Case Study

John has a small carpentry business with two guys working with him.  Business has been tough in the last twelve months and the dilemma was – what’s next for the business, what should he do?

Fit Business reviewed the financial reports for the previous year – the current year accounts were not complete, but the main trends could be established.  His sales compared to last year,  wage costs compared to last year,  purchases and so on  - we quickly identified that margins were being eroded by competition in this tight marketplace.  Also two main building contractors had gone out of business leaving a large void.     The examination revealed that John had never once pitched for business, all his business was by referral,  most of his business was repeat business.    70% business was with construction sector, the other 30% came from customers who wished for additional work to be completed when their house was near completion.

John listened to our advice,  we drew up a one page business plan – with eight key objectives.  Each objective had five action points – each was easy to understand and linked to each other in a succinct way.   One question raised, should he start to make one off wardrobes? well yes if he is doing a fitted kitchen, why not extend the sale by offering a wardrobe service and then add on again by perhaps fitting doors or skirting boards,  look at then offering a decking service and so on.   We suggested that John take a photo of his work, print it and show to potential customers examples of work.   Also, why not ask clients to recommend him, or at the end of the working day – drop into one or two neighbours, introduce himself and let them know that he is currently working in X neighbour, will be in the neighbourhood for the next week if they would like him to quote for any work.    John balked at this idea, but we said try it twice and see what happens – be brave we urged.  He did,  three days later after the neighbour checked with the customer John was working with, he got a call to quote for the exact same job he was just completing.

John had a website but it was written in flash and despite having some age on it was not being found in a Google search for his key search terms.  Sometimes even if your website is structured in a way that makes it difficult for search engines(primarily Google in Ireland) to find you, you will gain some ranking, however low, over time.  In this instance, John’s website had achieved no ranking despite being 5 years old so we advised him to discard and start from scratch.  We set up a website for John built around a content management system which allows him to edit or add content at any time. We trained him to upload photos onto the site so he can update his portfolio regularly.  We advised him to include the website address on all his promotional materials including his business cards and on face-to-face interaction with clients to let them know that his portfolio can be seen on his website.

We worked on various strategies and now business is booked right up to Christmas.  A little extra effort,  a little extra thought, a little extra time, and a little extra courage to try the untried can bring success!