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In this book I reveal how, by implementing the same strategies pumpkin farmers use to grow their massive gourds—and which I have, with great originality deemed “The Pumpkin Plan”—I was able to launch two multimillion-dollar companies by my thirtieth birthday, gain notoriety with top firms, and in turn help them radically
grow their businesses. Not only will I share my stories and their stories of success, but, most importantly, I will teach you how to apply the same ideas and lessons to your own business.
That book was about planting the seed; this book is about growing it…big-time.
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.”
“List your clients in order of revenue,” Frank told me. “Then, take your top-paying clients and separate them into two categories: great clients and everyone else, from the ho-hum clients to the clients who annoy you so much, you cringe when they call you. Keep the great, top-paying clients, and cut the rest. Every single one.”
Entrepreneurs identify the problems, discover the opportunities and then build processes to allow other people and other things to get it done.
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. FINDING
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. In
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.
Combine your AOI and your number-one strength with your life and your business experience—experience that no one else has because they’re just not you—and you’ve discovered how your company is authentically different than the competition. Your unique offering is the combination of your AOI, your number-one strength and the qualities, attributes, talents and interests that make you, you.
Systematization is what will allow you to leave the business for a four-week vacation knowing that everything will work just fine without you. And if you do it right, your business may even grow.
you stop being a follower in competition with everyone else. You become a leader. In the words of the great amateur pumpkin farmer Chuck Radcliffe, “If you want to grow a prize-winning pumpkin, you have to plant a prize-winning pumpkin seed.”
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?
And most importantly, they respected me, which meant we could collaborate—and
So she focused on her better clients and stopped trying to get more clients. Within a matter of months, new prospects started calling her after being referred by her top clients.
If you truly want to pull off this whole entrepreneur thing, you’re going to need awesome clients you really connect with, clients who make you want to go to work in the morning, not hide under the covers.
who are open to new ideas, who have the money to pay you what you’re worth, who respect you, who are going places and who want you to be part of it.
It’s simple: when you make decisions out of alignment with your Immutable Laws, you lose money. Lots of it. And if you don’t know what your Immutable Laws are, I can promise you that you are losing money right now.
Dare to be exactly who you are. Let your business be an amplification of your authentic self, and watch it grow by leaps and bounds.
“We chose to market online rather than sell to wholesalers because most people shop online, especially women,” she explained. “The second reason is, it allows us to have lower prices, and if we were selling through a wholesaler it would cut our margins a lot, and with our higher manufacturing costs, we would not be able to pull
