I love to learn, and I had a great opportunity to do so at the HubSpot Partner Day. I take a day and a half from working IN our business to working ON our business. This event is always great, and I learn so much.

This year the session I got the most from was by Blair Enns, a brilliant author. He had great advice for marketing agencies, but I believe that it pertains to any business.

He told us that these are the things you and your business must do – and that you must do each/all of them to really take off.

He believes that as business owners we should work like we are going to be working on this business until we die. I thought, “what about all of the traveling I want to do and the stress relief when I retire?” He suggested that as entrepreneurs we will never truly retire and asked us to think about what we would do differently in our businesses and personal lives if this were true. I, for one, would be working on a better work/life balance and making time to take vacations every year. He also told us that we should be spending 90% of our days doing what we love and the rest of the stuff should be done by someone else.

 

(Well, maybe 12-15.) I thought, “Wow, we are always trying to bring more clients on, how can we grow if we only have that many clients?” His idea is that when you bring on a new client, you must get rid of a lower paying client. Hmm – this means that the new client must see more value in your services, allowing you to charge more. By taking this approach, you are able to do your best for every client.

 

The idea here is that you shouldn’t charge a flat fee for something that you continue to work on over time, like a website – your clients should be leasing your knowledge and expertise.

 

 

In this concept, Enns says that the proposal is the words that come out of your mouth during the sales process. When you get down to the end of the sales process, you will have explained exactly what they are getting and how you will go about it. Your proposal should have 3 options: good, better, best (or whatever you want to call it). When you explain, you should start with the highest and then work your way down. Your proposals should be value-based, so no client is charged the same. It is about the value you bring to the table for that business.

 

Enns quoted Ron Baker with the Verasage Institute on this one. Ron feels that time is a constraint, not a resource. We shouldn’t even track employee time, because if you hire passionate people who are driven to reach the clients’ goals, they will naturally find the best and fastest way to do things.

 

We strive to do this always. We should be completely honest with our clients. We need to tell them their ideas aren’t great if they aren’t. They are hiring you to guide them and let them know what will and won’t work. Use kind ruthlessness.

While these constraints seem daunting, I believe that they will take your business to the next level. Have you tried any of them? Have they worked? Let us know in the comments!