Stand back and have a look at your business, you should have lots of baskets (metaphorically, unless baskets are your business then …ermm… imagine metaphorical baskets). If you can only see one basket then you have a problem.
There’s a reason chairs and tables and cars and bicycles have more than one wheel; there’s a reason your gran has more than one basket. If you are reliant on one element for any aspect of your business you’re in serious doo-doo if something happens.
One Big Customer
Have a look at your customer base, could you afford to lose any one of them? Do you rely on one customer to make up the chunk of your income? I don’t need to tell you this is a bad thing, a very bad thing.
At the moment you love your customer and they love you and nothing will ever change. But things do change, they could go out of business or someone could die, or they could meet someone else who does what you do and fall in love with them. And then what happens? What’s your plan? Do you have a system in place to find more Big Customers?
On the flip side, you have one big customer – what happens if you got another? And another and before you know if you have 5 Big Customers or, heaven forbid, 50? Are you able to scale your business to cope with the extra demand? Where would you get help from?
One Funnel
My dad used to tell me “The Amazon is made up of thousands of tiny, tiny tributaries” and this wasn’t just because he loved being in the jungle (which he did) – it was because he wanted to impress on me that large things are made from lots of smaller things that all come together. Imagine your lead generation strategy – is it like the Amazon? Do your customers flow in from various different channels?
If you answered “No, I’m not like the Amazon, I only have one tributary” then guess what? That’s not good. You can’t rely on a single channel because the world is constantly changing around you and what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow! Google algorithms change and suddenly your SEO dies and then what? Your local newspaper goes out of circulation – then who will read your adverts? You get loads of recommendations from mums at school – how do you cope over the holidays?
You need to be like the Amazon, start to cultivate different channels to bring people to your business so that you aren’t reliant on just one tributary. Look at what you currently use and see where else you could be?
One Offering
Getting people to buy from you is hard work – You have to find them, convince them your product is right for them and then if you have the right person for your product – they will buy from you. And if you got your numbers right in your business plan then the cost of your item covers this – all the time that you put in finding the person and convincing them. Then if you are good, they will buy from you again and maybe again.
You start to really make some money after the 3rd sale because by now your customer is already convinced this is the right product for them, they know you and you know them. So what if you had another product to sell them, or a whole range of products? You know their business and they trust you to help them with the right product. This is a much better way of selling as you don’t have to keep going out and finding new customers.
I spent a very entertaining evening with Jordan Belfort when he came to Melbourne and he discussed this in his Straight Line Sales ideology . Which is essentially addressing the fantastic opportunity of : you have assembled a loyal and passionate customer base now what else could you provide them that would solve their problems?
One Partner
As a business superhero you are used to being on your own and saving the world, but even Batman had Robin. Having a spare pair of hands or an extra brain can really come in useful – and it does make it more enjoyable.
Finding fellow entrepreneurs that you can collaborate with opens up a whole wealth of opportunities, not just for business but for personal growth. You are not the only superhero out there – imagine what they could help you and your business achieve and how great would that be for your customers?
Do you find yourself with just one of something?