Growing Your Business!
One wouldn't think that a book half the size of most books and only having 76 pages of content would be much of a book.
However, if that's the general thinking, then you have to read
Growing Your Business! by Mark LeBlanc. That's what this book is all about, and it doesn't waste a lot
of time and energy by using too many words that get in the way of the message.
This book is basic business 101: create a model; position yourself for business; understand your clients
needs; learn selling and marketing; develop your marketing plan; and focus. He talks you through the process of each
step, coaching you in direct language that's easy to understand, if at times somewhat difficult to do because it takes
your mind into places you've probably never thought of before.
He immediately puts you to work with some assignments he believes are crucial for you to begin having success.
Those things are: come up with a business plan; write an executive summary; define what your financial outcomes
are hoped to be; and define what you're going to do in the morning and in the afternoon to help you get there. In
a way, it reminds me slightly of the Get Clients
Now process, only with more work upfront and not as rigid, though I also love that process.
One very important thing he talks about is that your business is not about yourself and your title, or your products
and services, but the concept behind your business; what will people achieve if they use your services or products?
That's not as easy a question to answer as it would seem to be for most people because businesses get so used to
telling you everything about themselves and their products and don't talk as often about the back end benefits to
the client. LeBlanc recommends coming up with 10 outcomes for your clients that you can present at any time.
For me, though, the most important concept he talked about in the book is coming up with a defining statement for
yourself and your business. This goes back to the idea of concept rather than anything else, and it takes a bit of
thinking to get it right. As an example, he gives us his defining statement:
"I work with people who want to
start a business and small business owners who want to grow their business. In essence, he's talking about an
elevator speech without using the terminology, but at the same time he hasn't totally pigeon holed himself so finitely
that he can't offer services that even he might not have thought of at the time.
Some of the other things he talks about in the book are basic sales training thoughts, but that's okay because
sometimes it helps reading them again, and of course his wording is different than someone who might be learning
something like the Sandler system, so they may take
away a different perspective on the art.
Overall, Growing Your Business! is a powerful little book that every person who wants to get into
business or help their business grow should read. Hey, I just gave his defining statement; and that's the point of it all.
