Advice on how to keep growing business

[ls0709]

Hi all,

I am looking for a bit of advice and just an opinion that isn't mine (might regret that).

Around 4 months ago, I began to setup up a window blind business with my father (years in the making/growing the balls). It has now been operating full time for 2 months, as my father was made redundant and I left my previous job.

In this time we have turned over around £20k and made around £9.5k gross profit. I built the website myself and via on-site SEO work and creating content the site is now ranking on the first page of Google for several of search terms in our city and is currently around 4th/5th for what we believe are our two highest volume keywords.

We haven't spent a fortune on marketing so far, roughly £600-£700 in the entire time we have been working on it.

Whilst we have had some great weeks, we have also had some pretty quiet ones with the last two being fairly quiet. I want to get it to a comfortable level that would have us turning over about £3000 a week which equates to around 7/8 sales a week based on our current average sale value.

We have a Facebook page, I post several times a week, boost those posts and have also done a few specific ads too. These can go from reaching a few thousand to around 500.

I have recently started Google Ads myself, I'm not a master but I know the basics and intend to pick it up, tweak it as I go along etc.

We did a run of flyers which did get us several leads and I have just ordered new ones as I intend to get back out their to continue to test that platform out.

I am looking for suggestions on things to check, try out etc. in order to continue to generate more leads in general and also including traffic to our website. I have around 9 months worth of savings to live off in order to make this happen and so whilst there's breathing space, it's incredibly important that I manage to turn this into a living and hopefully a bigger and bigger business.

Thanks in advance.

 

[comperio]

the site is now ranking on the first page of Google for several of search terms in our city and is currently around 4th/5th for what we believe are our two highest volume keywords.
...
I am looking for suggestions on things to check, try out etc. in order to continue to generate more leads in general

My suggestion is to work on SEO to reach #1 versus currently #4-5. This could double your organic sales. On site conversion optimization could also increase sales. This is the type of service a good SEO marketing agency can provide.
SEO is what we do, feel free to ask any question. But going from #4 to #1 in a local market is normally doable within a reasonable budget.

 

[Nochexman]

...I built the website myself and via on-site SEO work and creating content the site is now ranking on the first page of Google for several of search terms in our city and is currently around 4th/5th for what we believe are our two highest volume keywords.

We haven't spent a fortune on marketing so far, roughly £600-£700 in the entire time we have been working on it.

...

We have a Facebook page, I post several times a week, boost those posts and have also done a few specific ads too. These can go from reaching a few thousand to around 500.

I have recently started Google Ads myself, I'm not a master but I know the basics and intend to pick it up, tweak it as I go along etc.

We did a run of flyers which did get us several leads and I have just ordered new ones as I intend to get back out their to continue to test that platform out...

If you don't already know it, I would want to know what proportion of sales comes from each type of marketing you are doing - what works best?

I would go back to your past customers and ask for their feedback about your service, and ask to use their comments in any promotion you do. Also, do you know their ages, gender, etc. What sort of people are your customers? Where could find more of the same?

Finally, I'd offer an incentive for any referrals that turn into new business for you.

Overall, what you are doing clearly seems to be working; maybe the bit that is missing is some good old fashioned advertising to make sure you are in the running for new business when it comes along.

Good luck!

 

[antropy]

I agree with the comment above that knowing your audience demographic is vitally important as it will highlight the best tactics to sell to them. In addition and slightly different is integrating yourself into the local community as you will be surprised how many friends of a friend will need your business. Also if you get yourself a good name around the local area then you will get more and more referrals which are priceless when you are a startup. When times are hard and you have your quiet weeks then keep plugging away as the results that will come a few weeks down the line will be the hard work you put in during those slower periods. Hope this helps. Alex

 

[Elton Daddow]

Hi all,

I am looking for a bit of advice and just an opinion that isn't mine (might regret that).

Around 4 months ago, I began to setup up a window blind business with my father (years in the making/growing the balls). It has now been operating full time for 2 months, as my father was made redundant and I left my previous job.

In this time we have turned over around £20k and made around £9.5k gross profit. I built the website myself and via on-site SEO work and creating content the site is now ranking on the first page of Google for several of search terms in our city and is currently around 4th/5th for what we believe are our two highest volume keywords.

We haven't spent a fortune on marketing so far, roughly £600-£700 in the entire time we have been working on it.

Whilst we have had some great weeks, we have also had some pretty quiet ones with the last two being fairly quiet. I want to get it to a comfortable level that would have us turning over about £3000 a week which equates to around 7/8 sales a week based on our current average sale value.

