What’s your niche?

 I’m sure in the course of your entrepreneurial life someone has come up to you and asked what your niche was. And you probably looked at them a bit bewildered. 

     Niche? 

     What niche? 

     I thought that way too! 

     When I first started my cleaning business 16 years ago, I was after any customer that breathed. I just wanted someone to call me. I was gung-ho, ready and willing. 

     As the years progressed, I grew frustrated at certain segments of my customer base…I’ll call them the “no-money” group. 

     I would spend countless hours chasing after customers who I knew couldn’t afford me, yet I performed the service anyway and then complained when they didn’t pay up, pay on time, or even pay at all. 

     It was a vicious cycle.

      So after many losing battles, countless uncollectible invoices and vowing I would never do that crap again…I fired all the problem accounts. 

     Then I got serious! 

     I knew what I didn’t want in a customer. 

     I just wasn’t sure who my ideal customer was. 

     Like a ton of bricks, it hit me! 

     What type of customer would allow me to have evenings & weekends off? 

     What type of customer is worth “X” amount to me in a year? 

     How many of those customers do I need to make “X” in a year? 

     I had created this company to fund my personal life and have more freedoms, not be a slave to a job. 

     I knew what I wanted and what must be done. 

     But I also knew that I needed to “up the ante” on my fun days, holidays, time off with the kids and personal me days. 

     So I figured I only had about 185 productive work days a year. 

     Would $1000 a day in sales work? How about $2000 or $3000 a day? 

     How many niched clients would I need to make a Million in sales?   

     Well if I did $5500 in sales a day I could easily break the million mark. 

     Yeah, it’s a lofty goal! 

     You see, that’s the true power of focusing on a niche that I really never caught on to when I first started my service company. By focusing on a niche you can easily charge more, work less and focus on a select type of client. 

     A buddy of mine took over his dad’s furniture restoration business about the same time I was starting my cleaning biz…we struggled together.

     Then he did something that truly impressed me! 

      He went after just one type of client. Churches! 

      He figured that’s where the money was and where all his work could be. It turned out it was the biggest money bet of his life. Churches from far and wide called his company to restore their pews and chairs. He had more work than he could handle. 

      Learn to niche your product and service and watch your business grow and prosper.                               

  Until Next Time,                        

  “Live with Passion!” 

   Rob Anspach   

 

Rob Anspach is a “brilliantly savvy” entrepreneur who helps frustrated business owners regain the passion they once had by showing them how to be more effective in the marketplace, how to dramatically improve their business so they enjoy coming to work again and how to win over customers regardless of price. Discover how easy it is to make money in your online or offline marketing, to attract and retain clientele and profit from your passions… visit http://www.robanspach.com  today!

 

Is that really the angle you’re going with?

Maybe I told this story to you before, if I did, forgive me!  I believe it’s an important story that needs to be repeated as often as possible! Back in 1995, when I started my service business, my pricing was, well, very low! I figured I could win over mass amounts of accounts by being the “cheap” guy on the block. During my first year in business I must’ve gained 200 clients. I thought I was onto something. I ended up joining one of those local networking chapters and one of the members aked me about my business and how I was able to grow as fast as I was. I told him, it was my honest to goodness affordable pricing. So you’re using the cheap angle, huh? I being a bit cocky and a some what know-it-all, I shrugged my shoulders and said yep, that’s my angle. It wasn’t until I listened to an interview with Lawrence Steinmetz, Ph.D, did I realize I was all wrong. Everything Larry said, hit me like a ton of bricks. By being a “cheap” service I was actually putting my business in peril. Whenever the need arose to capture an account and I was up against a competitor my angle was the price card, which I pulled out frequently. Then they would counter attack with a lower price and a price war would ensue. I was being killed by my own ambitions of being cheap. Something had to give! And Larry’s words were the answers I needed. In his book, “How to sell at prices higher than your competitors”, Lawrence Steinmetz reveals why price is virtually never the primary reason someone buys something. “Price makes a statement; a credible statement. Just as people will believe you when you tell them you are cheaper (and they will believe that in every sense of the word — in your price, your quality and your value), they will also believe you when you say you are higher priced (again in every way — price, quality and value). Sales people who sell at high price know that you use a high price to make a credibility statement about your product being better – example, if it costs more, it probably is worth more. And they know that by acknowledging that your price is higher than your competitor’s prices, you trigger a “the hell you say” response in your customers which creates the most receptive, responsive atmosphere in which to sell your product.” That statement was my wake up call! The day I read that… I raised my prices 30%! Sure, I lost a few customers, but the one’s who stuck with me, valued my service, not my price. Was I upset that I lost a few customers? Well, to be honest, yes I was! But I soon realized those customers that didn’t stick with me, only accounted for about 20% of my revenue. And since I was raising my prices, it wasn’t going to negatively affect me. In fact, those that left were the biggest time wasting, cheapest of the cheap, pains in the butt, non-loyal customers ever. What happened next, astonished me! The higher I priced my services, the busier I got! People equated high prices to awesome work. And, I was the “go-to” guy! When my prices were low, all I attracted was low paying clients. But now that my prices were high, I was a magnet to a higher caliber clientele. I found my new angle and I was sticking with it! Until Next Time, “Live with Passion!” Rob Anspach P.S. If your business isn’t moving in the direction you would like it to be, let’s talk! Just send me an email and tell me a little bit about yourself and your company. Tell me why you think your sales aren’t where they should be, tell me what you’ve tried and why you think it didn’t work. The more I know about your situation, the better equipped I can be to help you improve and make money.

