Opening and growing a small business takes some planning and know-how – here are some tips and advice on what you need to know.
Understand your customers
It is only possible to develop services and products that are successful when you pay attention to what your prospects and customers need. The easiest way to find out what your customer base really needs is through surveys and research.
You should constantly invite or encourage them to offer honest and in some cases, brutal feedback. Surveys and reviews are the best methods to find out what is going on in the minds of your prospective and existing customers. This makes it much easier to develop services and products that match up to the existing demands of your current market. At the same time, it can help you to gain insight into any areas where you could improve.
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Work on ways to improve customer service
If you are not providing the best customer service then it can become difficult or even impossible to satisfy customers even when your service or products are superior. This part of your business involves taking those extra steps to ensure they feel special. Bespoke software development can help with understanding customer’s needs and the efficient running of an organization.
Make sure your customers know they feel valued. If they have a concern or problem, address these issues right away. If they have a question, make sure you answer them. They should never feel afraid or scared to raise an issue with your company. Social media is one of the best ways to listen to and understand your customers. If they are happy with your customer service, they may even recommend other people to use your services or buy your products.
Build loyalty
It will take a bit of time to convince customers to purchase what your business has to offer. But you should start looking further than just getting people to buy. You should also work on encouraging loyalty. Keep in mind that there may be other competitors that may offer better products or services, you want to ensure they remain loyal. Avoid becoming complacent when you have built up a loyal customer base. They could easily find other attractive options and they may leave you.
Offer loyalty rewards. If you offer promotions and discounts, you should let your loyal customers know first. You must ensure that your existing clients know that you value them.
Use social media
Social media is one of the most powerful tools. It reaches hundreds if not thousands of potential customers each day. You must ensure your company is constantly engaged when it comes to social media. This will help your business stay relevant. Reading comments and listening to individuals will provide you with ideas on the right ways to help them feel satisfied. It also helps you to understand behavior patterns and better ways to match up to their demands.
Social media also offers a cost-effective way to attract potential customers. You should avoid involving yourself in a comment war. Rather keep things positive and just make sure that people feel like you are listening to them.
Pay attention to personal development
The success of a business will also rely on the caliber of employees. Making sure you work on building a strong and effective team is a good way to make sure your company thrives and prospers.
“The easiest way to motivate your employees is to make sure they all have a sense of purpose.” – in one of his recent articles as nicely quoted by Nick Thompson, the CEO of DCSL.
Employees like belonging to something that is larger than themselves. They should also gain an understanding of larger goals. This is when branding applies. Many make the mistake of believing the branding involves something that is done to attract more customers. However, powerful brands also help companies to attract premium workers to the business.
Your employees also need to feel like they have a voice. Make sure you include team-building activities that help your workers to perform better as individuals and through engaging collaborative tasks. You could also send your employees to seminars and training sessions helping them to improve on their existing skills and knowledge.
Attend networking events
When these events come up, make sure you are there. This will help you to grow your networks. This is incredibly important and something that a lot of entrepreneurs neglect. It is important to build positive relationships with like-minded people.
Networking is also a good way to connect with others that can help you to grow your business. You might find more customers, investors, and even more employees.
Increase customer retention
You need to get more and newer customers for your small business for growing. And you also need your existing customers to keep coming back. Customer retention helps to build customer loyalty and this can result in an increase in sales turnover.
Focus on retaining customers, as the cost of getting new customers can be five times the cost of retaining one, and this will mean you will not be spending money on an investment that carries no guarantees.
An increase in customer retention can be done by:
- Giving Priority to customer service: Treat your customers right so they will want to support your business. Address their concerns, and let them have an experience that shows how much you value them as customers.
- Use of CRM systems: Customer Relationship Systems, or CRM, helps the business to manage relationships with both existing as well as potential customers. You can maintain information about customers and thereby identify sales opportunities. CRM allows you to maintain all data in one place so that you and your other employees can have access to it.
- Create Customer Loyalty Programs: These loyalty programs will help you to reward your existing customers for their continued support of your business. They can also be of help in getting back customers who had left, or for attracting new customers.
- Launch E-mail Campaigns: When you send emails to customers in an e-mail campaign you help your business to remain at the top of their minds. It can also help in moving both your existing and potential customers to go through any sales funnel you have created.
- Using social media to engage customers: social media is often used by customers to reach out to a business with complaints, pain points, or any other feedback. Take the time to engage with these customers with your response, so that they know you give value to their thoughts and are seriously concerned with what bothers them.
- Keep your promises: Nobody likes to feel that they have been forgotten. If you have said that you will follow up and give them more information, make sure that you do so. Your customers will not have a good opinion of your business if you do not do it.
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Practicing corporate social responsibility
Many customers prefer to do business with any company that shares its own values. CSR is an indication of your awareness that a business can have an impact on all aspects of a community. So let the public, in general, know about this positive impact, as then it will help your bottom line.
Examples of CSR practices:
- Going green: A green business can not only lead to cheaper utility costs but bring other benefits. It indicates to the public your business’s seriousness in reducing its environmental impact. Make changes that help in reducing your carbon footprint and help you go green, is by getting LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification or pursuing projects that show increased energy efficiency.
- Give back to the community: Your employees who volunteer in communities where they live or work must be encouraged. This can be something like cleaning open spaces or working at a food bank, both of which show that you, as a business, are investing in people and the area.
- Produce products that are sustainable: Try to find ways to change materials in the processes that your business adopts so that the changed materials are environmentally friendly.
Be mindful about corporate social responsibility
You should be passionate about your business. This will help you to improve the overall image of the business. People will start to patronize you since they know the money they are spending goes to a good cause.
Your business should involve more than only making money. Today, consumers want to feel an emotional connection to the businesses that they buy services or products from. This is why it is essential to crafting an innovative and unique perspective brand for the company. Is there a cause you would like to support? Are there things you are passionate about changing? Let this become a company mission for your business.
Take advantage of taking loans
If you are just starting out, you will need cash to fund your business. This also applies to businesses that are ready to move to the next level. If you require a small business loan to get the ball rolling, take one.
Just make sure you form a partnership with a reliable lending firm or bank. Make sure you complete the application documents correctly and ensure your credit history is good so that the application is easy to approve.
If a lender declines your loan, you can ask another party to stand as a guarantor. This is how the SBA loan programs work. The SBA guarantees your loan. If you default, the SBA reduces the risks to the lender. However, it is important to understand what is required of you. It is essential to read over the conditions and terms before you sign anything.
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Find out what really works
You may already know which approach you have used in the past that has already worked. Remember the tactics you used so that you can use these again. Any strategy that has failed should be eliminated to make sure your business keeps moving forward. You must focus on remaining relevant. Refine your approach by staying more focused on the tactics that brought about the most satisfactory results.
