves them feeling like they do not have control over the number of clients they receive. When we leave our businesses to referrals only, we are often hoping and praying that word magically spreads about our businesses. But we're never certain that word-of-mouth is happening at the rate we want it to happen.

I'd recommend adding some other client-magnetic ingredients to your customer-generating plan. Add some strategies you can turn up the volume on whenever you want more clients.

Who's got the time

Often solo business owners attend countless networking meetings around town with the goal of keeping those referrals coming. It can get quite labor-intensive. Now don't get me wrong, networking meetings are great and if you network effectively, you indeed get referrals. But I've watched business owners spend 30-50+ hours a month going from one meeting to another desperately hoping to generate enough referrals to create the number of clients and the income they desire.

How about if you had a nice menu of marketing options and you choose a few things to do consistently to create the results you want. What if networking was just a small portion of what you did, because you had other lucrative options to employ. That's precisely where you want to be as a business owner and you can absolutely design your business this way.

Who's leaving money on the table

One of the things I say, to new solopreneurs in particular, is that marketing is the #1 skill you must have as a business owner. Become a student of marketing. Check out the many marketing options that exist so you can move beyond a referrals-only type of business.

Marketing is the gas in your business engine and it may be time for super-premium gas vs plain old "regular." When you take it up a notch and add some powerful new marketing ingredients, you'll quickly realize that you've been leaving money on the table all along. There's a swarm of new business and new customers out there just waiting for you to show up through some new marketing and new actions. Chances are, you've only scratched the surface of profit-generating and client-generating ideas for your business.

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