Businesses across the country have been shutting down due to COVID-19 restrictions, but what about the businesses that aren’t shutting down? Is it possible that some small businesses have actually experienced exponential growth during 2020?
Yes! There are businesses that experienced growth, and I know because Grow Disrupt is one of them and many in my network are experiencing the same!
This article is the start of a new series of interviews to go behind the scenes with the business owners behind these growing businesses. The goal? Tapping into their brains to discover what has helped them grow, so you can apply the same concepts to your business!
The Questions:
I’ve compiled a list of 3 questions to ask the business owners as we go, that should give us some great insight into their process for growth. Those questions are…
What do you do?
What contributed to your growth?
What are you doing to ensure you continue growing?
The First “Interview.”
To kick off this series, I’m going to give you some insight into what we’ve done over the past 6 years to set Grow Disrupt up to grow in a pandemic!
Question 1: What Do You Do?
Grow Disrupt empowers small business owners with the tools and training that they need to grow their businesses and take control of their lives.
This is accomplished through events and training where the right experts are brought to the business owners. Because we know that growing a business is hard enough without having to try and sort through all of the “amazing” online “gurus” who may or may not be giving you good information. Our goal is to make growing your business easier by providing trusted experts that are currently using the information they’re teaching you.
What Contributed To Your Growth?
Especially in a time where a lot of business owners struggle just to get by.
There are a number of things that contributed to our growth, but there are three really big activities we participated in that helped us grow.
- Careful Cashflow and Profit Management
As many of the people who follow me on social media know, I started getting into Mike Michalowicz’s books in the last few years.
Reading his books has made a huge difference in my life, and created an obsession with proper cashflow management. The result of that obsession was that we implemented Mike’s Profit First concept in the business, which has done a lot for our stability! Not only did we go from having a decent business that could pay me just “OK” to having a company that pays me really nicely, supports an entire team of people well, still has profit distributions, and has a strong vault of cash.
This concept has allowed us to take advantage of the opportunities that came our way in the pandemic. Because as other people are cutting spending, we are still spending money and becoming valued customers for other companies: we’re able to spend money on growth-oriented activities and get more bang for our buck. It’s not just a nice idea for making a better life and money, this concept has vastly improved the company as a whole!
(If you haven’t read Mike’s book, I highly recommend you check it out! I get nothing for referring you to buy a copy, other than knowing you will transform the finances of your business and be SO much happier!)
The Brand
We’ve spent the past six years establishing our brand in the marketplace as the place business owners turn when they don’t know what to do or who to call.
It wasn’t always easy, because we aren’t always the best option (some things are just outside our field of expertise) and had to say “No” to potential deals that weren’t a great fit - and that was tough some months when I was getting the business to be more stable financially. However, we’ve created a brand that is known for either giving you what you need directly or directing you to the best person to help you with that aspect of your business.
But the point is that we deliver a branding message that says “Even if we can’t take care of you, we will find the person who can.” And that spoke volumes to people, and helped them realize they could trust us with their money and investments.
Providing Something Unique
When you provide something unique in the marketplace, you become the only logical option for that sort of service. So we’ve designed a couple of products that are unique to our company.
Done-For-You Marketing Plans
This product is a one-of-a-kind offer, because it is what we specialize in and it is designed for each business owner that reaches out about it.
When a business owner reaches out, we design a complete marketing plan and strategy for them. Everything from target market research to auditing their current marketing material, to designing a marketing message for them, to a step-by-step action plan for implementing the marketing strategy we design for them: the Done-For-You Marketing Plans take one of the most complicated and frustrating parts of business and simplifies it for business owners by giving it to them “in a box” with a ribbon on top. And the thing that makes this unique is that no one else is doing this in the same way. Some people may be offering a target market research, or a marketing strategy that requires you to do the research. But no one else is offering a complete marketing bundle that takes you from having very little marketing information in place, to having a complete marketing strategy that works & is guaranteed.
And weird as it may sound, the marketing plans have sold really well this year because people realize that the way to survive the downturn in the market is to get your business out there smartly: without breaking the bank.
Events
I know, you’re thinking “Hold the boat, events aren’t unique!”
You’re right. Throwing an event isn’t super unique. But the way we’ve done them and timing we’ve done with our events is. Because at a time when everyone is canceling events, canceling speakers, and pulling that support system out from under their customers, we kept it going. Not only did we successfully host a live event where no one caught COVID-19 (And people were flying in for the event too), but we hosted our largest ever event (250 people) via zoom conference.
At a time when everyone was shutting down their events, we adapted and evolved to continue to bring safe spaces and incredibly valuable information to business owners with the events that they love.
And on top of that, we provide a unique space with our events because our events are screened and people who get into the room are the kind of people who uplift each other and push each other to grow.
But overall…
I have to say that cashflow and profit management is the most vital of the three things we’ve done. Because without a profitable business, you can’t fuel a good brand or unique product.
Question 3: What Are You Doing To Ensure You Continue Growing?
There are a few different approaches to continued growth that we’re taking right now.
1: Refining Marketing
We are constantly working to refine our marketing and are implementing new marketing strategies (particularly from speakers like Jeffrey Shaw who is coming to Grow2021) to reach new business owners who need the support we provide.
2: Meeting the Need
Industry needs change every year, so we are constantly funneling effort into discovering what new needs are arising in the event industry so that we can meet them; so we can make people feel seen and taken care of.
3: Reworking Branding
Our brand is continually growing and as we find different ways to meet different needs, we’re adjusting our branding to match the changes in our company. In other words, we are evolving our branding to the evolving marketplace.
4: PR
We’ve actually added a whole new division of the company that is dedicated to Public Relations this year, because we realized that we needed it. If we were going to continue reaching out toward all business owners and become a staple across a wider swath of businesses, we needed to be finding the places they’re frequenting and get our message out there in the most wide-spread manner across business owner channels. So this division is focused on making sure that we continue getting people’s attention at the local level.
I hope that this “interview” was helpful for you!
And if you know a business owner who you think would be a great candidate for this series, shoot me an email with their name and contact information.
Even in a downturning economy, you can create growth and we want to be there to help! Check in with us again next week for the upcoming interview with Ami Feller.