55. Business Growth Essentials With Kevin Gammie
[spp-transcript]
Kevin Gammie
Business Growth Essentials
Kevin Gammie was my choice for the show because I see him as an advocate for small business. He’s built an active community of business owners who come together to ask questions, promote their business and assist each other. It wasn’t always like this though… Kevin started his first small business in 1999. He worked as an accountant, consulting salesman & State Manager in Fortune 500 Businesses as well as smaller and mid-size organisations. Like many others, the GFC nearly wiped out his business. With 15 staff in a recruitment firm, the losses in 2009-2010 set him reeling. Four years later, after the successful sale of that business, Growth Mentors became a reality. Growth Mentors has helped grow many small businesses and in this episode we learn what it is that we need to do to achieve successful and sustainable growth.
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During my conversation with Kevin he shares:
- His experience as a small business owner (including the GFC)
- The importance of recognising the need to focus on either survival mode vs growth mode
- Emotional Intelligence for business explained
- How to identify our ideal customers in detail
- Why we may need to re-think our business values
- The need for efficacy to ensure we stand-out in our market
- Case studies of successes related to a focus on knowing client avatar and social awareness
- Tips for how to recruit the right people
- The need for reflection on current practices
- How an ineffective marketing campaign can have great potential
- Some tips for how to ensure we remain true to our business values
- Why we shouldn’t rely on existing clients’ business; and
- Why we need to feel ‘uncomfortable’ in our business
Kevin’s Example Of A Customer-Centric Business
- Bunnings – Albion & Stafford Stores for their helpfulness, patience and product knowledge
Selected Links For This Episode
- Brisbane Small Business facebook page
- Kevin’s book of choice – Emotional Intelligence 2.0
- Kevin’s business – Growth Mentors
“I find a lot of small businesses can be very successful in somewhere between 30 and 100 clients and they don’t really need many more than that if they choose the right ones” Kevin Gammie
“If you’re only looking for, say 50 clients, then you don’t need (an enormous) marketing campaign, you can be a lot more targeted at what you’re doing” Kevin Gammie
“By understanding who your ideal client is, then you can be far more precise in what you’re trying to do for them” Kevin Gammie
“ You can always train someone to do a job but if somebody doesn’t have the same values, you can’t train someone to have your values” Kevin Gammie
On separating ourselves from our business “It’s much easier to turn a business around if you’re not the business. Because when times are tough, you start to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. If business is tough and you can look at it and say ‘the business needs to change’, you don’t have to carry that weight. It doesn’t mean you don’t worry, but at the same time you see the business can change” Kevin Gammie
“If everything you do in a week, you feel absolutely competent at, I challenge you to find something to keep you a little bit uncomfortable…It won’t be perfect but your clients will appreciate that you’re continually trying to grow. It’s a sign that you will be profitable in the future because you’re continually growing and evolving what you’re doing ” Kevin Gammie
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