Is Your Business Still Heading Towards The Goals You Set At The Start?
Is Your Business Still Heading Towards The Goals You Set At The Start?
We had talked last year about some simple tactics she could use to grow her business but she had settled into a routine, living with her parents at home, and hadn’t really bothered. She had her list of regular clients which gave her enough cash for her needs and she was firmly in her comfort zone.
The conversation with the Bank though has really upset her and she is now seriously fired up to make some big changes. She is determined her income will make a difference to their mortgage plans.
It is a shame that it sometimes takes an outsider like the Bank to shake a business owner out of complacency. To re-inspire their plans for growth that had somehow slipped away in recent years. But it is good that she has finally realized that she has a choice. She can choose to grow her business and make a serious contribution to their future life together...or do nothing and just carry on drifting.
Advising her was easy. She has been here a few times to cut my son Chris’s hair when he has been home from University and she is the only mobile hairdresser I have come across that actually dresses the part. She always arrives exactly on time, wears a salon type uniform, arranges the workspace herself, clears up the rubbish and finally puts everything back so there was no evidence she had been.
Because of her attention to detail, she can only average 6 appointments a day, including travelling between appointments. She has tended to undersell herself because she feels that as she doesn’t have the overhead of a salon, she has to price herself way below a salon to get the work.
The thrust of our chat then was to focus her mind back onto the sort of service she dreams of offering. The main dreams behind why she set up on her own in the first place, but which had slipped unnoticed to the back of her mind in recent years. Then we talked about how she could market herself in these recessionary times. As I know her, the answers were simple. She just needs to get her message across about how people can enjoy the full salon experience in the comfort of their own home, but actually better. She couldn’t see initially how her service could be better than a salon so I explained. In a salon a customer often has to wait a while for the stylist to be ready. They are often running behind. Then the customer is taken by a trainee for a hair wash and general preparation for the stylist so they are ready for the cut, colouring etc.
In explaining this, the lights started to come on. So I went further. The client also has to travel to the salon. If they drive, they have to park which is generally either difficult, expensive or both. They have to battle the winds, rain, snow etc., both into the salon, and then afterwards trying to protect the new hairdo whilst getting home again.
What could she offer that was different?
I said she could try this explanation of her service...
She comes direct to your house, in all weathers, and prepares the work area to suit what is going to be done. She gives her full 100% attention to her client at all times. There is no passing off to a trainee at any point. She does everything the client needs in a completely professional manner. At the end, she clears away and the client is left with a new hairdo without any of the unpleasant travel, trainee disasters, delays, noise or embarrassment if they are sensitive about their hair due to cancer treatment, alopecia etc..
This is the focus she had when she first started but she wasn’t strong enough, experienced enough, confident enough to stick to it; to say no to the family and friends expecting constant freebies; to put her prices in line with salons, or even above; to achieve the sort of income she could easily get if she had stuck to her vision from the start.
This young lady is an award winning hairdresser and in the early days she had offers from most of the local salons that recognized her potential but then (no doubt) sat back relieved once they realized she wasn’t going to be a threat to them due to her sloppy, non-existent marketing and cut-price service.
That is about to change.
She, like so many business owners, needed someone to shake her up. To wake her up out of the slumber that had become her comfort zone. Sometimes it is the person themselves that has a "visionary" realization, sometimes it is people like me they come into contact with, sometimes it is their life partner, and sometimes, like this lady, it is a total outsider looking down their nose into her little business and ridiculing it saying it is not even worth putting on a mortgage application.
Every business owner needs to step back a little every so often and critically look at their business; the way it performs; the service it offers; the prices charged and ensure it is still running directly towards the ultimate goals that were in your head when you first set it up.
When did you last review your business?
~Ray Stewart
Is Your Business Still Heading Towards The Goals You Set At The Start - To learn more about this author, visit Ray Stewart's Website.
