by Yoon Cannon | Dec 1, 2014 | Business Growth Tips Blog, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts, Success Mindset
As a business owner, one of the most important things that you always need to think about is making your business profitable. Of course, an exciting goal for any entrepreneur is to double your business. Here are four tips that I have used to help me double my own business 4 years in a row. These same tips have helped many of my clients like
Jack Wilson who doubled his business in just 6 months.
1. Refine your business model.
You need to have clear formula for how you will double your business. Be very clear what your business model is and exactly what numbers you need to achieve your goal. Sure, you can double your business if you simply double your fees or double the number of customers you have, but these are actually the two hardest ways to go about achieving that.
When I work with entrepreneurs on their business models, the answer typically lies in diversifying the revenue model. In essence, it’s about creating more ways at different price points for people to do business with you. Think of your business like a retail store. The more entry doors you have, the more people you can have flowing into your store.
2. Clarify what drives you
What is your single, motivating purpose behind why you do what you do? Articulate that purpose in a short, simple message you can use to remind yourself of your true calling. Every entrepreneur has the same basic needs of course, to pay the bills. But, money only fuels a short drive. If you want to double your business and create a company built to last for the long run, tap into what is the single purpose that’s driving your business. Motivation can move mountains.
3. Write down a plan
Let’s say you are an occasional runner and you decide your goal is to run in a marathon that’s coming up in 12 months. In order to transition from being hobby runner to becoming a marathon runner, most people would hire a trainer. Professional trainers would never leave your sessions without giving you a written plan for what exercises they want you to commit to doing in between sessions.
Doubling your business is no different. It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to double your business from trying flavor of the month approach when you feel like it. Be very specific and write down your plan in advance things like:
- Which marketing tactics will you implement?
- What will your freebie offers be?
- How often will you execute?
- How much will you budget?
- What will your call to actions be?
4. Find the best support
If have never climbed a mountain before and you trek out alone, you’re bound to learn a lot of things the hard way and suffer a ton of pain in the process. If you want to go slow; go it alone.
If you want to go far; get support.
Trying to double your business is no different. Finding a mentor gives you the guidance to be well prepared. Be sure to choose a mentor who has climbed that mountain before. The right mentor can help you avoid costly, painful mistakes and help you get to the top of your business much faster!
QUESTION: What is the biggest obstacle getting in the way of you doubling your business?
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | Nov 18, 2014 | Business Growth Tips Blog, Success Mindset
What I love about the life of an entrepreneur is it challenges my personal growth. But, developing that personal growth can sometimes hurt. In the gym, we often say, NO PAIN, NO GAIN. I find in business it’s not different.
No matter how many years you have been in business, it’s never just smooth sailing till the end. Setbacks are bound to happen. When they do here are 7 ways to help you turn your setbacks into success:
#1. Expect setbacks to happen.
There is a universal truth that a person’s reaction is based on their expectation.
If you expect that achieving business success is easy, when you experience a setback, it can immobilize you because you weren’t prepared to handle the setback.
Maybe you were blindsided by a key person on your staff who unexpectedly quit. Or, you may not have been prepared to lose your biggest client.
Whether the setbacks were out of your control or they occurred as a result of a poor decision you might ha’ve made, business ups and downs are a part of an entrepreneur’s life.
Part of expecting setbacks is preparing Plan B for how you will handle common setbacks that could happen to you in your business.
#2. Calm your emotions.
You have so much invested into your business that when a major setback happens, it’s only natural to react out of emotion.But be careful to not let emotions cloud your thinking.
Take time to quiet your mind and your emotions before you decide how to respond. I like to find a quiet place to pray and seek wisdom and guidance. Let me tell you about a time I did not do that, when I let my emotions put me in reactionary mode.
I hired a general manager years ago, who I thought was doing a great job. I was blindsided to receive a letter from her attorney accusing me of pregnancy discrimination. As a working mother myself, I was in complete shock that I could be dragged into such a ludicrous lawsuit.
I immediately called in the rest of my staff, where I led an emotionally charged, unproductive, mandatory meeting. While the lawsuit against me was eventually dropped, in retrospect, I was embarrassed how poorly I handled myself in that staff meeting. It has served as an important lesson to always stop and calm my emotions first.
#3. Focus on the learning.
Whatever setback is happening that’s affecting your business success, if you focus on the problem and the pain, you’re only going to get stuck in worry and anxiety.
