Build A Funnel - Start With Profit Then Build The Systems
When I worked on my dissertation (or final project) for my business degree, I interviewed 8 small business owners. The focus of my project was to explore how small business owners viewed business continuity planning.
Business continuity planning is the process of staying in business and continuing business operations following a disaster or crisis. If you think about the current state of things with the pandemic, you will probably remember how many businesses were shut down.
Business Continuity Example
To focus on one example, let’s look at a restaurant. Many restaurants were closed for dine-in but were permitted to remain open for pick up and delivery. The problem for many of the restaurants was that people did not want to go to them and many did not have delivery set up.
In this instance, most restaurants just closed. The concept behind business continuity planning is that you implement pre-planned processes to remain in business during something like this.
An example of a restaurant shifting was one that turned to pre-made meals to continue servicing their customers and meet the needs of the community.
Small Business Leaders Express Frustration
During my interviews with the 8 small business owners, each of them expressed frustration with needing to implement systems for the “what-if” scenarios like a pandemic that they felt were unlikely. Essentially, they felt that it was a waste of resources and money to invest in something that may never pay off.
As someone who has studied business continuity planning and been involved in emergency response, my thoughts about processes and systems have evolved. I used to feel like everything needed to have a human touch…until I realized the amount of time and resources that went into A LOT of wasted efforts.
I had been asking and looking for a solution to the problem these small business owners asked, though I worded it a different way.
Is There A Better Way To Build A Business?
Is there a way that a small business owner can invest limited time and resources into systems that will generate profits first, and they can then use those profits to explore additional systems?
In formal education, and even among the comments from my dissertation committee, the answer was basically “no”.
Then, one day, I listened to Russell Brunson talk about how he is working on changing how we view and build businesses. Instead of the traditional build systems and go into debt, then work your way slowly out of debt with the hope of possibly making enough money one day…we needed to use funnels.
Traditional Business Is Stressful
This really stuck with me when I heard it. Why? Because even when my husband and I built our business, it was such a pain running in a circle to make enough money to pay for the debts to run the business.
Sometimes, we would LOSE MONEY to do a job. The sad thing is that this is COMMON in business. In fact, there are alleged “guru’s” that teach you need to lose money up front to acquire a customer. Again…you need to go into debt to start a business, but that is VERY risky.
I cannot tell you how stressful it is when you have thousands of dollars of debt and not be able to pay the bills because you are going the wrong way on payments. We were blessed to be able to figure out a way to pay our bills during the tougher times, but it seemed like a silly way to do business – but that’s the way traditional business works.
Start With Profit Instead Of Debt
Many of the online business owners I have worked with have learned the same methods as a traditional business. You need to spend $20 a conversion on a $10 sale. That means each customer is a $10 loss on average. The “guru’s” teach that you will make this up over time.
Why can’t you just make money up front? If there is a way to “eventually” make money, why can you not just accelerate whatever you will do to make money and make it to begin with so you are not losing money?
This is where funnels come into the equation.
Funnels To Save The Day
Funnels fix this problem by creating profitable customers and leads up front. Which is the opposite of what traditional business teaches.
Now, I’ve talked about funnels in the past and I can never seem to express why I feel these are valuable. Not to mention the handful of people I have heard explain funnels prior to Russell seemed to leave information out.
So, I’m going to attempt to describe the value of a funnel, but I highly recommend you consider picking up your own copy of DOTCOM SECRETS because Russell Brunson is the EXPERT at this.
A funnel is a series of offers provided to your ideal customer. A SUCCESSFUL funnel is one where you provide significant value to your customers in exchange for a PROFITABLE return.
Even though the concept of the funnel is simple, it’s important to understand there are several elements involved in creating successful funnels.
DOTCOM SECRETS Book
This is what you learn in the DOTCOM SECRETS book. You learn the various elements of building a funnel and what components you need to make the funnel successful.
Now, I recommend you get ALL 3 of Russell’s books. I actually read the 3rd one first, then realized I wanted to get more details from the first 2 books. The complete set includes DOTCOM SECRETS then the 2nd one is EXPERT SECRETS and the 3rd one is called TRAFFIC SECRETS.
There are PLENTY of people that only read DOTCOM SECRETS and were able to build successful funnels. I’ll talk more about the other 2 books in the future, but for now – understanding and building a funnel is the fastest way to starting a profitable business with your first profitable funnel.
Funnels - Overview
Now, let’s cover a few of the components you need in a funnel.
Underlying most of what you do with funnels, Russell talks about the “Secret Formula”. The secret formula is important to consider to help you keep focused and identify the important elements for success. Here are the 4 components of the secret formula:
- Identify Your Dream Customer
- Locate Your Dream Customer – where are they congregating?
- Identify the bait you can use to attract your dream customer to you.
- Provide a valuable and unique result for your dream customer
Of course, this is the Kim paraphrased version. Russell explains this in greater and better detail in the DOTCOM SECRETS book.
Since each of these topics is rather detailed, now seems a good place to take a break for another day! Next time, let’s talk about our dream customer.
About The Author- Dr. Kim Christian
Thanks for taking the time to read my content! I am Dr. Kim Christian, but the only person that calls me that is my daughter when she’s pretending she’s opening a business!
Most people just call me Kim (or mommy when my daughter isn’t playing business owner).
My priority is to help other entrepreneurs and small business owners build sustainable businesses both “in the real world” as well as online!
If you are ready to start building a profitable funnel, get started with the free book (just pay shipping) DOTCOM SECRETS or jump start your funnel building with the ONE FUNNEL AWAY CHALLENGE.
To Your Success,
Dr. Kim Christian