We have a Facebook page, I post several times a week, boost those posts and have also done a few specific ads too. These can go from reaching a few thousand to around 500.

I have recently started Google Ads myself, I'm not a master but I know the basics and intend to pick it up, tweak it as I go along etc.

We did a run of flyers which did get us several leads and I have just ordered new ones as I intend to get back out their to continue to test that platform out.

I am looking for suggestions on things to check, try out etc. in order to continue to generate more leads in general and also including traffic to our website. I have around 9 months worth of savings to live off in order to make this happen and so whilst there's breathing space, it's incredibly important that I manage to turn this into a living and hopefully a bigger and bigger business.

Thanks in advance.

 

[antropy]

I am looking for suggestions on things to check, try out etc. in order to continue to generate more leads in general and also including traffic to our website.

I'd say look out for posts by @WebshopMechanic, his website and facebook videos offer great advice.

Paul

 

[ls0709]

Thank you for the feedback guys. I'm going to go through our analytics, both Google and Facebook today and also our sales to look at our different demographics.

I'm definitely keen to look at ways into the community as I do like that idea. We are lucky that some of our early customers have already recommended us and we have had quite a few very good, 5 star reviews on Google and Facebook.

I think part of the problem is the panic of when it quietens down and thinking I should jump ship but I'm intent on sticking it out and making something of it.

 

[EnhanceAccountancy]

Why not get in touch with all local window cleaners? I’m sure they can spot old, broken blinds as they are going about their work. Offer a commission for every lead/lead that converts or look out for dirty windows in return!

Take a look at my blog post - section “reciprocal referral arrangements”...
https://www.enhanceaccountancy.co.uk/increasing-sales-generate-more-enquiries/

 

[ViktorijaS]

Make sure you do focus on excellent customer service. Invest in the existing customers and get word of mouth custtomers. Make sure you make your clients happy by showing care, attention. Of course the quality of work does need to be outstanding.

 

[ViktorijaS]

Make sure you do focus on excellent customer service. Invest in the existing customers and get word of mouth custtomers. Make sure you make your clients happy by showing care, attention. Of course the quality of work does need to be outstanding.

 

[ls0709]

I thought it may be worth updating this thread in case others are in a similar position to myself. Since posting the business has been doing well. We are now at around £70k turnover and now have over 50 5 star reviews online.

Word of mouth has played a huge roll in the business, exceeding expectation which then leads to referral. Im continuing with Facebook and google ads which are both providing ROI each month and due to continued work on our website we are now in the top 3 for our targeted keywords.

I now want to continue to push and grow the business so that by the end of the year we can look at bringing in more people. However, juggling that with taking an OK salary so it all seems worth it is going to be the next trick!

 

[Simon-M]

Have you got the facebook pixel installed on your site?

If you have not then I would just add it because you will start to build up an audience of people that have visited your webpage and have a facebook account. Facebook retargeting can be a lot cheaper than hitting the big keywords and you are reminding people who already have shown some level of interest that you are there.

Just a thought.

 

[EnhanceAccountancy]

Congratulations on the business growth. You are knocking on the door for compulsory VAT registration (£85,000 sales in the last 12 months) so you may need to think about registering soon (if you have not already done so voluntarily). See https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration-thresholds

 

[WeddingsInWales]

Yes the VAT will be a nuisance and may oblige you to revisit pricing but at least you can reclaim VAT on materials you purchase. In my business (hotel) there is very little VAT you can claim back on outgoings as outgoings are mostly labour and food. Some ideas that might help if not already used.

1. Create a mailing list and put your prospects on it. You write all your customer friendly advisory letters in one go, maybe 12 - one for each month - load the emails on to Aweber, having followed GDPR compliance rules to get the email addresses of prospects.

2. Put an interactive chat on your site such as Jivochat - people seem more willing to text / chat these days than pick up the phone. Rather than a static Chat box, you want one that pops up and invites the on-site browser to chat to you. Our sites get 10 - 20 chats a day, all becoming more interested prospects as you chat to them. Since we sell weddings (as a wedding venue) and we know most Couples need a lot of advice, the chat service is very popular with both prospects and signed up clients.

3. Niche target marketing and Special offer pages and packages - if applicable. We have several niche offers aimed variously at dog owners / dog walkers for general B&B, ghost hunters (haunted upper levels of a castle), weddings of all sizes and days and seasons (romantic castle wedding venue). These are distinct niches which need keeping separate (ghosts and romance don't go together), so each niche has its own website and each website hasits own offers etc. Could some similar niche targeting of different markets with relevant special offers for that market clientele work well for you in SEO to pick up extra traffic.

