Business Growth Blueprint with Mark Fitzgerald
Welcome to "The Business Growth Blueprint Podcast," your ultimate resource for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to rapidly grow and scale their ventures! Join us as we dive deep into the world of marketing strategies, client acquisition, and retention techniques that empower you to take your business to the next level.
In each episode, we bring you expert insights, actionable tips, and inspiring success stories from industry leaders who have mastered the art of business growth. Whether you're a startup founder or a seasoned business owner, our podcast is designed to equip you with the tools and knowledge needed to attract more clients, enhance your marketing efforts, and build lasting relationships that drive sustainable success.
Tune in to discover innovative approaches to scaling your business, effective marketing campaigns, and proven methods for keeping your customers engaged and satisfied. With a focus on real-world applications and the latest trends, "The Business Growth Blueprint Podcast" is your go-to guide for transforming your business vision into reality.
Subscribe now and unlock your potential for exponential growth!
Business growth, marketing strategies, client acquisition, client retention, entrepreneurship, scaling businesses, business owners, podcast for entrepreneurs, business success tips.
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Mark Fitzgerald
Business Growth Blueprint with Mark Fitzgerald
Are You Building the Right Business for Your Life Goals?
Have you built a business that's actually capable of delivering the life you want? This fundamental question sits at the heart of entrepreneurship yet remains unaddressed for too many business owners caught in the daily grind.
Mark Fitzgerald, entrepreneur and business growth specialist, kicks off the Business Growth Blueprint Podcast by sharing his journey from corporate manager to successful business owner. Drawing from seven years of building multiple successful companies and helping hundreds of other entrepreneurs do the same, Mark introduces his mission: helping business owners create the lifestyles they want through strategic business development.
The episode challenges listeners to answer three pivotal questions: Why did you start your business? Why are you still in it? And what do you want from it long-term? These seemingly simple questions often reveal profound disconnects between our business structures and life goals. Mark explains how entrepreneurs typically find themselves in one of three positions—needing to stabilize, optimize, or maximize their business—and why identifying your current position is crucial before implementing growth strategies.
Most importantly, Mark introduces his approach to business growth through establishing foundation blocks, understanding core business metrics, and aligning business structure with lifestyle goals. Whether you're running a lifestyle business or building a scalable enterprise, the key lies in creating systems that deliver consistent results without constant personal sacrifice.
Ready to transform your business from a source of stress into a vehicle for the life you actually want? Subscribe to the podcast, check out the free resources at markfitzgerald.com, or book a virtual coffee with Mark to explore how his blueprints might accelerate your business growth journey.
Welcome to the Business Growth Blueprint Podcast. If you're an entrepreneur looking to elevate your business, you're in the right place. In today's fast-paced world, growing your business is more than just numbers. It's about making great marketing decisions to build meaningful connections, increase your revenue and keep your customers not just satisfied but truly happy, so you can live your life on your terms. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Business Growth Blueprint podcast with me, your host, mark Fitzgerald. It's great to have you joining me here for this new podcast that I'm putting out there, so I thought I'd start the first episode with a little bit about myself, just to introduce myself to you.
Speaker 1:My name is Mark Fitzgerald. I've been married over 22 years now to my lovely wife, lisa, and I have two sons, jack and Lewis. Jack is now at university, making us proud. He's actually studying marketing, business and management and Lewis, who is still at secondary school, are both doing very, very well. I'm a very proud father and they are the reason why I get out there, build businesses and help other people as well, to inspire my boys, because I want to build a legacy piece for them.
Speaker 1:I am a property investor as well. I do have property businesses and I also have been running another podcast, actually for the last four years, which is called the Property Unleashed Podcast. So that has over 300 episodes where I talk very much about how you can do creative deals using property in the UK and, of course, how you can build a successful property business as well. And business is my forte. If I'm quite honest with you, I love doing business, I love anything, I do anything. I look to build, I look to systemize it, I look to run it, I look to manage it as a business. And that's what I've been doing with the Property Unleashed podcast, which is helping a lot of investors set themselves up for success and manage their property investing like businesses. I've also been out there helping other businesses letting agents, estate agencies, other small businesses to grow, to systemize, to manage, to get their marketing right, and I continue to do so.