Contact Information  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Email: rob@robanspach.com Phone: (717)330-7947 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter! Rob Anspach is a “brilliantly savvy” entrepreneur who helps frustrated business owners regain the passion they once had by showing them how to be more effective in the marketplace, how to dramatically improve their business so they enjoy coming to work again and how to win over customers regardless of price. Discover how easy it is to make money in your online or offline marketing, to attract and retain clientele and profit from your passions… visit http://www.robanspach.com today! Rob is also the creator & dynamic force behind Success Secrets TV, the new online show dedicated to helping entrepreneurs stay successful… check it out by going to… http://www.SuccessSecrets.TV

Don’t Give Up!

You’re tired!

Maybe depressed!

Your business isn’t moving in the direction you had hoped!

The thought of giving up has crossed your mind many times!

The passion you once had is slowly being zapped from your being!

Everything you do seems to backfire! The phone isn’t ringing! Money is being spent faster than it’s earned.

You keep thinking one more, just one more great ad, just one more big sale, just one more press release and everything will be fine…then it happens…

…something goes wrong!

Now, you’re scrambling to fix it…with money you don’t have and patience that’s not there. You’re at your wit’s end.

Hey, I’ve been there! I know how it feels! Not knowing when the next sale will be and if it will be enough to pay the bills! It’s frustrating!

Don’t give up!

Back in 1998 after struggling for three years to figure out how to turn my business around, I finally asked for help. It was almost too late. I had maxed out my credit cards and my debt was huge. I honestly didn’t believe that anyone could help me. I was desperate and willing to do whatever it took to get my business in the black again.

Yes, I was reluctant and yes, I questioned everything. Some of the advice I was given went against everything my competitors were doing and seemed counterproductive to my own success.

Yet, it worked!

I would like to share with you three things you can do right now, to turbo boost your business, to help re-energize your passion and get the phones to ring.

First, and foremost… raise your prices! A low rate may be attractive to some people and you might gain some new clients, but higher rates bring in affluent clients that will help build your business and keep you profitable.

You see, in my service business when I advertised low rates, all I got were cheap clients. These cheap clients wasted my time, didn’t appreciate my work, took forever to pay me, told their friends how cheap I was then didn’t stay loyal. Yet, when I raised my prices and focused on higher end clientele, a funny thing happened…not only did I make more money, but the work actually seemed easier, these clients appreciated my service, praised my work, referred me to others just like them and stayed loyal to me.

Next, always, always ask for referrals! I can’t stress this enough! The single best way to build a profitable business is with a referral program. Truth be told, a referral will spend more money with you than a customer who came to you through an advertisement. Referrals have been told about your service by existing clientele and are already prepped into what to expect from you, making the sale easier and more rewarding.

Finally, offer an iron-clad guarantee of some sort! Show the customer that not only to you care about them, but you are willing to put your own butt on the line to protect them. This alone, can help convince a potential client to use you over your competitors. A guarantee is the single most powerful reason customers will use to decide to hire someone. So, make your guarantee a big part of your marketing. Show your customers that they have absolutely zero risk in using your service.