Remember that character is revealed during times of adversity. When you’re going through a setback, make some key decisions.
> Will I choose to grow bitter or get better?
> Will I complain about the pain or learn from the pain?
> Will I dwell on the problem or decide to discover the lesson to learn?
#4. Retrain your brain.
When you’re dealing with a crisis, adversity, obstacles or challenges in your business, it’s critical that you develop success mindset muscles. One of my first mentors who impacted my thinking is Brian Tracy. I first purchased his personal development training 22 years ago when it was still on cassette tapes.
I would highly recommend his book titled, Change Your Thinking; Change Your Life. You can order the book, the MP3 or both. It’s only an hour to listen to on the go.
Retraining your brain is like developing any muscle. In the beginning, you may find it challenging to change from your old, negative way of thinking to a new, positive habit of thinking. I have found the easiest way to shut up all that negative inner dialogue is to blast positive messages from people like Brian Tracy.
#5. Get expert support and guidance.
Two heads are always better than one. Seek out experts in your network you can call on as a lifeline when you are going through a difficult setback. You can grow so accustomed to doing things the way you’ve always done them that thinking out of the box may not come naturally.
#6. Have a push week.
It’s hard for many businesses to find good people. When my office manager notified me she was moving to another state, it took me much longer than usual to find a replacement. In her absence, I was juggling both her job and mine.
After six weeks of frustration from this setback, I finally decided to push all my other priorities aside and for one week give 100 percent of my energy solely to finding and hiring a new office manager. By the end of the week I had my new hire. Having that push week got a job that previously set me back for six weeks done in five days.
#7. Keep your setbacks in perspective.
Whether in life or business, you can always find someone who has achieved greater success than you, as well as others who have suffered greater failures and adversity.
When we go through tough times we can become easily self-absorbed and overwhelmed by our own challenges. I find the best cure to get some perspective on our setbacks is to listen to someone else who is going through an even greater struggle.
I’m not just talking about listening as in a one-time five-minute exercise, but taking the time to fully process their story. Whenever I do this, my mind gets readjusted and I see that my problem is truly small stuff compared to theirs.
I leave with a renewed confidence that I can handle my setback because in comparison to the other person’s problems, mine is a cake walk. When you also choose to help that person or cause – through donating or volunteering on a regular monthly basis, it not only blesses them, but it reminds you how truly blessed you are.
QUESTION: What was the best lesson you learned from a setback in your business? Please share your comments and questions.
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | Oct 7, 2014 | Business Growth Tips Blog, Success Mindset
| Each year I co-chair the Philadelphia 100 Awards where we recognize the area’s 100 fastest growing companies. Our big gala is coming up in just 9 days Meet my friend Bryn Davis. His success story shows the power of keeping things simple while thinking big. Read my interview with Bryn and ask yourself: “What should I stop doing that’s making my business more complicated?” “What’s keeping me from thinking and playing bigger?” Then, I want you to tell me where are you stuck in accelerating your own business growth. |
How This Recent College Grad Bootstrapped His Way to 5 Million!
Landing a high paying position can difficult in today’s job market, especially when you’re a young college grad like Bryn Davis. Bryn chose instead to pursue the life of an entrepreneur.
He started with a simple idea and a small amount of savings. Just six years after graduating Elizabethtown College as a business administration and marketing major, Bryn landed the distinguished Philadelphia 100® Award. This young entrepreneur is recognized as the area’s 100 fastest growing, privately held companies based on sales growth 3 years in a row.
I congratulated Bryn at a recent CEO breakfast pictured here. What I love about Bryn’s story is how much it illustrates the opportunities we all have that are right in our own back yard.
Whether you are a middle aged professional struggling with job loss or you’re a recent college grad struggling to just get your first job starting a successful business can happen even on a little bit of capital.
Here’s Bryn’s story on how he did it:
Yoon: What is the business you started? What is Bryn and Dane’s?
Bryn: We are in the restaurant industry and operate as what we call ‘Healthy Fast Food’. We adhere to our trademarked philosophy of ‘LOCAL. LO CAL.’ which completely describes how we approach all of our offerings.
Yoon: How did you get the idea to start a healthy fast food restaurant?
