Let’s face it. It’s tough building a business today. There are so many different avenues that you can take to develop your business. Some will work wonderfully. And some will not. You need to be flexible enough to tweak and adjust at any given time for optimum results.
There are some tried and true steps for developing your small business that have stood the test of time. Let’s take a look at some that you should be using for your business.
10 Critical Tips for Small Business Development
- Know what makes you different and allows you to stand out from other businesses - Even if you have the same business as the guy down the street, there is something different about you and how you address your efforts. Look at yourself from the customer’s eye and find out what it is and fine tune the niche.
- Know your competition – How are they developing their business? Watch what they do well and what they do not so well. You can learn a lot from your competitors that can help your business.
- Add value and build trust – Give your customers something more. Not just the same day to day business. Look at your business and determine how you can kick up the value to build the customers trust.
- Use testimonials – By far, your best marketing tool. If you are not getting written testimonials, but someone speaks highly of your service, ask for it in writing. Then make sure folks know about it.
- Watch online reviews and respond positively – With as many social sites that allow online reviews, make sure you are in tune with what your customers are saying. Use them to your advantage by responding and even signing up for a service or two. You can use forms on your site to encourage reviews.
- Ask for the business verbally, plus through email and other marketing efforts – The simple rule of growing your business is actually asking for it. Make sure you have email signups for newsletters and other methods you can communicate with your followers, readers, customers.
- Develop or join Networking groups with like-minded people – Sharing leads and networking with others is a great way to grow your business. Developing a circle of other business owners allows for you to refer your customers and vice versa.
- Develop your customer for repeat business – Repeat business is critical in a small business as the cost of developing the customer in the first place is very high. This goes back to #3 with adding value and developing the trust between you and your client/customer.
- Customer service is number one - Make sure to respond quickly to get the business – The early bird gets the worm. Never delay in responding to your customer People are impatient when it comes to service and you can make a big impact by being on top of it.
- Manage and continue to develop website – Your website holds many keys to accomplishing all of the above. How can you improve yours?
These 10 tips are critical for growing your business in today’s environment. Is your business missing any of them?
