It is a common business practice to say you should begin with the end in mind, but that seems pretty vague. How can you conceive of the “end” of a business before you have even really started one?
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What Is Your End Goal?
Think about the last time you took a road trip with a set destination. You probably did not just hop on the road without a map and hoped you got where you wanted to go. You likely looked at a map and saw the route you needed to take.
The same principle applies to a business. Knowing where you want to end is a good way to figure out how you will get there.
What is an End Goal?
Using the phrase “end goal” might be a little dramatic in some instances. In business, an “end goal” could merely refer to something you want to accomplish with your business.
Perhaps that involves just trying to make it through the first two years of your business opening. Maybe you want to integrate your family into the business.
However, the most common and most practical business end goal is to simply generate revenue. You cannot just leave it at that, though. You will need to have a set revenue benchmark in mind, such as generating 5 million, 10 million, 15 million, or whatever number you think is reasonable.
Start With a Foundation Before You Grow
Your first business end goal might simply be to grow. That is all well and good, but you cannot attain that growth goal until you have the foundation.
Imagine you have a goal to complete a marathon. You cannot just decide to do it and expect to do well. You will have to train your body, feed it the right foods, and get it in shape before you set foot on the racecourse.
The same principle goes for trying to grow in business. You need a stable, profitable foundation before you can decide to go bigger. It is all about having control over your workers, your assets and helping everything run smoothly.
Keep Track of Your Numbers
As part of your foundation, you will need to track three things: how much work you sell, how much work you do, and how well that work turned out. Each one needs to be strong, so you need to sell a lot of work, have qualified people to do the job, and perform well. You cannot have great sales and not have the right people to do the work.
Break Your End Goal into Small Doable Chunks
You cannot accomplish an end goal in business without having first broken it down into pieces.
If you want to reach a million dollars, for example, look at a few things. Note your job size (how many people are needed to accomplish the job), how many jobs you perform in a year, your close rate (you sell one job out of every three job proposals), and how many sales leads you will need to earn those job proposals.
Also, consider your budget. How much money may you need to spend to generate sales leads? What price should you set your services at to ensure a profit?
Breaking your goal into tiny increments not only makes the process less overwhelming but it gives you a little more control over all parts of your business.
Do Not Forget to Pre-Qualify Your Leads
Several contractors make the mistake of chasing every possible lead they get, which may sound good in theory, but you do not want to waste time on useless leads.
Consider your ideal customer. What kinds of people would benefit most from your services? Where might they live? What is their education? Their income? Do they communicate best through phone calls or email? All these factors combine to form a person who is perfect for your business.
Defining your target lead will lessen how many proposals you make, but you will likely have more people wanting to learn more. Focus on what you do well in your roofing marketing, and do not try to do everything for every possible customer.
Talk Everything Out with an Eager, Qualified Team
Creating a business plan and identifying the road map to your end goal takes a team of people to do. Brainstorm together how you can differentiate yourself from the competition, what a reasonable revenue goal is, and what your ideal lead looks like.
Do not be afraid of taking advice from an expert in the field. It will help to have someone on your team with experience and can prevent you from making small mistakes when starting.
Final Thoughts
You can learn more about Hook Agency’s marketing services for roofing on their website and find some nifty tips for marketing your roofing business.
