What You’ll Learn

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN WHEN YOU ATTEND MY DESTINATION BUSINESS BOOTCAMP

In 2 1/2 days during my in-person Destination BootCamp and in 3 days during my online-conducted BootCamp, I will show you the techniques I’ve learned from my 30+ years of working with the most successful independent business owners, most of whom are incredibly successful Destination Businesses. My 14-step method was developed after interviewing over 10,000 independent business owners in over 600 (and counting) communities and learning their incredibly powerful secrets to their successes.

Remember: I learned this process from interviewing business owners who took the most difficult, disadvantageous demographically-challenged locations and turned their businesses into Consumer Destinations that consistently pull local consumers and consumers from far outside their immediate marketplace. From the lessons I learned, I distilled the process into the 14 steps you’ll learn at the Destination BootCamp, a class that no one else in the world teaches.

At my Destination Business BootCamp, you will learn how to change your business into a Consumer Destination that is consistently preferred by your customers over your competitors (and this includes online competitors, including Amazon). As a business owner, you will learn an entirely new business strategy with new tools that you’ve never been taught.

Here is a list of the individual components you will learn at my Destination Business BootCamp:

FIRST, you will learn how to make your business so compellingly unique that consumers will say “I have to go to that place!”  Even if your business is primarily online, your targeted prospects will choose to buy from you and NOT from your competitors. The lessons I’ll share are from actual examples of businesses that are implementing my Destination Strategy that will immediately relate to your business.

SECOND, you will learn the entire 14-step strategy of becoming a Destination Business, taught entirely by me, in its entirety. Again, I am the only one who’ll be teaching you this course.

THIRD, you’ll learn why you can NEVER WAIT for your marketplace to change. You must focus on changing your business and stop focusing on all the groups that you think aren’t doing enough for your community or your industry.  It’s not your chamber, economic development department, your association, your suppliers, your franchise, your city, town, county, downtown, Main Street, or any State agency’s responsibility to elevate your business into a Destination.  It’s all up to you, as a business owner, and I’m going to show you how to correct it.

FOURTH, you will learn actual, proven lessons from the most proactive business owners in North America who I have interviewed and studied over the course of 30+ years.  I didn’t make this stuff up.  Everything I’m going to teach you is being used right now by successful business owners.

You will also learn these additional lessons:

