As an Entrepreneur who has grown an SME to be worth £1M in just two years and also achieving £1M worth of sales in one month for Disney, I know how difficult it can be to make a business a success.
I came across Joseph Walla who is the CEO of HelloSign and HelloFax when reading The Next Web. After going through his article “43 lessons growing from $0 to $1M+ in revenue, twice” I decided to take out a few key points that I found to be extremely important and write about them.
From someone like Joseph who is business proof of a million dollar business, I knew that all 43 of his lessons in his ‘The Next Web’ blog were from personal experience which he has shared with his following. Now I want to share with mine.
- Focus on Attracting Your Target Customer
As a business that wants to increase revenue, you need to understand that your target customer is what you need to focus on attracting. While 5% of your sales may come from outside of your target market, your social media following and 95% of your sales will come from those who need your product.
- Cheap and Cheerful Doesn’t Always Work
Whilst you need to keep your prices competitive, you will find that your customers may doubt your product/service if it is too cheap. Charging that little bit extra will help you invest more time and energy into perfecting your product/service. Joseph Walla said “be more expensive and better”. I don’t necessarily agree with this as I think it is important to find a middle ground in between cheap and expensive. How about affordable quality?
- Referral Systems
Dropbox has one of the most powerful referral systems in the history of technology. Being able to invite friends to join dropbox and your current folders in exchange for free storage is genius. If it works for Dropbox, why can’t it work for you?
- Marketing
One thing which I do like to say is social media will not fix a broken business and I stand by this. Incorporating social media and digital marketing into your marketing process will not just increase exposure, but also sales as long as it is done properly.
- Avoid Hard Selling
When was the last time someone turned up on your doorstep trying to sell their product/service? People buy from people and the hard sell does not work anymore. Your customer wants to know WHY your product is better than your competitors and statistics say they will have 8 touch points around your business, before even considering purchasing.
- Engagement = Revenue
Being able to measure your engagement online will be able to tell you whether you are connecting with your customers. If your engagement isn’t turning into revenue, you need to go back to the drawing board. This is not an overnight process, you need to have first build credibility and leadership within your industry before being able to measure engagement against revenue.
- Paid Advertisement: Does it Work?
Yes, if done correctly. Facebook and Twitter are just two social networks offering great advertising platforms so that you can reach your target market, paying between £0.10-£1.00 a click. Don’t forget about PPC advertising on Google – this can also work for a business but make sure you do your due diligence beforehand.
- Money Changes Behaviour
As a business, I’m sure you spend a lot of money on different types of software however when it comes to your personal life, you may find yourself downloading movies and music for free so that you can avoid paying the 89p a song on iTunes. You may find that your consumers behaviour will change based on how much you charge for your product or service. As I said earlier, find an affordable medium without losing the quality of the product.
Some lessons in business are painful to learn while others are easily achievable. You can read the full article from Joseph Walla here.
Are you ready to increase your revenue?