by constructaquote - 5 April 2017
In this video, Constructaquote Founder and serial entrepreneur , Lyndon Wood shares his advice on how to grow your business.
Scroll down for the video, or read on for the article version…
One of the most common questions I get asked is “how do I grow my business?”. The truth is, when you start in business you’re there to find the formula. Not many people know they are there to find the formula, but when you have it – you scale it.
So look, in term of how to grow your business, you have to widen your distribution channels. You have a product or service and you have to distribute it somewhere. So don’t be too linear in terms of where your product or service is going. Don’t pick one channel.
We’re in a world where you can sell globally and the internet has made it far easier than when I started in business when it was all about the yellow pages. These days you have things like social media, outbound and inbound calling, direct mail, traditional advertising (be careful with that one) and PR.
You also have to micro-segment your business. Most businesses segment their companies so they have, for instance, 5 products , and they look at what works and what doesn’t work and then cut it down. Micro-segmentation is a step further. For example, it’s like selling plates, saucers and cups. You might know you make money on the cups so decide to keep the cups and get rid of the saucers and the plates because they don’t make money. When actually, it’s the saucer that goes with the cup so it has an association. Then you look at the cups, what cups make the most money? It might be a particular style of cup. And that’s the one you need to focus on . It’s that cup and that saucer. All of your capital, all of your human resources goes into marketing and selling that one product.
So when you put it all together, you have products, micro-segmentation, widened distribution and you boost your profit – I’ve done it.
In terms of widening your distribution, partnerships is one of them. Partnerships can be small or big. I’ve wasted a lot of time and energy going for the large partnerships and countless people will tell you about the large partnerships they’re trying to get with multi-national-billion pound companies. You waste so much energy and time and it’s just for the ego trip. When it comes to partnerships, be careful with who you pick. Start with the smaller ones and work your way up. Get your systems, processes and formula right and then perhaps go for the big boys.
The biggest thing lacking with businesses which stops them growing is the fact they don’t measure anything and that gives them a good degree of uncertainty towards what they’re doing. So, if you’re doing some direct mail, and you’re not measuring it, how do you know if it’s working or not? How do you know whether or not to increase the mail-outs you’re doing, change your mailer or stop it completely? So you have to measure. There is a degree of test and measure on everything. If you can’t measure something – just don’t do it.
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