I was a bit skeptical on this one too! A guarantee! No way! People will rip me off! But, I did need a way to show people that I could do what they were hiring me for and why they were paying me a higher rate than my competitors. So, I established a 100% no-risk money back guarantee. And, to my surprise people weren’t trying to take advantage of me, in fact they hired me because they wanted the best service. They hired my service because they knew that if for any reason they weren’t happy I would refund their money, but they were confident enough to know I would try my best to make them happy.

So, if you’re tired of struggling, frustrated at not making enough money in your business and yearn to get that passion back, don’t give up, fight back, start by raising those prices, asking for referrals and guaranteeing your work.

Until Next Time,

“Live with Passion!”

Rob Anspach

P.S. If your business isn’t moving in the direction you would like it to be, let’s talk! I have room in my schedule for a few more clients. Just send me an email ( rob@robanspach.com ) and tell me a little bit about yourself and your company. Tell me why you think your sales aren’t where they should be, tell me what you’ve tried and why you think it didn’t work. The more I know about your situation, the better equiped I can be to help you improve and make money.

Define Your Market!

This economy is wreaking havoc on how intelligent entrepreneurs define not only themselves but the market they’re targeting.

They are throwing their hands up in dispair and waiving the white flag of defeat!

They’ve lost faith in their own abilities!

They’ve become victims…allowing others to define who they are.

Yes, it’s true! But, it doesn’t have to be this way!

In fact, there are some entrepreneurs who will never fall for the excuses, will never allow someone else to define them and will never waive that white flag in defeat.

To them, not running the show the way they want is complete madness!

Yet, there are those stuggling!

I was one of those, years ago!

Let’s take a trip back to 1998, I was three years into my cleaning business.

Sales were down, bills were piling up, and my spirit was slowly being broken!

I cut prices in hopes to make it up in volume. I started offering phone quotes because well it seemed easier. I performed service in places that nobody would dare send crews to…just for a few dollars. And, I was killing myself working long, grueling hours.

I was losing my identity and my business all at the same time.

Luckily, I saw the writing on the wall!

I redefined who my market was! I eliminated all low paying jobs right off the top. No more rentals, no more restuarants, no more hotels and no more undersirable locations where half my equipment goes missing 5 minutes after arrival.

I raised my prices and strictly marketed my services to the affluent neighborhoods! In six months my average sale went from $99 to $425. I was working less hours and making more money. Way more money.

My clients appreciated me! My competitors envied me!

Sadly, most entrepreneurs don’t get it! They believe you are defined by the market, by what your customers demand and how your competitors advertise…nothing could be further from the truth.

You define your own market!

You educate your clients so they hire you, regardless of price!

You lead the pack, not follow it.

Until Next Time,

“Live with Passion!”

Rob Anspach

P.S. If you’re ready to waive that white flag, if you’re tired of being pushed on by over demanding, under paying clients, if your competitors are forcing you to change…well, it’s time you defined who you are and what you expect from the market you’re serving. It’s time to get tough! It’s time to get out of the trenches and start winning the war. It’s your game, play to win to it!

Hint…it’s option #1!

On Wednesday I received an email (actually I received 52 unfiltered emails and 277 filtered ones, plus an unknown number of spammed ones I never see)!

Well in this email the sender went on to try to tell me why it’s important to service more customers. Having more customers is great, don’t get me wrong! More customers means more work not necessarily more dollars in your pocket.

In the email the sender shared 3 ways to increase your revenue…
1) Increase your prices
2) Offer more products and services
3) Service more customers

The email went on to explain all the various ways to service more customers and get more customers to buy from you… and blah, blah, blah, blah! Boring!

Sorry, now I’m going on a rant!

If you wish to work harder servicing more customers by all means have a blast!

Maybe, if you’re lucky those extra customers will reach deep down into their pockets and reward your hard work with a shiny nickel.

Or, you can work smarter!

Choose option #1… Increase prices!

Is it risky? Maybe!

Will you lose customers? Again maybe!

Will you make more money? Definitely!

Will you work harder? Doubtful!

“Money is the byproduct of value creation”

If you can build enough value in your product or service, it truly doesn’t matter what your price is, you will always have someone willing to buy from you.

Here’s an example…

Bob and Louise both sell widgets.

Bob sells on average three widgets a week making $500 commission on each widgets.

