Alexander the Great was being shown the famed Gordian Knot. “This knot cannot be untied,” they told him; “every man who tried to do so, failed.”
But Alexander was not discouraged just because others had not succeeded.
He simply realized that he would have to go at it in a different way. And instead of wasting time trying to untangle the knot using his own fingers , he simply drew his sword and slashed the knot apart.
Every day a great business general is shown some difficult knot which has proven too much to handle for his competitors, and yet, he succeeds at the challenge that the competition failed at, because he finds a way to cut it.
As long as you are an entrepreneur that is willing to look at problems differently instead of simply looking at the knotty issue the same way others are, there is not need to waste time trying to accomplish the impossible– just take your lessons from the successes, but more importantly, the failures of those before you and avoid doing what they did to cause their downfall.
The five knottiest problems in business are:
1) The problem of location.
2) The problem of getting the crowds.
3) The problem of keeping the crowds.
4) The problem of minimizing fixed expenses.
5)The problem of creating a valuable good will.
Not one of these five knots can be untied by fumbling around with your fingers. They are much too complicated to be solved in that way.
They’re all inextricably involved–so twisted and entangled that they can’t be solved singly–like the Gordian knot they must be cut through at one stroke . And you can’t cut the knot with anything.
Anything but advertising.
because:
1) A store that is constantly before the people makes its own
neighborhood.
2) Crowds can be brought from anywhere by daily advertising.
3) Customers can always be held by inducements.
4) Fixed expenses can only be reduced by increasing the volume of sales.
5) Good will can only be created through publicity.
Advertising is breeding new giants every single year and making them more powerful every hour that passes.
Publicity is the sustaining food of a powerful store as well as the only strengthening nourishment for a weak one.
A retailer who delays his entry into advertising must pay the penalty of his procrastination by facing more giant competitors each month as each month of opportunity slips by and he falls father behind.
As long as you do the same things as everybody else, you have nothing pushing you to the peak- to get you ahead- to separate you from the ho-hum pack of entrepreneurs doing the same thing you are.
The reason you are scared of competition is because you don’t have the proper weaponry with which to oppose it and fight back. You can’t untie your Gordian knot because it can’t be untied –you’ve got to cut it.
You must become a marketer or you will pay the dear penalty of incompetence.
You not only require the newspaper to fight for a more hopeful tomorrow , but to keep today’s situation from becoming hopeless .
Go and see the marketing special offer now available on Small Business Marketing for a $99 consultation!
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