Expansion

Raise the Revenue

By Alan Boyd | Published on 03/09/2023

The textbook answer to increasing revenue looks something like this:

Increase the # of sales
Increase the AOV (Average Order Value)
Increase the LTV (Lifetime Customer Value)

While it’s accurate, it’s not actionable.

After helping 100s of clients over a 14-year period earn more revenue, I’ve distilled all my experience down into 4 main actionable categories:

Do The Math
Numbers don’t lie.

Raise your prices
Reduce your expenses
Collect on unpaid invoices

Get Organized
Close more of what you’ve already got.

Utilize a CRM
Acknowledge inquiries promptly
Follow Up
Take prospects all the way to a proposal
Offer financing

Get More Active
Most of your competitors are lazy. Use this to your advantage.

Pound Social Media
Run a Promotion
Do Business Development
Increase outbound

Sharpen The Blade
Become a better version.

Improve your footprint
Improve your skills
Go small, double down on what works.

By taking action in these four categories, do the math, get organized, get more active, sharpen the blade, businesses can increase revenue and become more successful. Remember, numbers don’t lie, so it’s important to track and adjust accordingly.

The Big Guns

By Alan Boyd | Published on 03/08/2023

Business leaders typically come to me when they have a problem that they’ve already tried to solve on their own but haven’t been able to.

In most cases, they’ve also hired other vendors (sometimes several) to try and solve their problem too but they can’t get it done either.

By the time they get to me, they’ve likely been dealing with this problem for months or years.

At some point, they start asking around and tapping into their network to try and figure out what to do and how others have overcome similar problems in the past.

If you’re in the Palm Beach County region, there’s a good chance that my name will come up at this point.

When my phone rings, they are pulling out the big guns.

And this is exactly where I thrive.

The initial call will go something like this:

“So and so gave me your number……I’m a little gun-shy here because I’ve been let down by other vendors, but I hear you’re the guy who can solve big problems.”

And that’s exactly what I do.

I start by asking questions.

I want to know everything there is to know about their situation.

I dig deep to understand the root cause of their problem and then I develop a custom solution that’s tailored to their unique needs.

This approach has helped me solve problems for some of the biggest names in the Palm Beach County region and beyond.

So if you’re dealing with a big hairy problem that no one else has been able to solve, give me a call.

I thrive on solving the impossible.

The Stuff of Legend

By Alan Boyd | Published on 03/02/2023

How this client’s beach resort transformed an International travel ban into the stuff of legend.

Alan Boyd provides invaluable guidance to local business owners. As part of his commitment to equipping entrepreneurs with the best practices and tips, he continues to offer a series of helpful insights. Stay informed and receive regular updates by subscribing to Alan’s Newsletter, ensuring you never miss out on these valuable resources.

International travel bans, violent conflict, and resort occupancy were not on my 2018 bingo card.

At that time, more than 10 cities in Nicaragua were the scene of heavy fighting when local residents began public protests against the social security reforms decreed by President Daniel Ortega.

In response to these skirmishes, the United States issued a Level 4 travel advisory for Americans attempting to fly to Nicaragua.

Once the travel ban was issued, many businesses that relied on U.S. tourism were basically cut off from the outside world.

It was at that time that Chancletas Beach Resort, one of the tourism dependant businesses, became my client.

When the resort’s president, Shay O’Brien called me he was panicked, and rightfully so.

The travel ban had eliminated his resort’s ability to generate revenue virtually overnight and with no telling how long it would last.

He called the right guy because my brain loves solving difficult challenges for my clients (they’re like complex business puzzles) and I was highly motivated to help him navigate the situation successfully.

Mr. O’Brien was not fearful about his family’s safety or the safety of his guests because he insisted that the hot zones were in distant cities and had almost zero effect where he was located on the Pacific coast.

While this was true, it didn’t reverse the fact that there were news reports coming out almost daily of people getting kidnapped and even killed while traveling on major artery roads coming from the main airport in Managua.

On our first call, the travel ban news was still fresh and Mr. O’Brien was in the process of mentally transitioning from denial to bargaining in the stages of acceptance.

He had heard ideas from others in the same situation that there they were going to attempt to reroute guests to fly into the neighboring country of Costa Rica and then make their final leg into Nicaragua from there because Costa Rica did not have the same travel restrictions.

This alternative entry option would only be considered by the top percentage of risk-takers but how would we pitch this to them specifically

Here’s how I advised Mr. O’Brien during that period and the actions he took to successfully navigate this situation and come out of it in a much stronger position.

Objectives Triage:

Mindset shift

My first directive was for him to shift his mindset and quickly come to terms that this issue would likely not disappear overnight and that he was facing an insurmountable force, albeit a temporary one.

He did, and that one shift set the tone for his next moves and could have been the biggest factor in getting through this because he likely saved weeks resisting the inevitable instead of taking action.

Reduce overhead

Next, I advised him to adjust accordingly by notifying his staff that their work hours would be reduced in response to the travel ban until further notice and to cut ALL OTHER NON-ESSENTIAL EXPENSES.

If his resort was to survive this, he would have to take immediate action to protect his capital because we had no way of estimating how long it would be until his business was back online.

