What does uniqueness have to do with organization?
Just about everything, according to Dave Lupberger. Identifying your “unique selling proposition” and understanding what it is that people want to purchase from you and why will help you create an action plan for working on, not in, your business — developing systems, creating standard operating procedures, hiring the right people and the right number of people. In a word, “organizing.”
To find your unique selling proposition, Lupberger suggests investing time in a few past clients. “Call three or four ... and take them to lunch. Find out why they chose to do business with you,” he says. “You’ll begin to see that there is a common theme. Maybe it’s a particular type of project. Or it might be your approach or your skill sets within the company.” Hit the Target
When Lupberger, who is now a consultant and the author of The Remodelers Turnkey Program, was a remodeling company owner, he discovered his target during a long-term project he was working on near a school. “I had about six people over the course of two years sign me on for jobs,” he says.
He looked for commonalities in those clients and found that all were two-income families with elementary school–age children; all had similar incomes; their homes were built around the same time; and they had lived in the neighborhood for more than four years.
Through a marketing company, he was able to find out how many people within that ZIP code were in that demographic. “I found 270 people in that demographic, targeted them [with a direct-mail message], and did 12 more projects over the next three years.”
If you’ve really identified your targets, you can figure out your overhead, your personnel requirements, and your budgets. “Project out one year,” Lupberger says. “Ask yourself, ‘If I could do a bit of re-engineering and provide those products and services I do best, what will my company look like one year from now?’”
