There are so many books and online sites promoting different ways and I thought I would google it to see what shows up.
- 10 ways to….
- 17 ideas you can…..
- 5 ways to grow…..
- 10 ways to…..
- 7 secrets for……
- 15 ways to…..
all on the first google page. Alot are simply extended versions of what I am about to mention.
There are 3 ways and 3 ways only to grow any business, we tend to overthink it and it doesnt need to be so complex. This holds true for startups as well as those who have plateaued and just need to go back to basic fundamentals.
- Advertising. The most common way people will grow their business but also the most expensive. In the form of White/Yellow pages, Letterbox drop, Local community News, Radio.
- Add on Services. Adding on to the standard purchase rate a customer would spend eg. As groomers we can offer teeth cleaning, deshedding, retail products, coloring etc (get creative and be sure to listen to the needs of your customers for more add-ons)
- Recurring appointments. For a lot of our customers their idea of frequency of their appointments is not the same as ours. If you considered changing your 10 week customer to 8 weeks or your 8 week customer to 6 weeks thats an extra 1-2 appointments each year per customer, if you had 100 customers that can be up to 200 extra appointments per year. Work out the extra annual income generated based on your average groom charge. For example based on your minimum charge lets say $65 for a small breed if that client came every 8 weeks (6 times per year) that would be $390 per year minimum, with no add-ons. Increase that to 6 weekly (8 times per year) that would be a minimum $520, with no add-ons. An increase of about 33.5% just for one customer.
#2 & #3 build a loyal relationship with your customers as they feel you are offering value for your service.These customers will become your biggest fans and will do your advertising for you, and eventually you’ll be able to eliminate #1 and save you $$$
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