Here's the dilemma: You spend sixty hours a week or more working on and in your business. You know you have good employees. You know you have a good location. You advertise regularly. You know there is a need for your service or product. But, your business is still floundering. You may be making one or two critical mistakes.

Many businesses make these mistakes. Some succeed in spite of the mistakes. Most close their doors after a few years. Correct both of these mistakes and your business will flourish. Your profits will increase.

You must realize that both of these mistakes are dependent on each other. You cannot correct one and expect success. You must correct both of them! If both of these problems are not corrected, the business will continue to flounder. The two mistakes are:

1. Improper organization of the business
2. Improper marketing strategies.

1) Improper Organization: As your business grows, you add more personnel to take care of certain areas of responsibility. Everyone working in a given area reports to the person “in charge” of their area. That sounds very good on the surface, but from an operational standpoint, it is a major mistake. This mistake is only compounded as the business continues to grow. It causes reduced efficiency, duplication of effort and poor communication.

How to resolve: First, the business should look at its organizational structure. It should identify all the processes that are currently being used. Each process should be thoroughly documented and evaluated. Then, the relationship between the various processes should be examined. The business must then identify what process must be done first, second, third, etc. Areas of duplication should be eliminated. Non-productive processes should be eliminated. Organizational structure should be reassigned according to the business processes.

The best way to identify and resolve the organizational processes of a business is through the use of a committee. This committee should be composed of employees from different areas of the business. It may be two employees for small businesses or it may be ten for large businesses. It will require some extra time on the employee's part, but the potential benefits far outweigh the additional responsibilities.

2) Improper Marketing Strategies: Many businesses don't know how to correctly market their products or services. They pick a location, put up a sign that says, “Open for business” and expect people to come piling in. This is along the lines of the “build it and they will come” mentality. Or, they may simply send out an announcement to homes in the surrounding area to drum up some business.

Frequently, a business will hire a professional marketer to consult with their business. Often the professional marketer is able to create a marketing campaign, which does in fact increase the business sales. When the sales begin to multiply, the business is usually elated. But, here's the paradox, you can increase sales by ten or a hundred fold, but if the business cannot handle (fulfill) the increase in sales because it is not properly organized, the business will only cause more “ill will” with potential customers and again will fail to reach its maximum potential.

How to resolve: After the business has begun identifying its step-by-step processes, their marketing should be examined and evaluated. The business should review all of its current marketing campaigns and procedures. An analysis should be done to address marketing concerns such as: who are their customers, what are the needs of the customer, what benefits do the business products or services offer their customers, what market testing procedures are being used, how does the business market to current customers, how much money is the business spending to get a new customer, how much money is being spent on current customers, what related products or services does the business offer, what marketing has been successful, what areas of marketing need to be improved, how many sales can the business currently handle, etc.

Once a business has addressed both it's organizational structure and marketing strategies, it will begin to achieve its potential. The objective of every good business should be to organize correctly around its processes and create customer focused marketing. This will achieve maximum profitability and customer satisfaction. They go hand in hand.