Bryn: I was never a chef or dreamed of becoming a restaurateur. I was just a guy looking for a healthier way to eat. So I started where all healthy food starts on a farm. It was my grandfather’s farm to be exact. That’s where I earned the start-up money for the first Bryn and Dane’s.
Yoon: It sounds like you had a problem yourself that you weren’t able to find a solution for, so you offered that solution to the market.
Bryn: Yes. I used to be 70lbs overweight. I found that eating healthy was very challenging, especially when you’re out. I didn’t really know what to eat, where to eat and how much. So, I learned how to make food that wasn’t just good for you, but also just plain good. I began to shed the weight and decided to share healthy fast food with the world. That’s how Bryn and Dane’s was born.
Yoon: Give us a snapshot of your business growth that landed you as a Philly 100 winner?
Bryn: We are the epitome of a ‘bootstrapping’, ‘start-up’ that had our beginnings fueled by a whole lot of passion and very little capital! I started B&D’s with $12,000 in cash, two credit cards, and a whole lot used equipment. On Day 1
we offered only B&D’s Smoothies and flavored Air-Popped Popcorn. It wasn’t a whole lot on the menu, but we hustled it!
Over time we saved up our money from cash flow, and reinvested by adding in kitchen equipment. After a little over a year, we were able to make wraps, salads, and other menu items that allowed us to put up a sign that said ‘Healthy Fast Food’… the concept we always wanted to be!
We went from doing a couple hundred dollars a day just a few years ago to next year being on pace to do over 5 million in revenue. It’s been an amazing journey and we are just getting started!
Yoon: What gave you the confidence to go after what many people may view as too risky or unstable?
Bryn: This is a hard one to answer- as I always felt that not following my dream was far more risky. Although financially it may have been a risk, the risk of regret of not pursuing my passion always felt far greater.
On the same token- the people who had said it was too risky were usually people who had lives that I wouldn’t personally want. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, but rather that their judgment and assessment of risk led them to a career that I personally do not want (although it makes them happy). I tended to find support from other entrepreneurs and risk takers, so I focused on that!
Yoon: What were the key factor(s) that attributed to your company’s fast growth?
Bryn: Our social media following is immense. Horsham, PA has a grand total of 14,000 residents. Our Facebook following alone for this region is at just under 30,000 fans! We are able to communicate messages to this base whenever we would like and the response is unreal.
We also treat B&D’s far more like a ‘tech start-up’ than we do as a conventional restaurant. Right now I am sitting in a circle with 5 of our corporate positions, in our commissary, working on things from graphics, to social media outlets, to our new menu launching in 12 days.
Our designer is on the road working on B&D’s Cube we are opening on October 11th. It’s a high pace atmosphere, and we have amazing people that work with us.
Yoon: What were the biggest challenges you faced along the way and how did you overcome them?
Bryn: Capital, capital, capital! Accessing capital isn’t the issue per se, but rather raising money without giving up equity in the B&D’s brand is a balancing act that takes a tremendous amount of attention.
Yoon: What is your advice to other entrepreneurs who want to accelerate fast business growth and win the Philadelphia 100® award next year?
Bryn: If they want to ‘win’- I suggest they drop what they are doing and join the B&D’s Team 🙂
Yoon: Ok, how about what are the core disciplines you spend your time doing that makes the greatest impact in running your company and driving your business growth?
Bryn: I spend the majority of my time on, I guess, what you would call brand development. We are fine-tuning our model now so that when we expand more aggressively we are who we want to be as a brand. Right now, that requires constantly bending and conforming to the needs of our market, all while adhering to our principles. So, that balancing act is what I spend most of my time addressing.
Yoon: Bryn, congratulations again on winning the Philly 100 Award. Thank you for sharing your success story with us.
What I love about the Philadelphia 100 Award® is it truly levels the playing field for all industries and companies of all sizes to compete and win. Established middle market companies and small business startups are equally applauded for their exceptional achievement for driving business growth.
Why not come and join us at the Philadelphia 100® Award Gala held on Wednesday, October 16th from 5:30pm-9pm at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia. It’s an excellent opportunity to meet and network with the CEO’s of the top 100, fastest growing companies in the area. Get your tickets at www.Philadelphia100.com
QUESTIONS:
- What should you stop doing that’s making your business more complicated?
- What’s keeping you from thinking and playing bigger?”
- Where are you stuck in accelerating your own business growth.
