LOCKSMITH SUPPORT
5 THINGS THAT STOP COMPANIES FROM
GROWING AND HOW TO TACKLE THEM
Having your own business by itself can be great. However, quite a lot
of installers not only want to be their own boss, they want to grow their
businesses. Benjamin Dyer of Powered Now looks at 5 key things that
can stop you growing, together with the antidote to the problem.
» OF THE NEARLY MILLION TRADE
businesses in the UK, only around 87%
are sole traders. My guess is that the
proportion may be even higher among
installers. But leaving this aside there is
one important fact. That is that most trade
businesses don’t get past the sole trader
stage. In contrast, this article is for people
who want to see their businesses grow.
Make for happy customers
If your customers don’t end up happy,
your business will really struggle to grow.
When your customers are not happy,
you won’t be happy either. That’s because
chasing cash from disgruntled customers,
fixing faults, fending off threats of legal
action and disputing scathing online
reviews are all things that people generally
hate.
As you probably already know, over 70%
of domestic work comes from word-of-
mouth and previous good experiences.
This means that it’s almost impossible to
grow your business if you don’t do a great
job. It’s a reason why you should never cut
64
your prices to the bone. That’s because
you always need enough time to do the
job well and please your customers.
Happy customers are the first pre-
requisite for a business to grow profitably.
Be a sales sensation
Plenty of recommendations will help
your business to grow but neglecting
marketing and sales will mean that this
growth is very slow. So, getting your name
out and winning new business needs to be
a priority.
Marketing does not have to be
complicated or expensive. The minimum
that you need to do is to have your contact
details on the side of your van. Next up
is to leave a business card with every
customer. This is unbelievably cheap and
it’s amazing how quickly some people
can forget your name and contact details.
Then you need a company uniform. That’s
a smart tee shirt or sweat shirt that you
and any employees must wear on every
job. At a minimum this must display your
name and contact number.
If you want to be more adventurous, you
can explore membership of Checkatrade
and the Trusted Trader schemes and
maybe experiment with lead generators
like Rated People and My Builder. There
is, rightly, plenty of cynicism about
these services but the fact that they have
survived so long does say something.
I know of companies that have used
each of these successfully, to grow their
businesses.
Of course, the first thing to do is to
make the most of the opportunities that
you already have. In many cases, this
will involve responding to requests for
quotations. Here are some ideas for
making all quotes really count:
• Always ensure they are professional-
looking with a nice logo and well-
designed layout
• Produce your quotes fast. When my
company, Powered Now, did some
research with over 1,000 homeowners
we found them really frustrated
with trying to get quotes out of trade
companies. This means that if you are
quick to respond to quotes you will
find yourself ahead of the game – and
you will win more of those quotes
• Always ensure that risks are
under control. Gas engineer John
McLaughlan likes to add this to his
quotes: “Subject to no significant
discoveries that could not have
reasonably been anticipated“
Once a quote is out, you need to close
the business. You must always gently
follow up quotes a couple of days after
they were sent out. Sometimes you will
close the order right then.
Remember that every time that you
have any contact with the prospect you
are trying to build a relationship of trust.
To quote two real life examples, one trade
company lost any chance of ever getting
business by being too fresh with the lady
making the decision. Another lost the
JAN/FEB 2020
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