Is being busy always productive?
“it’s easy to become a busy fool”.
More money earned == more time?
I felt the only way to make more money was to offer more lessons, which meant I’d spent seven days solid on the golf course.
Already expensed even before starting a lesson
I collected payments after lessons; this meant I was already down £25 before getting into work. The arrangement I had signed with the owner of the course meant that I had to pay a fixed fee for each lesson booked, regardless of whether the client turned up, so this was now costing me money.
Irregular income
“Money isn’t important to me although life is a bit of a struggle because my income isn’t guaranteed and regular. During the winter it drops dramatically. What gets to me is my clients not turning up.
An aimless life
Life without a clearly defined goal is nothing more than meaningless actions with no clear sense of direction. You have to choose a single goal to focus on and ensure that all activity is geared towards that one goal.”
When there is no steady cash flow
The added benefit is that it creates steady cash flow. While my client was busy chasing the bigger projects, they soon came to realise that this created boom and bust periods. Sometimes it would be months, even years between taking deposits for large development projects and collecting the final payment upon collection.
People are always incredibly busy, and finances are tight. Life is constantly in a state of stress. But, if you just carry on doing the same old thing, nothing is ever going to change.
3 pillars of business change
I coach people, using a toolkit which I have developed, primarily around product architecture, pricing and value propositions.
Build trust and charge more
“I help business owners build a suite of products which build trust with their clients. I teach my clients how to build more value into their products meaning they can charge more than their competitors.”
Know what you want
But, you’ve got to know what ‘more’ looks like to you, and have an unyielding desire to achieve it.”
What are your goals?
“The first exercise I want you to do for next Tuesday is to write up a list of your one, three, five and ten-year goals. No matter how big or small. But imagine where you want your life to be at each interval. Share your goals with your wife.
A guiding question
Every time you’re about to start an activity in your business ask yourself this question, “Will this activity take me closer to my goal?”
Decide fast, fail fast, fail often, move faster
as an entrepreneur, your gut instinct is pretty powerful, and 90% of the time you will be right. 10% of the time you will be wrong. The quickest way to fail is through procrastination. If you make the decision quickly and you get it wrong, you can pivot and pull yourself back on track.
Remember your WHY
All it takes is discipline and remembering your ‘why’. Once you have cut through the noise and you start to move closer to your goal, both you and your customers start to gain clarity around: a) what your goal is ;b) how achievable it is; and c) the activities required to achieve it, which now number just a few.
3 consitnuous steps
Firstly, you have to have a specific goal. Secondly, you have to have a strong desire to achieve that goal. Finally, you must take positive action to achieve that goal.
SMART goals
A goal must be explicit and measured over a given length of time.
From selling lessons to a product
You must remember that you are NOT selling golf lessons. You are selling a result – this is your product. You cannot sell one product either; you must offer an element of choice. To do this, and provide guaranteed results, you must niche your products and focus on one specific area of your client’s game.
Lead your customers
When it comes to your products and services, they have absolutely none. Which means that you must lead your clients, and NOT be led by them otherwise they will have a very unauthentic experience, which will fizzle out very quickly.
Products = features + results + period
Your product must have a set of features which provide a guaranteed result for your clients. It must be delivered over a set period of time. It must be recognisable – this is called packaging.
Turning a service into a product
“Yes, it is a service, but how you package your service and price it is what turns it into a product.
Questions -> Answers -> Products
“There you go, Russ, those are your five signature products. When a new prospect comes into your shop, ask them the right questions and offer them one of those five products. In fact, don’t offer it, advise them on which product they need.”
Find out the WHYs of your clients
you’ve got to find out two ‘whys’ 1) why do your clients want to improve their golf game? And 2) why they chose you?
Focus on business systems and processes
Creating better systems and processes for your business. You were too busy concentrating on too many little things, ‘fire-fighting’ one might say. And, I hope you don’t mind me saying, you were focussing too much on you and not on your clients. Now that you’re focussing more on what your clients want, your business is free to prosper.”
Mistakes on charging to avoid:
Pricing depends on…
You have to charge based on the value of the outcome you can deliver for your clients, and incrementally add more value to provide a better quality service and charge more.
Test the pricing
You can test the marketplace by putting a price out there to gauge whether there is resistance.
Sales funnel: Know Like Trust
You only have to remember three words in sales; know, like and trust. Prospects can get to know you through videos, your website, networking events and social media, but they can’t get to like you or trust you until you sit down with them on a one-to-one basis.
Feedback to improve the product
The first is delivering your product to the same standard you promised during your sales pitch and in your contract. Finally, once the product is delivered, you absolutely MUST have a follow-up process to ensure your client is happy for a period after you’ve delivered the product to them.
Product clarity
Product clarity makes my service tangible with a defined outcome. And subsequently, I can now charge more for it because it’s a ‘promise’ of an outcome that I am making to my clients instead of just golf lessons.
Mistake of only focussing on the sales - repeat customers + referral
Too many business owners nowadays, in my opinion, focus heavily on the initial sale and completely forget about creating loyalty with their customers. It’s the loyal customers, the raving fans, who are the ones who come back and do two things. Firstly, they buy from you time and time again. Secondly, they are your best form of marketing. They will refer you to their friends without even thinking about it, providing you deliver whatever you promise them.
Creating repeated income stream
Maybe, your clients pay £595 for the initial eight-week course; could you then sign your clients up to a £50-£100 per month membership? Through membership, your clients can access competitions, reduced green fees, discounts on equipment and merchandise, and discounts off further lessons. You could run regular question and answer webinars and deliver videos on the latest golf trends and tips.