The CEO Growth Club helps mid-size technology corporations get back into growth again.
There are 3 tiers of membership:
• “done-for-you” strategy development
• a coaching club
• training only and monthly conference calls
(Level 1) is priced on a time and material basis, (Level 2) is $10K per month and (Level 3) is $2K per month. I've now won three Level 2 customers at $360K per year and have stopped the marketing to get the right focus on delivery and development of teaching resources.
Mission Accomplished! I thought it would be useful to share my experience with you on how I fell behind and then miraculously pulled through to mission accomplished just days before the 21st November deadline. In fact, I cleared the hurdle by miles with $120,000, but I'll get into the details later.
In late October, I was steaming ahead with 83 points which put me in the top 10 at the time. However, it was getting increasingly hard to keep up as the exercises were proving to me again and again that my proposition was just not going to fly.
The EPM market tests were valuable as they prevented me from making a big mistake. Therefore, once I realized it was hopeless, I went back to the start with a new proposition in a different market. However, this major pivot was only a few weeks before the mission accomplished deadline.
My original concept was to do business model training for high growth technology start-ups to help them get funding. I wanted to charge a high fee and so I needed high-potential start-ups that were attractive to Venture Capitalists. The income was going to consist of a modest upfront fee with a larger back-end that was dependent on funding success.
The survey results were promising, I got 290 respondents and over half were interested in starting a business. However, most respondents wanted to start a lifestyle business and had no interest in raising funds from Venture Capitalists. Analysis of the survey results demonstrated that I was never going to cover my advertising costs.
Therefore, I had to quickly resort to Plan B which was closer to my existing business model. Currently, I do Management Consulting for large corporations. However, I personally deliver each assignment on a "done-for-you" basis. Really, I am a glorified freelancer whose earnings have maxed out because I can only do one job at a time and the client has strict limits on acceptable day rates.
I had overcome these limits in the past by recruiting my own consulting associates, but I caught a cold in the recession with high staff overheads and now I prefer the freedom of acting alone. I had often tried to offer my clients online training courses so that I could generate a residual income, but there was no interest in my information products
So here comes the twist that was inspired by Marisa's approach: I ran through the EPM course with my new proposition which was a mix of business strategy training + coaching for mid-sized corporations. I didn't have time to go through all the marketing sections of the course because of the looming deadline.
Instead, I took the outline and EPM approach to one of my past Automotive clients and they signed up straight away for $120,000 per year for me to coach and train their staff through their annual strategy cycle. The experience focus is what clinched the deal. I have now taken the same concept to the head of a division of an even larger $30 billion company in the defense sector and they would also like to start a program.
So, thank you Marissa for inspiring my new strategy service that hopefully will disrupt the consulting market!