By Ed Avis
Reprographics shop owners are famous for doing lots of things for lots of clients – signs for the hospital, mailings for the food pantry, CAD prints for the architect, and so on. For many owners, that seems like the formula for success. But some owners realize that instead of succeeding, they’re pounding their head against the wall, trying to please lots of penny-pinching clients who buy small-margin products.
I spoke with an IRgA member a couple of months ago who is trying to avoid that second fate. He does lots of projects for lots of clients, but his efforts are spread thin and he knows he should focus. So he’s trying something called the Pumpkin Plan.
The Pumpkin Plan is a business strategy focused on focusing. You focus on the work you can do best; you focus on finding good clients; you focus on serving your best clients, etc. The plan was developed by an entrepreneur named Mike Michalowicz who was struggling in his business until he read about how champion pumpkin farmers grow giant pumpkins.
The IRgA member I mentioned above is not done implementing the Pumpkin Plan and is not yet ready to talk about it, so I’m not naming him. But I did read Michalowicz’s book, “The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field,” and over the next three editions of IRgA Today, I’m going to share the key points of the plan, with a focus on how they apply to the reprographics field.
Discover Your Sweet Spot
First, let me explain the pumpkin idea. The book author was struggling in his computer services firm. He had about $1 million in revenue, but he was working crazy hours and bringing comparatively little money home. He was working with a consultant who was telling him to focus his efforts and stop spreading himself thin, but the idea was not sinking in.
Then one day he read a newspaper article about a farmer who grew giant pumpkins. The farmer had a precise strategy for doing this: He used seeds from previous seasons that came from giant pumpkins, so the genes were good. He weeded relentlessly so that ONLY the pumpkin plants got the nutrients and sun in his field. He pruned out any pumpkin plants that seemed sub-par, and on the good plants, he pruned off the smaller pumpkins, so each of his vines was devoted to only one pumpkin. Then he watered carefully and otherwise maintained each plant carefully. His result was enormous, award-winning pumpkins.
It dawned on Michalowicz that what the farmer was doing was akin to what the consultant was telling him – that he had to focus on what he did best, seek for and foster good clients, and ditch any clients who were not helping the cause.
Those lessons can easily apply to a reprographics firm. You can look for “champion seeds,” which you can translate to services you do expertly and clients who appreciate your services. What does your firm do really well? Data management? Signage? Car wraps? And which customers are you serving well (and enjoy)? Architects? Hospital administrators? Walk-in retail customers?
The bottom line is that you want to find the sweet spot where your best services meet your best clients.
In subsequent parts of this article, I’ll give you many more specifics of this basic idea. Stay tuned!
If you don’t want to wait for my subsequent articles, obviously you can find the Pumpkin Plan in any bookstore or library. If you read it, please let me know if – and how – you are applying it to your business.