HOW TO ENGINEER

GROWTH IN YOUR BUSINESS

Do you want your business to be a GrowthStar? It’s like being Jeff Goldblum stuck to a giant piece of fly paper – your wings are buzzing fit to tear them off but the rest of you is stuck fast! Welcome to

the life of the Small Business Owner. Living the dream, right? Doesn’t matter how fast you get those wings flapping there is always something sticking you down, stopping you from gaining any real altitude.

amanda@localadvertisingthatworks.com020 7633 2859

Amanda HughesMarketing Managerat LocalAdvertisingThatWorks.com

WHAT YOU’LL GET FROM THIS PIECE:

1.Setting a growth revenue target

2.How to reverse engineer the marketing activity

3.Feeding your GrowthStar business with leads

So first things first – what do the heavens look like? What do you want your business to be doing that it isn’t right now? What does top of the world look like? Let’s think in terms of revenue. That’s the starting place for most Small Business Owners. Sales, right? Do me a favour, stop looking at the end of your nose for a minute and project it forward a little. Push it out to three years’ time for me. What does it look like? What do you want your sales turnover to be in 36 months’ time?

You might have a strong fix on this one, or you might be questioning the physical dimensions of some twine, but ultimately you’ve got to decide on what the heavens realistically look like for your business. Let’s say you identify double and double again as your aim point. If you turnover £100k today, you want £800k in three years’ time!

RUNNINGYOUR OWN BUSINESS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!

1. What the “heavens” look like and

2. How you’ll fling it up there

So when it comes to getting the whole business on top of the world, everything flying high, it often seems like a bridge too far. Too busy doing too much to focus on finding some solvent for that oh-so-sticky flypaper. The answer though is a lot easier to fathom than you’d think. All you really need to know is that there is an answer! Running your own business isn’t a prison sentence; it’s supposed to be fun! You are required by law to enjoy yourself building something new. Like the proud parent watching their offspring toddle for the first time you can say – I did that! That’s mine that is!Truth is, your business (unless it’s an instant overnight runaway success – happy days) isn’t going to fling itself meteorically toward the heavens unless you know:

REVERSE ENGINEERING HELPS YOU PLOT THE GROWTH OF YOUR BUSINESS

Now we’ve got the how much let’s do the how. This is the interesting bit because this involves a marvellous tool, the envy of all things analytical. It’s called reverse engineering. The principle is simple enough: last year you turned over £100k in revenue. You sell driveway and patio block paving installations. You did 20 jobs in the 12 months so the average selling price per job was £5k. Applying the same heaven formula above, you want your business to grow to £800k in three years’ time. The stairway to heaven is not 20 jobs but 160! Year one: 40. Year two 80. Year three: 160. Nice and straightforward.

NOW£100k

Year 1£200k

Year 2£400k

Year 2£800k(Whoopee!)

YOUR GROW

TH PLAN

Is your business a GrowthStar?

This piece isn’t about the domino effect that you will need to consider: working longer hours yourself Vs hooking up with or hiring others to do the installations, negotiating better buying rates on the increasing amount of materials that you’ll use, getting a bigger van and all that crazy stuff. Let’s start at the beginning, without which all other considerations are irrelevant:

3. How will you position yourself as the only firm that they want to buy from?

4. How will you cause them to get in touch, creating what those clever boys and girls in the customer attraction biz call ‘a sales enquiry’?

FROM £100k TODAY TO £800k IN THREE YEARS’ TIME!

1. How are you going to find the people that want to buy from you?

2. 2. How are you going to register on their radar?

Finding the prospects is important: who do you want to reach? As a block paver, you’re interested predominantly in home owners who can afford what you sell and fi nding enough of them to start playing your conversion ratios.

That’s right – last year you received 100 enquiries and booked 20 jobs so your enquiry conversion ratio is 1 in 5. It pays to track the numbers, right? Whatever you did to get your name out there and attract sales enquiries produced your £100k. Rudimentary thinking might suggest that to hit the year 1 target you need to do twice as much. The interesting bit here is changing your conversion ratios. Let’s say that you want 1 in 3 for example - which I believe is a highly achievable ratio. This means that you need to reach a better quality of prospect, with a more persuasive message, in better numbers, at the right time, in a more effective way. Start looking for ways of doing that, and along the way recognise that you will ultimately end up doing less work and spend less money to get a better result!

Getting on their radar is all about the method that you use to reach them. Research what’s available to you locally to reach out and touch prospects. What are the best advertising methods? If you want growth you will have to spend money, but shop around and try different methods to fi nd what will produce your growth sales. Track whatever you’re doing so that you can stay on top of what works.

Being the local supplier of choice is all about defi ning what

people really want from you, what they don’t get from others, what you

can do that’s different but valuable and what your customers say about you to their

friends and in your marketing. It’s not about being the cheapest remember, it’s about delivering the best tangible value. You work out what that is by slipping into your customers’ moccasins every chance you get (mentally that is) and working out what they need. Plus you could ask them!

Causing them to get in touch is a combination of all of the above, but then most importantly is about maintaining a presence in your local market that none of your competitors can match. The tempo with which you go looking for new customers will have a direct impact on their response. Do you want your name, brand or message to be the one they think of above all others? Keep changing your message with frequency so that when they decide to go looking for a supplier they are already thinking of you. Then all you’ve got to do is focus on winning them which, if you’ve got the message right and can pave their drive as advertised and in a seamless way it will drive those conversion ratios, sales and that all important growth!

This time next year Rodney we’ll be millionaires :0)

DON’T FORGET!1.Running your own business is supposed to be fun

4.Reverse engineer it to promopt the right marketing activity

8.Drown out the competition

10.Grow baby, grow!

9.Then do the analysis on what the resource plan needs to look like

5.Advertise actively and effectively

6.Track and measure the results

7.Become the stand-out voice in your area

2.Don’t get glued down doing the same stuff

3.Identify what your turnover should be in 1 -2 -3 years’ time

To find out more go towww.localadvertisingthatworks.com

amanda@localadvertisingthatworks.com020 7633 2859