  1. You will learn my entire, proprietary, trademarked 14-step Destination Creation strategy to turn your business into a Consumer Destination, and to do that, you’ll have to come to Colorado, the only place where I teach this class.
  2. The best way to attract your highest spending customers, even if your local customers don’t spend a lot with you.
  3. Why the saying: “Location, location, location” doesn’t matter anymore
  4. Why waiting for your marketplace to become a destination is more detrimental to your business than just reinventing your own business.
  5. Two (2) key financial components that your financial experts will never have heard of that are critical for the success of any small business (especially one that wants to become a Destination)
  6. Four (4) critically profitability measurements you as a business owner should be using, but probably aren’t
  7. How to increase the most valuable asset your business possesses which most owners neglect until right before they want to sell (and then, it’s too late)
  8. How to add value to your business with each individual change you make to your it, and a tool that will immediately tell you if you should be spending any time on the changes you envision for your business.
  9. The most critical reasons for business stagnation and how you can positively turn that sales plateau around, right now
  10. The number one time-management step that a multi-million dollar Destination Business owner does every morning and afternoon to keep his team on track
  11. The #1 question you must ask yourself every morning, if you want to always stay ahead of your competitors.
  12. How to get customers to remember your business name, just like top brands in the country.  You’ll learn from an award-winning Madison Avenue advertising executive who’ll teach you what he did with the top brands in the country, and apply those steps to your business.
  13. How to create a hit-list of your best customers who will spread positive word-of-mouth about your business (just like having your own bunch of influencers and celebrities running around talking about your business)
  14. Look at number 13 above and I’ll tell you a story of how one business owner in a town of 822 people followed a very simple set of steps that’s taught at the BootCamp, and he then received an endorsement from a television star. By the way, this owner is now being offered to have his own television show featuring his products.
  15. How you can exploit the hidden weaknesses of every superstore or Internet e-commerce site, even if it’s Costco, Wal-Mart, Home Depot,  Amazon.com, or Zappos.com.
  16. How to change a part of your business that’s working perfectly well, just so you can infuriate and frustrate your competitors who are trying to copy you.
  17. Five (5) little-known techniques to find high margin products that can help boost your bottom line
  18. One phrase you should be repeating to yourself every morning when you wake up, if you are a perfectionist or if you have a controlling personality. I haven’t even met you, and you are probably one of these two personality types.
  19. Why an overcompensation system is critical to handling today’s customers who are primed to go post a negative review
  20. The most important ½-hour you’ll spend each week should be focused on this one task.  Are you doing it?
  21. The 9 key components of a Destination Business website.  (Most websites have just one or two of these.)
  22. One addition to your website that is so unfair to your competition, they will wish they would have done it.  (This one item, added to a business website, caused one owner to get a 4-page article written about her business along with three television stories, all at no cost to her.)
  23. The key reason top Destination Businesses can still operate effectively and profitably, even during slower sales and in poorer demographic areas
  24. The six (6) key principles for creating compelling product advantages that your competition isn’t using.
  25. The one sure-fire technique you can use if you absolutely, positively, must have free publicity now (it’s like a PR secret weapon)
  26. How to bond a customer to your business in 7 seconds by magnifying five (5) critical areas in your business
  27. How a multi-million dollar retailer with a staff of over 40 keeps his employees organized and on-task with just two 15-minute meetings a-day
  28. Why 68% of the customers leave a business mad, and what you can do to bring them back
  29. How you can take a customer complaint and spin it, where that problem adds more profit to your business
  30. Twenty-four (24) questions, that when you answer them, will separate your business from any competitor (it took me over 20 years just to perfect this list, and you get it on Day 1)
  31. How to make your existing customers buy more frequently, visit more often, spend more when they walk-in, and think about buying more when they walk out
  32. How to turn customer complaints into free publicity
  33. Why most national chains will never be Destinations and why they can’t use the tools I’m teaching you
  34. How to schedule high traffic events to alleviate low-traffic downturns throughout your year
  35. How to create a 7-step integrated marketing campaign without having to write anything down on paper
  36. The easiest way to attract writers, television producers, and media people so your business can get free publicity.  You will learn how businesses just like yours are receiving free publicity on national television, in magazines, newspapers, radio and through social media influencers.
  37. The best way to make strategic changes to your business in the shortest amount of time that involve less risk, but have a huge return-on-investment.
  38. How to get your customers to bring you new customers with one single swipe of your pen
  39. Why price discounting (as you’re probably doing it) is slowly deteriorating your business and how to price discount correctly and maintain more of your profit margin
  40. How to cut advertising expenses (ads that customers ignore anyway) and spend less money on marketing that customers believe
  41. The two (2) fastest methods to attract the best customers (but right now, you think these methods are out of your control)
  42. Which types of marketing are the most wasteful to you, based on the ideal customers you’d like to attract
  43. The lowest cost, most effective techniques to supercharge your floorspace, whether your space is a retail store, a restaurant, and office, or a warehouse
  44. The best way to stop cars driving by and get their drivers into your business
  45. The easiest and cheapest way to remodel a store if you have to tackle this grueling task
  46. The top five mistakes that most businesses make with their window displays that can be implemented by even the most untalented window display person
  47. How to get your customers to advertise your business and bring you more people like them
  48. Learn what’s the first thing to say to any customer, and never get the “I’m just looking” response
  49. You will learn when it’s best to act impulsively, listen to your intuition, and capture those moments of brilliance that pop into your brain every morning
  50. How to integrate surprise into your business brand, and it’s so inexpensive to do
  51. How to create 100+ search engine optimized web pages leading back to your website, and at the same time, rise in the rankings of all search engines. Best of all, you don’t even have to understand any computer stuff; it’s automatic!)
  52. How to be first in search engines like Google and Yahoo, without paying for ads or placement.
  53. Two (2) proven donation techniques that will increase customer traffic, get your business free publicity, and drive away those undeserving requests
  54. A little-known free tool that allows you to connect with journalists who can give your business the free publicity it needs
  55. How you can take your customers, create a one-of-a-kind advertising campaign around them, and then, build a direct mail program that you don’t have to pay for
  56. How to get free media attention with your product lines, without taking out an ad
  57. The 5 proven techniques to take generic products and make them uniquely your own
  58. Eight (8) powerful steps to getting the product you have in your business to stand out and be memorable, even if your competition has a larger selection and a better price
  59. How to get 20% of your customers to pay for a service that you’re probably giving away for free right now
  60. The four tools you must understand IF you really want to connect with people on Facebook
  61. Learn how to use the most powerful, up-to-date forms of social media. This section of the BootCamp gets updated every class because it changes so quickly.
  62. One easy, time-saving method to increase your email marketing response rates and you’ll wonder why you hadn’t thought of it before (I learned this from a top marketing author)
  63. Learn one small business owner’s system for getting his employees to send out hundreds of personal thank-you cards every month (and skyrocket his customer loyalty)
  64. How one restaurant owner takes off 6 months from his business every year because he has 25 managers to run his business (but he only pays 1 of the managers and the rest do the work for free). Guaranteed, you’ll love this idea!
  65. How to know exactly the steps you must implement immediately after leaving the BootCamp to create business momentum and grow sales quickly
  66. You will come away from this class wondering why no one in your industry every taught you this before. There’s a reason most industries don’t teach this process and it will be crystal clear why you haven’t been taught this before.And because finding good help and training help is so difficult these days, we’ll focus on these important steps:
  67. The largest, most consequential mistake employers make in hiring employees
  68. The single piece of signage that should be visible in every business that needs to seen by every employee and customer
  69. The most motivating employee tool that any owner can use
  70. The 6 steps where most employers fail in setting expectations for employees
  71. How to get employees to help create great social media content
  72. The top employee reward program I’ve ever seen that can be implemented immediately by every retail store owner AND it costs you almost nothing

So there you have it.  The individual components of the Destination BootCamp that you’ll learn from me, along with receiving invaluable networking with top business owners and their input during class!  Check out our BootCamp dates, get registered now, and you’ll be showing up in a BootCamp photo just like one of these!

 

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