If you're looking for something to celebrate, national Hole In My Bucket day occurs each May 30th. Don't tell me you missed it!
The day celebrates the children's song, "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza".
Make a date in your calendar for next May 30th, and don't forget to turn up with a leaky receptacle.
Incidentally, you should also know that May 30th is national Water a Flower Day. You'll probably have to choose which one you celebrate, because you can't water your garden with a hole in your pail.
I like the analogy of buckets and holes when it comes to business - particularly, in relation to customer retention. You capture a new customer (the water) and they go into your bucket (your business). If you lose them, they disappear out through the hole in the bottom. If your bucket is full of water then you are either successfully serving lots of small customers or a few big ones. The volume of water contained in your bucket is a combination of its size, the amount of 'water' that flows into it, and the size of the hole in the bottom.
In your startup you'll acquire and lose customers all the time. If you sell with a single product transaction then, once the customer has completed the purchase you may never see them again. They entered your bucket, conducted a bit of business and almost immediately fell out through the bottom. In that instance your job is to encourage them to make another purchase later or get new single purchase customers.
Of course, what you want is for customers to stay in your bucket, regularly spending money and adding to the volume of water. That's because retaining customers is far cheaper than acquiring them.
Remember, it's folly to focus solely on acquiring customers, with the expense involved, only to lose them again so quickly after just one or a few transactions - in bucket language, in through the top and out through the hole in the bottom. In the blink of an eye.
So consider first how you can retain customers once you've got them - keep them spending. And that's down to the indispensable value you provide as a supplier.
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