Episode 2

How the Pro Growthmap for Local Businesses Can Help You Develop Systems and Scale Your Business

Develop and Scale your local business with this Pro Growthmap for Local Businesses. Follow simple stages and reach your next business goal.

Some will either need SEO or a sales funnel or simply a new website that’s got to have this and that, and sometimes, they’re right.

But what’s the alternative?

It’s really important to recognize that depending on where you are in your business, there are different areas of focus and different tools that may suit your business better.

While some are online, some are not.

And this brings us to the four stages of our Pro Growthmap for Local Businesses and what you should be focused on at each one of these stages.

Why the Pro Growthmap?

The Pro Growthmap will ensure you don’t run out of cash until you’re able to get to the next stage successfully.

Stages of the Pro Growthmap for Local Businesses

1) Clarity on (who your ideal customer is)  (figure out who you serve) what you do and who you serve (serve component).

2)  Figure out a sales process (Get more of them in the door).

3)  Build a system around that process.

4)  Scale into it.

1)  Clarity on What You Do and Who You Serve

(-$0 – $100k)

This is the heartbeat of where you should start as a business owner.

You’ve got to get clear on what you do and who your ideal customer is.

Why is it important?

Because you can only develop sales if you’re clear on who you’re trying to serve.

And only with enough sales will you have enough transactions to generate and build systems around.

What does this mean?

If you don’t have consistent sales, you don’t have anything you can build a system around.

Because the system requires inputs that lead to predictable outputs.

And If there are no inputs, there are automatically no outputs. So there’s definitely no system.

What are your challenges at this stage?

The biggest challenge at this stage of the Pro Growthmap for local businesses is that you don’t have cash or resources.

How do you move forward?

So make sure you can be comfortable with the pressure and the challenges of not having a lot of resources.

And also learn how to persuade somebody that you can solve a problem that they’re willing to pay for.

What opportunities do you have at this stage?

Your relationships are your biggest opportunity here.

It is the people who know you, like you, and trust you that are going to be your biggest advocates.

So lean on your network to help you get introductions to the people that you need to be able to make your first couple of sales.

Also, one of the other great benefits of being new is that things like your messaging and your branding don’t matter that much.

Obsessing over your logo, its font, colors, persona, and all of these other kinds of things, just take up time and don’t bring in cash.

What is going to work for you at this stage?

  • Get clear and talk to as many people as you can. Go out in your community, go to networking events.
  • Get on LinkedIn, try and find the ideal prospect that you could work with on LinkedIn, and find connections to them.
  • Go on to Facebook, join the Facebook groups of people that you know in your community that you think you might be a part of, and figure out how you can go out and serve.

2)    Figure Out a Sales Process

(-$100k – $300k)

As you start to serve more people, you’re going to then shift into the sell mode.

And this is where you try to get more of your ideal customer in the door.

What are your challenges at this stage?

Your cash flows are still lumpy and probably your service delivery is going to be a little bit lumpy too. 

How do you move forward?

Everybody goes through a phase where they’re not able to meet all of their commitments 100% perfectly.

So just know that as uncomfortable as it is, It’s part of the process and it’s going to happen.

What opportunities do you have at this stage?

This second stage of the Pro Growthmap for Local Businesses allows you to start testing your messaging, test small ads, and direct response campaigns to figure out what resonates with your ideal customer.

If you’re also doing a good job of listening to your customers when you’re talking with them, you’ll also get clearer, much faster on what the things are that matter most to them.

3)    Build a System Around That Process

(-$300k – $1M)

Once you figure out who you’re serving, and you’ve started to develop a process around sales with a little bit of consistency too, people are starting to trust you and you’ve got some testimonials, that’s when you start to systematize your service delivery and your lead generation.

What are your challenges at this stage?

When you start your business, you’re going to be a solopreneur. Where it’s just you wearing all of the hats and doing everything, but you can’t scale yourself, you can only scale systems.

And because you’re doing everything yourself, managing this person and the next, it is a lot of work and you’re getting tired.

So naturally, you’re starting to max out your capacity.

How do you move forward and what opportunities do you have at this stage?

Here, you start to create a system to generate leads consistently as well as figure out where your successful channels are.

4)    Scale Into The Systems

(-$1M – $3M+)

Once you’ve got systems, you then enter into the fourth stage, which is the ability to start scaling.

What does this mean?

Start putting more inputs through your system which will, in turn, get you more outputs in the form of satisfied customers, thereby bringing in more cash.

What challenges do you have at this stage of the Pro growthmap for local businesses?

Learning to ask for help given that you have already maxed out your capacity at this stage.

How do you move forward and what opportunities do you have at this stage?

You get to leverage the help of your employees, hire more and start to turn your business into a life of its own.

What Does it Take to Get From Zero to A Million Dollars Plus in Sales?

The majority of businesses don’t ever get to make a million or so in sales, but this is what it takes.

It takes you knowing that you can very rarely skip these four steps.

You’ve got to get clear about who you’re serving as you build the foundation of a culture of service over just going out and selling.

Generate a way to get more of your ideal customer in the door, by figuring out a sales process.

Then build a system around that process, through systematizing your service delivery and your lead generation.

And finally, you can then scale into that system. And at this point, you start to shift from owner operator into more of a manager.