003: Mike Michalowicz - Surge: 5 Steps to Riding the Wave of Consumer Demand.
Mike Michalowicz is the author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan, Profit First and Surge, and the founder of Profit First Professionals, an organization designed to support accountants and other financial professionals differentiating themselves in the market. Mike is an entrepreneur at heart and loves sharing his knowledge and experience with the masses. In today’s episode, Mike and I chat about his new book Surge and how to leverage the market for consumer demand.
“How do you time the market?” - The question that prompted two-year of research for his new book Surge. Mike discovered that there is no magic bullet, but there is a way to improve the odds of success dramatically. Mike wrote Surge from his own business experience achieving atypically fast growth from applying and refining the methods outlined in his book. His newest company is still in the learning phase, and Mike plans to write addendums to Surge throughout the process. Tune in to hear more about how Mike used Surge to drive his own businesses to success.
What is Surge?
Surge is a five-step process for identifying trends in the marketplace. While most entrepreneurs look at market trends and try to hit while the market is hot, this process positions a business in front of the momentum of the market to capture it. With a different set of metrics, a proactive entrepreneur can use gain new perspective on the market and “catch the surge” to a profitable growing business.
What does the acronym SURGE mean?
Surge is not about prediction, it is about early measurement.
- • Separate: Separate a small test community; Choose a core group and within that group, choose a very particular niche.
- • Unify: In this core group, identify the movement they are making and unify around it.
- • Rally: Ask “What is that one service or product offering that rallies the group to you as a solution?”
- • Gather: Gather intelligence! As you move along with the market, constantly evaluate what’s working and amplify and expand that, then ditch what isn’t working.
- • Expand: Take the model that is working for your core group and start delivering that offering consistently and to an expanded group.
- When a business “catches the Surge” marketing starts taking care of itself. Instead of promoting, there is a movement in the market with people asking for referrals or seeking the company out aggressively. Instead of arguing about trends, try them and measure them. Maybe you’ll be the next person to “catch the Surge!
Interview Links:
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Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach.
We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).
