About Stephen Michael Hourigan
Welcome to a website dedicated to entrepreneur and financier Stephen Hourigan. This site will focus mainly on assisting small businesses that are looking to accelerate their revenue, something Hourigan has done throughout his career as an administrator. Future blog posts will also provide an outlet for Steve Hourigan to share insights into his interests. These interests include the power of exercise and its impact on one’s wellbeing, the importance of making time for family no matter how busy we become, and tips to improve your golf game to keep up with your colleagues on the green.
If you found this website and are looking to accelerate your company’s revenue, Stephen Michael Hourigan recommends starting with narrowing down your target market. Whether your business model provides a service or a specific product, it is important that a target market is identified for a variety of reasons. Stephen Hourigan of Zionsville, Indiana explains that narrowing down the customer base will help a business tailor their marketing efforts towards the proper audience. This ensures that the business can focus on doubling down on that audience and not waste efforts appealing to individuals outside of the target demographic. Once a business knows the target market, Steve Hourigan notes that they can start researching what is important to that audience. It is important that a product or service fills a specific need. Sometimes, this need is apparent and other times it is one that a customer may not realize they have until they discover the product. Finding out what is important to the customer base will provide a clear path towards how the product or service should be market, saving the business time and money as team members further push towards the goals of the company.
Stephen Hourigan of Zionsville, Indiana believes the quickest path towards accelerated revenue is improving upon a company’s lead generation methodology. A lot of the time, start-ups will simply purchase a list of leads to maximize sales potential. This is a tricky proposition as they absorb all the risk as a purchased list that underperforms amounts to nothing but sunk costs. According to Steve Hourigan, Search engine optimization (SEO)practices can be great, but they are usually more of a long-term strategy. A start-up is going to take a while to compete in the search engine rankings with established competitors that already have a foothold in the marketplace. Online directories and landing pages provide unique ways towards increasing brand awareness and providing a sales team with talking points for potential clients. For instance, if several review platforms have positive ratings, sales teams can drive prospects towards these reviews. Landing pages can help funnel the audience of paid ads and establish a quick and efficient way to complete a sale. Because people fill out landing pages with an idea of what is to come in mind, leads generated through them can be of superior quality than leads included on lists. After all, we often do not have a clear picture of how these leads ended up on said list in the first place.
Stephen Hourigan and Elevate Ventures
When Stephen Hourigan was CEO of Elevate Ventures, the mission was to provide startup funding to promising small businesses. At Elevate, Stephen saw first hand how effective lead generation tools can be with a strong sales team behind them. To strengthen your sales team, identify what salespeople need more training on and ensure that they are well versed in the product that they are expected to sell. They should be able to provide answers to both common and detailed questions and highlight the key selling points of a product or service. Stephen Michael Hourigan consistently speaks to how a quality salesperson on your team can be the difference between a slow burn and accelerated growth for a start-up.
Stephen Michael Hourigan encourages start-ups to take the time to create a winning atmosphere, as it will certainly benefit them further down the road. One of the best ways to establish a positive culture is to create friendly competition and create goals. Every salesperson should have monthly goals that they can work towards as they help keep a team motivated and task oriented. Setting goals will also help upper management delegate responsibility. One of the biggest mistakes start-ups make is having ownership bear too much of the responsibility. One person can only do so much. By creating a team focused on a singular goal, revenue can be generated that much quicker and in a less stressful fashion.
Stephen Hourigan, previously of Elevate Ventures, has a lot more to say about business growth and other subjects relating to start-up success. Be sure to check back often to learn more!