If “The Most Wonderful Time of Year” is behind us, what does January bring?  For some, there are those nasty post-holiday blues.  But for many, we design our New Year’s Resolution chart to plaster around the house.

For small business, you can do the same thing, too.  Let’s take 7 of the most common resolutions and apply them to your business.  Even as we face a long road ahead, we find renewed vision to start off right!

1.  EXERCISE
The most successful weight-loss strategies typically involve muscle building.  Businesses engage in strength training by first assessing their talent base.  Look for ways to rotate some employees to various positions in your company.  Give them exposure to new areas of responsibility.  It’s easier to let everyone stick to what they do best, but by strengthening across the board, you eliminate the vacuum that remains if one employee leaves her post or if one guy just happens to be sick for a week.  Learning other jobs also broadens the employee’s perspective and usually improves morale as employees learn to walk in one another’s shoes. A team with greater diversity of understanding and experience makes for a strong force when times are lean.

2.  EAT BETTER
Small business must consume healthier options.  The most demoralizing product your employees consume is the feast of silence from the top.  Our human nature gravitates to boss-bashing, quarreling with other co-workers, and griping about wages.  This is a buffet of disaster and makes businesses sluggish.  Feed your employees praise and positive reinforcement.  Acknowledge the good efforts and don’t just criticize the mistakes.  Provide opportunities to learn new skills. There are many low-cost webinars that can empower and encourage.  Don’t forget the power of surprise rewards, the unexpected financial recognition that every employee loves.  Even year-end bonuses over time become expected and lose their intended purpose (just ask Clark Griswold of “Christmas Vacation”).

3.  STOP HARMFUL HABITS
Many commit personally to quit smoking or stop excessive drinking.  But what about those harmful habits destructive to our business?  One of the grossest areas of abuse is in the area of self-promotion.  Yes, that’s right, quit promoting your services and products!  The most common marketing error is saying, “if they only knew more about X, they’d buy it!”  People don’t care about your products, but they do care about how those products will benefit them.  Consumers are self-focused - that’s why they dispense their hard-earned dollar to whichever company offers the better price.  Spend your marketing words on talking about the consumer - speak in their language and in ways that benefit them.  Harley-Davidson has long been recognized for not selling motorcycles, but for the way it makes their loyal customers feel.

4.  SMARTER FINANCIAL DECISIONS
Small business must make better financial choices.  In your marketing, look for ways to stop putting down alot of money for little ROI.  Make sure you have strong measurables for that ad you’ve kept placing in your local yellow directory.  Reduce your advertising space in the local paper and direct them to your website where you have unlimited space to tell about all the benefits.  Quit sending out those same direct mail pieces if you can’t account for its success (TIP:  set up unique phone numbers and web landing pages for each venue in which you advertise - this helps quantify the leads).

5.  ORGANIZATION
I started my year already by cleaning the garage, our bedroom closet and my office (well, it’s a work-in-progress!)  But we also decided as a family to make some family goals, plans and intentional efforts toward what results we really didn’t see last year. Don’t even begin to think of squeaking quietly through 1Q09 without a comprehensive yet simple marketing plan.

6.  CONNECTING
Plenty of people start the new year committing to joining a networking group, signing up for their local Lion’s or Rotary Club, or even attending and volunteering more in your local church.  We satisfy our desire to connect with those whom we can help and from whom we receive benefit as well.  Your business has got to break down the impersonal barrier and connect with your customers and prospects.  The web is ridding the world of formalities, walls, and sales pitches.  People need to know your values, the things that are important to you.  They must hear your story, your journey of challenge and reward.  Again, social media tools like Facebook and Twitter may be a way to allow your target market to become aware of you, have more likeability toward your business, and ultimately trust you enough to become your advocates and champions in the community.

