Starting a small business is easy. In fact, it’s harder to find someone who hasn’t printed out a business card with “CEO” after their name these days than someone who has. When it comes time to grow your small business, that’s another story. You can launch a website, advertising your services as a marketing professional, a graphic designer or a writer for hire, but unless you can grow that business, and grow it again, it’s not going to earn you the income that you’re after.
These simple small business tips will help you to grow your business by developing all the right habits and making the right moves so that you can grow in the right direction:
Emphasize Customer Support
The wrong way to approach an angry customer, a confused customer or a dissatisfied customer is to think of them as a problem. A customer who is unhappy, for any reason, is an opportunity. Put an emphasis on customer support, and on adjusting your product or service to match the needs of these customers who find it worth their time to call you. If you’re not going to listen, there’s no point picking up the phone.
Deliver Valuable Content
Too often we think that just filling our blogs, newsletters and emails with white noise, with clever slogans and words that sound good, but don’t really get you anywhere, is enough. It’s not. If you don’t offer web content that delivers real value, then your readers will get that value somewhere else.
Monitor Your Analytics …And Put Them to Use
A recent study shows that only half of all major companies actually put their analytics and data to use, even though one hundred percent of all major companies collect this data.
There’s no point in trying to learn who your customers are, and what they want if you’re not going to change the experience to match what they’re after. Put the numbers to use or don’t waste your time and money collecting them.
Adapt
Your great website might look awesome on a laptop, but how does it look where everyone’s reading it, on mobile devices? Make sure that the web experience you offer your customers is adaptable to whatever platform your customers are going to use to access it. This will help you to reach out to a wider base.
The Little Things
When you go to your favorite burger joint, we’re willing to bet that they throw plenty of ketchup in the bag without your having to ask. That’s the kind of thing that makes a small business a favorite, and being somebody’s favorite is how you ultimately grow in the long run. The restaurants that save a couple cents by not handing out ketchup lose a lot more business than they probably realize.
Growing your small business has as much to do with the big steps as with making the right decisions day to day. No matter how much money you spend on marketing, if you’re not delivering quality service or products, you’re not going to grow like you want to.
