| I always maintain that the quickest way to grow
your business, is not by adding new customers, but by encouraging
existing customers to buy more or buy more often.
Here is an example of StreetSmart thinking by one
of North America's great entrepreneurs. If you want to increase
profits, trim low-profit-margin items from your product line. They
may be eating up limited and valuable resources that could be better
utilized elsewhere.
Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza, tells
a story about the early days in his first pizzeria:
"One night, most of my employees didn't show
up, and I didn't know whether to open or not. Someone said, 'Why
don't you just cut out the six-inch pizzas?' We had five sizes,
but most of our business was the smallest, the six-inch. It took
just as long to make as the big one and just as much time to deliver
but cost less.
"I decided we would try that," said Monaghan.
"We never got busy that night, and yet we made
50% more money than we ever had. The next night I cut out the nine-inch
pizza, and all the bills caught up. I learned then that keeping
things simple could be more profitable."
(Source: Fortune
Small Business)
Sometimes discoveries like this are forced upon
us, sometimes we are smart enough to figure it out. Which ever way it
is as business owners, we must always look for ways to increase
the dollar amount at the point of purchase, or offer existing customers
a reason to come back more often.
If you got everyone of your customers to spend just
10% more each time they buy from you, what impact would that have
on your bottom line. Go ahead do the calculations, I am sure you
will be shocked.
|