7.  GIVING MORE
I believe that most of you in small business are not in it just for the money.  If so, in a recession, you’d walk out in a heartbeat.  No, most of us went down the entrepreneurial path because we wanted a better quality of life:  more time with the family, control over vacation schedules, ability to influence the community and world through charitable giving, and putting us in the driver’s seat of our own destiny.  I call them “greater things” - the often intangible, but clearly identifiable when you ask a small business owner why they continue to endure daily challenges and hardships.  In a recent article, I talked about how charitable giving needs to be an essential element of how you present yourself to the community.  This passion for influence and involvement is something often robbed of people sitting in a corporate cubicle. Rediscover your passion and recommit to making 2009 all about the greater things!

Randy Vaughn, Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach located in Fort Worth, TX. Find out more at MarketingTwins.com

Share This

Source: Randy Vaughn

Now you are ready to think about recruiting your in-house export team. As you prepare for this new development, you must remember this above all: The success of your export venture depends on a company-wide commitment. If you’re a solo operator, that means you. If you work for a large corporation, it means the executive committee, followed by the finance, operations, marketing/sales, transportation, legal, communications, data-entry, research and service departments. You’ll be setting up a network rather than an isolated department of your own, and utilizing your company’s existing human resources as much as possible.

Once you’ve evaluated the departmental resources already in place and mapped out exactly what will be required to export your product or service, you’ll prepare a list of what is required from each of these departments. Then you’ll approach each department and present the list to someone who might be willing to be a part of your export team. To whom do you go first? Someone with great sales(wo)manship qualities, an interest in the international scene, bi- or multilingual language abilities, cross-cultural awareness, good communication skills, attentiveness to detail and persistence. Use your own salesmanship here, and frame it as a challenge they won’t be able to resist.

Be sure you’re very clear on just what you’ll need from your various department contacts. You might need some people to assist you on an as-needed basis only, while others you’ll be asking for 10% of their time or five hours a week for the next year. Either way, each individual needs to know how much time they’ll be committing, how the export process works and how they fit into the overall corporate effort. Don’t be hesitant about asking for a clear commitment, preferably in writing. You need them to be there for you. I recommend that you get each department person to set aside one hour each day to work on an international sales strategy, even if there are no transactions pending. The point is to arrange a structured amount of time for purposeful activity — for creative thinking, planning and exchanging information. Making this commitment will give all participants a feeling of importance and team spirit, and maximize the company’s chances for a successful export effort.

Your export team will most likely be made up of people who will need to be trained. If you are a novice exporter, then you’ll all be learning together; either way, your job as team leader is to get their input as often as possible and to insist that they execute their part of the plan.

Here are some general ideas of what to expect from your various departmental contacts and what they’ll need from you:

• The Executive Committee. While the top brass serves as a sounding board for your updates, they are primarily interested in knowing what you will need from them to run a successful operation in the global marketplace. Whenever you go in for a meeting, plan on asking for a much larger commitment of the company’s resources than you’ll actually need. That way, you’re more likely to end up with what you need after the inevitable scaling-down of your original request.
• The Marketing/Sales/Web Staff. These are probably your company’s most creative people, but they’ll need your guidelines for how to market goods overseas without confusing or offending the foreign customer. They’ll also need cutting edge skills to conduct international business in a networked global economy, and an international marketing plan. They can use their domestic plan as a model.
• Transportation/Traffic. They know their stuff on the home front, but they’ll need to be advised on standard operating procedures for getting your product or service to another country. They must understand export documentation related to shipping, insurance, customs, methods of payment, duties, tariffs and international laws. Hiring a freight forwarder might be the answer.
• Operations. They need to know how your export sales will affect their production requirements — how many widgets you are going to sell, how often and for how long. If changes are required in the product specifications of the widget, they need to know that well in advance of the customer’s deadline so they can coordinate procurement of raw materials and schedule a production run in a timely manner. Once they have all this information, operations people usually rise to the occasion without further outside help.
• Finance. The finance people need to know how your company will get paid on its overseas sales. They will need a crash course on international payment methods and terms. Your own bank can help here.
• Research. This department can take over the job of determining which market is the best for exporting your product or service. They can find all the information they need at a good online resource, local chamber of commerce or SBA office.