Louise sells on average three widgets a month. She pulls in $2500 commission on each widget.

Louise was like Bob once, she wanted to work hard and build up her customer base and please lots of people. The only part was she was burning herself out trying to be all things to all people. She also wanted to enjoy life and frankly she wasn’t. She loved selling widgets, but knew things had to change.

She repackaged her pricing, and focused on clients who valued high caliber service.

Here’s where I dazzle you with numbers…

Bob makes about $6000 per month working 40 hours a week versus Louise’s $7500 per month working about half that time.

Bob is only making $37.50 per hour for his hard work and effort trying to service more customers. For her efforts, which she works about 20 hours a week, Louise averages about $93.75 an hour. Poor Bob!

Work smarter, not harder!

Create value!

Raise your prices!

Until next time,

“Live with passion”

Rob Anspach

www.robanspach.com

P.S. A great book, that I highly recommend you read is called ” How to sell at prices higher than your competition”, by Lawrence Steinmetz Ph.D.

The 3P’s…revisited!

Awhile back, I wrote an article called the 3P’s…I want to share with you what happens when you violate them.

If you didn’t read the article… here’s a brief synopsis.

The 3P’s! Prequalify… Prequantify… and Preapprove!

Prequalify
Is the client a right fit for your services? Not all are, and frankly, if you’re not selective you could be putting undue pressure on your business. When you don’t prequalify, you are allowing anyone to use your services. You are not a “one size fits all.” Learn to say “no” or tell the client you don’t believe your service is the best fit for them and politely refer them to someone else. To “prequalify” is to accept only a set group of individuals that meet a certain criteria. A perfect example is only marketing your service to the affluent or a certain profession (or both).

Prequantify
Simply stated, is the job worth doing? Are all your costs factored into the quote? If you’re not making enough money to cover expenses then it’s not worth doing. There is no point being in business to lose money. Too many entrepreneurs have in their mind that a lower price attracts more business. What it does is put you out of business faster.

Preapprove
Does the client have the resources to pay you? You can prequalify and prequantify a client, but if they don’t have the ability to pay, that’s another story. Make sure you have a payment mechanism for the services you perform.

Now, on to what happens when you violate these proven, powerful principals!

John needed work desperately. The bills were mounting. He had been a self-employed contractor for 15 years.

The phone rang… and John acting like a Pavlov dog, was excited for anything that came his way. Like I said, he was desperate for work. In his haste, John forgot all about the importance of the 3P’s… and rushed to see the customer.

Now, John had figured that if he lowered his pricing he would most definately get the job. He really needed the money. So, being the nice guy he was and thinking that this course of action would get him work right away he didn’t charge a markup on the materials.

The customer appreciated the gesture and agreed to hire John. The customer gave John a deposit for half the material cost. The next day John delivered the materials, and started the work.

A week went by and John was almost finished.

He wasn’t prepared for what happened next!

The check the customer gave John bounced. They had no money in their bank account!

John started to panic! If the client’s check bounced, then the check he wrote for the materials would also bounce. He called the customer! No answer! He drove to the customer’s house! No one home!

John tried for 4 weeks to get a hold of the customers. No luck! Then one day he drove past the customers house just as the local sheriff was placing a foreclosure notice on the door. John decided to stop and talk to the sheriff. Turns out the customer who hired John was just a renter…and sadly he hadn’t paid his rent in 9 months which caused the homeowner to default on his mortgage.

John’s heart sank. Now he knew he was never going to get paid.

Regardless of how desperate you are for work… make sure you always follow the 3P’s.

Until next time,

Live with passion

Rob Anspach

www.robanspach.com
rob@robanspach.com

P.S. The moment you lift your guard and break the rule of the 3P’s is the moment you allow the customer to take advantage of you.

P.P.S. Can you remember a time when you let your guard down by not following the 3P’s and you got burned? Well I’d like to hear your story.

Profit Margins

Hope you’re sitting down for this!

You may end up falling down, for what I’m about to share with you!

So, before I go further, make sure you get comfortable and find a seat.

If you’ve been following my posts the last few days, you’ve discovered from me that selling your service on credit is a big No No! It’s also a big waste of your time, your valuable resources, your energy and possibly more money. I also shared with you that allowing the customer to dictate your terms and conditions is giving them free-range to rip you off.

