There are only four ways to grow a business:
- Increase the number of customers
- Get them coming back more often
- Increase the average spend
- Improve the effectiveness of every business process
A local art gallery worked with their accountant to improve profitability significantly by running a series of quarterly themes through the year. Before each quarter, they gathered their small team together and the accountant facilitated a brainstorming session – what could they do to improve the key focus of the quarter? They set a clear goal and prioritised the top three actions to be implemented in the next 90 days.
Examples of the projects implemented included:
Increase number of customers
- Identify WHO customers are and nurture them
- Referral campaign
- Introduce an online store
Get them coming back
- Birthday emails and texts
- Record customer preferences and personalized emails when new pieces became available
Increase average spend
- Test price increases
- Reduce discounts (offered to customers who didn’t ask for them)
There are hundreds of ideas out there, but if you try to implement a hundred things, you’ll likely do nothing. Plan, prioritize, and implement a small number of things.
And if you need an unreasonable friend to hold you accountable, just get in touch!