Once all team members are clear on their individual responsibilities, they must learn to coordinate activities to ensure that the export operation flows smoothly. Let’s say that an overseas customer has just emailed a request for product and pricing information. The sales and marketing person is quick to respond; the customer likes what he sees and places an order.

Delighted, the salesperson passes the order to the operations guy, who enters the order into his computer and comes up with a target date for the finished product. The salesperson emails this information back to the customer, who accepts the time frame for delivery — and everything is perfect. Perfect until Mr. Sales drops by Ms. Finance’s office and brags about the sale he just landed. Ms. Finance gives him a frosty stare and asks: “And how and when are we getting paid?” Mr. Sales finds, to his dismay, that he hasn’t a clue. He moves along to the transportation contact, hoping for a more enthusiastic response. To his embarrassment, Mr. Transportation only looks distressed. “If we ship against a letter of credit,” he exclaims, “that means we might have to get the product there by a certain date. I need to know that deadline or we might not make it!” Mr. Sales is now very anxious, and not at all looking forward to the embarrassing task of emailing back the customer to make new arrangements.

Get the picture? Your export team is just that — a team. Its members can’t work in isolation. That’s why the daily time set aside for keeping each member up to date and identifying the broad and detailed export transaction issues is so important. Each member must know how the overall process operates and tailor his or her own assigned duties to fit smoothly into that process.

These are the basics of the crack export team, whether you’ve steeled yourself to run the whole show or have been handed a staff of twenty. It’s time to tackle your first export sale. You’ve come a long way toward turning your export dreams into a lucrative reality. Congratulations and best wishes for the success of your global adventure! Stay tuned for our next entry: Enter the trial market.

* * * * *

About the Author: Global business expert Laurel Delaney is the founder of GlobeTrade.com. She also is the creator of “Borderbuster,” an e-newsletter, and The Global Small Business Blog, all highly regarded for their global small business coverage.

Laurel is a member of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.

Share This

Source: Laurel Delaney

There are four areas where small business owners must have a high level of discipline if they are going to experience extraordinary success.

Planning

Many small business owners, myself included, have an entrepreneurial spirit and tend to fly by the seat of their pants.  They do something well, so they start a business.  They pick up a few clients here and there but never really make the kind of strides they had hoped for.

By actually taking time to sit down and write out a business plan and a marketing plan, you have just moved into the ranks of an elite group of business owners who begin to regularly experience monumental successes.

With a clear plan, everyone in your organization knows exactly what your objectives are.

Marketing

One area where most small business owners are very undisciplined is in their marketing.

Here’s what I see time and time again.  Small business owners do a few things to market their business.  Orders start coming in and sales improve, so they stop their marketing efforts.

Sales slow down so they start marketing again.

Sales pick up and they stop marketing, or even worse, sales slow down due to economic factors like the current recession and they pull the marketing reigns in even further.

There are certainly times to reign in expenses, and I’ll talk about that shortly, but when it comes to marketing, if you have taken the first step, which is to create a marketing plan, then you must have the discipline to follow the plan.  This will ensure that leads keep coming your way, even if there are fewer of them.

Management

Oftentimes, small business owners get caught up in the day-to-day activities of running a business and certain things get ignored, like regular filing and bookkeeping.  Also, when you’re busy, employees are left with little oversight to do what they have hopefully been trained to do.

As a small business owner, we have to pay close attention to every facet of our business and have the discipline to stick with the plan we have created in the first place, and require our employees to do the same.

Spending

When times are good, there’s a lot less scrutiny of small expenses, whether they are one-time expenses or monthly recurring ones.  For example, having a half-dozen or a dozen subscriptions to online services that each cost $15 - $30 per month, adds up fast.  As cool as the tools might be, if they aren’t paying for themselves in increased productivity, its time to take a closer look and eliminate the ones that aren’t clearly improving your business.