Speaker 1:I've been, I'd say, an entrepreneur most of my life, but really the last seven years is where I've been building my own companies, my own businesses, and, as I say, it's a roller coaster and mainly in businesses, the thing that most of us are all trying to find the sweet spot of is getting and keeping more customers, the life and blood of our businesses. Now that could be customers, that could be clients. You could be a business-to-business operation, a business, a B2C operation, business-to-customers operation, it doesn't really matter. Fundamentally, though, we all are striving to build the best businesses that we can. Now I'm going to help you over the next episodes to pull a few levers, tweak a few things, open your mind up to a different way of thinking, and sometimes, as business owners, we don't do enough of that. We don't do enough thinking. Having thinking time can be massive, changing the way that we look at things, trying new ideas, new systems, split testing things all of those can be. I'll feel like they are a lifetime away when it comes to building and growing a successful business.
Speaker 1:Myself, I come from a corporate background. When I was very, very young, I used to work in my mother's shop doing a lot of sales and helping her, and back then there was no internet. You know we're talking back in the stone ages. There was no internet, so you used to advertise in newspapers. You used to try and get the biggest ad you could, maybe in the yellow pages to actually get recognized, and that was about it. The other thing would be sandwich boards, would be word of mouth and all of those sorts of things. But we of course are in a fast-paced world now where anybody can buy something, can look at something, can look to get involved in something at the click of a button on their smartphones.
Speaker 1:So from myself I started to go out there and work self-employed. I trained as a carpenter and joiner and I enjoyed that working for myself out there, but then found it quite tough early on. So I then went into manufacturing. I started working and building furniture for motorhomes and things, and from then I worked my way off the shop floor up to senior management level Now. In that time I learned a lot. I had a lot of other managers that I confided in that I learned from. That helped me to progress in building the manufacturing business to the size it was Now. It wasn't just me that did that. Of course there was a lot of moving parts in a business like that, but I had a very, very strong influence in what I was doing, and that's the way everybody should look at it If you're just a manager in a business like that. But I had a very, very strong influence in what I was doing and that's the way everybody should look at it If you're just a manager in a business, maybe thinking about starting your own business, then do make sure that you are making a difference in the current business that you're in, whether it's yours or not, but when we get out there and we start trying to build our own businesses and that was what I longed to do After 16 years as a manager, I decided to take voluntary redundancy and get out there and start building a business for myself, because I knew I could make other people money.
Speaker 1:I wanted to get out there and start making myself money, start building something for myself and, potentially, a legacy piece for my kids. I got involved in the property market, the property sector, and I built successful property management companies that replaced my corporate wage and, of course, have meant that I've been out there striving to grow businesses from scratch. Now, of course, you can go out there and buy businesses as well and speed up the process, and that is something that is very, very intriguing. And, of course, you can go out there and buy businesses as well and speed up the process, and that is something that is very, very intriguing and, of course, in most cases, a very good idea for a lot of people that are looking to start up, but if you haven't got the capital behind you, the means or the know-how to do so, then starting your own business, starting something potentially small and trying to scale and grow it is good, but it is extremely difficult.
Speaker 1:Mark my words, if you're going to go out there and go on the roller coaster as a business owner and maybe you're already on that roller coaster and you're flying up and down, you know there's good days, you know there's bad days. So what I want to do, as I say here, is to help you have a different way of thinking, help you with your marketing. Help you find, maybe, the gap that you've got in your life. Maybe your business is struggling a bit. It's not where you thought it was going to be. We all start with the best intentions, but we can soon enough get caught up in the melee of the day-to-day running of a business, feeling like there's no time for ourselves.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're a business owner that makes sure that everybody else gets paid before yourself. That's not always the best way of doing things, but when you're trapped on the hamster wheel, sometimes you think that is the only way that you can go about building and growing your business, pumping every last penny back into your business to build and grow it. Now, in some cases, you will have to make sacrifices and you will have to do those things, but what I'm gonna do with this podcast is to help you systemize exactly how you want to build your business, may potentially grow your business or just stabilize your business, because fundamentally, you're in one of three places, and it is you're either looking to try and stabilize what you've got you're looking at, trying to optimize exactly what it is that you're doing at the moment, so you can reap the rewards from every ounce of your offerings, of how your business is run, or you're looking to grow and you're looking to maximize that business as well, because you have to do things in stages A lot of the time. Now, in this day and age, we think that we can start a business straight away and we can bring money through the front door and life will be good. Now, in some cases, there are some businesses you can do that with, but it's all going to take time, effort and it's going to take a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Now, we don't want too much blood. We're probably going to have some tears along the way, but we are definitely going to have effort. Effort is something. Effort and time actually are probably two of the most important things that we need to take into account when we plan out and start a business or try to grow a business. Now, if you've already got a business but it feels a little bit stagnant or you're feeling that you're holding yourself back you know, if you're a tradesperson and basically it relies on you to do the work, so your capacity is you then you need to obviously start thinking outside the box and looking at new ways. Now, some people will have a lifestyle business, and there's nothing wrong with a lifestyle business. You need to pick and choose exactly what is right for you, and there's never a right or a wrong answer to any of this.
