Setting up in business, I had a clear idea of taking essentially what I'd been delivering in-house as a standalone #HR Manager/Head of #People, to market as a service for earlier stage companies, not yet ready for full time support. This offering was a combination of frameworks, templates, processes, advice, and training, but 💥most importantly💥, as provided by a trusted, responsive and dedicated consultant as a named point of contact (at the start - me!). My own specialism was HR of course but similar principles apply to other service lines.
As I've talked about with finding a #niche, if you grow a client base with synergies and similar characteristics, you can more quickly develop very tailored offerings to the needs of that market. With #startup and early stage clients, when I started out, I'd often find they didn't always know what they needed, and looked to be guided.
The market has matured and its much easier now to find information online or with AI tools. We still need to solve client #problems though. Often this is also #time and #opportunity cost - when busy & overwhelmed they don't want generic or hands off guidance and advice. If someone actively listens, understands their needs, suggests solution, take ownership and then proactively hands on deliver support, I found clients are happy to pay for this - which shaped our outsourced, partnership model.
As we grew, the breadth and depth of skills and capacity across the team allowed us to build and increase the service offerings and tailor these to different client needs.
To consider:
📍It's important to spend time thinking about what unique skills & experience you have but most importantly WHO this can help and HOW - what problem are you solving so this can be positioned to potential clients.
📍Working in partnership with clients & understanding their needs is the best way to develop tailored and targeted solutions especially when starting out.
📍As your business grows, developing processes, tools and frameworks that can easily be replicated and adapted for clients are key to help scale and to build efficiencies and margin.
📍Excellent client service, partnering and building trust are essential to differentiate your services in the market and with each client.
📍When agreeing projects, be clear on deliverables to avoid scope creep.
📍Make it easy to do business - be prepared to flex or adapt where this could help develop longer term or strategic opportunities - or clearly say no, where its not a fit.
Every business journey is different but these are some tips and learning that worked for me in profitably growing my HR services business to exit.
⁉️I'd love to hear thoughts or questions below!⁉️
Next up I'll cover #CustomerService - please make sure to connect with me or follow to see the posts and if you find the content helpful I'd appreciate a Like or Share 🙏
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