Having a high level of self-discipline in these four areas of your business will help you weather the current recession and prepare you to excel when the economy turns back around, which it surely must do.

Ken Partain is an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach who specializes in search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

Share This

Source: Ken Partain

If you are not very familiar with social media, I recommend that you stop right now, and have a look at Common Craft’s instructional videos which deal with social media and social networks.

It seems as if businesses are finding ways to use social media (usually without paying anything). One high-profile example of a business which has taken up social media is Zappos. This is an extract from Sarah Milstein’s article in the New York Times, How Twitter can help at Work, where she points to one way to use Twitter:

Build your brand. Zappos, the online emporium known for outstanding customer service, encourages employees to Twitter and to respond to customers who also use the service — increasing the company’s reputation as a friendly place to shop and work. Notably, the chief executive of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, Twitters frequently. Because the company cultivates an un-corporate image, he’s the rare executive who can effectively post personal updates.

But regardless of whether some businesses are using social media tools, when do the social media tools themselves start to generate money? Let’s look at Twitter. It is said that Twitter CEO, Evan Williams will reveal a business model at the beginning of 2009. Interestingly, Evan Williams has a comment with regard to his earlier company, Blogger, and what Google should do in future when it comes to that blog tool. As he points out, ideas (and I would say, including ideas for making money) are easy. Making them happen is hard.

Let’s take another well-known example, Facebook. Facebook has not yet monetized its site very well. Here is an excerpt from Justin Smith’s post, Why Facebook Opted for Platform Growth Over Platform Monetization in 2008:

Based on everything we’ve seen this year, Facebook has been primarily focused on growth. On Platform, that has meant 1) trying to find a sustainable balance between application developer and user interests, and 2) expanding the Platform’s reach through Facebook Connect. In the end, 2008 will be remembered as the year Facebook opted to build for the long term growth of the Platform instead of focusing on immediate Platform revenue opportunities.

I would suggest that there are two challenges that can make it hard for social media sites to make money. First, there are so many social media sites now that users are confused. There’s a lot of experimentation, but people are still not sure. I refer you to Overdrive’s social media map for social media marketing which is merely a partial list of social media tools and sites, but is almost overwhelming. Second, we now expect things to be very easy and won’t deal with any tools that are overly complicated or where the developer cannot quickly explain what it is and how to use it. For this point I end with the wise words from Robert Scoble in his post: “It’s time for the geeks to sit down and shut up.”

* * * * *

About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego and will soon start a new series of interviews for his podcasting show on the Solid Vox network.

Martin is part of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.

Share This

Source: Martin Lindeskog

Although new and great challenges are always coupled with new opportunities, my feeling is that the best small business strategy moving ahead is to cut your expenses as much as possible, assume the recession could last for several years and seek stability more than growth unless you can grow the business very inexpensively.   Rather than borrowing to grow, consider options where you can effectively monetize your own time and experience towards the longer term goals rather than take on more business development expenses (and thus usually more debt) as one tends to do in a normal business environment.

Following are a few examples:

How about writing the business blog you’ve been putting off?

Consider setting aside a few hours a week to write that business-related blog you’ve been putting off for the past few years.  Even the most mundane products or services will benefit from greater online exposure, and given the current online environment there are few - perhaps no - better ways to cheaply promote your business online than with a timely and relevant blog featuring your own business expertise, ideas and recommendations.

Rather than hire a consultant, just roll up your sleeves, head on over to Wordpress.com or Blogger.com and pull together a simple blog for your small business.   Write what you know and you’ll often find you had more to say than you realized.  Although ideally you’ll write often in your business blog, simply having one is a significant enhancement to a website presence, and the blog and site do not even need to be integrated to be very effective as promotional tools.

Review your expenses.  Cut some fat and review them again.