Speaker 1:When I started building my businesses, I built one letting agency to a decent size, but it became another job and I was getting into building a lifestyle business, something that could give me more time freedom to spend with my family, but would also mean that I could live a very good lifestyle as well. Now, that didn't happen overnight. I had to do that over many, many years, and I've been doing this now seven years, but I have achieved it on numerous occasions, and I now am privileged actually to say that I'm in a position to help others to do the same, and that is really what I'm going to take and offer you at this podcast. I work with clients on a one-to-one basis. I also do group coaching sessions, but helping business owners to grow their businesses, and I want to take a lot of my teachings and learnings that I have, of course, learned along the way and share them with each and every one of you out there to help you to do the same. And it is my mission, if you like, to help business owners create the lifestyles that they want from their businesses.
Speaker 1:We have to look back and we have to ask ourselves a lot of the time why did we start the business that we're in? Did we inherit the business? Was it because we had industry information expertise in that role, so we just thought the natural progression is to start a business there? Or have we started something that maybe we're not enjoying anymore? Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time? So ask yourself these three questions right here, right now why did you start your business? Okay, unless, of course, you inherited it, in which case why did you say yes to inheriting that business. Ask yourself this as well why are you still in this business? Is there a fundamental reason that you get a real buzz out of running this business, a buzz out of helping other people, a buzz out of putting good products together and putting it out there, or services? And lastly, what do you want from your business long term?
Speaker 1:Sometimes we get so busy in the day to day we get caught in the weeds, as they like to say, of the day to day that we just don't know why we're still doing this. Maybe we feel like I don't want to work for anybody else. I've got to make this business work, and it's a pipe dream. Have you got a business that can actually deliver the results that you're looking for from your life? And those are three fundamental questions that you really should have an answer for and take a little bit of time to work out for yourself as well C A why you started the business or took the business on or bought the business. B why you're still in that business. And C what do you want from the business long term? Answer those questions, take a bit of time to think about it, even pause this episode if you want to, but write it down. Your results to each of those questions write down to C, but take a bit of time on that as well, because it's all about making sure that we're living a life that we want to, a life on our terms.
Speaker 1:We're only here for a short while, so why do something that you hate? If your business drains you rather than inspires you and gets you jumping out of bed in the morning, why is that? Really? Be honest with yourself, because the fundamentals are all there, that if you are a business owner, you're working your socks off. You're probably missing out on certain things in life as well, and that is going to take its toll. You don't want to risk burning yourself out time and time again. Now I burnt myself out. It's not a good place to be and chances are, if you've been in business a while, you've probably done the same.
Speaker 1:If you have enough customers, you have enough revenue, you love what you're doing, then you're probably going to get very, very little from this podcast. You're going to listen to it and say, well, I know this, I've got that, I've got that, I've got that and that's great. If you have brilliant, that's where you need to be, but that is the reason I have built and created and put together this podcast. This is my mission, this is my journey to help you build your business to whatever size you want and, fundamentally, a business for your good self could be a lifestyle business. Is that what you're looking at? Is it just a small business that means that you only work a few days a week but you bring in the revenue that you need to live the life you want? Or are you looking at growing, scaling your business for the future, potentially bringing in lots of employees? Maybe growing, scaling your business for the future, potentially bringing in lots of employees, maybe even looking to sell it in the future? If that is the case, then this is the right podcast for you.
