Money growth

Inflation Busting Strategy for Small Business

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Small business owners need an inflation busting strategy that will set them up to weather any economic storm

As a small business owner how do you deal with economic uncertainty? Pandemic shut downs, supply chain issues, changes in consumer behavior, and the war in Ukraine have all disrupted the world economy, causing global inflation and fears of a recession. At the same time, in the United States unemployment is at a 50 year low, making hiring a continued challenge for small businesses. Small business owners need an inflation busting strategy that will set them up to weather any economic storm in order to continue to grow and profit.

Whether you are dealing with increased costs, difficulties finding employees or slow growth, applying the Pumpkin Plan Strategies will enable you to continue to operate your business efficiently, effectively and profitably.

The key to continued profitable growth

The Sweet Spot is the heart of the Pumpkin Plan Strategy, and the key to continued profitable growth and time freedom for business owners, even during uncertain times.

Pumpkin Plan

Your Sweet Spot is the place where your Top Clients, your Unique Offering, and your Systems and Processes intersect. In other words, when you have efficient and effective systems for delivering a Unique Offering to a defined client niche, you are operating in your Sweet Spot.

How does this help me ride out an inflationary and possible recessionary economy you ask? Here’s how….

I’ll start with your client or customer niche, your Top Clients. If you know exactly who your Top Clients are, you can continue to serve them in a way that keeps them coming back. Having a clearly defined client niche is an inflation busting strategy because it enables you to do the following:

  • Get extremely targeted with your marketing dollars. If you can define your niche as a group, then you can determine exactly where they show up the most, and you can show up there as well. Because you are not spreading your marketing resources too thin by showing up in too many places, your marketing return on investment will be higher and it will become more profitable to acquire those customers. You might even be able to reduce your overall marketing expense while increasing the number of qualified leads that you generate.
  • Create a targeted marketing message that attracts your best clients into your business. Again, having a message that strongly appeals to a very specific audience will increase the effectiveness of your marketing, saving you money while growing your client base.
  • Define a Unique Offering that specifically appeals to what your Top Clients want and need from you the most. When you are offering exactly what your ideal audience wants, they become less price sensitive. Your product or service becomes a “must-have” in the eyes of your best clients. This means that if your costs are going up you can safely pass those increases on to your clients, enabling you to maintain your profitability in spite of rising costs.

Systematization is an inflation busting strategy

Another key to weathering the economic ups and downs is to create and document clear, efficient and effective systems and processes in your business. There are many benefits to systematization, including:

  • Consistently good results, leading to happy, loyal clients and customers.
  • Higher profitability. Efficient systems produce fewer costly mistakes and high productivity.
  • You can do more with fewer employees.
  • In many cases systems can be automated, reducing the number of employees needed to produce and deliver your product or service.

Certified Pumpkin Plan Strategists have the tools and resources at their fingertips to develop winning, inflation busting strategies for their clients. If you serve the small business sector and would like to become a Certified Pumpkin Plan Strategist go here to APPLY.

Would you like help and support to create your own winning growth strategy? Hire a Pumpkin Plan Strategist today!

Business Coaching Meeting

 The Perfect Time to Become a Small Business Coach

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If you are a small business coach or consultant, or you have been thinking you want to become a small business coach, your services are needed now more than ever!

New businessesThe COVID 19 pandemic disrupted lives and businesses around the globe. It also inspired a record number of people to take the leap and start businesses in 2020 and 2021. More than 4 million new business applications were filed in the U.S. in the first 9 months of 2021. 4.4 million new businesses launched in the U.S. in 2020, up 24% from 2019, and up 51% over the 2010- 2019 average.

Wow. Those are eye opening statistics! Add these numbers to the already existing 31 million small businesses in the U.S., defined as having 500 or fewer employees, and there is a substantial market to serve!

Why Entrepreneurs Launch Businesses:

Some started businesses during the pandemic out of necessity. For others the pandemic was the push they needed to pursue a long-time dream. Regardless of the reason, many of those business are going to need coaching and advice to keep going and continue to thrive.

Most small businesses start with an idea and the founders hit the ground running. They rarely have a clear underlying strategy. This lack of strategy eventually leads to obstacles and roadblocks that the founders don’t know how to address. As a result, 20% of all small businesses don’t survive past the first year. 80% don’t make it to year 5.

Imagine the difference it would make if those struggling businesses had the help and support of an expert business coach…

Many new business founders left their corporate jobs to pursue their business idea. Business owners who are used to working at large corporations often find that their big-business skills don’t directly transfer to small business. They also realize that while they have specific knowledge and skills, there are no “other” departments to rely on for the areas that they do not have expertise in. They will need help filling in those gaps.

Other founders might leave a small business to start their own business in the same industry. They believe that they have the knowledge and skills to do it better, or maintain a better lifestyle, working for themselves instead of someone else. What they often discover, however, is that understanding how to do the work of the business does not necessarily mean they know how to devise and implement effective business strategy. They know how to work IN the business, but they don’t know how to run the business well. They need a coach, consultant or mentor to help them transition from the worker bee to the visionary leader.

Be the Lifeline

Small business coaches can be a lifeline to overworked and overwhelmed business owners who often started their business with a vision of a better lifestyle and more control over their time and circumstances, only to find that their business is running them and sucking the life out of them!

The path to success if you want to become a small business coach is to identify a niche, a defined group of entrepreneurs who have the same or similar challenges and provide a specific solution to those challenges. If you know specifically who you want to work with (for example, a specific industry or type of business), you can figure out where to find your ideal clients and target your marketing and sales in those places. If you know what their biggest problems are, you can show them that you have a solution.

The easiest way to enroll clients and deliver consistently great results is to use a prescribed process that is designed to take a business from a specific point A to a specific point B.

Make a difference – become a small business coach

For example, The Pumpkin Plan Business Growth Program takes small business owners from overwhelmed, frustrated and stuck in a holding pattern into a state of flow and  healthy, organic growth.

The Pumpkin Plan Program provides a step-by-step system of removing the obstacles that most small businesses encounter:

  • not enough visibility
  • not enough clients
  • inability to stand out
  • no consistency
  • too many daily fires
  • growth at the expense of profitability
  • growth at the expense of the owner’s lifestyle
  • employee issues
  • no control over their lives or the business

The Pumpkin Plan Strategy shows them the path to sustainable, profitable growth and time freedom for the business owner.

Certified Pumpkin Plan Strategists leverage:

  • the high visibility and continued strong sales of the book, “The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field” by Bestselling Business Author Mike Michalowicz
  • the Credibility they receive from Pumpkin Plan Training and Certification
  • and the ongoing support they receive as part of their Pumpkin Plan Membership…

…to grow their own coaching business while making a real impact on the small business world.

If you dream of becoming a small business coach or consultant, or you already are one and:

  • you are passionate about supporting small businesses to succeed
  • you want to make an impact and contribute to the strength of our economy
  • you don’t want to reinvent the wheel and create your own coaching program

Then we invite you to invest in yourself and your business and apply to become a Pumpkin Plan Strategist!