Case Study: Strategic planning for marketing and business development
How Carpet Booth Studios went from “seat of our pants” to “strategic and equipped.”
The Carpet Booth Studios team at the strategic planning workshop. Photo by Lipski Cain Consulting.
“Anyone looking to find areas for improvement in their businesses and staff should hire Jill.”
Zach Zurn is the owner of Carpet Booth Studios and a successful recording artist and engineer, having earned gold and platinum records and award nominations. He manages the studio, leads creative and engineering projects, mentors engineering students from the local college's audio technology program as part of the studio's internship program, and supervises early career professionals who work for the studio.
Through a mutual connection, Zach learned about Lipski Cain Consulting. Having seen an Instagram reel about her services for creative businesses, he was ready to inquire about professional assistance. He felt like Jill would be a good fit, given that she was easily relatable and had experience in the business side of music.
In the initial conversations about getting to know Carpet Booth Studios and how Lipski Cain Consulting could help, Zach reflected,
“We were struggling with how to market and how to better engage our engineering staff with getting involved in finding clients and giving staff a sense of ownership. It was all DIY and we flew by the seat of our pants with varying degrees of success. We had made it work up that point, but we knew there were higher levels of success that we could reach with outside professional help.”
As we clarified the project plan and outcome, Zach recalls what helped him decide to move forward with Lipski Cain Consulting:
“If we were going to trust someone to work with us in this style of work, I wanted to believe they were person of good character that understood who we were as people and I felt that Jill matched that perfectly. And, of course, in addition to that, she had the professional expertise to show that she was qualified to give us the insight we needed.”
Upon wrapping up the project, Zach shared:
“[We had] hesitations about investing in business consultation. But we are very glad we did it. We'd do it all over again—ten times over.”
About this project: Strategic planning for marketing and business development
4 weeks of active project work
January: Establish relationship and project needs
February: Contract and project start
March: Discovery of current business and creative context through 1:1 interviews, business document review and analysis, and capacity assessment for booking out the studio.
April: Two-day workshop with the team; deliver final strategic plan
Five custom deliverables
An in-depth summary of the current business context.
Realistic revenue-generating capacity ranges.
Feasible, yet ambitious future vision and detailed strategies for three years.
Three client personas to better target their marketing: who their clients are, their pain points and needs, and considerations for successful sales with them.
Tools for implementing strategies in the first year and broken down in three-month cycles.
Sustainable results and clear business strategies
Increased confidence and skills to strategically grow the business.
Increased clarity of where the business is going and how to get there.
Shared awareness among the team of the plan and everyone’s roles in implementing it.
Deeper understanding of clients’ needs and how to market to them.
“Jill is an incredibly delightful personality to work with. She is a professional communicator and is prompt in her delivery of assets. Her insight into this area of expertise was so helpful.”