The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field

by Mike Michalowicz

There is something absolutely irresistible, something magnetic about being the extreme. Be it the strongest, or the fastest, or the most unique. The farmer with the most extraordinary pumpkin in the field wins. Every. Single. Time. The same is true for entrepreneurs. Yet most entrepreneurs work their tails off, only to end up with small, ordinary, unremarkable pumpkins.

Entrepreneurs are struggling, trapped in a neverending cycle of sell it–do it, sell it–do it, sell it–do it that leaves them feeling desperate, hopeless, trapped.

the only definition of an entrepreneur: “You’re not an entrepreneur yet, Mike. Entrepreneurs don’t do most of the work. Entrepreneurs identify the problems, discover the opportunities and then build processes to allow other people and other things to do the work.”

STEP ONE: Plant promising seeds. STEP TWO: Water, water, water. STEP THREE: As they grow, routinely remove all of the diseased or damaged pumpkins. STEP FOUR: Weed like a mad dog. Not a single green leaf or root permitted if it isn’t a pumpkin plant. STEP FIVE: When they grow larger, identify the stronger, faster-growing pumpkins. Then, remove all the less-promising pumpkins. Repeat until you have one pumpkin on each vine. STEP SIX: Focus all of your attention on the big pumpkin. Nurture it around the clock like a baby, and guard it like you would your first Mustang convertible. STEP SEVEN: Watch it grow. In the last days of the season, this will happen so fast you can actually see it happen.

Find the “why.” If your dream is to just be big and get rich, that’s not enough to grow a significant, successful business. Ask yourself why you started this business and not another business. What purpose are you serving? What gets you stoked? If you know your “why,” it will resonate with your clients. More importantly, it will be your compass, and boy oh boy, do you need one of those. (Have you ever tried to find your way out of a forest without one?) 2. Set a revenue “pulse” goal for this year. In order to get the heart of your business beating again (meaning you can survive without perpetual panic), how much revenue do you need to generate? Don’t put yourself last on the list. Start by figuring out what you personally need to be comfortable, to know that you’re back on your feet. Then figure out how much revenue your company needs to make to actually support that. 3. Ask better questions. Really big pumpkins have really strong roots. We can only find the best answers when we ask great questions. Rather than ask, “Why do I struggle?” ask, “How can I take home $2,000 a day, every day?” Either way, your brain will find the answer. Write down the one big, bad question you always ask when you’re beating your head against the wall, and then reverse it. 4. Get the supporting Pumpkin Plan materials. There are more resources, including new discoveries I've had, available for download right now. Go to PumpkinPlanYourBiz.com to get it. It will be 30 seconds well-spent.

No big shocker here—there is always a direct correlation between diluted focus and a diluted bank account.

I couldn’t help but notice Eric’s constant refrain: “I do everything I do to support my family.” Now, I realize that I’m an amateur observer of human behavior at best, but I have seen this before. Refrains are defense. Something in his heart is out of sync with his actions, and his mind is trying to protect him. Eric wasn’t repeating this because I needed to believe it; he was repeating it because he needed to believe it.

Don’t waste your time planting seeds that may or may not work out. Plant the seed that you know has the very best chance of making it, and then focus your attention, money, time and other resources on that tight niche until all of your entrepreneurial dreams come true.

Your giant seed is basically your sweet spot—the place where your best clients and the best part of your business meet. This is the place where your favorite customers are able to derive maximum benefit from the systematized, core process that drives your business.

Your core system is the unique offering that differentiates your business from all the others in your industry. It’s not just about product or service; it’s also about your approach to delivering your product or service, and it’s about the specific talents, abilities and experience you bring to the table. It’s your big idea, your know-how and your mojo all wrapped up into one crazy cocktail that can’t be duplicated.

Your AOI is only one component of your unique offering; another is your number-one strength, that thing you do really, really well. It’s the thing that just comes naturally to you; it’s so easy to execute, it doesn’t feel like work.

On the top left you have your Top Clients, the individuals and businesses who, through working the Assessment Chart (see the next chapter), have risen to the top of your existing client roster—in other words, these are your best clients. On the top right we have your Unique Offering, the combination of your Area of Innovation, your number-one strength and your experience. And on the bottom we have Systematization, your ability to easily execute and replicate your offering through automation or people.

Work the plan— Take Action in 30 minutes (or Less) 1. Start the chart. In the next section you are going to discover who your best clients are, but first you need to put the groundwork in place. Draw and label three circles on piece of paper. Or, you can download some pre-drawn circles at www.PumpkinPlan.info. Hang it in a place where you will see it every day, and start filling in the details as you discover them. This is not a one-shot. Be prepared to review, tweak and improve often. 2. Zero in on your Area of Innovation (AOI). What’s your “thing”? What is your company known for? Is it speedy delivery or fast response times? Do you have a commitment to excellence that is unparalleled in your industry? Or are you the cheapest date around? Take a few minutes to figure out your AOI. And remember, you can’t be all things to all people. You can only be one thing to a group of important people—your best clients. Where do you really innovate—quality, speed/efficiency or price? Now that you know where you innovate, answer this question: How could you take this AOI to a level of innovation that is rarely, or better yet, never seen in the industry? 3. Figure out if you can systematize it. What tasks do you handle yourself because you think that’s easier than teaching someone else how to do them? What are the tasks that, if you went on a four-week vacation, would not get done? If you took a break, would your business fall apart at the seams? Make a list of all these things, because...

