The #1 factor that’ll decide your biz’s longevity

Fun fact about my Dad: Every few months for my first five years in business, he’d ask me, “Is your business still doing OK?” (But in Chinese.) And the only reason he didn’t in year six (and beyond) was because I finally realized he’d never stop asking on his own, so I set a new rule. Which is why I don’t talk about my business with my parents anymore. But every so often, my mom still slips a little check-in into our calls, “Everything’s still good?” To which I’ll quickly respond with, “Yes, very good.” So we can move on and not rehash the same old conversation every time. I guess if I was a REALLY good daughter, I wouldn’t mind repeating the same explanations over and over. But I feel like five years’ worth of patient repetition still makes me a fairly good daughter…right? Actually, I do get where they’re coming from. Because for the first few years, I was also constantly worrying about how I’d be able to go from tracking my sales on a month by month basis, to, well… Having a business where I could confidently know that sales would be strong next month, the month after that, the year after that, and even the next five years after that. As we often talk about, strong systems are a key part of it. But the truth is, the best strategies and systems don’t matter if you don’t have the right people in your audience. Which is why there’s one question we analyze after every promotion: How did each customer originally find us? (Via which lead magnet and traffic source they joined our list through.) This is something I’ve been especially interested in over the last few years, since our sales started increasing disproportionately compared to how much we grow our audience by. After digging into it, we’ve figured out the reason - which is actually surprisingly simple. Although, as the truth often does, it goes against popular unwisdom. The common idea is that you have about 60 to 90 days to make a sale to a new lead before the likelihood that they’ll buy from you drops drastically. This does have SOME truth to it: Especially if you only have one offer. Or you don’t have consistent marketing and sales systems in place. OR, most importantly…. If you’re getting lower-quality leads, who are primarily interested in fast results. (And thus aren’t interested in doing any real work, putting in the time, and are generally more interested in chasing “shiny objects” than picking a few people to get to know and actually learn from.) And from personal experience, the #1 factor in lead quality (and thus long-term growth)… Is how your people find you. The best is when they’re referred to you by someone they already know and trust. But in my experience, this isn’t a super scalable strategy most of the time. The worst is paid traffic. (Although if you found me via paid ads and are reading this email, don’t be offended. We added close to 100,000 leads via paid traffic in the earlier years of the LZ biz. So just because of pure volume, there were bound to be some exceptions—you being one of them! ❤️) And the best strategy that’s also the most scalable? When someone is searching for the thing you can help them for - indicating already a willingness to learn more. AND their first impression of you is a high-value piece of content that demonstrates your credibility, experience, and leadership. Bringing it back to the explanation I WOULD tell my mom and dad if we were still talking about this… The business continues to grow steadily (and frankly, surprisingly quickly) every year. Because I have great systems in place. Especially since a lot of those systems help really amazing people find me… People who are smart, willing to actually do the work, and interested in connecting with someone they can trust and respect - and learning from them for the long-haul. Which means, they buy when they’re ready. Which means all YOU have to focus on is executing your growth systems, and being there when your customers are ready to buy (by having consistent marketing and sales systems in place). Which creates a compounding effect…. Of continued growth as your audience grows, and as more of your existing audience feels “ready” to take that next step with you. Which naturally grows your business, steadily and consistently, year after year. As always, I’m here to share everything I figure out. If you want to learn the top system that is the cornerstone of LZ.com’s audience growth… You can learn the strategy right here: [Watch a free masterclass explaining the strategy]( . Or if you already know you want to add this to your business: [Enroll in Clients Come to Me]( to get the full system with step-by-steps, templates, guides, and Q&A support. Or if you want us to do it FOR you: [Hire my team]( to do it all for you so you can focus on doing what you love. (Your business does need to be at 6-figures or more in annual revenue for this option to be a good fit.) Luisa Zhou If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click here to [unsubscribe]( Zhou Ventures, Inc. 54 State Street, Ste 804 #5511 Albany, NY 12207