What You'll Discover In This Episode:
A recent conversation got me thinking…
If you are a painter and a friend asks if you can do some carpentry work for them, do you say yes? You’ve dabbled in woodworking before, watched a few YouTube videos, and it’s just another subset of home improvement, after all, so it’s kind of up your alley, right?
Hmm…
Or do you refer them to an actual carpenter you know who has great reviews and an impeccable of successful project completion? Someone who has studied the trade endlessly, made their primary living doing carpentry, and performed hundreds of jobs on hundreds of happy clients?
I sure hope you’d stick to your wheelhouse of painting and refer your friend to a carpenter who you know will meet and even exceed your friend’s expectations.
And I bet you would!
So then why, oh why, do small business owners tend to say yes to every potential client with a need not completely within their wheelhouse who slides into their inbox or leaves a voicemail? Every client who desires marketing or financial or leadership or sales or time management or social media or web design support, when that is not their specialty?
Are we that desperate for business that we have to widen our niche by a mile and serve EVERYONE?
Do that for long enough and you’ll become a jack of all trades, master of none. You also won’t be truly serving your clients but merely selling to them for the sake of profit. That’s no way to run a successful business for the long-term.
Here’s some advice: Pick a lane and stay in it. Refer business outside your niche to someone who specializes in it. Prove yourself within your own space and that business will be referred back to you when someone approaches your referral asking for support they don’t specialize in. Pat their back and over time, you’ll start getting those back rubs and referral business your business needs to thrive.
This week’s guest on Productivity Straight Talk, LuAnn Nigara, does exactly that! She creates win-win scenarios by successfully connecting people with the business owners whose key services they truly need while drumming up up referral business for her own business in the process. Her power to connect the right people while serving her interior design clients has helped her do over $1 million in revenue and she’s not slowing down.
I hope you enjoy this entrepreneurial case study with the co-owner of Window Works, host of A Well-Designed Business podcast, and my client, LuAnn Nigara.
Episode Links & Resources:
About Guest:
LuAnn began her career more than thirty years ago as a co-owner of Window Works, an award-winning window treatment and awning retailer in Livingston, NJ. She’s also host of the top-rated interior design podcast, A Well-Designed Business® Her podcast was recently named in Architectural Digest as one of the top ten podcasts listened to by designers, is the definitive resource for interior design professional interest in operating a profitable business.
LuAnn is a sought-after speaker and Author of several book including Her first book, The Making of A Well-Designed Business®, her second book, A Well-Designed Business®, The Power Talk Friday Experts as well as her upcoming book that I am also a co-author in A Well-Designed Business®, The Power Talk Friday Experts Vol 2 coming out soon.