Successful businesses often “strategically” overlook some waste, especially when the “nickels and dimes” simply don’t seem worth hassling when there is big money to be made with alternative activity.  However, this can lead to wasteful spending creeping into your business even during lean years and even if you’ve kept the budget pencil sharp it is likely you can find cost savings in places you may have thought were simply “untouchable”.  I recently inventoried my phone budget and was surprised by how easy it has been to find hundreds in savings with improved services simply by paying more attention.   Some lessons from that have been:

Mobile Phone and Data:  By renewing a 2 year plan I got a substantial rebate from Sprint as well as very inexpensive phone upgrades.

Land Line:   Bundling my land line with cable internet and TV will save me about $300 in 2009.

Toll Free line:  Changing to an online 800 line carrier should save me over $100 per year over my current “business class” carrier.

This simple inventory of my “real” phone needs that I’d been putting off for some time led me to savings well over $500 with an actual increase in the overall quality of my services.

Hey, what about the opportunities you were talking about?

The great thing about running a business cost effectively is that you can focus more attention on being flexible and looking for new approaches and new opportunities.  Also, having more cash on hand, low or no debt, and a generous line of credit means that you can seize those new opportunities when they present themselves.

Until the real estate meltdown of 2007, I was making more money passively from real estate appreciation than actively from my business.   Although I think the real estate market will remain soft for at least another year, I think there will be an increasing number of simply spectacular residential real estate investments as the market stabilizes and returns to the modest levels of home appreciation we have seen in this country since the great depression.  This historical appreciation ended with the current real estate and financial crisis. For those with cash or good credit 2009 (though I think more likely 2010) will bring some fantastic investment opportunities.

Business, much like the Chinese concept of years, is mostly a cyclical and not a linear state of affairs.  We saw many unprecedented real estate and business valuations in 2006 and 2007 and in some ways we are now paying the price for those highs in terms of the current lows.

The small business owner should now seek stability and efficiency while preparing to take advantage of the flexible and nimble nature of small businesses to seize new opportunities, many of which will be spawned in the fires of the current financial crisis.

Share This

Source: Joseph Hunkins

Learn when layoffs make sense - and when they don’t — from Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School’s online business journal, in this conversation with Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli.

“In trying to cut operating capacity below the right level, it’s easy to cut muscle and not fat, and in today’s world most companies have not got very much fat,” Cappelli says.

Share This

Source: Knowledge@Wharton

Sales are Up If You Know Where To Look
I’ll never forget the neighborhood antique store that found a way to eliminate its lease altogether. They moved all their inventory into storage, and put a cardboard sign in their window that said: “Moved to eBay.”

This year, in the crucial week after Thanksgiving, sales actually increased 24% for consumer electronics — online. The economic downturn has consumers hunting for bargains, and presumably they’ve turned to the web with its unlimited number of choices for comparison shopping. They represent a real and unacknowledged opportunity for smart businesses — and they may be the key to survival. We’ve always known that consumers were moving online, but the economic downturn has sped up the process.

Now is the perfect time to maximize your online sales outreach. A friend told me about a collectibles store in Boise that discovered a new audience online. Suddenly they weren’t limited to collectors in a single city; they could sell to the entire planet. In some ways, online shoppers are easier to reach, by targeting campaigns through sites like StumbleUpon and Google AdWords. Some businesses report the cost-per-conversion is actually cheaper with online sales

Not every product lends itself to online sales, but for those who can, it can be easy and lucrative to set up an online storefront on sites like Amazon and eBay. (Some merchants are even advertising on Craigslist.) Consumers are doing more of their shopping on the web, and online audiences are the last, best demographic.

The DTV Wild-card
On February 17, every TV in America will stop receiving broadcast programming. It’s the federally-mandated switch to digital signals, and there will be a massive rush to electronics stores for converter boxes. (The government is ramping up their public service ads and has already begun handing out $40 coupons to anybody who requests one.) You couldn’t ask for a better stimulus for some industries — including electronics retailers and component manufacturers. And once shoppers hit the malls for their converter boxes, there’ s a chance to entice them into other sales. I’m expecting my local retailers to launch promotions with a DTV theme.

