The 4th Way to Grow a Business or Profession

In the Beginning

For most of my 30-year career, I taught that there are only three ways to grow a business (or profession). To give deserved credit, I first learned about the three ways at a day-long Tom Peters workshop (Best-selling author of “In Search of Excellence”).   

Once I adopted the 3-step marketing approach, my company took off. And, best of all, it consistently created new ‘never-ending opportunities.’ If you can write a resume, you can write power-bios for top producers in real estate, finance, dental, and other professions. If you can teach winning interview techniques, you can teach winning sales and customer service strategies. You can create multiple income streams.   

So I want to re-introduce the foundational concepts to growing a successful business or profession, as most thriving enterprises are based on optimizing them.  

But there is a 4th. 

If you can’t wait, scroll down to see the 4th way to grow a business and profession. But the 4th way won’t matter much until you understand and strategically prepare for the first three.  

3 Ways to Grow a Business or Profession – Quick Review

#1) The first one is obvious. It’s increasing the number of customers or clients. This is the one method that almost everybody focuses the majority of their attention and money on. But the second and third strategies are actually where you have the greatest potential for leverage and growth.  

#2) The second strategy is to increase your average transaction value. This simply means increasing the size of the sale and profit (continuing to try and increase profit margins is a given in all strategies). Today, it’s a rare occurrence when top practitioners take on a client and don’t add on services – upsell.  

#3) The third strategy is increasing the frequency of purchase. This means you provide an array of services and products to get ‘repeat business’ from customers. This tends to be a stumbling block for most resume writers and career coaches because once the resume or coaching service is successfully concluded… then what?  

Increasing the Number of Customers or Clients

There are untold ways to increase customers for resume writing and career coaching professionals: billboard and bus stop advertising, TV and radio advertising, Google and social media marketing, direct mail, networking, word-of-mouth, sponsorships… the sky’s the limit. But the sky is not the limit when it comes to a marketing budget. 

That said, the most successful methods today (and this could change tomorrow), for those operating in our space include:  1) Referral Marketing, 2)  Public Presentations, 3) Online and Offline Influencing. 

In all my years of trying to wrap my head around marketing in our profession, I’ve found that most successful people and businesses have no significant marketing expenses. This is because most of their business comes from a strong, consistent pipeline of referrals.     

Public presentations and online/offline influencing are similar. It’s about being ‘visual’ and ‘influential’ to targeted audiences. This is achieved via podcasting, blogs, media and influencing appearances (local, regional, and national), books, and articles, etc. The key here is to have something compelling, different, and memorable to share with audiences. (Note: This strategy is the most expensive of the three).

Increasing the Average Transaction Value

Again, there are many ways to increase the average transactional value. You buy a new suit and the salesperson adds on a few shirts, a couple ties, a pair of shoes, and underwear that’s on sale this week. Your $500 suit now costs over $1,000.  

And BTW, Flo is not the first person to promote the concept of ‘bundling.’ Resume writers were among the first back in the 1980’s. “A resume is $50.  But if you purchase a cover letter as well, it’s $75 – saving you $25.” An ancient example of increasing the average transactional value in our profession.

Increasing Frequency of Purchase:

The challenge in the resume and career coaching space is that when clients have their finalized resumes and/or have completed their coaching services, and have landed a job… why would they return?  

Do career coaches provide services such as:  ‘How to Grow in Your New Job’ or any type of life-coaching services to keep active clients and increase sales in the future? It’s great to have newsletters and be active on social media. But the goal with this strategy is to increase service and product menus to enhance growth and profitability.  

So increasing frequency doesn’t mean you hope your clients will soon be fired, so they come back to update their resumes. It means they’ve been impressed with you, so what other services do you offer that they are willing to pay you for? (This strategy assumes strong ‘client retention skills,’ – as no one returns if dissatisfied). 

The 4th way to grow your business and profession

Rebranding: Name and Identity Changes that Define the Future

Here’s the challenge: As the ‘job search’ space metamorphosizes into an AI-driven future, the risk is not that resumes or career coaching disappears entirely, but that resume writing, career coaching, and employment practitioners will have to add all new services and, thus, don’t see themselves in their name anymore.  

I recall a time when my business card (yes, decades ago) said ‘Certified Resume Professional,’ at a time when 80% of my business and services I marketed were non-resume related services. In this case, it was time to rebrand my identity.

As noted in my May article, I believe resume writers and career coaches will disappear pretty much, and transition into career (workplace) strategists / architects. AI will do the initial resume and provide preliminary (even advanced) career coaching strategies.  

It’s already happening, so career strategists and architects will focus on:

• Decision-making and conscious workplace designing
• Creating algorithmic ‘professional identities’ (See my May Spotlight issue – it’s the future !)
• Career and competitive positioning
• Personal branding and customization 
• Optimizing online digital footprint
• Talent marketplace navigation
• Personal reputation management
• How to ride the emotional roller coaster

The Important Question

The key question isn’t whether AI is changing the industry. It is. The important question to ask is whether the name of a company, organization, or professional title accurately reflects the value it delivers to its customers.

Also, is the name attractively memorable so it stays top-of-mind over the competition? Today, a company or organization should consider rebranding when their name describes:

1. … a service that has lost its unique brand identity, and becomes interchangeable with its competition.  
2. … a company that has grown well-beyond its original services being offered.
3. … a company that’s name is equated with obsolescence, or is on the verge of becoming outdated. 
4. … a misunderstanding of what the company actually does and the services it offers its clients.
5. … a situation where it limits expansion into new, necessary-to-survive segments and services.
6. … its future positioning is fundamentally different from its past positioning.
7. … an absence of the ‘magnetic effect’ (very little excitement created around the products and services).

Not So Fast – Legacy Names

On the other hand, a name change is probably not necessary when businesses and professionals want to keep legacy names that outweigh their naming limitations. For example, Google is still called Google. It didn’t change to, Keyword Searches Are Us. Amazon sells far more than books. Microsoft is no longer primarily about software. And the Jay Block Companies, LLC, didn’t even tell you what the company did! But these companies created legacy value – strong recognition, good reviews and search rankings, well established referrals, and industry credibility. So… no need to rebrand.  

I have often been asked, if I were starting a company today, what would I call it? Certainly not The Jay Block Companies, LLC. Today, based on what I envision for the profession, it would be something like: ‘Workplace Decisions for an Enriched Life.’ And my title:  Workplace Strategist.  

Summary

I believe everyone must take time daily to anticipate and plot the future. Growing a business always required strategy, but today the future is unrecognizable. AI changes the whole scenario. There are mainly four ways to grow a business.  And today, all four strategies need to be examined and reexamined… weekly, if not daily.