7 Tips for Small Business Success

Copyright 2006 Rasheed Ali Do you own a small business and want to make it an absolute success? Then you've come to the right place! You see, I've had the opportunity to work with many fellow small business owners and I've been able to help them make millions of dollars in increased revenue in my time with them. Over that time I've found that most small business owners are usually missing some of the most fundamental things in their business. Here are just 7 fundamental things that will make your offline business an absolute success... Tip #1 - 'Indirect' Marketing - Now before you roll your eyes and scream, "Oh gosh not another one!" Hear me out. First of all your marketing is not just your flyers, ads or sales pieces, but rather things like adding copy to the back of your business cards, the presentation of your products, how your employees speak to your customers, how your business smells (yes I said "how your business smells"), what your office looks like, how you dress and how you reward your customers. There are so many things I can tell you but, all of these things I mentioned will only give you more word-of-mouth and free advertising. Nothing beats having a REAL person say that you are the best thing since sliced bread! Tip #2 - Sales & Marketing - Okay now here's the scoop here...You see many entrepreneurs often mistake these two as some interchangeable term and they're absolutely WRONG! Listen let me make it simple for you so don't do the same thing. Marketing is the process of generating leads or traffic to your store, phone calls to your office or a list of people interested in your product or service. Sales is the actual act of persuading the customer and collecting the money for your product or service. Your sales force is not your marketing team and the two should not be confused. However, their success or lack of success in treating your prospects and customers with care and respect will resonate throughout your business. Tip #3 - Website - In this day and age, for a person not to have a fully functional website that helps them to build relationships and drive more sales through their business; completely blows my mind! The potential for people to create loads of increased revenue is tremendous, just by forming an online relationship with their current customers through email. You can literally run a special and send out an email to your current customers notifying them of it and be sold out in a day! Tip #4 - Systems - Oh boy here's another one. If you're in business and intend on staying is business and growing it, then systemizing your processes is an absolute MUST! It may mean buying software or creating a manual system depending on the procedure. Having a systemized and predictable process of doing things is like breathing...Without it you CANNOT survive! Tip #5 - Accounting - Let's say a little rhyme I made up okay! "Money in, money out; where does the money go? If you do not book it first, how will you ever know?" Accounting, Finance or Bookkeeping what ever you'd like to call it is simply essential for running your small business as efficiently as possible. Besides if you don't track your income you may never know where it's being made. I've had the opportunity to meet quite a few people that have had books that my baby girl could have done by banging on my keyboard! Are you guilty of this too? Many business owners find great revelations or insights into their business by getting an in depth analysis of their books. Tip #6 - Research - Now this may be a little more advanced for many people with an offline business but if you were to spend a little more time in researching the buying habits of your current customers, you may quickly find that there are reasons beyond your understanding that people purchase items from you. You might also be surprised what people will tell you. Additionally, your customers do not generally buy your product or service for the same reasons, so finding out what the main reasons are will not only help you serve the masses more efficiently, but it will help you to create more value for your non-consumers. This way you're covering all of your major angles and providing greater quality for consumers and converting non-consumers into paying customers. Can you say, "More Sales?" Tip #7 - Emotions - Now you're probably thinking, "WHAAA?" Well let's put it this way, when you go to a store, any store and buy something you need or want what are you doing? Are you using logic or intellect? NO Way! You're fulfilling some emotional state. Human beings NEVER buy something for logical reasons despite what you think or some know-it-all tells you. SO how do you apply this to your business? Well here's one thing you can do. When a customer walks in and asks a question, have someone honestly and sincerely answer their question and find out exactly what they need or want. Show them you care and they'll reward you with their money over and over again! These are just some of the dozens of different things that can and will make your business small or large more profitable. By applying any one or all of the above tips you are almost guaranteed business success. Stop, read these tips read them again and then see how you can apply them to your business.