sadie
A few months ago, this little girl joined our family. We got her when she was 8 weeks old and have been trying to keep up with her ever since. As to be expected with a puppy, we’ve been to the veterinarian a few times for various preventative shots. I’m simply amazed by this Animal Hospital business. It’s an incredible money machine.

Here is a brief summary of the services our veterinarian offers:

Medical Related:
1. Daytime urgent care
2. Preventative medicine – vaccines, heartworm prevention, tick prevention, flea prevention, spaying & neutering
3. Surgery
4. Anesthesia
5. Pharmacy
6. Dentistry
7. MLS Laser Therapy
8. Nutrition Products and Services
9. Canine Massage Therapy
10. Diagnostics Services

Services:
1. Boarding for dogs and cats (luxury suites are available)
2. Special needs boarding
3. Boarding for Avian & Exotics
4. Remove access to your pet (watch your pet over wifi)
5. Grooming for dogs and cats
6. Obedience training for puppies and adult dogs

Basically, if you have a pet, this business offers a one stop shop for just about anything you might possibly need. We have already scheduled a future surgery and two future boarding sessions for her. Except for food, just about every dollar we invest for her care will be directed towards this ONE business.

The best businesses in the world have multiple income streams at various price points. They have lower priced products and services, as well as, higher priced products and services. In addition, the most profitable businesses all seem to have recurring revenue. This ONE small business has ALL of these income streams.

Every day, the business collects money on boarding, grooming, and regular preventative pet services. They also seem to sell significant quantities of nutritional products and supplements, which are automatically recurring sales. If a pet has any medical issue, they’ll earn additional income.

Even better, this business has numerous marketing opportunities available to attract new customers. They could advertise any one of their services independently of the others. For example, as the holidays are fast approaching, they could advertise their boarding services now as they know many families travel around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Any new customer attracted to this campaign would obviously be exposed to all of their other products and services. Or they could specifically target market to attract families with puppies and kittens. This way they would have the potential to care for these pets for years to come. Another option could be to only advertise for their most profitable services, which I would have to guess are surgery, dentistry, and urgent care.

Because of the number of products and services offered, this business can attract new customers easily.

Now the crazy part is I’ve been studying this business and haven’t seen ANY advertisements. I don’t believe they have to advertise and this what amazes me. Imagine how it might be to own a very profitable business that doesn’t have to constantly generate new leads?

Why would this be the case? Why wouldn’t this business have to be constantly marketing?

If this business wanted to increase their revenue, they could simply create a new product or service and start offering this service to their existing customers. They would have very limited risk with this new product or service and would be able to extract maximum profit.

Stop and think about this for a minute and compare it to your business.

Is your business a one-stop shop for your target client? If not, could it be?

Do you have multiple marketing campaigns/opportunities to attract new clients, or do you rely on the same campaign over-and-over again?

As I was building my real estate business, my goal was to create a one-stop shop for investors. This goal included multiple income streams several of which were automatically recurring. We offered a monthly membership for investors, special training classes, seminars, books and educational products. In addition, we obviously earned commissions as investors acquired properties. We also offered property management and tenant placement services, too.

The next level of services I was interested in pursuing (before I sold the business) was to start offering contractor services for any and all repairs investors might have for their properties. This could have included roofing, painting, flooring, siding, landscaping, remodeling, and help with city violations. If an investor in our area wanted to invest in real estate, I wanted the majority of their dollars coming through my business.

The Animal Hospital is a deep business. It focuses on offering numerous products and services to a small number of customers.

The typical real estate agent builds a wide business. We tend to focus on selling one home to/for each new client. This means we need to constantly be marketing and generating new leads. This also means we won’t enjoy the same profitability as a deep business because a significant portion of our revenue must be invested back into marketing.

As we finish off 2015, take some time to think about how you might transform your business into a business like our veterinarian. Think about businesses like Disney and Apple and see how they have the same “deep” business model.

P.S. We were actually referred to this veterinarian by a friend. They attracted us as a new customer without having to spend $1.00 in advertising.

P.P.S. After “seeing” how profitable this business is, I started looking for pet hospital related investments. Check out this page on Investopedia which highlights various Pet Stocks.

P.P.P.S. Believe it or not, after finishing the draft of this post yesterday, our puppy seems to have come down with a “little” stomach problem. I could write more, but you really don’t want to read about the details. Ugh. We have an appointment this afternoon to visit our veterinarian. 🙂

P.P.P.P.S. If you work with investors and would like a new done-for-you marketing campaign including an 8 to 12 page lead conversion “content” report, new lead generation advertisements, and done-for-you email campaigns, give my Marketing Department a try for just 1.00 here. In a nutshell, I’ll prepare all of your marketing for you each month and you’ll be able to attract and convert a continuous flow of new clients.


    3 replies to "What a profitable business looks like… (plus a cute puppy picture)"

    • Dan Weis

      Hi Rob,

      Couldn’t you also look at this as a way to provide additional value to your existing clients to where you stay in touch with them by offering them market updates, contractor recommendations, client mortgage reviews, (and more ideas that others can share with the group) and also find ways to introduce their spheres of influence (family, friends & co-workers) to your services?

      Dan

      • Robert Minton

        Dan it is best to actually put yourself in your prospective client’s shoes and think about what they might need and want. Even better, think about what challenges your prospective clients are having. These ideas should be the foundation for new products and services you offer. Our veterinarian doesn’t offer dog toys, dog beds, leashes, or collars. They seem to focus on their customer’s needs. When we go away, we NEED someone to take care of our puppy. When our puppy is sick, we NEED someone to help us get her healthy again. What do sellers NEED? What problems are they having? What do buyers NEED? What problems are they having?

        How can you offer products and/or services to help with these needs? This is how you build a deep business.

    • dan@danweis.com

      Hi Rob,

      A very intriguing post that should get agents thinking about how to do deeper with their existing clients.

      Being in residential sales, what other services could be incorporated into a business plan? If you consider different home improvement items, like roofing, plumbing, HVAC, etc, would you own those businesses or do a joint venture with them? Are there RESPA laws to be concerned about? How about lenders, title co, inspectors, etc that already have their own business…how can that work as an income stream?

      I’m sure you have some ideas for residential agents. Pls share a few. It would be great to have everyone reading your post, share some of their thoughts, so we can all benefit.

      To your continued success,

      Dan

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