Keep It Moving

Manny Salomon smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Your business is not static Your business is not static — at least it shouldn’t be. Every successful company, in every market, has to evolve its offerings, approach, or marketing strategies. Otherwise you risk your products or services getting stale in the eyes of the consumer: all while competitors evolve what they’re doing to meet the changing needs of those ...

Open Culture

Marilyn Sanford smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Employee Profit Sharing I want to discuss two related yet very different Company initiatives intended to create shared incentives and grow loyalty.   One, I struggled with over the years and simply could not find the right system(s) to support.  Perhaps it was a poor approach or lack of ‘gut’ but we never managed to develop a viable employee profit ...

Do you have a business development plan in place?

Jason Sayen smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Skilled trade businesses start their businesses servicing a defined niche set of customers, which through word of mouth advertising, the business scales.  Over time, the business continues to scale and you hire more employees to take on the additional workload. At some point, if you want to scale your business even further, you will need to create a business development ...

Marketing: Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Manny Salomon smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Contrary to what some may think, marketing is never just a flash of creative genius, then flawless execution. It’s constant iteration. It’s monitoring what’s working — and more importantly, what’s not working. Marketing means constantly changing directions until you find the strategy that produces returns. Repeat after us: Advertising is an investment. Not an expense But if you invest in ...

Overcoming Objections and Closing, Part 2

Mark Cichowski smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Here are few a typical objection scenarios. “I want to think about it”. Just be sincere and non-confrontational and ask, “may I ask what specifically you would like to think about?” You’ll find that many people will tell you what’s holding them back. It’s then more likely to be an objection rather than an excuse. “I need to ask my partner, ...

Turnover and Company Culture

Marilyn Sanford smartPRENEUR Blog Series

The Cost of Turnover I’ve heard horror stories about the cost of turnover in firms, especially smaller firms.   It may be one of the least understood and costly aspects of running a small labor dependent business.   Estimates have ranged from a month’s salary to a year’s salary.   I’m not referring to payouts, I’m referring to the internal ...
Looking back to move forward

A Look Back to Move Forward

Tom Coffin smartPRENEUR Blog Series

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana Deja Vu Have you ever started writing or documenting how you want something done only to later find a file that was created previously, sometimes years ago, and you realize, “I’ve already done this work.” I think this happens to all of us. The first week of January ...

Service Plans – Things to Consider

Chris Smith smartPRENEUR Blog Series

I have watched as integrators overcomplicate the process of creating a service plan. Answering a few key questions will help to define the framework of your offering and be better able to price it accurately. Keep it simple! Seriously, one page, plain English, one price point (% of System Price), and non-optional. General Timing: Days/Hours of Operation Response Times: Acknowledgement ...

How to convey your value to your clients, builders, architects and designers

Jason Sayen smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Architects and Designers use documentation to show the client their vision for the project and sets the expectation for the client.  It’s also a key piece of information that aligns all of the trades involved ensuring everyone knows what the expectations are and what the end result should look like.   Without it, the project will fail. Most integrators only use ...