JP Maroney inspires and educates audiences with his business principles, ideas and strategies that have been hammered out on the anvil of experience.
As Founder & CEO of Harbor City Capital Corp., JP Maroney created a product that consistently produces above average returns for his investors.
As an entrepreneur and a popular speaker with more than two decades of experience starting, building, buying, and selling companies, Maroney shares his insight on the best ways to grow a business, employing entrepreneurs, and how to identify your target market.
With a solution-oriented culture, how does your team at Harbor City Capital produce results for clients and investors?
JP Maroney: The idea of a solution-focused organization is to engage and empower your people to constantly search for solutions. I find the effect of a solution-focused workforce is enormous in terms of growth. Harbor City Capital excels at finding online leads and generating new buyers for businesses at a cheaper cost than the companies are willing to pay for those leads. Through a strategy called Digital Marketing Arbitrage, we see money spent on advertising as an investment that has the potential to deliver a return when the lead is either sold to a prearranged buyer or monetized through internet-based promotions.
You talk about the Pillars of Profit: What are the 3 ways to grow a business?
JP Maroney: #1 Get more clients. How do you acquire more clients? You have to think about what a client is worth to your business. If a client is worth 10 thousand dollars over their lifetime, then you need to know how much to spend on a new client before you lose money. I call it trading dimes for dollars. You’ve got to be willing to invest in clients.
#2 Increase the size of the transaction. How can you create an environment that allows you to increase the amount of money that you are being paid per client each time they do business with you. Part of that is add on sales. Another way is to increase your prices. You can also upgrade them into an option that is better suited to their needs. If you are in business for the long game, like we are at Harbor City Capital, that means making sure your client’s needs are being met.
#3 Increase the number of transactions. If you think about companies that you’ve done business with during the last 12 months, how many of them have followed up with you through email, mail, phone, etc. and given you a reason to come back and do business with them again? It almost doesn’t exist. Not effectively following up is a definite mistake. All you have to do is give them a compelling reason to do business with you again.
As a founder of your own company, Harbor City Capital, do you think organizations should recruit entrepreneurial employees?
JP Maroney: Hiring entrepreneurs – someone with creativity and the drive to open new opportunities — adds value to the company. In some cases, I prefer to employ entrepreneurs. Every company needs people who are good at managing the existing business and the people who can create new things. Many new products or business ideas are the result of an entrepreneur driving it. I think you need to remember to encourage their independence and let them do their best.
Your team at Harbor City Capital works remotely across nearly 15 time zones. What are the advantages and also the pitfalls of operating this way?
JP Maroney: I’ve had expensive offices filled with people, furniture and equipment. Over the years I’ve learned that being confined to an office doesn’t necessarily make a company successful. One of the big lessons that I’ve learned in this whole process of building a remote team is that communication is absolutely vital. Many times, I’ve got my head down, I’m out flying and meeting with people or out on the speaking schedule, and it is easier for me to sort of step back from open communication with the team and get tied up in the day to day. I have found as a CEO, that it’s absolutely a must and a requirement to communicate with team members as a group and individually to be able to stay on the same page, to be able to know that they’re still in the game.
What is a common mistake entrepreneurs make and how do they fix it?