You call the six top clients and ask for a meeting to discuss how you could serve them better. “What are your biggest gripes about our construction industry?” “If you could ask for anything and get it, what do you wish general contractors like us would do for developers like you?” “What would make your experience (life and business) easier, better, more profitable?”

There are three types of clients, and their importance is ranked exactly as follows: 1. good clients, 2. non-existent clients, and 3. bad clients. Looking at that list, you may want to rearrange the order, maybe move “non-existent clients” to the end, because having bad clients is better than having no clients at all, right? Nope. Just like bad, rotten pumpkins suck nutrients from good pumpkins and stunt their growth, bad, rotten clients distract you, drain your resources and cost you money. You’re much better off having no clients than bad clients, because at least when you don’t have any clients you can prospect for good ones instead of tailoring, tweaking and twisting to accommodate the needs of the bad ones.

When it comes to rating clients or customers, there are some pretty basic qualifiers that apply to all businesses. Do they pay on time, when they feel like it or not at all? Do they refer others to you, or do they keep you all to themselves? Would they tell you if you made a horrible (or horribly stupid) mistake, let you fix it and let it go, or would they rub your nose in it every chance they got? Is a super-sweet deal on the horizon, or are they maxed out with you? Do they tell you what they need and want, or do they expect you to read their minds? Do they respect your expertise, or do they consistently undermine or question you? Are they coming back for more, more, more, or are they one-hit wonders?

You want people to like you. I get that. It’s human nature to want people to like you. But here is what you really want: you want people like you, to like you. That is what you should strive for. After all, as the late and so freakin’ great George Carlin once said, “Anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot, and everyone who drives faster is an maniac.” So just focus on forging relationships with the people who are going just your speed.

Work the Plan— Take Action in 30 Minutes (or Less) 1. Declare your Immutable Laws. If you haven’t identified and declared your Immutable Laws, do so now. What do you stand for? Where do you draw the line? What do you absolutely have to have in place in order to connect with someone? Refine it to the core three or four Immutable Laws. Write them down, post them everywhere (including your website), tell everyone. Check out www.PumpkinPlan.info for ideas. 2. Finish the Assessment Chart. I know you didn’t actually work the chart while you were reading the chapter, so do it now. You can draw up your own, or go to www.PumpkinPlan.info to download an Assessment Chart you can simply fill in. Depending on how many clients you have, this may take longer than thirty minutes, but do it now, anyway. Your success depends on it. The Pumpkin Plan is not just a theory; it actually works. So finish up and then let’s get down to business.

So you get out your Assessment Chart and start calling the top clients on your list. You ask, “Could I come over and meet with you to get a sense of how I could serve you better? It’s not a sales call; I’d just like to get your thoughts about my industry as a whole.” Almost everyone agrees, so you set up a series of interviews with your best clients, in their homes, in their offices, at Starbucks—wherever they want to meet. You do this because, well, you’ve always done this. You’re kind of the country doctor of financial planning—you make house calls. This isn’t entirely unusual; insurance agents do it all the time. But you’ve shown up at your clients’ kids’ baseball games, in hotel rooms (don’t ask), at the local bar.

So how do you fire a client? Here are four ways to go about it, without straight-up telling them…or actually killing them. (Last time I checked, that was pretty much outlawed in all fifty states…Jersey is questionable.) 1. Eliminate services. This was John Shaw’s strategy, and you saw how well that worked for him. If you’re truly trying to get rid of a specific client, or a group of clients, because they’re just downright nasty, just telling them you no longer offer one service so they don’t come back and ask for your other services may not work; you may have to go about it differently. For example, you might eliminate a specific service, or you might eliminate servicing a specific type of company (the same type of company your sucky client has…what a coincidence). To do this, use the industry expertise trick. Explain that “We have shifted all of our resources to serve an industry other than yours, and we can no longer help you.” 2. Prioritize the stars. Simply prioritize your best clients. When the good ones call, they get serviced first. The cringe-worthy clients get pushed to the back of the line. When you’re on the phone with a cringemeister and a star client calls, you (politely) hang up on the cringe client and move on to the good guy. The cringers will get the hint. Sure, it’s a little bit Mean Girls, but it gets the job done. 3. Raise prices. If you really want to see bad clients run for the hills, raise your prices. And I don’t mean a measly 10 or 20 percent. Incr...

