Market the Business You Want to Become

If You Want to Mow Lawns, Tell People You Mow Lawns. If You Want to Build Landscapes, Tell People That.

One of the biggest mistakes I see businesses make isn't poor design or a lack of marketing.

It's poor positioning.

Too many businesses describe themselves by the smallest thing they do, rather than the biggest problem they solve.

Take landscaping as an example.

If your website tells people you mow lawns, trim hedges and clean up gardens, don't be surprised when your phone rings with customers looking for someone to mow their lawn.

But what if your real goal is to design and build beautiful outdoor spaces?

That's a completely different business.

The customers are different. The projects are larger. The conversations change. Instead of quoting on a fortnightly lawn service, you're discussing outdoor entertaining areas, retaining walls, paving, planting and complete backyard transformations.

The work hasn't necessarily changed. The way you've positioned it has.

This is something I see across almost every industry.

Designers who really want to become creative directors still market themselves as graphic designers.

Builders who specialise in renovations advertise themselves as handymen.

Marketing agencies talk endlessly about social media posts when they should be talking about business growth.

People buy outcomes.

Very few people wake up wanting a website.

• They want more enquiries.

• They want more sales.

• They want to look more professional.

• They want their business to grow.

The website is simply one of the tools that gets them there.

The same applies to landscaping.

People don't dream about retaining walls or paving.

They imagine entertaining friends, watching their children play in a beautiful backyard or increasing the value of their home.

That's the product they're really buying.

When I looked at Sydney Scapes, that's exactly the opportunity I saw.

Don't compete with every gardener in Sydney.

Compete with the businesses creating complete outdoor transformations.

The difference isn't just in the projects you'll attract. It changes the way customers perceive your expertise, the value they place on your work and, ultimately, what they're prepared to invest.

Every business should ask itself one simple question:

Are we marketing the jobs we want tomorrow, or the jobs we did yesterday?

The businesses that continue to grow are usually the ones brave enough to position themselves for where they want to be, not where they started.