Speaker 1:So what are we going to be covering? Well, covering over the next few episodes, to say the least. We'll be looking at finding out where you are right here, right now, with your business, and I've got some little lessons that I'm going to share with you so that you can do this as you follow along with the podcast, and it's called finding your gap. Then, what we will do going forward, we will be looking at the foundational blocks of your business how are you getting leads? How are you getting customers? How are you delivering a VIP service in? Whatever it is you're doing, whether you're selling things, whether you're offering a service, whether you're just getting out there and supporting other businesses, whatever service it is that you put out there, you will be able to go through these, and we have 11 foundation blocks for us to go through. You cannot skip the gears when it comes to anything here. You have to try and work your way through these blueprints, through these methodologies, and see what you can take for your business, see what you can implement into your business and into your life to help you. We're going to look at ways that, potentially, you can make your marketing better, you can fix your marketing, you can drive the numbers into your business and how, of course, you can track all of that to maintain the level that you need to maintain the numbers.
Speaker 1:Okay, numbers are very, very important in business. If you are now listening to this oh my God, numbers, I don't do numbers Then mark my words. I was sat there, I was you. I was there saying oh, I'm not bothered about numbers, just point me in the right direction and let me get out there and sell, sell, sell. Well, once you understand at least seven core numbers in your business, it will be a complete game changer for you, and it's not complicated.
Speaker 1:If I can do it, anybody can do it and it's all about making sure that you build something that will deliver the life that you want. I've said it once and I've said it again. So we're gonna plan out and really map out what you want from life, and then we're gonna have a good look at your business to see whether or not it can deliver that for you, because not all businesses will be able to deliver what people want from their life. If somebody wants to have millions of pounds turnover, they want to be making a fortune, they don't want to be spending much time in the business and they've only just got going or they've been going a couple of years. Is that really realistic right here, right now? No, it's not, but potentially, by thinking about things, by putting foundation blocks in place and by knowing your numbers, you can get there.
Speaker 1:Ok, there is an answer to all of these things and, of course, we'll help you build scorecards, we'll help you optimise, we'll help you stabilise and we'll help you maximise your business as well. So I hope this all sounds good to you because I'm super excited to put it out there. We're going to be talking, as I say, about marketing. We're going to be talking about business growth If you're looking at starting up your business, because you've got a great idea, how you can build a team, how you can make sure that you're getting the best clients, the best customers to work with or, of course, to sell to as well. And we'll even talk about asset creation as well.
Speaker 1:If you are making good profits and you really want to start making that money work for you, then there's asset creation, because we want to be thinking about and looking at money now which we need to survive and live, and money future Asset creation so that if you do want to retire, you want to sell your business, you want to sail off into the sunset. What and how much Do you need, reoccurringly, to live the life again that you want? So all that leaves me to say is it's great to be here, it's great to be bringing this podcast to you. If you've listened to this far, I hope you're looking forward to the next episodes. We will be jumping in to a lot of different blueprints and I'll be sharing with you a lot of my blueprints, or blueprints that I've learned along the way, that have really helped me to scale three successful businesses and help hundreds of others to do the same. So make sure that you subscribe.
Speaker 1:You follow this podcast episode.
Speaker 1:You can check us out on YouTube as well. I'm at Mark Fitzgerald Entrepreneur on YouTube and also do check out the website markfitzgeraldcom, where we will be offering you a lot of free tools and resources and spreadsheets and guides to help you, along with what we talk about in these episodes. Of course, if you do need help and assistance in your property business, then reach out to us and I'd be more than happy to have a virtual coffee with you and see if there's anything that we can help you do to drive your business forward and, of course, give you that growth for the next 12 months and beyond. So look out for the next episode and I look forward to you joining me in the next episode very soon. Take care and bye for now and bye for now.
Speaker 1:I hope you've enjoyed this episode today and if you are enjoying these and you need more help and assistance, then why not head over to my website, markfixgeraldcom? I have a lot of free tools and resources there that you've learned about and heard about in these podcast episodes and I would also love, if you need further help, to book some time together and have a Zoom coffee and a chat to see if we can help you grow and scale your business. I look forward to seeing you soon. You take care and bye for now.