My (Un)Sexy Strategy for Business Growth

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0:38welcome back to the jasmine star show where we talk about life and business and resilience and marketing and branding and all the stuff that i want to eat for breakfast lunch and dinner y 'all my husband asks if i ever get tired of talking about this and the answer is know. And so this podcast has become a creative outlet and a place that I get to connect with you. So welcome back. Today in this episode, I'm going to be diving into strategies that lead to sustainable business success. This is just a fancy way of saying it's time to ask yourself hard questions, being honest about what isn't working and being willing to adapt to new ways of doing things.

1:13Okay, so why would we do this? When you do this, you get to the next level in business. And that's what I want for you. So this episode is for you if you're willing to get uncomfortable and you understand that success takes time. This episode is probably not for you if your business is a hobby or just something that you do for fun without intentions of scaling, which is totally fine, but I just want to let you know on the front end. Now, the first time I made a shift in my business strategy was when I didn't make more money in my business. Essentially, I was capped in the market. Okay, so I'm going to take a second to explain.

1:45I was around 2013, 2014, and I was a wedding photographer, but I was a wedding photographer in the luxury market. This meant that we were getting paid anywhere around$15 ,000 to$20 ,000 for a wedding. And in addition to that, I was doing in-person educational events. I would be hosting events with photographers for a one-day workshop, and they would come in and they would pay us and we would have like a$40 ,000 or$50 ,000 ribbon stream every other month with this. And then I also sold photography digital products to photographers. So at the time I had three forms of revenue, but I realized that I was capped.

2:21I actually couldn't do more weddings. I didn't want to. We said we were only going to shoot 25 weddings a year. That's what we were capped at because we were doing a lot of traveling. And I didn't want to do more in-person events because there were a lot of time and energy and I didn't want to do them every single month. And there was only so many digital products that I could have. And it was at that time that I did an audit to understand, Hey, what are my options and what of my options can I actually scale? So what I'm going to do now is I am going to teach you exactly how to do the same audit in a step-by-step process.

2:53So let's dive in. First, let's talk about why auditing your current business strategy is so important. I got to convince you of this because strategy audits help you, number one, ensure that you're still aligned with your business goals. What do you want from your business? What do you want from your life? Two, it's going to help you adapt to market changes. And three, it's going to maximize your resources effectively. So you might be thinking, okay, but what does this mean for my business? Let me elaborate. One, ensuring you're aligned with your business goals. Now they can vary between deciding, are you still in harmony with the people you serve?

3:25Are you still in harmony with what you're selling, the price you're charging, the revenue you're aiming for? Doing this assessment can help you decide if your goals are still relevant and if it will help you keep them at top of mind by constantly revisiting them and revising them. Number two, when it comes to adapting to market changes, this can mean staying relevant to market trends, customer preferences, or the economy itself. We know that when the market changes, it changes fast. And the best way to stay ahead of the curve is not to wait and make those moves. Number three, maximizing your resources look like your resources are dispersed where they matter the most.

4:01So why does that matter? Because it ultimately impacts the profitability of your business. By now, you might be thinking like, okay, yeah, I think I need this. I need to do this assessment. Tell me what to do. Good. I got you. I've developed a six-step framework for auditing your business strategy. I'm going to name the six steps and then we're going to dive into examples for each of them. Number one is to ensure your goals are aligned with your long-term vision. Two is to study the market and your competitors. Three is to assess internal resources and your current capabilities. Step four is to review customer insights and feedback.

4:36Step five is to perform a financial assessment. Step six is to analyze performance metrics. So I'm gonna be right now. Half of you heard these steps and you're like, oh, I'm itching to dive in. And the other half are like, Lord, I should just stop listening right now because this sounds painful. I get it. Audits aren't exactly fun, but you wanna know what is fun? Running a growing business that serves people well, that is profitable, and it provides a way for me to sip on a Fosti beverage on a beach vacation whenever I want. That sounds like fun. Okay, so let's start with step one, ensuring your goals align with your long-term vision.

5:10I really wanna make sure that you don't skip this step because I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again, that vision work isn't one and done. You know, it's something that we gotta revisit at least once a year. Here's an example of a product-based business owner evaluating if their goals are in alignment with their vision. So Kim is an ex-corporate jeweler who is now the owner of a small jewelry company that creates custom ethically sourced pieces. She set a new goal to make$10 ,000 with a holiday promotion this year. Now to do this, she decided that she must serve 200 customers at a$50 price point.

5:43Now Kim knows like, hey, this goal is doable, but it conflicts with her vision for two reasons. Number one, her and her team would have to work over Thanksgiving, which is something she promised herself she wouldn't do after leaving the retail industry. And number two, jewelry wouldn't be custom or the highest quality due to supply cost and labor. So what does Kim do? Kim could revise her$10 ,000 goal to better align with her vision and values by aiming to sell$100 completely custom high quality pieces to only 100 people. This way, she will, number one, need less marketing and advertising efforts during the season.

