Introduction

Hello and welcome to our FREE “Grow Your Business in 5 days” video training course.

As you know, my name is Steve Hackney and along with my colleagues, Peter Finlay and Richard Brewin, we can re-assure you that as you watch this series of videos, tens of thousands of business owners just like you, from all over the world are already benefiting from what you are about to discover.

But before we start I just want to set the scene, so to speak.

First, this course is for ambitious business owners – business owners who are dissatisfied with their current level of growth and are keen to see their business get more enquiries, more sales and more profits. Second, it doesn’t matter what type of business you run whether it’s online or offline, whether you sell business to consumer or business to business. Or whether you sell products, services, have a retail store, or run a restaurant. These strategies are universal in their application. Third, and probably most important, the strategies won’t work UNLESS, YOU actually implement them!

Finally, the course is perfect if you’ve tried everything and you’ve reached a point where you don’t know what to do to take your business to the next level, whatever that is.

To ensure you get the most out of the course, it’s delivered to you over the next 5 days and each day includes the following materials...

1. A video tutorial like this.
2. A copy of the transcript.
3. And a simple ‘One Page Action Plan’ covering the steps you need to take to apply each strategy to your business.

Furthermore, the course covers the four core areas of growing any business and is delivered in 12 instalments over the 5 days…

Part 1, Gives you a real understanding as to WHY businesses stop growing.

Parts 2 to 4 detail how to maximise sales and profits from what we call your ‘Acres Of Diamonds’ more commonly known as your customers, clients or patients. This is the most lucrative part of any business.

Parts 5 to 9 focus on how to generate a constant stream of enquiries.

And parts 10 to 12 detail how to convert a high percentage of those enquiries into good quality clients, customers or patients.

To my knowledge there is nothing else like this, available anywhere in the world, at any price, which provides so much practical and proven advice and it’s been responsible for helping thousands of businesses all over the world increase their enquiries, sales and profits.

Okay, that’s all the housekeeping completed. Let’s get started...

First, let me tell you that you CAN create a thriving and very profitable business IF you know the secrets to success. You see selling and marketing, as I'm sure you're well aware, in today’s economy is very different to how it was done a few years ago Still, there are many businesses using the same tired old strategies that simply don’t cut it anymore. Household names have gone bust. Tens of thousands of businesses fail every week no matter how the economy is doing. And many businesses are struggling to make ends meet. A wise man once said, “If you’ve stopped growing, you’re actually shrinking.” If you’re not acquiring new customers or getting existing customers to keep buying from you, then you are almost certainly going backwards. So if your business has slowed it won’t be long before it starts going backwards.

Plus there’s also another economic trend you need to consider...

Recession and growth have historically been cyclical. The belief therefore during a recession has generally been that if you can just survive the hard times then the good times will come around the corner. However, there seems to be an increasing view coming from many leading economists, which we happen to share, that this time it’s different.  This is not the start of a cycle but the beginning of a whole new chapter in business terms. Business will never be the same again. You can’t just wait for the good times to come. Businesses will have to operate differently if they are going to succeed, because customer needs and expectations HAVE changed and will continue to do so over the coming years. This is now a ‘NEW ECONOMY’.

Doing things differently is no longer a marketing man’s mantra but a business essential. You can’t hide in your shell and wait for the sun to come out. However, the good news is that with the right strategies and know-how, you CAN succeed, and create a fast-growing and dominant business. One that grows month on month. A business that not only works with the right type of customers – but works with the customers you really want. That’s why we spent several months writing this course.

This new economy is a very different, more challenging one for everyone and only those in the know will succeed. Those aware of this fact and who DO something about it will be the winners, leaving everyone else behind to struggle day-in, day-out just in the hope of survival. It’s a grim picture for many. Of course it’s only grim if you do nothing about it. Remember, if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.

You subscribed to this course because you see it as the first step of doing something about it. I of course don’t know your exact personal situation, but I do know you want improvement in your business. And I do know for whatever reason you’re not happy with things as they stand at the moment. Realising this, you’ll be pleased to know, is part of the battle.

Next it’s all about what you do. You need to get busy and start implementing a range of strategies that will help you...

• Stand out from the crowd
• Attract customers easily
• Remove price and fee from the mind of the customer
• Provide added value that no other business can compete with
• Acquire the right type of customers at the right fees…
• Achieve everything your skills, effort, expertise and experience deserve
• And ultimately ensure you generate more enquiries, more sales and more profits

That’s why this course is so important. It’s to give you proven solutions, to each and every one of these challenges. But be warned. Although growing your business is down to a number of fundamentals, many of the things I discuss with you will seem very different from how you currently see things!

You have to trust me. This stuff works.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a sole trader or part of a multi director firm; have hundreds of employees or none at all. To get results you have to change what you’re currently doing. You have to be different. And it’s no good thinking ‘this will never work for my business’ because it WILL.  You have to open your mind to the opportunities that present themselves to you in this course. And if you do, then you’re going to enjoy the results of your efforts. I wholeheartedly promise you that. Above all else, this course will first explain WHAT you need to do, then tell you WHY you need to do it and then describe in step-by-step detail exactly HOW to do it.

One last thing...

As you progress through the course you'll often find yourself thinking - that's obvious - I know that, what's so remarkable about that? When you sense yourself doing this STOP yourself and ask ‘Am I using this strategy in my business right now?’

Quite frankly, if you're actively applying 2 or 3 of these strategies and doing them CORRECTLY I'll be surprised - that's why this stuff will be so powerful for you!

