About Brad Farris

Nedra Rezinas from Veritas Web Design wrote in this week with this question (and she agreed to let me share it with you): Hi Brad, What do you think is the #1 thing that helps you the most with your marketing? I’m working on putting together some marketing habits and wanted to reach out to people I respect (like you!) - here’s what I have in mind for myself: sending 5 hand-written notes a week or contacting 5 people a day or taking clients out to lunch. What’s the one thing that’s helped you get clients and has been effective? I thought this was a great question. Here’s what I wrote back to her: When it comes to business development, the first thing to remember is that the only thing … [Read more...]

We talked previously about focusing on higher value clients as a way to grow your business and make more money. But successfully implementing this strategy has a catch, you have to let go of lower value clients to make room for the higher value clients we want to attract! For some folks letting go of past clients, even small, unprofitable ones can be difficult. We worked so hard to get them! We’ve built a relationship with them. Some of these clients have been with me for years... All true. But they are holding you back now. One way to look at your business is that it’s a method for turning your time into money, and those smaller clients that got you started are taking up too much of … [Read more...]

Remember my list of ways to make more money? The one that the most folks told me they wanted to hear more about was focusing on higher value clients (and firing your lower value clients). I can see why this idea is attractive — it’s conservative and low risk — but also has the potential for a big payoff. So let’s dig in. Who are your high-value clients? We need to figure this out first. To do so, follow these steps: Step One: Pull Sales Data by Client. Go into QuickBooks (or whatever software you use) and export a report of sales by client (choose “columns by month”) for the last three years into Excel. Once you’ve got that report, create a total column that sums the sales from all … [Read more...]

I know that running and growing your business is difficult. It can be a slog, like running in quicksand. You are working hard and not making the big bucks (yet). We’re on a journey to change that, but we need to take a minute to look at the map. Looking Back Now that we’ve bought ourselves some time, it’s worth it to take a quick look back to when you first started your business. Do you remember what that was like? Remember the fear and uncertainty? Remember how everything was new, and you had to learn everything for the first time? What was it like to make your first sales call? To send your first proposal? Do you remember the day you hired your first employee or contractor? What was … [Read more...]

If you own a business, you are on a mission. You have some way in which you want to dent the universe, something that’s going to make life better for your clients, and your community, and make you some money in the process. For most business owners the thing that holds them back from getting more done is simple — they are too busy — they are out of time.  In my last missive, we talked about saving time by getting other people to do things that you are doing now. But there’s another way to get things off of your plate to buy more time to do the things that only you can do. You can automate them! Automation has the added benefit that the computer never quits or gets sick or needs a day … [Read more...]

If you are committed to making more money this year, it’s imperative that you get control of your time. You are going to need to invest time in making changes, and that means letting go of some of the things you are doing now. When I bring this up with business owners, I usually hear about how busy they are, how hard they work and how little time they have to invest in something like this. But you are different, you know how important this is and are committed to making the changes you need to make more money, so I’m not going to hear those excuses from YOU. Let’s tackle that “busyness.”   If I sat down and reviewed what you are doing all day, I bet I'd find a mix of things you are … [Read more...]

In the almost 20 years I’ve been working with business owners one of the most frequent desires/needs/dreams/goals that I hear from business owners is that they want to make more money. So, I want to have a real talk about making more money. Maybe it’s crass, perhaps it's too straightforward — but it’s on your mind (and mine) so let’s talk about it! Do you want to make more money in 2019? Is that a goal of yours? If it is, I’d like to help you with that goal. It is my firm commitment to everyone in this conversation that I will do my best to help you make more money in 2019.  But, before we get all fired up about taking over the world, I have a question. If it really is a goal of … [Read more...]