If you could wave a magic wand and work with any client you wanted in 2012, who would they be and what would your business look like? It’s a fun exercise to think about right as we start a new year.
Let’s begin with your current client base. You may want to create a report of customers that you had in 2011 and list them by revenue collected. Who are your top revenue-producing clients? Are they easy to work with? Do you love the work you are doing with them? If so, you may want to find out a little bit about the type of client you enjoy working with so that you can find more of them in 2012.
Are they male or female? In a particular industry? Have a particular personality trait? Enjoy the same hobbies you do? Have kids? Are they from your alma mater? Do they live in a certain neighborhood that you enjoy?
Look to see if your top clients have characteristics in common. You are beginning to make a picture of who you best work with.
The questions are endless, and you may need to ask quite a few of them before you stumble on what your top clients might have in common. Perhaps they are all dog lovers, pilots, or football fans. Perhaps they have all been in business for less than five years. Perhaps they are all transplanted from the south. Once you see the connection, you will have some freedom and a clear direction to find more people just like them.
Also take a look at what services you like to deliver best. Once you’ve been in business for a while, you may have some work that’s not your favorite, but you keep doing it for one reason or another. In 2012, think about how you can proactively attract clients that need the type of work you love to do. Work that challenges you, is interesting, and is profitable will keep you from burning out. Plus, it will help your entire business and your other clients to seek clients that energize you because you will be happier.
Start by creating another report that shows you revenue by service or product line. What would the ideal 2012 mix be if you could wave your magic wand again?
The intersection of your ideal client and your ideal service/product revenue mix is the sweet spot you want to aim for in 2012.
It’s a simple exercise, yet a very powerful one. As the holidays wind to a close, take a deep breath, wave your magic wand, and think about what would really fulfill you as a business entrepreneur. Then take the first step to creating a business full of the ideal client and ideal work of your dreams.
A colleague of mine recently brought this to my attention. The early snowstorm in the Northeast a few weeks ago reminded her of the city of Yekaterinburg, a large city two hours east of Moscow by air that often sees snow in October all the way through May. The western border of Siberia is a few hundred miles to the east. In Yekaterinburg, there are many small businesses whose owners need to keep their accounting books just like you do. However there are a couple of twists as you might imagine.
If your accounts receivable balances are edging up and getting older and older each month, then it might be a good time to bring out the aging reports. But what if we looked earlier in the cycle to see what we could do to collect the sales even sooner? Let’s take a look at five potential changes you can consider making that will speed up your cash flow, reduce aging receivables, and possibly reduce lending costs in your business.
Do your prospects sometimes balk when you quote your prices? Do you feel you’re losing business because your fees are too high? The problem might not be your prices; it might be the way you’re presenting them to potential clients. Many business owners blame a lost sale on price, but only a small percentage of customers are truly price-sensitive and will make a decision based on price alone. That means the majority of the market buys on value, not price, and that’s what we need to move the focus to when we present prices.
You might have routines and systems to help a new employee settle in, such as payroll forms and training manuals. You might also have some procedures set up for when you start doing business with new vendors, such as asking them for their tax ID paperwork and having them submit invoices to your standards. But what about onboarding new clients? Most entrepreneurs don’t think about systematizing that process.
Is finding enough time to do everything you need to do one of your top five small business challenges? If so, you’re not alone; just about every entrepreneur lists “time” as a challenge they face today in running their businesses. It’s not uncommon to feel stressed and overwhelmed at everything you need to do.
Restaurants do it beautifully. “Did you leave any room for dessert or coffee?”
The fall months are a great time to rev up your business revenue. Many business owners are freshly back from retreat or vacation, and they’ve had time to refresh and rejuvenate themselves and their staff. Now it’s time to benefit from all that creativity that’s been unleashed and put those ideas to work.
Summer is a great time for new projects that revitalize our lives. If your spouse or family is creative, you may have a lot of those summer projects that require your time and attention at your home this season. But what about a summer project for your business? It could be just the thing to spice up your business and help you rejuvenate your staff and your energy at work.
You’ve probably heard advice about how it helps to carve out a niche for your business. But did you know it will also save you a tremendous amount of time? Here’s why.
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