Once again don’t close your mind and think that it won't work for your business. Believe me we've tested EVERYTHING. Our training courses, programmes and systems have helped transform tens of thousands of businesses of all shapes and sizes all over the globe during the last two decades. Richard one of my business partners built and sold 2 accountancy practices from scratch using these strategies. Peter my other business partner has himself built at least half a dozen businesses again using these strategies. And right now, we use these exact same strategies in our own businesses, and I can tell you, these strategies plain and simple just work and work better than probably anything you’ve ever seen before.

Nothing I reveal to you in this course is theory. Everything is proven. Everything is current. So let’s look at what I’m going to cover during our time together today....

First I’m going to reveal why businesses stop growing. By understanding why this happens you’ll appreciate how you can implement the strategies and buck the trend or prevent it from happening to you all together.

Then in tutorial 2, we’ll start with the first strategy, which is one of my favourites and probably the easiest to implement into any business. Okay let’s get started...

To understand why growth slows or stagnates in any business, we first need to look at how a typical business evolves and why the frustration starts to mount as this growth slows. We call this the ‘Growth Roller- Coaster’. Take a look at this illustration...

The starting point is the beginning of a business, usually created by a sole proprietor or a small partnership/directorship. Typically, the owners are very hands-on at this stage with few, if any, staff and modest resources. In the early months and years the business grows very well. Customers receive a high degree of director attention with high levels of expertise and customer-care as a result. Costs in the modest operation are relatively low and the business can respond quickly to customer and market needs.

Word is spread by customers and referrers about the great, cost-effective products or services and new business is easily gained. The business quickly expands to a peak at point A, driven by the personalities and skills of its owners.

In an ideal world, two conditions will now be met. Firstly, the directors will recognise that they have reached the pinnacle for a personality-driven business and secondly, the business and financial performance will be at a level that completely satisfies them. In reality, neither is the case. What happens in the real world is that the owners continue to drive forward. However, with growth problems materialise…

Staff and resource levels have been increased to serve the growing customer base, increasing costs and tying up director time. The owners themselves come under increasing time pressure, being torn between customer, staff and business needs. Falling service levels and rising costs see the growth constricted and dissatisfaction around the business grows in its place. Have you ever heard yourself or a colleague say, “This was so much easier in the early days!” Now the owners find themselves at point C. Right now, you are likely to be at some point between A and C.

Reality has dawned and the business is at a crossroads. Do you remain a personality-driven business and attempt to claw your way back to point A by downsizing, culling customers and laying off staff and try and raise point A to a higher point? Or, do you undertake the investment (mostly in time and effort) required to move forward and become a systems-based business at point B. I guess as you’re taking this course, it’s highly likely this is what you want to achieve.

Interestingly both types of business can be successful with the right planning and management. But, too many businesses find themselves falling into the trough in between simply because they didn’t consider early enough what their fundamental strategies and goals should be. Instead emphasis is placed on the process functions of the business like, delivering the product or service and support to customers and essential marketing and management of the business is overlooked. Growth, as a result, is limited.

Let’s look then at the high-level view of your business (which can be any business). As I mentioned earlier, it has three key components…

1.            Process - The mechanics by which any business ‘produces’ its saleable products or services. This is how you generate income.

2.            Marketing - The generation of new customers, the retention of existing customers and the maximisation of customer value. This is how you acquire and retain customers and this course focuses on this particular component.

3.            Management - The running of the business – its performance management, strategies and goals and financial analysis. This is where you generate profit and wealth.

When a business is growing steadily and reaching the owner-managers’ objectives, the 3 functions work together to create a harmonious cycle…

In reality, the majority of people in business are taught process skills from school days, through skills training and onwards. We are taught how to read and write. How to follow instructions and answer questions. How to replicate what we learn. You develop expertise in how to do ‘things’. In other words, your expertise and skills invariably lie in the PROCESS function. Consequently, with the skills and knowledge loaded towards the Process function, businesses can only grow whilst there is capacity within the Process function to do so. But without the same relative development in the management and in particular marketing functions either side, growth becomes limited.

The cycle now starts to look very different…

So the solution is simple…

You need to start putting more effort into the marketing and management functions of the business to realign the balance. This doesn’t mean you neglect the process function. It just means you work smarter and allocate your time and effort better to include these two crucial areas of your business.

So, there is little doubt as to why most businesses do not achieve the growth objectives the directors have set and why now is the time to make the transition from a process-led business to a management- and, in particular, a marketing-led business. Our goal is for you to have a systems-based business that’s set up to achieve your objectives. The rest of this course shows you how to achieve growth through a series of proven sales and marketing strategies that you can automate. Strategies which will stand the test of time. Strategies that get results.

So in summary, here are the key learning points from this first tutorial...

1.            First... there are 3 key components of any business – process, management and marketing. All three are critical, but marketing is the most essential.

2.            Businesses stop growing because the directors or owners don’t focus enough time and energy in the management and more importantly the marketing element of the business.

3.            Focusing on marketing, and in particular the strategies being revealed to you in this course, ensures your business will grow quickly, but remember to dedicate time and energy to the process and management functions of your business.

So now you know why your growth is being held back, let’s start focusing on putting that right. It all starts with the first strategy outlined in tutorial 2. But before watching this second tutorial, please now DOWNLOAD the One-Page Action Plan’ which accompanies this tutorial to review why businesses stop growing.

Thanks for watching. See you again shortly.

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