Here’s what I want to share… and I hope that you have an open mind!

There’s no beating around the bush on this, and I think the sooner someone tells you the better, so here it is…the plain, awful truth.

You’re not charging enough!

There I said it.

Hate me later!

On the other hand, you might thank me, when you realize I’m right!

You see, 99% of most businesses, don’t know how to charge. They just don’t understand their true cost of doing business. They keep their profit margins low in order to attract customers (or so they believe).

I really want to kick some business owner’s right upside the… (fill in the blank),
for telling me, they just price their services cheaper than their competitors. Ugh! How stupid! What if your competitors don’t know how to price their services either? What if they too, were just trying to be cheaper than their competitors? Stop the madness!

Do you really know what your true cost of doing business is? Suppose you had a product that you bought for $100 and resold for $125…sounds like a nice 25% profit…right? Not necessarily! You see, we haven’t factored in the expenses…I mean all the expenses…some, I doubt you even considered.

After, running the numbers and deducting all the expenses, you’ll realize that 25% markup just isn’t cutting it. In fact, in order to make money selling that product, you would most likely need to sell it at $175.00, or maybe even $225.00, or possibly $400.00

Sadly, I know too many companies that try to get away with ten percent markup on margin hoping they can make it up in volume.

Yep, I heard it before…”I just can’t get those prices” or “my market won’t bare that” or “I’m scared I might upset my customers”….wah, wah, wah!

I said this before, and I’ll say it again.

You are in business to make money!

If you can’t get “those” prices…it’s mostly your thinking, not your customers.
In most cases, customers have no clue what your prices are, were, or are going to be. In addition, most entrepreneurs sabotage the sale, by not being passionate, or believing in the product (or service), they are delivering. And, how will you know what your market will bare…if you haven’t tested it.

Be confident in your ability, deliver a fine product (or service), raise your prices…and your profits…well, they’ll be so much greater.

Until next time,

Live with passion

Rob Anspach
www.robanspach.com
rob@robanspach.com

P.S. Sure, you might lose a few clients by raising your prices. In most cases, the ones you lose will be worth losing anyway. (You know the ones…the cheap, hard to work with, pain in the butt, waste your time, energy sucking, always complaining customer.)

P.P.S. If you’re struggling, if your proft margins just arn’t “cutting it”, if you’re afraid to raise prices, maybe it’s time you contacted me.

I couldn’t live like that!

My buddy called me the other day, and I knew by the tone in his voice, he wanted something!

He was desperate.

 

He wanted to borrow money. I asked why, and he said he incurred over $300 in overdraft bank fees for the month.

 

My first reaction was, “What?”

 

I asked him how he had gotten this way… and he slowly started telling me. The $300 bank fee wasn’t the first time. He had regularly overdrafted…infact, he was a serial overdrafter. To the tune of about $3000 per year.

 

Not only was the bank after him, but he was several months behind on his mortgage and I’m positive that was just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Nope, I couldn’t live like that!

 

For the last 2 years he’s been trying to get his own business off the ground… and it just dawned on him that maybe his prices were too low.

 

 MAYBE? Dang tootin, they were!

 

Just pricing your services cheaper doesn’t guarantee you work, nor does it pay the bills.

 

He had no idea what his true cost of doing business was, and had I had the opportunity to run the numbers I would bet that he would need to double his prices just to make ends meet. 

 

The problem for him was that his cheap prices were attracting cheap customers. Customers that his competitors rejected, he ended up getting. The more desperate for money, the cheaper he lowered his price to attract work.

 

And being that he was the cheapest guy, it  was killing him, financially.

 

Two things that he should have done… raised his prices and targeted a better type of clientele.

 

Wait, three things… he should have read the book… “How To Sell at Prices Higher than your Competition” by Lawrence Steinmetz (It’s a real eye-opener – I highly recommend it for every business- not just the struggling ones.)

 

The ironic thing about most customers, price is rarely the reason why they call you. So, if my struggling friend would have given a higher rate most likely he still would have gotten the job. But instead, he shorted himself and sabotaged his financial outlook.

 

Until next time…

 

“Live with Passion!”

 

Rob Anspach

www.robanspach.com

 

P.S. If you’re struggling and need help in your business (although I dont loan money) – I just might be able to steer you in the right direction to increase sales and get the bills paid.