Paul Harrison sits down with Simon K Williams founder of AppManSecrets.com and Business-Appcelerator to get his top three tips on how to rapidly expand your business.
Tip 1: Remember who it’s for!
The one thing big businesses know, that small businesses don’t, is that research and development is worth the effort.
Find a way to gather ‘insights’ from your audience (sadly you can’t just ask them, because their answers will be limited to their imagination), if you can do this better than your rivals, then your products and services will stand out like a beacon of light and people will flock to your solutions.
Tip 2: Use anonymous products!
Everyone’s busy, everyone’s trying to sell, and nobody wants to let a salesmen into their life without qualifying them first. So if you want to grow your business you must have a product that people can have access to, without having to give their details first.
We call this a Product for Prospects or P4P, and every good business has one.
Tip 3: Stand out from the noise!
There are two great ways to have your product stand out from the crowd: Innovation, Entertainment, or both.
When the Transformer toy was first created it didn’t sell. Then they decided to create a cartoon-series, as a result it became one of the most profitable toy lines in the world – an example of a great P4P – and have since created two Hollywood blockbuster movies.
Q&A: Simon K Williams answers Adele Theron’s questions.
Adele Theron is a London-based South African who specialises in getting people over divorce with her 21 day Naked-Divorce program. She had the following questions regarding how to rapidly expand her business:
I never have enough time, how do I expand when I’m flat out already?
Productize. You must distil your knowledge into a form that is easily distributed, and consumed. Any consultancy or coaching service is inherently un-scalable. Successful companies find a way to solve this and expand through productization.
What’s the best types of products for rapid expansion?
In the past for your industry it would have been events, although still viable you need a big network, or a good JV to make that work. DVD’s are a little old school these days. Mobile apps are the big thing, they provide a very rich, personal, scalable, easily distributed solution that have replaced the audio and DVD products we may have used in the past.
You can use your app to create a database of qualified prospects who will be hungry for your core services, which will rapidly grow your business.
How do I go about creating an app to support my business?
Work out the number one reason why your customers buy from you; it’s usually something emotive, like trust or fun. Then create a solution that delivers that experience. McDonalds demonstrates that they are a fun place to visit for kids by giving away toys (they are the biggest toy distributor in the world), the quality of the food is irrelevant.
For more information on Simon and how to accelerate your business, please visit www.BusinessAppcelerator.com, if you have any other questions that you would like answered, please email [email protected]
