Finding Hidden Profits In Your Business - 7 Strategies To Use Today
If I walked into your business and spent an afternoon, I'm fairly confident I could find several little hidden profit centers, just waiting to be used. Let's talk about 7 strategies for finding hidden gold in your business. Strategy #1
Let someone else do the mopping and filing When you "save money" by doing $8/hour work rather than letting someone else do it, you don't save money, and in fact - it costs your business MORE. You're stealing from yourself. What should you be doing instead? Things like keeping your existing clients, finding new clients, working on your marketing, improving your products and services, creating new products and services, training your staff, business planning, and similar IMPORTANT work. Those are the things that your $8/hour teenager knows nothing about. Strategy #2
Get a LOT closer to your existing clients Don't believe me? How many businesses that you buy from have gone out of their way to see what else they can do to help your family or business life get even better after they sold you the first product or service. I'm guessing "Not many". I want to know as much as I can about their clients. Why? Because that info is the key to figuring out what else your business can provide to those clients. They already trust you, why wouldn't you offer additional products and services to help them? Every additional product and service they can depend on you for will strengthen your relationship with them. Strategy #3
SYSTEMATICALLY collecting and using testimonials When you see a sign or brochure that says "We're the best mortgage broker in town", do you believe that? Doesnt everyone say that, or something similar? How do you know who to talk to? Now consider this made-up testimonial: "Joe helped us figure out how to refinance the house even though my husband had been laid off. He helped us when everyone else told us it couldn't be done. Now my husband is working again and we're doing great. Joe believed in us like a friend when no one else would and I'll never forget that."- Mary Smith, Columbia Falls Montana. Everyone feels they are taking a chance on your business the first time they come in. A believable testimonial from existing clients, with their full name and the city where they live, is extremely powerful. A picture of the smiling client with you is even more powerful. Strategy #4
Measure, measure, measure. A friend of mine is CFO for global wholesaler of furniture and home goods. One of her favorite sayings is "That which is measured will be managed." Boy is that a mouthful. Do you know how much it costs your business to get a new client? Do you know how much it costs your business to get a sale? Can you tell me how many dollars you get back for each dollar you spend on each of your marketing campaigns, ads, etc? If you can't answer these questions, how do you know which ads are helping you? How do you know which clients are profitable and which ones are sucking you dry? Strategy #5
Industry norms are for people who like normal results This is what everyone else does, so you should do it too, right? Most likely...WRONG. Industry norms are often artificial barriers, rules or benchmarks that were placed there by those at the top of the food chain in that industry. It's not your job to adhere to industry norms, it's your job to make your business the best that it can be. Look at Domino's Pizza. 25 years ago, NO ONE delivered pizza to your house. I mean, who would possibly pay for THAT, right? Certainly, no one guaranteed they'd deliver hot pizza in 30 minutes or it was free. Take out and eat in pizza was the "industry norm". Domino's Tom Monaghan didn't pay attention to industry norms back then and neither should you today. Strategy #6
Stop trying to beat Walmart at THEIR game Everyone knows who has have the lowest prices in town, everyday, right? Walmart. Let's pretend for a moment that you sell lawn mowers. Even worse, you sell the same brand that Walmart sells, but you might sell different models. Or maybe not. Do you really think you are EVER going to be able to compete ON PRICE with a company that buys shiploads of mowers while you are buying them by the pallet? PLEASE. If you really want to make money by competing with Walmart ON THEIR TERMS, go buy some KMart stock. Yeah, I thought so. Ok, Ive got that out of my system:) You more than likely can't beat Walmart, at least not on price. You CAN co-exist and make a LOT of money doing so. In fact, you might considering putting your store next door to them in order to take advantage of the traffic. Strategy #7
What we have here is a failure to communicate The famous line from the movie "Cool Hand Luke", right? Well, your business most likely experiences this same failure: Not communicating often enough with your clients. Yeah, I know. You think this is common sense, but it'll never work for you cuz your business is different. I'll tell you what. Let me start the same business as yours right down the street. You keep on doing what you're doing now. Meanwhile, I'll start sending your clients a monthly newsletter, weekly emails, birthday cards, anniversary cards, reminders about their frequent purchase benefits, recorded voice calls on special occasions, brief personal notes to them that include recent newspaper articles mentioning them or their kids (etc), and so on. A year from now, we'll see who they spend more $ with. If you're still around. Copyright 2006 - Mark Riffey. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit where credit is due and follow all of the EzineArticles terms of service for Publishers. Mark Riffey is the CEO of Rescue Marketing Inc ( http://www.rescuemarketing.com ), a Columbia Falls, Montana based firm that specializes in helping small business owners get the most out of their marketing and technology dollar and implementing techniques, strategies and solutions to put your business on autopilot. After purchasing several small, struggling companies and surviving their turnarounds, Mark now uses the experience and lessons learned during those times when helping a business owner "makeover" a struggling business. He is Montana's only Dan Kennedy-certified Independent Business Advisor. The father of 2 teenage boys, Mark is heavily involved in Scouting, having run summer camps, and served as VP of Marketing for Montana Boy Scouting. He is currently the Scoutmaster of a northwest Montana troop, and in his spare time, helps the high school jazz band raise funds for its activities, and serves on the local Rotary chapter's board of directors. |
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