Is your revenue growing?
It is a generally accepted premise that without revenue a company cannot survive long-term. (Yes companies get funding while they are pre-revenue but the expectation is for future revenue.) Maybe your revenue ambition is to grow enough to have profit left over to re-invest back into the business for future growth. So if you just get enough revenue, all will be fine. But If your revenues are stuck, then you could be experiencing one of these common problems:
You are not reaching your ideal customer. This is a marketing problem. You are likely spending money on marketing to the wrong audience - an audience that is not willing to pay for your product. This is an absolute waste that needs to be corrected - generally through confirming who is your ideal customer. The easiest way to build a decent customer persona is to talk to your current customers - why did they choose your product?
You are not selling a valuable proposition. This could be a product problem (commonly referred to product-market fit) but it can also be a marketing problem where you are leading with the wrong communication message. Go back to those current customers that you talked to in Step 1 and start looking at why they chose your product - is this your lead message in your advertising and sales materials? If you have a few different ideas, this is what performance marketing was created to do best - test different ideas and let the winner naturally emerge.
The market is just too small and you have already reached the right customer with the right message and product. Expanding an overall market where macro forces or trends aren’t helping you is like trying to push a boulder up a hill - it’s a lot of work and you may never make any progress.
Understanding your revenue levers and potential helps you as a business owner determine if you have a viable long-term business. Maybe it's time to talk to a strong marketing agency, a fellow business owner or an advisor.
Photo by Tim Whybroe on Unsplash
