Jay Abraham has something he talks about, which is your three ways to grow a business. Now, this is something that I use in all of my businesses on a regular basis, but I especially use it for my strategic planning, and when I’m forming my 90-day goals.
So it’s very simple, and it’s going to require you to actually write some things down. So grab a blank piece of paper, and if you have your own business, you’re going to need to do some research with this, but first thing, that … What are the three ways? Well, the three ways are: To increase the number of customers. So, obviously, the number of customers or clients you have, increasing That base is one way. Number two is to increase the average transactional value. So, if somebody’s buying one widget, can you get them to buy another?
One way to think about this is when you’re going to a grocery store. How often are you waiting in that line to check out, and you grab a pack of gum, or a magazine, or something else that’s there, “Oh, yeah, that’s right, I do need batteries,” or whatever it may be, a drink, you’re grabbing it with that? Another way to think about it is, “Hey, would you like fries with that?” McDonald’s has done a great way, and so have the other fast food industries, as well as restaurants, in upgrading you. It’s an easy upgrade. Or, commonly, “Hey, would you like avocado?” “Well, of course, I want avocado.” “Well, that’s another $1.50.” Now, none of us know why it’s an extra $1.50, but either way, they’re increasing the transactional value of each customer or client.
So, that’s the second way. The third way is to increase the frequency of repurchasing, so increase the frequency that people are buying from you. Those are the three solid ways you can increase your business. So what do we do? Step one, write down in a box, so you’re going to have boxes across your paper; one box is, “How many customers do you have?” How many clients or customers do you have? Then the second box, what I want to know is, “What’s the average transactional value?” What’s the average amount the average customer spends at your establishment, your business? Whether it be through your website or your brick-and-mortar store, what’s the average sale? In the third box, what I want you to put in there is, “What is actually the number of repeat buys you get?”
Is it a subscription-based model, or do people … Maybe you’re selling mattresses and they only come in every couple years to buy something, I’m not sure. Whatever it is, how often do they actually buy something else? And then you’re going to have a total. So you’re going to have, you’ll take box one, multiply it by box two, then multiply it by box three, and that’s going to equal your total. That’s your total value, right? The value during the year. So then, what I want you to do is take box one. So remember, box one is the number of clients or customers you have. Multiply that by 10% and put that number under. Can you grow your business in a year by 10% in the number of people? Can you reach, if you have 100 clients, do you think you can get 10% more? I certainly hope so.
I mean, that’s really less than one extra client a month, that shouldn’t be too difficult for you. So write that number down. We’ll use 100 at the first example, your next box should be 110. Not tough. And now, we’re going to look at, again, what’s the average transactional value? Let’s go take that number and multiply that by 10%, right? So you’re going to multiply that by 10%. Now, again, maybe you sell mattresses, we’ll go back to that analogy, because I could see somebody saying, “Hey, Doug, I sell mattresses — people don’t come in, the transactional value’s a mattress.” BS. You can sell sheets, you could sell pillows, you could sell pillow cases, you can sell warranties … there are all kinds of things. Dentists …
My dentist sells upgrades all the time. “Hey, would you like a dental plan? Would you like a whitening program? Would you like to get on our program where we deliver toothpaste to your door every week?” There are all kinds of ways of increasing the transactional value of a client. If you can deliver value, you can increase that transactional value as well. Just come in with like-minded products. Something else you might want to think of is coming up with products and bundling. In other words, maybe you have a personal training studio, and you can go over to another … A chef. He does meal delivery, and you can work together and bundle that up. It’s not even your product, it’s the chef’s product, but you bundle it in, and you get a 20% discount from the chef, and you take that 20% to your clients.
Your clients get a great package, they get food delivered to their home, and you make a little bit of your effort. That increases the transactional value. The third way is the repeat of a buyer. How can you get them into a subscription model? How can you get them into something else? Maybe you’re that mattress guy and you’re like, “Okay, well people buy every two years.” Well, maybe you say, “Hey, look, if you come back and buy a new mattress in a year, I’m going to go ahead and give you X discount,” or whatever it may be. Or maybe you’re that dentist and you want people to come in more often. If there is a legitimate reason, now, there should be … Always go with integrity first. The legitimate reason you can increase that transactional efficiency, or the repeat buying, the better, right?
You want them to come back and buy from you more often. And maybe it’s by offering different services. So, again, personal trainer, you can offer massage, you can offer all kinds of different things. I know personal trainers that offer strictly stretching classes and recovery classes on the weekends. Their clients are coming in all week, and usually, they go, “Hey, the weekend’s here. No one wants to work out, I want them to rest,” so instead of them taking the weekend off, what they did is they developed programs for rest. I thought it was brilliant, it’s a genius program. They’re getting their clients, or delivering more value to their clients, their clients need to be resting, and they’re increasing the frequency as well as the transactional value.
So can you upgrade those all by 10%? So once you’ve taken those numbers and you’ve multiplied them together … So a 10% increase in customers or clients, 10% increase in transactional value, and a 10% increase in the repeat purchasing power, so the number of times they come back and buy from you … That is such a small percentage. If you can’t increase your business by 10% across those three areas, shut the doors. In all seriousness, it should be pretty easy to do, that should be a pretty easy growth strategy. Now, think about this: If you do increase all 10%, you’re really increasing your business by 33.1%. I’ll say that one more time, because it’s impressive: If you take your business and increase it 10% across those three areas, clients, transactional, average transactional value, and repeat purchases, you then, by the end of the year, you’ve [increased 00:06:11] … or end of the time, whatever it is — but a year in this example — you’ve increased your business by 33.1%.
That’s amazing. Very doable, very sustainable. Now, let’s say, instead of 10%, we’re a little bit more ambitious. We’re like, “Hey, Doug, I can do it. I’m a hustler, I got this. I have a great product, a great service. I’m going to increase it by 20% because that’s what I do.” Now, if you increased all three areas by 20%, you’re now looking at a 72.8% increase in your business. Now, you’ve heard me enough in these Daily Growth Hacks, you know I’m crazy, and I go more, “10%, no problem. 20%, I can do that. 33%, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m really going to go in, get my team motivated, we’re going to increase our business by 33%.”
And we’ve done this with our marketing agency, as well as with our old fitness business. Increasing it by 33%, that’s a 150% increase in your business over that time period — in this example of course of one year. Let me say that again: 150%. Now, most people you talk to are just struggling to increase 2, 3, 4% to stay ahead of inflation, and that’s ridiculous. That’s survival mode. And most likely, it’s a lack of information and resourcefulness. Take Jay Abraham’s, “Three Ways To Grow Your Business.” Take this chart, and grow. If you have questions, go over to the Author of Your Own Story community on Facebook and post on there, I’m happy to help you out.
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