4. Read Michael Gerber's E-Myth!

Martin

 

[Ginger Egg]

Some great advice already but also... Optimise the hell out of Google My Business and post regularly!

 

[Viraj Shah]

My suggestion is to work on SEO to reach #1 versus currently #4-5. This could double your organic sales. On site conversion optimization could also increase sales. This is the type of service a good SEO marketing agency can provide.
SEO is what we do, feel free to ask any question. But going from #4 to #1 in a local market is normally doable within a reasonable budget.

I agree to the point of working on SEO. Ranking in first two positions will fetch you more and more business and you might increase your leads by 2x.
I would recommend to work on meta description and title. Make sure that you have a convincing CTA so you earn a good CTR.

 

[Dheeraj Thukral]

Hi Luke,

I read your case and I understand the problems and the pain that you're currently faced with.

You know, being a small business owner and not knowing about the latest marketing tactics can put you in a very uncomfortable position.

You have blown a fortune of your money in marketing spends, and if you say that you had some quiet weeks - that is painful enough for me to imagine and empathize with you sitting miles away on a different computer.

But, what if I tell you that there's a system that is designed to get you leads and which works consistently and requires little to basic marketing knowledge?

Yes, you have done your SEO and spent money on Paid Ads. But, how far are you willing to go and actually engage your customers (like people do in traditional sales) ?

You don't have a traffic or conversion problem, my friend. You have a funnel problem.

What you need is a Sales Funnel. A series of steps that you use to engage your customers and open up opportunities to ACTUALLY make sales.

Think about this - How much value does your website actually provide to the user?

Don't get me wrong, but most sites are DESIGNED to act nothing more than a CATALOGUE for your potential customers. No matter how fancy a design you use, or how much money you blow in making sure that the look and feel of your site IS just awesome.

It will give you ZERO results if you're not able to guide the person looking at it on what to do next?

Maybe you have a webinar? Maybe you have something to give away for free like a Book?

Why the hell should someone give you business if you don't provide value RIGHT NOW?

Think about it. I don't want to sell you anything but only to share my knowledge and "hopefully" make your marketing efforts actually generate sales for you.

Cheers!

 

[Millerd]

I now want to continue to push and grow the business so that by the end of the year we can look at bringing in more people. However, juggling that with taking an OK salary so it all seems worth it is going to be the next trick!

Congratulations on your progress!

The business is now entering a very crucial phase ... with the real challenge in a growing business ... managing the money!

Paying the taxman, paying yourself a decent salary (very important!) and having enough money to pay all the expenses and grow the business. I highly recommend that you read the book "Profit First" by Mike Michalowicz - he has some very sage and practical advice!

 

[TheWebDesignCompany]

Get your Google maps listing (Google My Business these days) ranking highly.
Being in the top 3 for that can make a huge difference.

To do this fill in everything they are asking for, absolutely everything, Provide images and videos too, and then get as many 5 star ratings as you can and keep them coming in from all your customers.

 

[Caroline_Pegden]

Have you tried local networking - e.g., at your Chamber of Commerce, trade shows (free "meet the buyer events"), meet-ups, BNI?

That could be a great way to find customers?

 

[AllUpHere]

Have you tried local networking - e.g., at your Chamber of Commerce, trade shows (free "meet the buyer events"), meet-ups, BNI?

That could be a great way to find customers?

Complete waste of time for this type of business (and actually, most types of business).

 

[Mark T Jones]

Complete waste of time for this type of business (and actually, most types of business).

Depends very mush on the individual and the business. I know several successful businesses who swear by networking events

 

[Charles Rice]

Have you got the facebook pixel installed on your site?

If you have not then I would just add it because you will start to build up an audience of people that have visited your webpage and have a facebook account. Facebook retargeting can be a lot cheaper than hitting the big keywords and you are reminding people who already have shown some level of interest that you are there.

Just a thought.

Hey! Thanks for this piece of information. I have decided to install Pixel code, but I am not finding the correct method of getting it installed correctly. Do hiring someone will be fine?

 

[xoxoseo]

I would agree withEnhanceAccountancy, and additionally I would consider adding Instagram as another channel of traffic, and apply for Google ads sense or any affiliate programs that your potential clients might be interested in

 

[ethical PR]

Complete waste of time for this type of business (and actually, most types of business).

When I worked agency side we generated over £220K from being a member of the local BNI and Chamber of Commerce over two years.

I do agree it isn't likely to work as well for a blind business.

 

[Nochexman]

I now want to continue to push and grow the business so that by the end of the year we can look at bringing in more people. However, juggling that with taking an OK salary so it all seems worth it is going to be the next trick!

Would be interested to know how you are getting along?