Be careful
An unexpected expense could wipe you out. Make sure all your equipment is well-maintained — and make sure you have a backup plan.

Sell stuff
When my nephew fell behind on his credit card debt, the solution was obvious: “sell excess inventory.” This is the proverbial rainy day for everyone in America, and it’s time to perform a quick inventory for high-value items that can be converted into ready cash. For tricky items a broker might pay for himself, covering cost of their commission by obtaining a higher sale price.

Buy stuff
Hard time are always an opportunity. Businesses that are folding will sell their inventory at a discount. Start watching for them.

Watch Your Spending
There’s a reason companies are laying off workers: it saves money. I know other businesses that have offered shorter work weeks to their employees, and one that even renegotiated salaries in lieu of an actual layoff. Everyone understands that we’re in extraordinary times, and sometimes that leads to a surprising new spirit: a willingness to compromise. Other businesses are zeroing in on the biggest cost of all: they’re investigating whether they can refinance their long-term leases and mortgages.

Have hope
Some very smart people are working on the economic crisis, and there’s new blood in Washington. And this will mean new opportunities in 2009. There’ll be massive new federal spending projects, plus “stimulus” checks delivered to every taxpayer. In addition, there’s industry-specific proposals that are being considered. It’s very possible that 2009 could surprise your business with a new government relief plan.

Share This

Source: David Cassel

I can only imagine the editor’s concern and fear as hundreds of protesters showed up to collect their winnings. Luckily, the agency that conducted the prize had some fine-print that protected the newspaper’s liability. However, the embarrassment and a number of irate readers remained.

Rather than duck or move on quickly, the leaders at the Daily News made a surprising decision, they decided to run with it. They ran a front page article on Monday morning proclaiming, “News offers $1 Million to Say Sorry, Folks.” On pages 2-3, they had photographs and articles about the people that thought they had won, their disappointment, and their hopefulness that they’d get another chance…this time, a more exclusive chance. The Daily News turned a disaster into a unique opportunity to gain attention while owning up to the error. It cost them additional prize money, but it yielded dividends in subscriber stickiness and media attention.

Beyond the whole silver-lining mishigas, leaders need to be willing to play with a challenge - especially when it is a conflict. Think around the lines, be fun while being authentic. And consider the marketing value when you try to solve a situation that runs awry.

***Behance articles and tips are adapted from the writing and research of Scott Belsky and the Behance team. Behance runs the Behance Creative Network , the Creative Jobs List, and develops knowledge, products, and services that help creative professionals make ideas happen.

Share This

Source: Scott Belsky of Behance

Have the flexibility to deal with a crisis, but do not expect to operate in crisis mode forever. Conserving the resources of a business also includes conserving the energy and goodwill of its workers. That includes you, as the boss. Think of managing the business in a downturn as a two-step decision-making process. Surviving from one day to the next may necessitate some desperate measures, but once the immediate threat has subsided, you need to pace the performance of the business and try to ensure you secure the future as well as the present.

Once the baseline for survival is understood, you will know what additional options you have to make decisions designed to improve profits. When you know the cash position is reasonably secure, as far as can be predicted, shift your thinking towards improving the profitability and hence generating the reserves that will help you cope with any further unexpected downturns. Improving profitability may seem implausible in a depressed market, but the question here is not the profitability of your business from one year to the next, but the relative profitability of your business compared to rivals. Here are some questions that are relevant to improving the profitability and health of a business in a downturn.
1. Where might you turn for alternative sources of investment funds?
During the downturn, banks will try to rebuild their balance sheets, and investors will rethink their attitudes. Try to turn a negative into a positive by looking again and seeing if there are better potential sources for investment in your business than the ones you previously considered. If you solely own the business you run, be clear about how much income you need from it. A paycut now may lead to greater returns later. If the business owns its equipment or premises, it may be able to sell them to get an immediate source of capital, but retain the use of the asset by leasing them back.

