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What if you could double your revenue without increasing your marketing, networking or cold calling? Sound too good to be true? It might be more doable than you imagine. You just have to think differently about your business.
In this podcast Gail and Erin talk with management consulting and marketing wizard Marty Fahncke. In addition to providing strategic and creative direction to the twelve companies he owns, Marty has helped numerous million-plus-dollar companies become multi-million-dollar companies, utilizing a variety of growth strategies.
Gail asked Marty to describe for listeners what he does. He replied, “I create money out of thin air for businesses,” by which he meant he helps them to find sources of revenue or capital investment that were not obvious to them. Now is an especially good time for companies looking for such opportunities, he said. There is more investment capital available than at any other time in the nation’s history.
Two approaches he suggested for interior designers looking to increase revenues or grow their client base are strategic investments and acquisitions. In a strategic investment, you sell a part of your business or a percentage of interest in your business to an investor. With an acquisition, you acquire another firm, including the staff and the clients. In that way you could double the size of your business in a very short time. Acquisitions often can be financed with investment capital so you need only put very little or no money up front.
Marty also mentioned a variation on an acquisition that could interest some designers, called an “aqui-hire.” This is when you acquire a business for the skills its people have rather than for its products or services. For example, you offer to buy a firm from another designer who doesn’t really like running a business. They get to do what they love – that being design – and you already have the business operations in place to take over the billing, marketing, payroll, etc., as well as their clients.
In the past few years, Marty has branded himself as the Adventurist Marketer. He has a love of the outdoors and extreme sport activities. He also likes to take potential business partners on outdoor adventures. This helps him get to know them better before doing business with them. He’s interested in seeing how the person handles themself under adversity, he explained, but also finds that the shared experience helps to strengthen relationships.
Asked what advice or insights he had for listeners, Marty said,
- There’s more than one way to grow your business. It doesn’t have to be just by getting more clients or selling more services.
- It is possible, even easy, to buy a business without using your own money.
- If you aren’t having fun in your business, stop now and figure out how to make that happen.
Marty then asked Gail and Erin what three takeaways they had from their conversation. To find out what they said, why you should never list your business for sale with a business broker, and how to exponentially increase the worth of your business, listen to the entire podcast.
Mentioned in This Podcast
To learn more about Marty and the many services he offers, visit his website, Adventurist Inspired Marketing, at www.adventuristmarketing.com.
Marty mentioned that he is a big fan of mastermind groups. If you’re not familiar with the concept of mastermind groups, read our article about mastermind groups and why you may want to join them. Gail and Erin run two levels of mastermind groups. You can get more information on the Pearl Collective website.