Wim GE De Vos

Small businesses with a BIG impact

4 rules to Make More Money

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As a small business owner or operator you know that growing in size, quality, service and impact requires resources. One of these resources is money. And I am here to tell you that you do not need to run to the bank just yet. Look at profit first.

Profit is the fuel a growth business needs.

When focussing on profit it helps to have some principles to shape our thinking and attention.

Here are 4 rules we use ourselves at Genesis Home Technology Architects when we look at profits (picked up from Chris Guillebeau who will have gotten it from some other generous soul):

  1. Think DEBT CONTROL: Hang on to your wallet and only spend money on what grows your business.
  2. Think VALUE: Price your product or service in relation to the benefit it provides, not the cost of producing it. (more on this in Pricing 101)
  3. Think SIMPLICITY: Offer customers a limited range of prices and offerings.
  4. Think SCALABILITY: Get paid more than once for the same thing or from the same customer.*

*Building up trust is the secret ingredient here. Think long-term customer relationships, service contracts and upgrades.

Small businesses with BIG ambitions all require FOCUS on what matters.

In every stage of the game.

The importance of Demos

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wow-moment

Most of what we sell is too hard to understand without a demo.

If a picture is worth a thousand words,

a demonstration is probably worth a million.*

Steve Blank in The 4 steps to the epiphany.

So let´s ask ourselves the following 6 questions:

  • Do you have a demo script?
  • Do you have a demo space?
  • Do you have a demo strategy?
  • Does your demo create a WOW moment?
  • Who does the demo?
  • How often do you demo?

There is a direct correlation between:

the amount of WOW moments you create

&

the growth of your business… *

*YOU, once you got your demo-act together.

The dark horse

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Every day we choose between 3 approaches for everything we do:

  • Custom, tailor-made, one-off
  • Personalised, configured, repeatable
  • One-size-fits-all, standard, commoditised

But when we make our choices are we consistent, smart, see them in context?

Ask which of the 3 approaches you choose in the following cases:

  • connecting with our customers
  • drafting and sending proposals
  • delivering control or audiovisual systems
  • hire and fire
  • remuneration
  • training
  • service
  • making cars, speakers, systems,…
  • …

I dare to think we all use far too much custom and standard approaches…

When the personalised, configured, repeatable approach is the dark horse* in the race for success.

Custom is overrated

One-size-fits-all is overused

Personalisation is the dark horse…

Asking ourself some simple questions may have a big impact 🤜🏻 💥

*Definition “dark horse”:
a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds

Who we do business 🤝 with…

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The goal of our business is not to do business with anyone who simply wants what we have…

We are focussed 🎯on the people who believe what we believe.

Our tribe.

Together 🤝 we make WOW the standard in homes of today and tomorrow.

Growth partner spotlight: Control4 🖲

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In my post a few days ago I mentioned the importance of working with growth partners and the value + meta-value they bring. Todays spotlight is on Control4.

We have been growing the business together with Control4 now for over 8 years. Together we grew every single year.

A quick look at Control4 according to the 3 criteria for growth partners I mentioned:

Growth: 🚀

  • market share: Control4 now is the undisputed market leader in our markets as the leading control system for the connected home.
  • portfolio: With the acquisition of Pakedge networking and iHiji monitoring we are now able to offer the digital foundation of what has become the standard for every home of today and tomorrow. Total Available Market increase and scope for growth long into the future.
  • numbers: Genesis Technologies has grown its business with Control4 triple and high double digit for over 8 years in a row. Not a coincidence. Proof of a solid growth 🚀 partnership.

Innovation: 👩🏼‍🔬

  • products: Control4 has released new, simple and innovative products year after year. And shipping on announcement. A point often underestimated because true innovation only counts when it hits the market… (“true artists ship”… S. J.)
  • role in the value chain: together we have moved from simply supplying products towards investing in our partners to make them more successful. Innovating wrt  the role we have in the market is just as important as keeping up with Moore´s Law.

Loyalty: 🙏🏻

  • 8 years straight, over 3000 days working and growing together and counting.  Most are presidents that last less…we can debate if that is a good thing later 😎
  • Loyal tribe of system integrators: For us loyalty through the channel is equally important as margin through the channel. It takes long term vision and commitment. But once achieved multipliers start popping up where you least expect them.

As continue to shape and build the future we will find great things ahead of us. The past and present have taught us that much so far.

Be well, be you. And keep looking for growth partners 🚀🤝👩🏼‍🔬 if you want to create impact as a small business.