Before you plan for 2016, ask your bookkeeper…What is our most profitable service? On the flip side, what service should we stop trying to deliver or improve? Should we sub it out? Should we sell against it? If you are really awesome at something and can charge $100/hour for it, why work for $10/hour doing something that you can’t do well? Pay somebody $10/hour to do it and then you do what you’re good at. You’ll be $90/hour ahead for every hour. Incidentally, this not only applies to billable services, but also non-billable tasks like office cleaning, marketing, HR, payroll, bookkeeping, and many others.
Who are our most profitable customers? What industry are they in? Are they professional service firms, manufacturing companies, retail, online? What size are they? Who do I deal with (owner/employee)? Does geography matter? Established or startup? Use your bookkeeper’s actual data, not your wish list and not what all your competitors are doing.
What prospecting process works best for our small business? Do we find our most profitable customers at trade shows or networking events? Do they read our blog? Are they referred by our happy clients or centers of influence? What is the ROI for each of these methodologies? How much time and resources are being put into each and how much revenue results?
It is 4Q15 and you’ve probably been thinking about 2016. It’s important to dream. It’s important to stretch. But it’s also important to know. I know that I’m really good at working with owners or individual producers who want to grow their personal top and bottom line. I know my numbers. Some of my associates prefer larger organizations—TOFU, MOFU, BOFU, Inbound, Outbound—so together we’re capable of Unbound Growth. Take what you know and build on it.
You need to know that about yourself.
So, two things in closing:
- If you want to check out Unbound Growth, click the link.
- If your bookkeeper doesn’t know the answers, ask SLC Bookkeeping.
