Here we are staring into the possibilities of a new year, and we all have our preconceived notions of what 2023 will look like. There are a few rare optimists out there that plan to crush it from day one, but most are satisfied with a slightly improved repeat of 2022. I mean, it’s much more likely 2023 will resemble your other 5, 15, or 30 years in business than a repeat of the anomaly we experienced in 2020, right? Let’s hope so. But there’s a way you can be better prepared to meet either of these extremes. Planning for the best improves your chances of getting there, but also gives you a parachute if you happen to face your worst-case scenario as well.
I like to note repeated milestones in my life (like birthdays and holidays) to gauge my progress. Are you closer to your goals in January of 2023 than were during January of 2022? Why or why not? What helped and what hurt? What is in your control and what isn’t? When you start to regularly take stock of your progress, your growth track becomes more manageable than looking out at the 12 months ahead simply hoping they’re better than the last 12. True progress takes more than new year’s resolutions and wishful thinking; you need a plan.
“Future casting” is a relatively new idea that largely sprung out of the pandemic. Everyone was jarred into reality that living in the moment and flying by the seat of their pants is not the best business model, so future casting became a trendy buzzword. In short, future casting is trying to predict things that will have the greatest impact on your business in the future and using that information to move the needle in your company’s favor. This is a little different in every industry of course but luckily in the in-home trades, some of these factors are as constant as people forgetting to change their filters regularly.
How can you see into your future?
Know YOUR Market’s Potential: Far too many contractors base theirgrowth track off of what others are doing in completely different situations. You can pay companies to do a deep dive into your area for extensive market research, and what they mine out could be game-changing. But often that’s not necessary to get your feet wet. You know those market surveys, industry trends, and growth rate reports we’re far too guilty of shallowly scanning or deleting? Those are chock full of valuable national or even global information, but you need to get more granular. You can get a growth track projection of your service area’s population from your local government office, and get a leg up on new neighborhoods coming in, projected new movers into the area, etc. Use the actual ebb and flow of your area to set a realistic goal of new business. Also, the amount of your attention that needs to be turned to digital marketing and the effectiveness of offline media can be influenced by the local household income and age demographics in your service area. All these things should factor into your gameplan for 2023, and most are public knowledge, available for free with just a few clicks, but you must know where to look.
Is Your Focus Inward or Outward? Repeat Business Is a Huge Indicator: Talk to anyone who’s been in business longer than five minutes, and they’ll tell you how important it is to get customers to come back again. So why do so few business owners focus on GETTING them to come back? New business is important too, but not every marketing conversation should start there. Maybe the growth figures you got from the city didn’t show a tremendous growth potential for your area. Does that mean you can’t grow without opening a satellite shop in a neighboring town? Absolutely not. Repeat business is a more dependable profit flow than chasing new names constantly, but few contractors see the tremendous potential lying inside their own Excel sheets. How many homeowners in your customer base are using your company multiple times throughout the year? What if you doubled that number? How many are using multiple services of yours? Cross-sells are a goldmine, and often it just takes education that you provide that service and the benefits. What would it mean to your year-end figures if you got 20% of your customer base “re-activated,” and those who didn’t use you at all in 2022, or even 2021, came back on board in 2023? Customers who feel like they have an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship with you are much more dependable when times get tough as well.
Lack of Innovation Will Continue to Cost You Money in 2023: It’s so easy for us to sit around, dream big, and talk about what’s holding us back, then not take a solution when it’s presented to us. Be honest—how many of you said last year that you needed a new website, and you still don’t have one? What about adding on new equipment or services? How long have you been meaning to add value and/or improve your image, but you get distracted and never complete the upgrade? Good ideas and advancements don’t make a bit of difference if they don’t make it past the good intentions phase. Every year, no matter what the year holds, the contractors who are the easiest to work with and have the most to offer are the ones who take more market-share. If you’re brave, poll your existing customers and ask their opinions on your website, ease to do business with, or services they’d like to see you provide. Many of these answers will just affirm what you already know, however.
No one knows what 2023 truly will hold, but we can make some educated guesses with high probabilities. As said before, many of the tools that can help you refine your strategy and pain points are free or low cost, but you need to know how and where to find them. Right now is an excellent time to partner up with a Hudson,Ink marketing coach to get a personalized strategy put together for you. Send an email to [email protected] or use this link to book an introductory call.