6:21Number two, stay committed to her integrity of her pieces. Three, be more likely to get repeat customers due to the satisfaction of the product. Four, gain more exposure from people who got the jewelry as gifts, you know, because they're more likely to be posting about their custom pieces online compared to the non-custom options. And most importantly, she stayed true and in alignment with her vision. This is the importance of revisiting your goals and cross-referencing your vision and values to make sure that they're in alignment. Now let's move on to step number two, studying the market and competitors.

6:57I honestly cannot think of one industry that doesn't change constantly and evolve. And I think this is a good thing. Why? It's an opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and identify new gaps that appear in the market. So a personal example here could be when we added an AI feature to Social Curator. Instead of ignoring the capabilities of AI and fearing the shifts it could make in the industry, we embraced it by creating Dottie, a personal social media manager who learns your brand voice. Now, I'll share another example of how somebody could study the market and their competitors. Okay, let's say Lisa.

7:30Lisa is a health coach who noticed a demand for ongoing support and access in between workout sessions. Her clients were struggling with accountability during mealtimes, questions and ingredients, and support with their at-home habits. So Lisa looked at competitor her programs and realized there was a common theme to the ones that were sold out, like the ones that were getting results. Some kind of group coaching and community were included. Now, to fill this need, Lisa created a community component to her program where members could interact with each other, ask questions, and get support. So Lisa increased the value of her program, her clients are getting better results, and her members are more likely to stay longer and refer their friends.

8:12and this is why we study the market and competitors. So we covered step one, which is to ensure your goals aligned with your long-term vision. We went over step two, which is to study the market and competitors. And now we're moving to step three, which is to assess your current internal resources and capabilities. Okay, now this step goes beyond a team. It could be technology infrastructure, automation tools, things like that. But the team is often your biggest cost and your most valuable asset. So let's use an example of how we could leverage your teams skills, strengths, and even their interests.

8:43So you might be like, why interests? I want to tell you that finding out what your team members are interested in learning can help you plan for the future and make strategic shifts where needed. So here's an example. Let's say Marcus owns a social media management company that has been growing steadily, but is noticing like increased demand for services that aren't currently offered. So let's say like SEO strategies. Marcus was considering hiring out an SEO expert to his clients, but one of his current employees expressed that she already had started taking courses and been learning SEO on her own.

9:15Instead of hiring another employee to create SEO strategy for clients, which be kind of like a hefty continuous cost, he can invest one time in software and training in a system that to creation to serve his clients well. So now Marcus has a new in-demand offer and his clients, and more importantly, his employees, man, they feel seen and heard and invested in, all because he took the time to assess his current resources. Okay, moving on to step four of our six-part framework to auditing your business strategy, which is to review customer insights and feedback. There is no wrong way to gather customer feedback.

9:53You could do this through surveys, reviews, and any other interactions, but here's the thing that we have to consider. We must listen without defensiveness. This is sometimes hard to do, but when your mind is busy trying to defend your product and service, you might overlook some really valuable feedback that can dramatically improve your product or service. Another side to reviewing customer feedback is through analyzing data. This helps you understand customer preferences and buying habits. Okay, so here's an example. I've been rolling in with these examples today. Let's say David owns a coffee shop.

10:24By consistently analyzing his data and listening to customer feedback, he discovers, huh, a major portion of his customers are requesting dairy-free milk alternatives and consistently buying his vegan pastries. Because he recognized this trend, David was able to make a strategic decision to expand his menu with a wider variety of dairy-free milk options and introduced more plant-based foods other than his other pastries. This strategic move not only caters to his customers' preferences, but also enhances the overall coffee shop experience, reflecting his commitment to improving customer satisfaction.

11:00Now, David has increased customer loyalty. He's eliminated cost with proper ordering and has an overall more profitable coffee shop. Data, y 'all. So listen to your customer's feedback and analyze data to shape your future offers and make informed decisions. All right, now we're gonna move on to step number five, which is to evaluate your finances. If you find yourself avoiding this step because like the emotional weight that numbers can carry, you're not alone, I have been there too. I encourage you to go back and listen to my podcast titled Eight Mindset Shifts to Transform Your Relationship with Money.

11:35I can actually link it to you in the show notes too. Okay, so here's an example of how a business owner could evaluate their finances to make better spending decisions. Let's say Ashley owns a podcast and video production agency, and she's noticed that her expenses have been consistently increasing over the past few months. She's subconsciously hesitant to look into the details because she's worried about the emotions that it's going to bring up, like emotions like shame, guilt, unpreparedness. I don't know. Can you relate to Ashley? But Ashley dives into her financial statements and she realizes that a major portion of her expenses are due to outsourcing tasks that should be actually handled in-house.

