BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 3.

Hi there! This week we're picking up where we left off on our 3-part mini-series. As I mentioned, I own a warehouse gym in Houston, Texas called The League. This year The League turns 6 which is so humbling because most small businesses fail within the first five years. So I thought it could be helpful to share with you the top three lessons I've learned from owning my very first business. Last week we talked about securing your money team, and this week is all about your clients, so let's get into it.

Lesson number two, “Every Client is Not a Good Client”. You want to say no to some clients. “What?” You might be thinking, “No, ma'am. I am just starting my business. I'm going to get my hands on whatever kind of revenue I can.” Well, I know, it's hard to do in the beginning, and you have all these expenses and you're really trying to get whatever revenue you can to mitigate those expenses. But, friend. You can learn this lesson the hard way, or the easy way. Take it from me, being able to describe your ideal customer and marketing solely towards them is key. And you know marketing isn't just what you're putting on your website or on social media. It's even in the way you structure your services and packages. 

So let me tell you a story. When we launched The League, we had a first class free option. We thought this would be a great way to get people in the door and you know once they saw how amazing the workout was, they're going to want to sign up for a monthly recurring package. So we did this for a year or and our retention rates just weren't the best. So I thought maybe there's something I'm missing. I happened upon this webinar that talked about introductory offers. And the course kind of laid out how you should have a client put skin in the game, and give them longer than just a day to get more value out of their experience. Initially, our day pass was $20. Let's say you want to just drop in for a class. And we would offer that for free for people if it was their first time. What we changed was instead of the free class, we had an intro offer, $30 for an entire week of unlimited classes. I even know some yoga studios who will do this like $30 for a whole month of unlimited classes which is awesome. And so, since our regular day pass was $20, this intro offer was priced just slightly higher and they got a lot more value. This did a few things. First, if they're really considering buying a monthly package, which you know your ideal client would be, then they would see this offer as immensely valuable. They'd be really happy with it because they're able to kind of try things out and they get a whole week to come as much as they want. That's really more valuable to them than just a one day free class. 

So number two, and this is my favorite one because they've paid something, because they have skin in the game, they have more of an incentive to come as much as possible during that week. They want to get the most bang for their buck. So you're able to, as your business, showcase your incredible customer service and your product, which for us was workout, again and again. So they're getting a lot more exposure to the gym than they would if they were just going to have that one-day free pass. They're getting your more full client experience again and again. And so they're falling in love with you and your team during this week. They're more primed to buy that way. If they had just come for a day you know maybe something was off that day, or maybe they were in a bad mood and so it kind of tainted their experience. But when they come, again and again, it's like, “Okay, yeah. This place is really neat”. And you're kind of positioning them to be more ready to buy a package when the time comes. 

We even offer a discount so that if they sign up during their introductory offer, they get an ongoing 10% discount on their monthly package. So instead of paying the full rate, indefinitely they're able to pay 10% off if they sign up during their introductory offer. It also kind of gets them to go ahead and sign up for a package at the end of their introductory offer. So before, because of how we package our services, we were attracting clients who were not ideal. We were attracting people who basically just wanted a free workout. But now we're offering a really valuable price point to a client that we would want for the long haul. 

So in summary, it's not easy, but you have to be okay with saying no to some clients. Let's take a different example. Let's say you're a photographer. And in that first client meeting, you're thinking of it like, “Oh, I gotta kill this. I want to get this person on as a client”. But what you kind of forget is you're interviewing them too. And if you end up thinking, I don't really know if I want to be tied to this person for the next six months, don't just take the gig because of money. You want to be inspired by your work. You don't want to end up in this drudgery zone where you feel like your job owns you, your business owns you and you don't own it. And that starts with you, taking some time to really think about who is my ideal client, and what is it that they want? So this is what I want you to do. Wherever you are in your business, take a look at the product or service you offer and analyze whether or not it attracts your ideal client. If you're thinking, I just don't know. One thing you could do is go and actually interview people who would be your ideal client and say, “Is this look appealing to you? What do you think when you see my product or my service?” And get some feedback from them.

All right. That is all for today. I would love it if you were to review Bird Means Business on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes) and wherever you find your podcasts, and then to also subscribe. Next week we'll be discussing the idea around “Hire Slow, Fire Quick”. I hope you tune in.