Clearview National February 2020 - Issue 219 | Page 76

BUSINESSNEWS Taking your business to the next level Benjamin Dyer, CEO of Powered Now, looks at how to grow your business from a one-man band to having employees. Then to grow on further from a small to a larger company. » THERE’S A LOT TO BE SAID FOR A lifestyle business. You can deal with the same pleasant customers that you have always had. Your overheads and risks are low. You can make time to pick up the kids or grandkids if you want to. But lifestyle businesses aren’t for everyone. This article is written for people who don’t want to be sole traders or even run small installer businesses all of their lives. Instead they want to grow their companies and see themselves really prosper. The first thing to ask yourself is whether you will make it if you try to expand. In reality, it’s hard. Certain skills are pre-requisites. One of these is a skill at estimating and pricing. A critical capability is to be good at knowing how much effort jobs will take. Another is building rapport with customers. If you’re no good at either of these, it will be very hard to succeed. MARKETING It’s easy to think that the first priority when it comes to growing your business, assuming that your company does good quality work, is to find new customers. Recommendation is still the prime way that new business is 76 » F EB 2020 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M won, at least in the residential market. But 30% of business comes from other routes. It’s exploring these that will really make a difference. A lot of this 30% now comes from the internet, but it’s complicated. Some will arrive from having your own web site, although most likely not a huge amount. As you probably know, most people report Yellow Pages as a complete dud. Instead, Facebook, Google, Rated People, My Builder, Checkatrade and more are all trying to corner the market for people searching for installers and other trades. There is no magic wand for marketing and trying out some of these different channels to see what works for you may be your best approach. SALES Marketing is hard. However, when selling to the leads that have come your way there are a lot of obvious and easy things to do. These should be a higher priority than marketing as they generally cost little or nothing. So, converting a higher proportion of leads into orders will grow your business at a lower cost and risk. The first rule is to remember that people buy from people they trust. So, the first time you meet a new prospect, you should do everything possible to build up that trust. Here are some points to consider: • Be totally professional. • Offer to take off your shoes when you arrive at the house, it shows that you care. • Have a smart, clean van and make sure you look smart too. • Try to reference your experience, qualifications and so on when you are talking to the customer, but without being too pushy. • Try to establish in the customer’s mind the likely ballpark cost – people tend to react badly if your quote is in a different league to what they were expecting. • Make sure you produce your quote really quickly – either the same day or the next day. This alone will grow your business. • Always honour what you promised. Turn up when you said and produce the quote when you said you would. The effort you put into creating a good template for quotations will pay off handsomely over time. Once it’s set up, it’s