12:12And that's a pretty simple fix. She then cross trains her team members to be able to keep cost to a minimum, decrease employee turnover, and keep the standard of the company high. By doing this work, Ashley realized that she was outsourcing so much to external contractors because it felt safe. It wasn't as big of a commitment of hiring in-house and she felt more in control of that working relationship. But that mindset was costing her and keeping her from growing a team of dedicated employees to help her truly scale her business. Okay, finally, step number six, which is to analyze performance metrics.

12:47This is the final step to help you measure effectiveness of your current strategies, and you're going to use KPIs. These are also known as key performance indicators. But first, if you haven't already established KPIs in your business, it's time to do that. Y 'all, it's time to grow up, Buttercup. I want you to ask yourself three questions to help you get started setting KPIs. This is a game changer in my business. Number one, what specific outcome am I trying to achieve? Number two, how will I know if I'm making progress towards this goal? And number three, which aspects of my business are most critical to this goal?

13:20So here's an example of KPIs being established by answering these questions. Okay, dive into an example. Tatiana is a photographer who is wanting to elevate her online presence because she knows that's going to help her reach her number one goal, which is to increase inquiries and bookings for her branding sessions. Answering those three questions, Tatiana realized that her desired outcome is to secure a minimum of eight branding sessions a month. She'll measure her progress by tracking the number of inquiries that convert into confirmed bookings that month. Her critical business aspects are her conversion rates from her marketing efforts that led to the inquiry.

13:59Ah, do you see how answering those three questions and getting her KPIs, she now knows how to measure them. With these KPIs in place, Tatiana can create a clear metric to gauge the effectiveness of her strategies. And just like Tatiana, having these KPIs in place will help you identify areas of success and areas that need improvement to make informed decisions in your business. Okay, we covered a lot. Let's review those six steps. Step one is to ensure your goals align with your values and your long-term vision. Step two is to study the market and your competitors. Step three is to assess the internal resources and your current capabilities.

14:37Step four is to review customer insights and feedback. Step five is to perform a financial assessment. Step six is to analyze performance metrics. Okay. So now that you have performed your audit, you're going to want to put all this information in one place. This is going to be your go-to document. So when a new decision is needed to be made, or if there's a dip in sales, or you're noticing shifts in the market and you haven't adapted yet, you're going to revisit this document. Okay. But aside from those other times, you're going to want to monitor your new strategy every couple months and continue to improve it.

15:10There's no such thing as like a set your business and forget it. So I have three ways for you to make that happen. Number one, mark regular check-ins on your calendar, like once a quarter to review the strategy and track progress and make adjustments once a quarter. That is once every three months. Number two, encourage open communication with your team members to gather insights and fresh perspectives to keep you listening to your customers' needs and desires as they evolve. I'm going to pause here and give a little bit of a shout out to your customer success team and my customer success team.

15:39We have people who are answering emails, supporting customers, and they hands down know the most about your business. How? They're the front lines of people saying good things, not so great things, and asking for requests. It is so important that every big meeting, all hands meeting, any strategy meeting, any product meeting that we have on the inside of a social carrier, our head of customer success, Rosie, she's on those calls. Why? She knows our user better than anybody else. Listening to your customer success team, embracing those changes, embracing what users are saying. Oh, that's gonna be the best thing.

16:16Okay. Speaking of embracing, let's get into number three. Embrace flexibility by being prepared to adapt your strategy to the market. The market's going to change. I cannot express this enough. The future of your business is counting on you to be adaptable. You must change to grow. If you're not growing, you're dying. So I know we talked a lot today, and this isn't always like the funnest part in business, which is why this work is often avoided. It's not fun or exciting, and it doesn't have like an instant ROI. But here's the thing. Even though it seems like a waste of time, it's actually the opposite.

16:51It keeps you from wasting time. It allows you to evolve and evolve quickly when something in your business no longer serves you or it just doesn't make sense. I hope you take what you have learned today and I hope you put it into action because you and your business deserve the very best. Thank you so much for tuning into the Jasmine Star Show. If you have found this episode value, you know the drill, y 'all, you know the drill. I love seeing how and where you listen to it. I often share them on my stories and I get to personally say thank you for doing that. And like shout out to the people who leave a review on the podcast.

17:24I know I say it every week, but honestly, 30 seconds of your time empowers us to secure these amazing interviews. It pushes us forward and it helps more people discover the show, which is ultimately we want to do. We want to share what we learn and learn what we share. It is a blessing and an honor. And I just want to say thank you for listening to the Jasmine Starshaw.