1. Stay in Touch with Your Customers
Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? The old adage says that 80% of your
business will come from 20% of your customers. In business, the customer is
king. It s far easier to sell to an existing customer than to find a new
one. So, once you get a customer, you need to service the heck out of them.
So how do you make your customers feel like they are number one? By
letting them know that they are top priority. This means answering your own
phone, replying quickly to email requests. It means staying in regular
communication with your customers. Keep up a good rapport. Send an
occasional email asking them what s new. Mail birthday cards or a customer
anniversary card. Gestures like these can build close, long lasting customer
relations and goes a long way to building customer loyalty.
In addition to building stronger customer relationships, keeping in touch
with your customer base can enable dot coms to offer one to one marketing.
By identifying your customers needs and buying habits, you can personalize
product packages and service offerings to meet your customer s individual
needs.
2. Listen to the Beat of the Street
If small business owners want to keep their head above water, they need
to closely monitor their environments. By listening to the pulse, you can
think proactively rather than reactively. This means spotting things when
they are coming so you can act quickly and take advantage.
Web stats - Do you look at your web stats regularly? Or are you guilty of
being too busy to make time? Unless you regularly look at your web traffic
reports, they probably will read like a foreign language to you. By looking
at your web reports regularly, you'll be able to spot trends. What pages are
your visitors going to? What is the hits-to-sales ratio? What can you do to
improve that number?
Feedback - Another way to listen to the beat is to get feedback from your
customers. Try to be on a first name basis with your customers. Ask them how
they are doing and if there is anything you could assist them with. The
answers you'll receive will be worth their weight in gold.
Industry news - Keep up with the industry by reading everything you can
get your hands on. When you work in living room central it s easy to let
yourself be isolated from the world. You can t rely on your favorite soap
operas to keep you informed about the current trends in business. So put
down your munchies and flavored coffee and make a concerted effort to stay
in the know by subscribing to print magazines and online newsletters
3. Flexibility
When I think about flexibility, the childhood rhyme Jack be nimble, Jack
be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick comes to mind. In order to keep
from being burned, small businesses need to be nimble and quick. This means
having the flexibility to act quickly in response to changes in the
marketplace. Like a surfer riding a wave, you have to be in just the right
place at the right time to ride the crest of the wave and get the best ride.
Likewise, if small businesses monitor closely what s going on in the
marketplace, they can act quickly to take advantage of current events and
trends in the marketplace.
They say what gets measured, gets managed. Keep a close eye on your
monthly financials. Listen to your customers. Measure the effectiveness of
your advertising. Then when you see a difference ask yourself, was that good
or bad and ACT!
4. Tap into the Fire and Let it Fuel You
Simply said, small business owners want it more. Because of this, they
will try harder and go the extra mile. That s why big companies like
Wal-Mart and Saturn have made their employees part owners in the company.
They have seen that people will work harder for themselves than for anyone
else.
The best secret to success as an entrepreneur is to find something you
are passionate about and create a business around that. When you do
something you love you'll never work a day in your life. Entrepreneurs have
that fire in their belly. Find a way to tap into that internal fire and let
it fuel you to success.
5. Value
While big companies will often be able to offer the lower prices, small
businesses will always be able to pile on the value. By offering better
service, adding bonuses, giving and discounts on related products, the
entrepreneurs can add more bang for the buck.
6. Creative Spark
What s great about the entrepreneurs is that they aren't afraid to try
something new. When I think of creative spark , I think of my son, when he
was three years old, eyeing a package of cookies up on top of the
refrigerator. He doesn't know that it is up really high and that climbing up
there is dangerous. He only sees the cookies and starts stacking chairs and
climbing until I find him sitting on top of the fridge with a big smile and
a mushy cookie face. Similarly, entrepreneurs don t know if something will
work or not and fearlessly forge forward with their eyes on the prize. This
innovation helps them to tap into new products, techniques, and processes.
