Welcome to ASK ROCK, a monthly advice column where industry expert Rock LaManna will answer your questions on topics such as: key financials for business, and how it can lead to profitable organic growth, M&As, strategic alliances, succession plans, and exit strategies. He will also talk about leadership and present family business case studies.
Do you have a question for Rock LaManna and the LaManna Alliance? Submit it here.
Watch Rock’s presentation recorded LIVE from The Printerverse at PRINT 13: Will Doing Nothing Destroy Your Business?
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Dear Rock,
I was at PRINT 13, and I saw so many options for growing a business that it made my head dizzy. How do you know which strategy to pursue?
I’ll give you two pieces of advice. First, instead of looking at all the possible growth avenues and the red-hot new markets, look at your customers.
Go to your customer base and find out what they really want and need from you. Even if you don’t currently provide some of those services, experimenting with them and offering them to your customers is an excellent way to generate experience in a new product realm, as well as add revenue.
I think it’s ludicrous for printers to abandon their core business and run off in a frantic chase of something completely different from your bread and butter. The only people who will trust you with a new product are the people whose trust you’ve already earned: Your customers.
Second, I’d recommend that you don’t get paralysis by analysis when it comes to making a decision. If you have four or five options and there is no clear-cut winner, then it really doesn’t matter what you decide.
That’s right. The success of your decision will be based entirely on what happens after you make the call. That includes how you implement the new strategy and execute down the road.
Rock LaManna is the President and CEO of the LaManna Alliance, a business advisory and consulting firm that helps printing owners and CEOs use their company financials to create successful strategies. He blogs regularly about family business solutions for the printing and print-related industry.