Chastened by a depressed stock market, friends, family and employees may prefer to put any spare money into your business, one that they know first-hand, instead of backing enterprises they know relatively little about or earning meagre rates of interest from banks. During a time of turmoil, big and regular customers may be willing to secure your services and survival by making long-term purchasing commitments. In a similar way, you may be able to keep your business costs down but guarantee the discounted services of a supplier by offering them a revenue-sharing deal on larger contracts. In addition, think seriously about retaining as much profit as possible for both reinvestment and protection against any unexpected hiccups. Low interest rates for the foreseeable future means that early repayment of debt is of less benefit than it was.
Small businesses should not overlook the few opportunities for government assistance that are out there. Assistance may come from local or national programs, and the biggest challenge for small business is often the task of identifying what help they may be eligible for. For example, a business that does research may be eligible for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Government initiatives like this are likely to be favored by Obama’s presidency, so small businesses would be wise to stay aware of new funds and changes in rules. It may even be worth adapting the business model to take advantage of such funding. For example, instigating a novel research project backed by public money may be a way to retain and utilize staff that would otherwise be made redundant.

2. What is your niche or Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
In a downturn, many businesses find themselves competing on price. However, a business can make itself less vulnerable to competitors’ price cuts by offering something unique. If a small business is going to rationalize, it should eliminate its service or product lines that are peripheral or loss-making, and concentrate its resources on its core strengths and most profitable lines, whilst identifying the main competitors for those particular lines. It may be embarrassing or seen as a sign of weakness to curtail some offerings, but it is better to divest and survive then to persist with unprofitable lines and be dragged under as a consequence.

It may also be wiser to allow rivals to win new sales at little or no margin, instead of trying to match their prices. Whatever the core offerings are, identify ways to distinguish them from those offered by rivals. Speak to customers, and make sure you know what, apart from price, motivates their purchasing decisions. Simple but successful techniques for small businesses tend to emphasize their smallness. For example, customers may be seeking a more personalized approach to customer care. If you are clear and straightforward about communicating your USP to customers, they may help you greatly by repeating that message by word of mouth and hence fostering further business for you.

3. Who offers the best support for your business?
At a time of upheaval, businesses may feel locked-in to their current banking arrangements, or may prefer to stay loyal to those they have dealt with previously. However, with everything changing, now is a good time to double-check that the business is still getting the best deal. Review deals on overdraft facilities, compare rates on foreign currency transactions and examine returns on deposits. Insurance will be another financial service that will be rocked by recent events. Shop around for the best insurance for all aspects of your business as premiums may have changed considerably.

In the same vein, be sure to reconsider all suppliers, from legal advisors to stationery suppliers to janitors. However, be wary of false economies. If inferior quality from your suppliers has a chain reaction that impacts your customers, it may cost more than it saves. Remember also that there is no saving in having busy and talented people - including the boss - doing menial chores because you cut back on basics.
4. What are the best tactics to increase sales?
Increasing sales may seem implausible during a downturn, but staying confident is important to surviving. Some customers, like public bodies or wealthy individuals, will be better shielded from the economic downturn. Try to increase the mix of sales that goes to those customers. One good way to find out which customers are doing best is to actually talk with them. Your business is small, so turn that into an advantage by being close to current and prospective customers.

If you treat good customers like your friends, they will care more about your survival and will do more to help you in intangible ways, like giving you advice and helping you to network. Because customers may also be short of cash, be imaginative and fearless about proposing payment-in-kind when there is a chance your customer could also be your supplier. Avoid a formulaic approach to chasing debts and looking for new sales prospects. Try to separate those customers that have a temporary cashflow problem from those that are delinquent payers or time-wasters.