Rather than walk many dogs at one time, you could offer an exclusive dog-walking service. You could offer the highest-end dog-walking service in the world. You could take little Bruno out for a hike all by himself, and charge double…triple…four times what the competition charges. And, of course, you wouldn’t be labeled as a “dog walker” any more. Businesses with those kinds of labels don’t make much. But a “canine caregiver”—heck, that’s what you are now…and that label gets paid beaucoup bucks. Listening to your clients’ Wish List, it is clear that that’s what they want—someone who will take care of the physical and emotional health of their dogs. Now, you only offer one-on-one dog-care services. You take dogs for long hikes. You set up playdates with their doggie friends. You text their “mommy” and “daddy” photos of their adventures. You groom the dogs, keeping their fur clean and their nails cut. You teach the dogs new commands and improve their doggie playground manners, so much so that their owners can walk through the park again without wearing a disguise. You leave thoughtful notes describing everything you and their “baby” did that day. And when you dog-sit overnight, you spend most of your time there, rather than just come over in time to let them out at night.

the Tourniquet Technique is a method for reducing or eliminating expenses associated with the clients who ranked the lowest on your Client Assessment Chart, those Grade F, diseased pumpkins you got rid of right off the bat. They’re not just annoying and time consuming, they’re bloodsuckers. You have a whole host of expenses related to keeping your worst clients happy. So, before you bleed out, apply the tourniquet. Look at your expenses—everything from employees to office supplies—and cut anything related specifically to your most cancerous clients.

You are no longer the keeper of the secret sauce recipe. You are the executor. You do it for them. You make it easier. You save them time. You get all the best ingredients and cook it in such a way that the result is nothing short of astonishing.

Work the Plan— Take Action in 30 Minutes (or Less) 1. Develop a “favorite client” policy. I drop everything for my favorite clients. I’ll take a call from my top client even if I’m already on a call with a different, lower-tier client. Take a few moments to figure out how your business will treat your key client group like VIPs. Make that policy very clear to your team and start implementing it immediately. 2. Create systems to implement the Under-Promise, Over-Deliver strategy. Looking at your current projects, products or services, how could you set up an under-promise for them with the smallest Tinge Factor? Then figure out how to over-deliver on them. What extra little something could you do to wow your clients? Then, look at the repeat services you provide and come up with a new timetable that enables you to under-promise.

One of the single most effective strategies I use as part of my own Pumpkin Plan is something I call the “Wish List.” I interview my top clients to find out what they wish they could change about my industry, what they wish I could do for them or sell to them, what they wish someone—anyone—could solve for them, what would make their jobs so much easier, what would help them grow their business. Then, I do my best to play fairy godfather and fulfill every possible wish.

The key to explosive growth is competing reasonably well in every area your competition competes in, and then blowing them away in one category.

The Wish List is not about you—how you can improve, how awesome you are. The Wish list is about your clients, and what they need to grow their own giant pumpkin. When you interview your clients, ask questions about your industry, not your company. Ask questions about their aspirations, challenges, short-term and long-term goals. Ask questions that will help you learn more about their business and their industry beyond what directly affects your company. To get you started, here are a few questions I use in client interviews: 1. What is your chief complaint about your industry? Your clients? Other vendors? 2. If you could do it easily, what would you change about your industry? Your clients? Other vendors? 3. What is your biggest challenge right now? 4. What would need to change so you could finish work an hour earlier every day? 5. What would you like to accomplish in the near future? 6. Where do you hope to be in five years? Ten? Twenty? 7. What frustrates you about vendors in my industry? What do you wish vendors in my industry would do differently? 8. If you could tweak the products or services my industry provides to better suit your needs, what would you change? 9. What is most confusing about my industry? 10. What do you wish vendors in my industry would offer?

1. Predict. Ask your client base, your prospects, your followers and your fans if they would be interested in your new offering. Keep track of the number of responses (in relation to the total number of people in your database). Put way more weight on the responses from your top clients, rather than people who have loud voices. People who have bought in the past are likely to do so again. Get the conversation going by bringing out ideas from the Wish List. 2. Appreciate. Thank the people in your community who respond: the yes’s, the no’s and the maybe’s. The fact that people care enough to respond is big. So you must show your gratitude. Even if they say, “This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” email them and say, “Thank you so much for your honest feedback, it definitely helps give me direction.” 3. Announce. If you’re satisfied that you have enough “yes” responses to move forward, tell the community that since there are enough people who want your new offering, you’re going to go ahead and create it. This will pique the interest of those who initially responded “no” because they’ll naturally be curious about what the majority wants. It’s like a standing ovation—you may not feel moved to stand up and clap at the end of the painful five-act play that went on forever, but because everyone else is standing up, you get up and clap your heart out. It’s human nature to allow yourself to be persuaded by the majority. 4. Engage. In any way you can, engage your community as ...