Get serious about successful business growth

The primal instinct of any business owner is successful business growth. The reality is few business expansions ever reach regional, national and international levels. Why? How can you grow your business?

The combination of focus on the value proposition, target customer and a sustainable business model is not sufficient nor considered enough to produce the outcome of really serious growth in a reasonable timeframe. The extensive experience of DC Strategy provides an insight into a few straightforward ideas considering Pandora Jewelry, PoolWerx and Gizmo, who have all achieved really serious growth.

Pandora Jewelry, a Denmark-based jewelry manufacturer, has established a retail distribution network around the globe via a combination of company and licensed business models. Pandora Australia was founded by Karen Adcock in 2005 and in the space of three years has grown from one to more than 550 points of retail presence.

PoolWerx , a pool and spa service and retail company, is the dominant brand in the Australian marketplace. Founded by John O’Brien in 1992, the group has grown to include more than 230 mobile operators and 50 retail stores, making it one of the largest in its industry globally.

Gizmo, an information technology (IT) service business, is an Australia-wide industry leader, providing service to the customers of major telecommunications companies, manufactures and retailers, and to the broader IT consumer market. Founded by Brett Chenoweth and Danny Gilligan in 2006, Gizmo provides installation, support and training on-site and over the phone via an expansive nationwide mobile technician network and phone support crew, seven days a week.

Value Proposition

The value proposition is the core basis of the product or service offering to the market. In most instances, the familiar 80:20 rule applies to the source of profit and the breadth of the product or service offering. Consequently, one hallmark of serious growth is finding scale in the core of the business rather than wasting time, money and effort on growth in marginal or poor return areas of the business. Park the emotional rationale as to why the business needs a broader offering. If you want serious growth it will be built on the back of a simple and very focused value proposition.

*Lessons from Pandora
-Specialist value jewelry product
-Strong brand presence and high quality of representation and service standards.

*Lessons from Gizmo
-Simple and understandable service offering
-Focused on key areas within information, communication and technology .

Targeting Customers

The target market is about understanding the core customer that requires your product or service to derive some form of benefit. The customer will likely be diverse but there is a clear need to understand the type of customer, their decision-making process for acquiring your value proposition and how the distribution strategy will reach the customer. It is not an exact science and need not be overcomplicated. Take a hard look at your most profitable existing customers and, by understanding the attributes and measuring certain criteria, you will have a road map for further growth.

*Lessons from Poolwerx
-Even when customers self select with a pool they need to understand and place a value on the product or service
-A customer can be a competitor if they do not place enough value on their own time or resource when cleaning a pool or spa
-The strength of the PoolWerx value proposition was the catalyst for growing the total size of customer spend in the market across mobile and retail operations.

*Lessons from Gizmo
-A national network created a scale and unparalleled expertise to align with large referrers of customers
-The simplicity of the pricing model and clear definition of product and service offering ensures a total focus and understanding of who the customer is and what they are seeking.