In 2020 there were estimated 31.7 million small businesses in the United States, many of which were professional service providers such as accountants, marketers, personal coaches, therapists, lawyers, and more. The exciting thing about this number is that in 2020, despite or perhaps because of the pandemic, there was an incredible increase of around 1 million Startups compared to the previous year. And it looks like 2021 could be another banner year.
This is great news as America’s entrepreneurship is alive and well. Statistically, this also means that more people will fail in 2021 as well. About 20% of all new businesses fail within the first year or so. The good news, however, is that your company doesn’t have to be one of them.
Traditional brick and mortar stores like restaurants and gas stations have to take into account their own competitive nuances. But for professional service providers such as auditors, lawyers, therapists, coaches and others, another degree or internship means another potential competitor. And depending on how you perceive the world, there is either enough business for everyone or not. For those who need some protection against the competition, here are a few things you can do to make your professional services practice successful today.
Go virtual
We all know the words “location, location, location!” This was once the critical component for any company that wanted to be successful. Law firms had to be near courthouses or the financial center of a city, therapists had to have offices near hospitals, and tech marketers had to live in Silicon Valley. But that’s just not the case anymore.
As marketing veteran James Hill puts it, “When I started my career, I had no choice but to live in the Bay Area, California. If you were in the tech at the time, you had to be there. And I was in technology. “
According to Hill, this turned out to be a recipe for disaster!
“While this all seemed normal at the time, it was a no-profit situation for marketing firms – especially boutique firms,” added Hill. “After considering insanely high property prices, above average salary requirements, and the turnover associated with tech work, most companies were lucky to be able to leave the lights on at the end of the day. So there is no good reason why a company should do business this way today. “
More professional service providers like Hill are transforming their stationary past into a virtual future. Legacy systems like Webex from Cisco offer a partial solution. All-in-one platforms like professional learn that professional service providers need more than just video and collaboration tools to streamline their business.
“One of the most important aspects of serving customers is making it easier for them to work with you,” said Alina Trigubenko, founder and CEO of Profi. “As we are professional service providers ourselves, we designed Profi so that we personally have all the tools we need to connect and do business in the easiest and most productive way possible. That meant creating a platform with intelligent automation, intuitive workflows and flexible integrations that ensure both efficiency and an impressive user experience. “
Introduced earlier this year, Profi offers turnkey, holistic tools and workflow automations that help busy professionals increase customer engagement, manage teams and services, deliver tailored and understandable customer experiences, collaborate securely, manage and automate payments, and much more more.
The platform is flexible and can be scaled as the company grows. The end result is a solution that helps busy professionals automate tedious administrative tasks so they can focus more on delivering services and growing their business. All that is required of professionals is the willingness to appear for the provision of services (meeting, appointment, etc.), the rest is done by professionals.
Consider producing it
One of the most important things professional service providers should do is produce their services. From creating e-courses to hosting learning communities and seminars, everything is a step in the right direction. And since more and more professional service providers expect such offers and sometimes prefer them. As a result, products are not only necessary for professional services companies to scale, they are also an increasingly important part of the service delivery mix.
“A great way for professional services companies to differentiate themselves in their respective markets is to produce their service offerings,” said Brian Fitzgerald, business development consultant. “Instead of developing a tailor-made solution for each individual customer, companies should develop a few standard packages. This not only saves time and money, but also helps to standardize your processes. ”
Successful businesses will evolve from selling one-time services to selling services that can be accessed by more than one customer at the same time. For example, making your knowledge productive and creating online courses can be a good source of additional income. This will help you move into another segment of the market: people who like what you teach but who, for one reason or another, are not your personal customers.
“More and more people are turning to do-it-yourself tactics for everything from marketing to repair,” added Trigubenko von Profi. “These do-it-yourselfers may not hire you for services, they just pay you for your knowledge of a topic in the form of courses and seminars. Becoming a coach or trainer could give your company the extra boost it needs. ”
If we have learned anything in the past year, it is the unexpected. Staying agile and flexible is the key to business success. If you maintain a “we’ve always done this” mentality, it is only a matter of time before you will be out of date. The world moves fast and companies that stand the test of time have to go with it
Image: Depositphotos
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