|
I'm starting something new this year. I want to periodically post successes and hurdles I experience with my GrowLoop endeavor. It's likely more cathartic for me, but many others in the GrowLoop community are entrepreneurs as well and have interest in reading about the peaks and valleys of others who have gone before or alongside them. So if you're curious or find benefit in the following information then you're welcome to it.
Wins: In this first week of the new year I'm grateful to have landed 2 new clients with a third soon on the way before the end of the month. In part this is due a referral from my good friend, Keith Hampton, who runs Standing Forward. I also got a raise! With 2012 being the first initial year GrowLoop was in business I learned a lot about the finer points of developing "right" pricing. By mid-2012 I discovered GrowLoop's services were priced too low -- I was actually losing money on some of the projects I took on. I spent much of the remainder of 2012 finishing projects at my lower prices while developing methodology to reach better pricing that is both fair to my clients and of a more reasonable monetary value for the solutions I'm providing. Thus, my prices have increased for new clients in 2013. Check out GrowLoop's Coaching and Marketing services pages on the website for more. Challenges: As I mentioned before pricing was a bit of a challenge in 2012, but it ended up becoming a Win now. Another challenge in the past year has been really dialing in who my best clients are. I found that they are primarily service-based business and professionals. Anyone who provides a service who depends on networking and referral marketing to build trusted relationships to win business, rather than more of a product-based business that may likely be more transactional in nature (not to say product-based businesses don't build trusted relationships). I think the challenge is dialing this in further. The other part of this challenge was dialing in service-based businesses who are receptive to the value of what I offer and have the ability and willingness to pay for it. Late in 2012, I had to turn away several potential clients who wanted a "better" price than what I provided, which at the time my pricing was already costing me money if I were to take on the work. That experience helped me understand that I was likely targeting or attracting the wrong potential clients, so I needed to fix my marketing messaging and better define for myself who makes up an ideal client for me. All in all, the challenges are mine. I have the ability to fix them by listening, learning and taking an iterative approach to progressing my business. Posted by Nick Venturella Comments are closed.
|
|
