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The Success Syndrome

Guest post by: David Flannery

Article Overview: I want to talk to you about an illness that strikes every single successful business at some time or another. It goes through 3 predicable stages. It is called The Success Syndrome.

The Success Syndrome

I want to talk to you about an illness that strikes every single successful business at some time or another. It goes through 3 predicable stages. It is called The Success Syndrome.

Stage 1. You start off a new business, and you open the doors for the very first time, and everyone is scared, asking questions to themselves like "What if this doesn't work?". You have a family to feed and employees to pay. In your mind, failure just isn't an option and at this stage you cannot do enough for every person that comes through the door, they are your complete focus. You bend over backwards to be helpful to them. And because of this focus the customers have a good experience in your new business, so they buy, multiply and come back.

Stage 2. You have been open a couple of months maybe a year. You customer base is growing steadily and the outlook is good. You are getting used to the running of the business and all that brings with it. Because of your customer focus in Stage one customer's are flowing in at a steady rate. Then you notice one of your staff being a little bit gruff with a customer, and the customer leaves the shop angry. You think to yourself, "Not a problem! There's plenty more where he came from!". Then later in the day, you are a little bit gruff with a customer and that customer leaves angry, and you think the same thing. The Success Syndrome had taken hold.

Stage 3. It doesn't take long for things to go wrong once The Success Syndrome has taken hold. Your quality of service and performance levels have gone through the floor, and you are the last one to know. Sales have plummeted and customers just are not coming back. You try to make up by cutting costs to the bone which in most cases means layoffs. This in turn only deepens dislike for the company. You blame the competition, the marketplace, the economy, the government. As a last ditch effort you buy some flashy advertisment campaign and use cut rate specials to try to lure customers back , but it doesn't work. Left uncorrected this stage is terminal for the business.

The Success Syndrome is a silent illness, you will not see or hear it but you will notice its effects.

The way to cure it is once you see its main effects, a slump in sales, a slump in customer numbers, is to take immediate action. Look at every facet of your business as if you where opening for the first time, look at it through a customers eyes, ask your customers opinions and fix anything that isn't right. That could range from a staff members attitude, to you level of service. The Success Syndrome is curable but it will require action. And the sooner its detected the easier it is to cure.

Remember: Without a customer there is no sale, without a sale there is no business.

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Article Tags: profit growth, small business, successful business



Related Forum Posts
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Re: Success - I study success intently, and would like to share: Here's two excellent and nearly identical success-formulas from a couple of the world's masters. FIRST FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Clear, Definite Purpose 3. Committed Decision 4. Take Action In Faith (Bonus Secret Sauce: 5. Repeat Consistently) I made a video about this, but am not allowed to link it yet. Google "Ryze Success Steps" for it. Oh, and this is Napoleon Hill's (Master Of Success Laws)'s Formula. SECOND FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Understand It Is Already Done (Faith) 3. Relax & Allow It To Unfold (Go about your life calmly) This one is courtesy of Abraham-Hicks (inspiration for the movie The Secret). Hope that helps!
Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira
Re: Books for the Entrepreneur - Here's one of my most recent books The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success By Brian Tracy
Re: What is your age? - Kevin, Success is the best revenge. they are telling the world that been raised by sinlge parent will not determine their success in life


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