Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A long overdue desicion- no training wheels.

This spring, Dallas and I are taking our training wheels off our business. Most of you know 90%+ of our business comes from word of mouth, return customers or just people who meet us along the way. Our phone book adds maybe give us 3-4% of our work. Every month we send a check to a company in Iowa for that add. The folks in Iowa don't know anything about us, our business or even our community.

Why do we keep the phone book adds? I know it seems crazy. I guess it's because that's what most businesses do. Each year when we meet with the add companies it feels like no one will ever call if we don't have an add. You would think after 19 years with our great clients/referrals we would know better, but still it seems like we are jumping without a net.

This year we decided we are not going to renew any more phone book adds. We'll stay listed in case you need to find us. But we are going to focus on our strengths, making our business as personal as it is.

It feels a little like peddling your bike for the first time without training wheels. Once you get over the panic of no little wheels to hold you up, its kind of exciting and exhilarating. We might as well have fun and take a little risk-which is probably no risk at all. This is just a decision long over due.

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