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I received a phone call yesterday from a young lady who has been working as a mobile hairdresser for the last 4 years. She had just come back from her Bank and been told that her business profits were too low to even be considered with her partner’s income for a mortgage application. The Bank told her she only paid an average of £200 per month into her business bank account and what she was doing couldn’t be recognized as a business.
We had talked last year about some simple tactics she could use to grow her business but she had settled into a routine, living with her parents at home, and hadn’t really bothered. She had her list of regular clients which gave her enough cash for her needs and she was firmly in her comfort zone.
The conversation with the Bank though has really upset her and she is now seriously fired up to make some big changes. She is determined her income will make a difference to their mortgage plans.
It is a shame that it sometimes takes an outsider like the Bank to shake a business owner out of complacency. To re-inspire their plans for growth that had somehow slipped away in recent years. But it is good that she has finally realized that she has a choice. She can choose to grow her business and make a serious contribution to their future life together...or do nothing and just carry on drifting.
Advising her was easy. She has been here a few times to cut my son Chris’s hair when he has been home from University and she is the only mobile hairdresser I have come across that actually dresses the part. She always arrives exactly on time, wears a salon type uniform, arranges the workspace herself, clears up the rubbish and finally puts everything back so there was no evidence she had been.
Because of her attention to detail, she can only average 6 appointments a day, including travelling between appointments. She has tended to undersell herself because she feels that as she doesn’t have the overhead of a salon, she has to price herself way below a salon to get the work.
The thrust of our chat then was to focus her mind back onto the sort of service she dreams of offering. The main dreams behind why she set up on her own in the first place, but which had slipped unnoticed to the back of her mind in recent years. Then we talked about how she could market herself in these recessionary times. As I know her, the answers were simple. She just needs to get her message across about how people can enjoy the full salon experience in the comfort of their own home, but actually better. She couldn’t see initially how her service could be better than a salon so I explained. In a salon a customer often has to wait a while for the stylist to be ready. They are often running behind. Then the customer is taken by a trainee for a hair wash and general preparation for the stylist so they are ready for the cut, colouring etc.
In explaining this, the lights started to come on. So I went further. The client also has to travel to the salon. If they drive, they have to park which is generally either difficult, expensive or both. They have to battle the winds, rain, snow etc., both into the salon, and then afterwards trying to protect the new hairdo whilst getting home again.
What could she offer that was different?
I said she could try this explanation of her service...
She comes direct to your house, in all weathers, and prepares the work area to suit what is going to be done. She gives her full 100% attention to her client at all times. There is no passing off to a trainee at any point. She does everything the client needs in a completely professional manner. At the end, she clears away and the client is left with a new hairdo without any of the unpleasant travel, trainee disasters, delays, noise or embarrassment if they are sensitive about their hair due to cancer treatment, alopecia etc..
This is the focus she had when she first started but she wasn’t strong enough, experienced enough, confident enough to stick to it; to say no to the family and friends expecting constant freebies; to put her prices in line with salons, or even above; to achieve the sort of income she could easily get if she had stuck to her vision from the start.
This young lady is an award winning hairdresser and in the early days she had offers from most of the local salons that recognized her potential but then (no doubt) sat back relieved once they realized she wasn’t going to be a threat to them due to her sloppy, non-existent marketing and cut-price service.
That is about to change.
She, like so many business owners, needed someone to shake her up. To wake her up out of the slumber that had become her comfort zone. Sometimes it is the person themselves that has a "visionary" realization, sometimes it is people like me they come into contact with, sometimes it is their life partner, and sometimes, like this lady, it is a total outsider looking down their nose into her little business and ridiculing it saying it is not even worth putting on a mortgage application.
Every business owner needs to step back a little every so often and critically look at their business; the way it performs; the service it offers; the prices charged and ensure it is still running directly towards the ultimate goals that were in your head when you first set it up.
When did you last review your business?
~Ray Stewart
Is Your Business Still Heading Towards The Goals You Set At The Start - To learn more about this author, visit Ray Stewart's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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