Are you moving the needle? Is this a question you understand? What do I mean by moving the needle? Moving the needle means, being productive. It doesn’t mean being busy.
We can all find ways to keep busy, but is what’s keeping us busy making us money? The needle is that indicator which lets you know you are making money, making progress in your business. Its like the needle on the old speedometer. As your speed increased the needle would move forward on the dial. Should you be stuck in neutral, or slowing down, then the needle would either stop completely, or move backwards.
There is an old rule which was originally put forth by economist Vilfredo Pareto, it states, “80% of you business will come from 20% of your efforts.” In my business, website design and maintenance, 40% of my business comes from referral sources and 60% of my business comes from other sources. But even though my percentages are different from Vilfredo postulated, I can tell you one thing.
95% of those referrals check out my website before they call me!
Almost without exception, they tell me the reason they chose to do business with my company is because they were impressed by our website. I suspect that they were not only impressed by the website itself, but were equally impressed when our site came up as one of the first they saw when searching for our services. If someone has been given a referral to your business, but they can’t quite remember the name of your business, they will search for the service itself, and as they scroll through the page, they will find your company name. Or will they? They won’t if you don’t have a website..
The other thing that moves the needle? Blogging. Blogging and using at least a few social media outlets will increase the visibility of your websites in the search engines. Increased visibility will usually translate into more phone calls, which in turn will hopefully result in an increase in your income. Moving the needle.
Cindy & Bill Fletcher, Your Needle Movers.
