Business Growth On Steroids - How We Did (Do) It!

INTRODUCTION:

Business growth makes you agile and keeps you on your toes. When you decide to stop growing, I firmly believe you will flat line. How do we know this? Well from first hand experience.

Back in 1994 I had just moved back from Sydney to Dubbo and barely knowing a soul I started the accounting business from scratch. I grew up on a farm in Peak Hill but had moved to Sydney and got my start with Deloitte as a cadet straight out of school. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, I wanted a challenge and went back to my roots in the country. My first month we billed $800 and when the phone rang my wife asked if we had had any phone calls. "One" I said and excitedly she replied"Who?!?" ............."You!" was my response.

Of course we needed more clients and I had to think of ways to grow the business with virtually no start up capital. Blindly I believed that by opening the doors and through cricket and rugby contacts the fees would start rolling in. I made plenty of mistakes along the way but learnt some very good lessons. I even set up a table near the main doors in the shopping centre at tax time handing out checklists and picked up about 5 small tax returns. That was incredibly difficult and in some ways embarrassing. Funnily enough it got back to me in later years that some junior accountants from some other firms were saying "gee he must be struggling" and they were right. However, I had to do something to build the business and I am very proud that I went out there regardless of what others thought. It's one thing to turn up for work with business already there. Going out and actually winning it is much harder and teaches you many things along the way.

Gradually we built the business and when Phil Comerford joined me in 2000 we both decided that to get out into the marketplace and be aggressive would be the best way to get the business growth we were after. Having a fellow business partner who thinks innovatively and who is on the same page has made it an extremely successful partnership. Phil's contribution to our success has been absolutely enormous.

Slowly we tried things like TV advertising which had never been done before by an accounting firm at the time. We took out a full page ad in Yellow Pages (again a first for small business accountants in the area). We even developed award winning software via a national competition on Channel Nine's Small Business Show. To this day we are doing different things and even have our own App through the Apple Store and Google. We went on golf days to Sydney with clients and hosted picnic races. These were not cheap but paid massive dividends. We understood risk but were prepared to take it. Risk is the new safe I always say.

Today we have a multi-million dollar business with offices in Dubbo and Sydney with 15 full-time equivalents. We service clients all over the central west of NSW, Sydney, interstate and overseas in countries such as Ireland and the UK. It's still hard work and the job is only half done but with discipline the rewards are there. Of course we are very grateful and will never forget our very loyal team and our very loyal clients who have been crucial to our business achievements.

Over the next week or so I will go over the growth equation and the various parts of it that will fuel expansion of any business.

The first part is how to acquire new customers. So how do you do it? Well there are many ways but here are some tips that are pretty much a given in my opinion even with a limited budget. If they can work for a small business accountant then in my opinion they can work for any business.

Figure 1: Even doing little things like GIFs can make your blogs look different and set you apart.

1. Get A Database

Once you have identified what your ideal customer looks like, get a database so you can contact them. Be sure not to breach privacy laws but as long as these contacts are happy to hear from you, provide them with useful content which can do something useful for their business. Give and you shall receive.

2. Get Digital

Ignoring technology and the digital age is head in the sand stuff! Get a website and make sure you optimise it for search engines. A business that doesn't have a website astounds me. A business that hasn't updated its website for weeks (let alone months and years) also makes me wonder if that particular business is staying up to date and happening. Social media is big and don't think for a minute that it doesn't work. It's a cheap and a very effective way to get your business known.

3. Be An Expert In Your Field

If you enjoy what you do and have expert knowledge, get out there and let people know. I struggled with talking at events and in front of people because it made me feel very uncomfortable. I made myself do it as I realised that I would have to conquer my fears to win business and show business owners the skills we had and how we could apply those to their businesses.

4. Differentiate Yourself

If you do just what all your competitors do then you are going to end up competing on price in most cases. We decided 6 years ago to go hard at business advisory and even did business coaching as we thought it was the best way to provide value to our clients and not just tax. Now that cloud technology is here all these years later, we can see that many other firms are now trying to play catch up and are years behind where we were even back then. We are already working on some new services now which we will roll out later this year as we realise that we need to keep differentiating ourselves and understand that staying well ahead of the pack should always be at the forefront of our strategy.

Figure 2: David Bowie was a master at being different. Photo courtesy Helen Green

5. Know Where Your (New) Customers are

Probably before you get that database you need to know where your customers are (and what they look like) so that you can market to them efficiently and cheaply. Facebook is not silly with its advertising and is just one example. As a business we can run an ad where Facebook users who are our target market (age group, location, business type) will see what we offer at a fraction of the cost.

6. Solve A Problem

What problem does your product or service solve? Ours can include fixing a small business's cash flow and letting them understand that with proper planning they can create more financial wealth with less stress. Helping business owners understand what the numbers actually mean and what they need to do to make them better is a very rewarding process emotionally and financially.

Figure 3: Spend time with the Thinker like Balmain Baz to find ways of how you can get new customers!

7. Be Reliable

Getting customers is one thing but keeping them happy is another. People want certainty and they won't stay with you if you don't turn up or get back to them quickly. We were one of the first businesses in Dubbo to get Blackberrys at the time because we realised the power of mobile emails and the ability to get back to people when we were out of the office. To set it up then we had to invest nearly $5,000 which was a lot of money (& still is!) but we figured that the returns would be well worth it and so they were. Clients knew they could phone or email us and that they would get a response almost instantly.

Today we have an incredible team who are hell bent on servicing the client as that is a major focus of the firm and has been built into our overall culture. To not get back to people quickly is just not acceptable! Communication is a common theme to winning and maintaining business.

CONCLUSION:

There are many ways to attract new customers and these are crucial as part of the overall small business growth equation.

How many leads did your business get last year and how many of these did you convert?

Have a great long weekend with your family, friends and loved ones!