Bathtub Reglazing

Your Mission Statement

In article one, we talked about your mindset and as stated in the article your mindset is one of the most important factors of marketing your business. One of the things that this mindset should be thinking about is your mission statement.

Every service business and professional practice has a purpose and stating this purpose for being, your company mission, at the beginning of your marketing plan helps you focus your energy as you prepare and implement your plan.  It orients you to the primary purpose of your business, and it helps you make decisions directed towards accomplishing that purpose.

WHAT IS A MISSION STATEMENT, ANYWAY?

Your mission statement simply defined it is 25 words that summarize your urbanization to purpose for being.

SHORT AND SWEET, CLEAR PURPOSE EXAMPLE:

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

“To provide quality, personalized kitchen and bath restoration services so that I enhance my clients’ quality of life by saving them money”

When a service provider operates independently and without a clear sense of what services are to be provided to whom, he has a greater challenge: self examination, followed by focusing.  Choosing the services to be provided and the clients to be served implies choosing the services and clients to be eliminated – which you may find alarming.  Yet everyone who buys a service responds best when the purpose is clear.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP THE MISSION STATEMENT?

Any self respecting mission statement should include the following:

• That needs your company fulfills
• Clients you serve now or want to serve
• How do you go about serving these clients?
• The service business your firm is in

Your statement should be broad rather it’s than specific.  In addition, your mission statement should be positive and forceful.  The mission statement should also be free of jargon and not wrapped in language only a few understand.  Also, a great tactic is to personalize this statement as an “individual” (especially in the bathtub refinishing business), most customers that I have worked for do not care about the franchise image and are looking for a direct relationship, not a third party.

For some, writing a mission statement can be frustrating and trying to think of the words to say can be difficult.  So, a great way to begin is to write down a list of ideas and scratch off the ideas that don’t seem important.  Read through your revised list of important ideas and turn that paper over.  Now, very quickly, write three or four sentences explaining the purpose of your business.

When you are finished and have written your mission statement, read it over and ask yourself, would I hire that business?

Until next time…

Marketing your bathtub refinishing business has been brought to you by the Bathtub Refinishing Association of America.

Click Here To Find A Bathtub Reglazing Specialist In Your Area.

Marketing Is Your Key To Success

So, you’ve invested hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars on this great niche business called Bathtub Refinishing.  You’ve gone through one of the many great Bathtub Refinishing Training Programs like the one that Topkote Bathtub Refinishing Products offers and have all of your equipment and supplies necessary to start refinishing tubs so you can make those great dollars. Now, all you need to do is bring in the work. As simple as this may seem, it goes much deeper than that.  One thing is certain with the Bathtub Refinishing business, it is much more than delivering a cost-effective service because nothing will happen until you “sell the job” so, one of the things that you must do is market your business,  develop and implement a  plan of attack.

What I am going to do in the forthcoming months ahead is help you realize and act upon one of the most important steps in any business,  marketing.

Three of the biggest influences in my life have been Jay Levinson, Sun Tzu, and a former employer of mine from whom I learned that you could sell a penny to a street corner bum.  Jay Levinson is one of the greatest marketing experts of all time, he wrote the #1 best-selling series “Guerrilla Marketing”  and it is a series that I recommend you read.

Sun Tzu was a consultant to a variety of Chinese warlords and emperors around 500 B.C.  He had a great understanding of the Art of War.  His writings are about core values, creative ideas, and sound strategies.  Corporate giants use his strategies to this day to wage war and win with many of their competitors.  It is another must read.

What I am going to do is combine the strategies of Guerrilla Marketing with the concepts of Sun Tzu and apply them to the bathtub refinishing business.

Sun Tzu’s idea of laying plans is based on five factors:

• Moral Influence
• Weather
• Terrain
• Commander
• Doctrine

In battle, he who master’s these factors wins the war.  For you, master these factors and make money.

In business, the moral influence is your mindset, being market ready and telling this to the world, the weather is your abilities, knowing what you can or can’t do, the terrain is your service area, the commander is your customer and the doctrine is your tactics, plan of attack and implementation of this plan.

In this first article, I’m going to start with your mindset.

Wikipedia defines mindset as:

A mindset, in decision theory and general systems theory, refers to a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviors, choices, or tools. This phenomenon of cognitive bias is also sometimes described as mental inertia, “groupthink“, or a “paradigm“, and it is often difficult to counteract its effects upon analysis and decision making processes.

On the positive sides a mindset can also be seen as incident of a persons Weltanschauung or philosophy of life. For example there has been quite some interest in the typical mindset of an entrepreneur.

Your mindset is the most important of all the factors.  This mindset translates into the enthusiasm and passion with everything you do, every one you meet, every contact you make and every customer you work for.

For the Bathtub Refinishing business your mindset should be thinking about your mission statement, understanding your target market and who is going to use your services. You should be creating and measuring your plan and how you are going to build relationships with customers and prospects. The bottom line is this, if people don’t know who you are, they can’t use your services.

Here it is a great exercise.

Take a good look around you as you are driving through town.  Pay close attention to which billboards capture your eye.  Listen to which commercials stick in your mind (my personal favorite is the Geico commercials “so simple even a caveman can do it”) what a great hook! By doing this you are developing a keen sense of your surroundings therefore sharpening your marketing mindset.

Here are four things that I want you to do before the next article.

• Continue to learn about marketing by reading the books I mentioned earlier
• Pick the top two Bathtub Refinishing competitors and analyze what they’re doing to market and what is working for them.  Call them up and get a free written quote to see how they present themselves and to get a general idea of how much they charge.
• Define your bathtub refinishing business. Write down what you are willing to do.  Ask yourself  are you selling a basic service with no ups and no extras or are you selling a top of the line refinishing job that will last many years.
• Keep a journal of these things

This is how I want you to think for the rest of your career

• I am committed
• I will think creatively
• I will strive to improve
• I will treat every customer as #1
• I will strive for new business opportunities, alliances, joint ventures and partnerships
• I will think about marketing all the time

I urge you to follow these steps, I am sure they will help you as they have helped me.

Until next time…

Marketing your bathtub refinishing business has brought to you by the Bathtub Refinishing Association of America.

Click Here To Find A Bathtub Reglazing Specialist In Your Area.