I talk to small business owners every single day and one of the most common business challenge I hear is that many small businesses want to grow, but they feel like they are growing too fast and can’t keep up with all of the leads that are calling them. In today’s video, I’m going to show you 3 things that you can do to grow at a healthy rate!
#1) Determine what jobs will make you most profitable.
The first step of starting to grow healthy is sitting down and crunching some numbers. Look at all of the jobs you have done in the past year and decide which of those jobs are the most profitable. You need to answer the following questions:
- Where are the most profitable jobs? Really hone in on your service area and find out what areas are the most profitable. If you have to drive 50 miles for a $5,000 job, chances are that that shouldn’t have been a job you took. On the other hand, you may have done a $20,000 job 10 miles away. This is a great job as it had low windshield time, but created a higher revenue.
- Who is your ideal customer? What is the primary demographic that gives you the best jobs? What is their age? What is their income? How many kids do they have? What hobbies do they have? If you can find out exactly who your ideal client is, you can do a better job of targeting your marketing and attracting more of the RIGHT customers.
- What jobs do you and your team enjoy doing? Chances are you and your team work harder and do a better job on projects you enjoy. So, sit down and ask your team what they like doing and if those jobs are profitable, take on more of those jobs.
#2) Learn how to say no.
Not every customer is a good fit for your business, so don’t say yes to projects you know are going to be a bad fit. If you know that a customer is going to be hard to work with or if you know that the job is going to be profitable, don’t take it! In busy times, and even in slower times, make sure you are only taking on projects that can make you money. In fact, a lot of the time when you tell someone no, it makes them want to work with you more and will create demand for what you do. I’ve actually had people thank me for telling them no.
#3) If you are going to say no, let the customer down easy.
If you turn down a customer, make sure you have a plan for turning them down. A simple script can help to let them down easily. You don’t want to upset someone just because they are bad fit for you. Give them a referral to someone who can help them and ask them if they know anyone that may need help from you. And don’t leave them hanging! Not responding to a bad fit customer is not the same as turning them down. If you don’t respond to a job request, you may upset a lead and you don’t need them leaving a bad review that could turn away good fit leads.
So, if you follow these 3 simple steps, you can help your business grow healthy as the busy season starts to rev up. And if you want to learn other ways to grow healthy and dominate your local service are, join us on April 4th at 1:00PM MT for our webinar “Get Found Online: How to Dominate Your Service Area with Digital Marketing. Click here to register now!