By the same token, focus sales and marketing efforts on the most profitable products. It is likely the business will cut promotional costs, but instead of reducing all such expenditure across the board, try to be more targeted and effective with the reduced spend.
If a product is unprofitable, and it is possible to discontinue it without a negative impact on costs or commitments to other customers, accept the immediate reduction in revenues that comes with that and refocus energies on more profitable lines. If a product is failing or unprofitable, but it is not possible to discontinue it, try to boost sales all around by offering your weaker lines at heavily discounted prices as part of a package with other, more profitable, products.

Whilst it is tempting to think negatively, do not be afraid to consider offering something new if you believe it has a genuine advantage over rival offerings, or will occupy a unique place in the market that nobody will be able to match. Just take the precautionary step of asking your best customers if the new offering would interest them now, or whether it is best to delay its launch until later.
Like you, competitors may be cutting costs to survive. This may lead to a decline in the quality of their services or products. An alert business may be able to steal disgruntled customers from rivals by promising quality and an attention to detail. This is especially relevant to small firms, which can be more agile and responsive than their larger rivals.

Try to make ‘value for money’ your sales mantra instead of simply lowering prices. If ultimately you have to cut prices to stay competitive, then protect your gross margin and future revenues by linking the offer of aggressive discounts to customer commitments to your business. This may take the form of guarantees to buy in bulk or contracts with longer durations.
Keeping Faith
Despite the downturn, remember why you entered business. Was it just to make money, or did you also believe you could be better than the rest? If your reason is the former, think seriously about how important the business really is to you – it may be better to close it now than risk losing more by keeping it going. But if you believe in your business, then keep faith with it. That belief is also an advantage over the people who just saw business as a source of financial rewards.

If you are terrified by bears in the woods, then probably you should stay where it is safe, but if have an inner reason to make the journey, you will be able to traverse the darkest, densest forest and make it through to the other side. Right now, many small businesses are facing stark choices. Belief that your business offers something special, and is worth the pain and struggle you go through, could make all the difference between success and failure.

Remember that when reviewing your decisions. Cutting the same costs as your rivals, and making the same choices as your rivals, leaves you no better off than your rivals. Many will be picking cheaper suppliers, reigning in promotional expenditure and preparing themselves to do less at lower quality. Minimalist survival tactics may leave the business so unhealthy that it fails anyway. Running with the herd can be very tempting, but remember the herd mentality is also one of the reasons why the economy is in the mess it is. If your business can positively distinguish itself from the herd, it can still thrive, even in a downturn.

Look for opportunities to be better, as well as to survive from day to day. If you can be pragmatic enough to ride out each crisis, but also retain a vision of what makes your business better than its competitors, and communicate that to your customers, you will stand the best chance of doing more than just emerging from the woods. You will also be readying your business to prosper when the dark times are over.

Share This

Source: Revenue Protect

1. Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you.

2. See if your website has a “Contact Us” section. If it doesn’t, add one. Ensure that it has a street address.

3. Send your company an email asking for customer support and see if someone responds to it.

4. Answer customer support calls or emails (not the one you sent in) for a day.

5. Go out on a sales call with your salespeople and a service call with your service people.

6. Read the documentation or manual you provide with your product or service. Extra credit: See if you can do this without reading glasses.

7. Pretend that you lost the documentation or manual that came with your product and try to find it on your website.

8. Register your product or service including finding and reading the serial number of your product. Extra credit: See if you can do this (again) without reading glasses. Extra extra credit: If you use a Captcha system for registration, see how many times it takes to get the word right.

9. Add a signature to your email. A “signature” is a block of text at the end of your emails that contain all your contact information. It saves your recipient the hassle of asking for your address and phone number or searching for them on your website.

10. Join Twitter and then Twitter and then search for company, product, or market sector terms from your business. For example, let’s say you’re in the web design business. Extra credit: Use Twitter as a twool.

If these tasks are helpful, you would probably enjoy “The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption.”

Share This

Source: Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World