© Copyright 2016
Share your comments below.
by Yoon Cannon | Aug 5, 2014 | Business Growth Tips Blog, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts
I used to think gift registries were tacky for anything other than weddings. But, after listening to my 3 kids describe how much they struggled to figure out what to get me for my birthday I finally decided to create a list of ideas for them. (Plus, I was piling up a closet full of past gifts I didn’t really know what to do with). This photo was the first item I added to their “useful gift ideas for mom” list. Then I added other ideas I’d enjoy receiving like sunglasses, sunflowers, daisies, silver earrings, scented candles, etc. It turns out having this new list was a big hit with my kids.
It struck me how we struggle with the same thing in our businesses. We can guess what we think our prospects want and risk wasting time and money trying to give them things they didn’t really like. Or, we can simply ask them — “what do you want?”.
So, in this week’s newsletter that is what I’m asking you. I really want to know from YOU — what do you want to read about?
The tips I share in this weekly newsletter is my GIFT to YOU. I want to help you enjoy the business growth I know is possible for you. In order to help me serve you better, please take this quick 2 minute survey. Click the Survey Monkey link below.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MDB2BBG
When you do, I’ll send you an additional GIFT – a Strategic Plan Template for Creating a 6 & 7 Figure Business! Thanks in advance for doing that right now.
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | Jul 22, 2014 | Business Growth Tips Blog, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts
First, the benefits of creating irresistible offers:
As entrepreneurs and small business owners we all want to increase sales. But, getting the sale is not just getting one big YES. Rather, it’s about setting up a system that generates a series of yes-es.
It’s important that you are able to give your prospects an opportunity to say yes to one or several no risk offers as well as giving them some low risk offers. This way, it’s your prospects who put themselves in your pipeline.
Creating irresistible offers is what grows your list — your in-house email database of potential prospects. Different offers will appeal to different types of buyers, which makes it great for you to auto segment your multiple types of prospects.
Formats of creating irresistible offers:
Whether it’s free (no risk) or paid (low risk) offers they can be delivered in the form of:
- Assessments
- Checklists
- eBooks
- Free reports
- Free consultation
- Guides
- White papers
- Tele-Seminars
- Webinars
- Video training
Creating irresistible offers is a lot like cooking in the kitchen. If I want to get my three kids to come downstairs for dinner I know all I have to do is bake some chocolate chip cookies in the oven. They can smell that from anywhere in the house. My kids (and all their friends) suddenly drop whatever they’re doing and come flocking into the kitchen.
In any house, you can bet chocolate chip cookies are always a big hit with kids. But, when it comes to your business do you really know what makes a truly irresistible offer? What is the hot button that will have your ideal customers drop whatever they’re doing and come flocking to you?
There is a simple process for creating irresistible offers. If you’re going to spend the time to create, develop and deliver on your offers you want to make sure you’re not promoting the wrong offer. The biggest reason businesses suffer from wrong offers is because they missed a key step.
#1 missed step that causes small business owners to have the wrong offer is:
NOT doing something called market research. To many of us entrepreneurs the idea of doing market research can sound boring, unsexy or perhaps simply too time consuming. I find that the opposite is true. We waste more time just guessing what our offers should be rather than just asking our target market. The simple wisdom here is: “if you ask them what they want, they’ll tell you.”
Take action on creating truly irresistible offers.
- Send your customers and prospects a short survey. Try Survey Monkey. They’ve got great plans starting from free all the way to just $780 a year. They also integrate with a list of great 3rd party tools and software to offer you even more insights into your target market.
- Integrate survey questions in every prospecting and client conversation. You’re talking to your target market anyway. Why not spend 2 more minutes to ask them your survey questions while you have their attention, so you can discuss different irresistible offer ideas.
- If you prefer to outsource to the experts who do market research everyday, contact my friends at Focus Forward. They can manage both small market studies or larger focus group projects to reveal what truly motivates your target market.
Conducting a market research project is far less costly than blindly launching new products, new services or new offers.
I have a lot to say on this topic that is too big to cover in this blog post, so I put together a free 3-part video series on How to Acquire More Customers Without Being Salesy where I can go deeper into teaching you how you can incorporate irresistible offers in your business to unlock a flood of new leads and clients.
You can sign up for the free course here: https://www.highendclientfunnel.com/
QUESTION: Where are you stuck in creating truly irresistible offers for your business?
I invite you to share your comments in the comment box below.
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