Update followers

Next, I advised him to prove that his region wasn’t in a danger zone by going live on social media while driving around and creating and editing video clips to publish online.

These videos had a terrific response and were a key ingredient to getting ahead of when the travel restrictions were lifted. Many previous guests and followers rallied around Mr. O’Brien promising to support his business the moment they could.

A few bold travelers even made the jump from Costa Rica to Nicaragua and had the place to themselves which he also documented on various social media platforms.

Going public

Fortunately for Mr. O’Brien, he had built up a strong reputation with resort guests dating back around fifteen years and because of this, it helped to expedite the process of taking his story public.

That compounded when influencers and professional surfers who had been guests of the resort became aware of the situation and also became vocal online in support of Mr. O’Brien, his resort, and his location.

Once we had momentum we made a push to increase his exposure and performed outreach to a major relevant publication to cover the story.

Surfline, a global surfing media company agreed to tackle the trending topic and covered the story with great speed to market.

This was a huge win for the resort and transformed a somewhat localized event into full-blown international news within the surfing subculture.

Do you know one thing surfers dream about?

The thought of surfing an uncrowded lineup at a world-class break!

And that’s exactly the story Chancletas Beach Resort was offering to those brave and adventurous surfers who dared take the trip.

These brave surfers were scoring world-class waves in empty lineups and they documented the entire process on social media.

We focused on creating lots of great content and building up his online presence so that by the time the travel bans were lifted the resort was positioned even stronger than it was prior to the travel ban.

These trips would go on to become ‘the stuff of legend’.

A great ending for a great guy and his family.

I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out from the initial call, and it didn’t look good but together we made smart decisions and took decisive action.

Parlay that on top of the fact that Mr. O’Brien had built up a great reputation over the years and that was just the credit line he needed to be able to tap which not only saved his business but allowed him to build up a formidable competitive advantage in face of adversity.

Unfortunately, not all the other businesses in that situation fared the same.

Today, Mr. O’Brien, his family, his employees, and their beloved resort are doing better than ever and I couldn’t be more proud of him. Chancletas now offers surf trips, fishing charters, jungle and volcano tours, and all sorts of trips catered to adventure.

Be sure to check them out and book your stay here.

Breakthroughs & Intent

By Alan Boyd | Published on 02/18/2023

Back in 2005 at the very beginning of the myspace era, my friend Karl and I started a local surf report website called Area561.

The site was pretty popular but we wanted to increase the exposure further. Funds were limited back then so we had to get creative.

We were doing typical grassroots marketing things like passing out stickers, selling t-shirts, and sponsoring local events, but I’ve always been on the lookout for FORCE MULTIPLIERS.

I knew that Jupiter Inlet cam was getting thousands of unique visitors each day and kept seeing the seaweed piling up swell after swell and then one day it finally clicked.

A big swell was due to arrive overnight and everybody would be checking the cam the next day to see the surf.

The night before, I went down to the Inlet and mapped out how to position the web address in the frame and spelled out Area561.com in the seaweed as seen in the screenshot bottom left.

On May 16th, 2006, I became the first person to ever run an advertisement on the Jupiter Inlet cam.

Today, it’s common to see people using the Jupiter Inlet cam to leave all kinds of messages and it’s still an underrated move because of the absurd amount of free exposure you can get in just one day.

The moral of the story is to try not to confuse incremental progress with breakthroughs.

One slam dunk move can easily overshadow a bunch of little increments.

Sometimes the slam dunks do come from the accumulation of all the little incremental moves but nevertheless:

Real Breakthroughs Almost Always Happen with INTENT.

Splinter Your Offer

By Alan Boyd | Published on 02/16/2023

I took a consulting call early last year where the business owner had just started an automotive ceramic coating business.

He was excited about his new venture but the price point ($3500ish) of the ceramic coating service (and the educational element of why it’s a great value) was a barrier to sales and he needed help.

As the call progressed, I put myself in the shoes of a potential prospect and asked questions.

Out of curiosity, I asked if he ceramic coats the windows too.

He said yes and that’s when a lightbulb went off.

Many vehicles’ headlight lenses get foggy for some reason making them not only look bad but also reduce the performance of the headlights themselves.

I advised him to run a promotion for just the headlights which would be less than 10% of the total cost of the entire vehicle.

This is known as ‘splintering’ your core offer.

Taking a big offer (full vehicle ceramic coating) and breaking it down into the smallest piece (headlight ceramic coating) to lower the barrier to entry and commitment required to get a sale.

The game changer here is that at the $3500 mark, barely anyone was a buyer, but with the $250 headlight promotion, he was in high demand.

Yes, he would have to do a lot of headlights to equal the revenue from one car but in this scenario, something is better than nothing and once he got vehicles in for the headlight service, he had many opportunities to upsell.

He made recommendations for both the windows and the entire vehicle, established rapport and repeat business with customers, and asked for online reviews and referrals to help build momentum rapidly.

Problem solved.

I received a follow up text recently that made me happy to hear he’s doing well.

It’s not possible for every product or service to be splintered, but if it is, you may want to try that to get more exposure and opportunities to create relationships with customers.