Most people who own small businesses also have a full-time, Monday through Friday jobs as well. The ultimate goal with small business is to be able to leave your 9 to 5 job and be able to work full-time for your small business. Although that is the ultimate goal, you must first take efforts to grow your business to where you’ll be able to make the same amount of money as your full-time job brought in but preferably more money than that. In order to make that transition happen, you will have to make some aggressive efforts with your small business to grow it.
The success of your business and its profit growth is dependent upon the methods you take. Sure, you have all the tools you need to start your business but what about the tools and methods you need to keep your business, in business? From marketing to leads after hours, are all going to play a vital role in the success of your small business. Literally, every part of your business needs attention… slacking off in one area will affect the business as a whole, so you want to make sure all your bases are covered.
We’ll first go over the considerations to take when it comes to customers and then look at what business owners do wrong that work against their efforts to grow their business, and then we’ll look at what it actually takes to grow your business.
How the Treatment of Your Customers Play an Important Role in the Success and Growth of Your Business
You Need to Understand Your Customers
Well, first and foremost, your customers are who are going to keep your business in business, so taking every measure possible to keep them happy will take your business very far. The main way to keep your customers happy is to develop products and services that meet the needs and wants of your customers.
One way to understand your customers is to encourage them to provide you with honest feedback on the products and services you provide them with. A lot of business owners shy away from this aspect for some reason… maybe it’s because of pride but without feedback, how will you ever know what needs improvement?
As a business owner, you need to be able to handle feedback… it’s what will grow your business. Once you make the improvements and changes that were requested, you’ll essentially grow your business with new customers and current customers will turn into loyal customers.
Improve Your Customer Service Efforts
One of the biggest ways that companies lose money is due to terrible customer service. Even if you have a top-notch product or service but have poor customer service, people will shop elsewhere. Your goal as a business owner is to make sure your customers know that they are valued.
A great way to show them that they are valued is to show them that you value their time. One of the best investments that successful business owners make is investing in live phone answering services. These services allow you to be able to provide service to customers during business hours and after hours, which allows you to put more focus on the business. These services
- Take messages
- Schedule appointments
- Drive sales
- Increase productivity
- Make callbacks
Although you might not be personally be taking calls, customers will be able to appreciate the fact that they’re not talking to a machine, plus, with virtual assistants, you’ll save money with not having to hire a full-time receptionist! The virtual receptionists are new innovations in the business world and the Harvard Business Review states that new innovations and features are the perfect ways to grow a small business.
What Business Owners Do Wrong in Trying to Grow Their Business
Underprice or Overprice Your Product or Service
Business owners tend to lower the price of their product or service thinking that they’ll make up the difference from lots of people buying it or they’ll overprice it to where no one will buy it because it’s too expensive. You have to find that happy medium between the two all while keeping in mind the true value of your product and the cost and time involved in making the product.
Not Putting Any Investment or Effort Into Marketing
This is a huge mistake business owners make. They look at marketing as an expense instead of an investment. Because they look at it as an expense, they try to cut back on marketing efforts as much as they possibly can. Not investing in marketing will cause their business to not establish brand awareness in any market, generate any type of leads, or create any kind of buzz in media. No one will know who you are or what your business does…
Here’s What You Should Do to Grow Your Business
Use Social Media to Your Advantage
In case you didn’t already know, social media is a very powerful tool in the world of marketing and can really take your business to the next level. Because social media is such a big platform, it reached thousands upon thousands of people all at once so you definitely want to make sure your business has a social media page… whether it be Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, make sure your business has at least two of them.
Social media is a tool that helps your business stay relevant. When you make posts or post pictures of your product or service, people will make comments and that will help you know how the public sees your brand and it will give you an idea of how you can meet potential new customers’ needs.
With social media, your business can blow up in a matter of seconds. With the consistency of posting, making the right types of posts that appeal to your audience, and the right amount of shares, your post, and your business name could “go viral!”
Attend Networking Events
If you ever have the opportunity to attend any type of networking events where you can promote your business, take it! These events are wonderful marketing opportunities and it allows people to see the person behind the brand.
You never know what could happen at these events… you might meet someone in a similar industry as your business and you all could partner on different projects or just simply learn different techniques from each other. But these events are just overall good for business.
With these types of events, you have the potential to meet new clients, customers, employees, and possibly even investors. If you own a line of hair care products for women, go to a women’s expo; If you make homemade barbecue sauce, sign up for barbecue competitions so people can actually taste your sauce on various meats. It’s all about getting your name out there and if you don’t take these opportunities that are right in front of you, how will your business ever grow? It would be a true disservice to your business if you didn’t jump on any of these opportunities.
Don’t Be Afraid of Promotions and Treating Your Customers
Whether it’s for all customers, loyal customers, or new customers, a great way to drive sales is to offer your customers different types of promotions. For example, if you have an online clothing boutique you can have a promotion where if they spend $50 worth of merchandise, they can get an accessory for free, whether it be earrings, sunglasses, socks, or a lipgloss, it will be not only financially beneficial to you but it will also be beneficial to the customer as well.
You may not know it or believe it but customers really do appreciate promotions and deals like that… they even go looking for it. If you have deals and promotions like that, you might get people to subscribe to your business just so they can be up to date on all the sales and promotions you may have. When customers do this, there’s a strong possibility for them to become loyal customers.
Small business owners tend to not do this too often because they believe it will take money away from the business but it really doesn’t as long as your free accessories aren’t too expensive to make or obtain.
Find Which Method Works Best For Your Business
Ultimately, the world of small businesses and being an entrepreneur is all about trial and error. Things that worked for one business might not work for yours… the same rule applies vice versa. The key is that once you see your business isn’t growing, you need to look at your current business and marketing strategies and see where improvements can be made.
If the only types of marketing efforts you have are flyers, business cards, and word of mouth, then you need to look at other avenues to get your business name out there. Business pages for social media can do wonders for your business, regardless of the type of business you have… there will always be someone out there who will want or need to product or service you’re selling.
