Godsend: (noun) An unexpected good fortune or benefit; a windfall.

If you were a godsend to your clients or customers, do you think you’d have any trouble thriving–even in a bad economy?

Yesterday in Don’t Just Save Your Business, But Make it THRIVE by Asking This Simple Question, I said that answering one simple question could make your business thrive. The question was this:

What is the painful and protracted problem you solve?

I hope you wrote down your answer to that question, because now we’re going to break it down and take a closer look at it.

Unless you’re solving a painful and protracted problem, it’s likely that you’re just “pushing product.” Unless you know exactly what you’re after, you may just be an opportunity chaser. Problem-solver is a much better occupation. By “problem-solver,” I don’t just mean a person who slaps a bandage on things temporarily.

Bring the Pain

When no matter what you seem to do, you just don’t get anywhere in a situation, you have a real problem. When circumstances are so stressful that you feel your very sanity being chewed away one snarling bite at a time, you have a real problem. You may be faced with the possibility of ending up broke or homeless, of losing everything. Big problem, that.

And when someone has the solution to your problem, you are willing do just about anything, pay any price. You need a godsend.

Now, let’s flip that around: are you the person that solves those problems? Are you a godsend to your customers? See, it’s not enough that you solve problems for people if you really want to thrive in a bad economy. You have to solve painful problems.

When people come to me for blog consulting, it’s often because they feel so overwhelmed they don’t even know where to start, or they know there’s something that they’re missing that will allow them to take their business to the next level. Especially now, when people are turning to the internet in droves to try and make some extra money.

Be The Drug

People are in pain out there, and you have to be the drug that makes them feel better, give them sweet relief. You have to know their symptoms. You have to know exactly where it hurts and what that pain feels like. Here’s an example from the sales page of WordPress SEO Secrets:

You’re not on the first page of search results. And, let’s be honest, you’re likely not on the second or third page, either. Or, worse yet, you’re lulled into a false sense of accomplishment because you’re number one… for keywords nobody’s really searching on.

Time to face the painful truth:

Your blog is nowhere to be found.

It may as well not even exist.

Ouch! Take two keywords and call me in the morning.

So the question is not just “What problem do you solve?” but “What painful and protracted problem do you solve?” Turn your products and services into the pain-relieving medicines your customers need.

How Long Has This Been Happening?

Okay, you get the pain thing, but why “protracted?” The longer a problem persists, the more painful it becomes, for one thing. For another, protracted problems are just not likely to be solved by the person who suffers from them. That’s why they’re still happening.

It happens to everybody: they just hit a wall. Also, people have blind spots, and it takes another person to help them see. This is why coaching and consulting are (still, even in this economy) such thriving endeavors. I hear phrases like this a lot from my clients: “I just don’t know what to do next.”

The Big Payoff

In yesterday’s post, I asked:

Are you experiencing any of these warning signs?

• You’re having trouble coming up with topics to write about on your business blog.
• Your fortunes fluctuate with the economy.
• Your posts are hit-or-miss with traffic and comments.
• You go through boom-and-bust cycles.
• Your subscriptions have plateaued.

Now, let’s readdress these in light of today’s post:

If you’re solving painful and protracted problems for people, you will never wonder what to write about on your blog. In fact, you couldn’t possibly write enough.

If you’re solving painful and protracted problems, your income will be steady or ever-increasing independantly of the economy. Now, I’m by no means rich, but there is no recession happening in my “personal economy.” And that’s directly attributable to turning my business into the answer to my clients’ problems.

When you’re in the pain-relief business, your posts will not want for traffic and comments. Your posts will get trackbacks, retweets, and comments by grateful readers whose day you just made with your advice.

Solving painful and protracted problems not only removes your business from the boom/bust cycle experienced by “opportunity chasers” or “product pushers,” it causes you to do better when more people have the problem you solve. I knew I could count on more and more people becoming bloggers and wanting to learn things like SEO or how to get customers with a blog. That’s the way the trend pointed, and it’s still growing strong. Can you say the same for your business?

If you have found a painful and protracted problem to solve, people will not want to miss what you have to say. Also, everybody wants to be seen as valuable by their friends, and so they are always looking for ways to prove their value. One way they do this nowadays is by sending helpful links by email or social media. If passing your stuff around helps other people look good to their friends, they’ll gladly do it. If your stuff would be painful to miss, you will get subscribers. And the more your blog spreads, the more customers or clients you’ll have.

If you think long and hard (and maybe think with another person, like me) about the answer to this one question, your business will achieve a laser-like focus. Everything else will “shake out” from it and align like a compass needle pointing to true North.