business Archives

October 28, 2020March 8, 2023

7 Things You Can Do Now to Get A Jumpstart On 2021

5 professionals jumping up in the air with joy

2020 has been a difficult and crazy year. Understatement ;).

We’re all looking forward to a fresh and hopefully healthier year in 2021. So rather than waiting to do a goals list for January, let’s get a jumpstart on 2021 now.

Here are 7 things you can start implementing in your small business right now.

Finalize your 2021 marketing plan. Don’t wait til year end. Do it now so you’re ready to rock’n’roll on January 1.
Shake up your marketing. Try something new. If your tactics-to-date have been soft sell, try being more forceful. This article from Click Z has some good hot-to tips.
Focus on relationship building with your clients. One way to do that is committing to being more authentic and being relatable. Let customers know there are real people behind your brand.
If you have products or services that have been sorely affected in our Covid-impacted world (think restaurant buffets, movie theaters or anything that doesn’t allow us to social distance), replace them if you can. Or pivot. There are certainly enough examples of companies doing that successfully. Like these three small business success stories in Inc Magazine.
Note: the link to Inc Magazine above DOES work.
Cut yourself some slack. Most of us are too hard on ourselves. Learn to lighten up and appreciate the things you’re good at. This article in Medium has some smart advice to help you.
Hire a business coach or a sales development consultant to help build your business. Getting fresh input can be the difference between blah sales and soaring numbers. If you need some suggestions, call us. We’re happy to recommend someone.
If you don’t already have a robust email program, put your database to work. Ramp up your email marketing with fresh offerings and enticing copy. Read this article from Campaign Monitor for some great tips on how to build a cult following.

Hopefully, these tips resonate with you and give you some ideas on how to jumpstart your own marketing.

The small businesses that will survive these shaky times are the ones that are being proactive about moving forward.

We think that’s a really good group to be part of.

20 Ways to Jumpstart 2020

A new decade dawning. Does it feel newer than a regular old middle-of-the-decade new year? Probably not. But why not use it for what it is – a beginning — the start of a calendar year. And as good a time as any to think about how you can jumpstart your business.

Based on our combined 50+ years in business, we offer the following 20 ideas for making 2020 your best year yet:

Focus on focusing. Don’t try and accomplish more than you can reasonably accomplish. Better to do a few things really well than a bunch of things half-assed.
If you make a mistake, move on. If you’re lucky enough to be in business long enough, you’ll make lots. That’s how we learn!
Surround yourself with smart people.
LEARN from the smart people around you.
Hire people with the skills you don’t have. So you can focus on what you do best.
Learn to network. If you already know how, finesse your skills.
Master a new skill. Or a few. Podcasting. Speaking gigs. Seminars. Blogging. All meant to increase your visibility and put you in front of new audiences (and potential clients).
Ask for help. No one knows everything there is to know about an industry. Learn from people who know what you don’t.
Think about mentoring someone. You will get back at least as much as you give.
Take vacations. You need a business break now and then. Working a 7-day week will not make your business better. It WILL make you burn out faster.
Volunteer. Get out of your own head and share your time to help others — local community organizations, homeless shelters, rescue organizations, foodbanks….the list is endless.
Read. A lot. Not just business books but all kinds of books. The more you read, the better you write. And the easier it is to solve problems.
Exercise. A little every day if you can. Not necessarily lifting weights or running. Walking works too. Anything that gets you up and moving and not thinking about work problems.
Get more sleep. We’re not going to quote all the studies but you KNOW that you operate better on a decent night’s sleep.
Take some risks. If you want to grow, you need to step out of that safe circle. There’d be no inventions if the inventors hadn’t decided to find a better way.
Be pro-active. The last decade has seen far too many businesses suffer because new technology made their products or services obsolete (thanks, Amazon). Don’t ever get too comfortable.
Treat your employees like the critical business assets they are. And if they’re not, let them go.
If you don’t have a solid email program, stop wasting your database and make this the year you nurture your soft connections.
If you’ve avoided social media (yep, we’ve seen companies that are still waiting to see if it works!), time to jump in. Be smart. Learn one platform well and then add others. Or hire someone who knows how to do it.
If your budget allows, bring in experts to do the things you can’t do, don’t want to do or need help with.

If you only implement a few of these 20 ideas, you’re bound to see some success.

And if you need help with anything web, digital or marketing-related, give us a call. We’re looking to grow your business too.

Understanding Customer Care.

Dice with sad to smiling faces painted on to rate customer care.

Updated March 10, 2023
2-minute read

Whether you’re a shop owner or a service provider, your customer care will influence how clients feel about you and your products. And those feelings will impact future sales — including whether or not there will BE any.

We seem to remember the best and worst customer service experiences. For instance, if you go into a store and can’t find a salesperson, odds are you’ll be frustrated. You’ll probably leave without buying anything.

But when you’re warmly greeted by a smiling salesperson, you’re likely to linger and browse around. The more you browse, the more you’ll discover. And the more likely you’ll be to make a purchase…..or two.

We tend to be forgiving — even if we can’t find something we wanted — when we receive good customer service. The fact that we’ve been acknowledged says “they give a damn”. And that feeling is key.

As more and more products and services are discovered and consumed online, face-to-face communication happens less and less. This makes building relationships difficult. The personal touch is gone….replaced by bots and apps.

How to build relationships with customers you’ve never met.

Without a brick & mortar location, how do retailers build relationships with customers they’ve never met….and never will?

Simple, actually. It’s all about communication and customer care.

New Orleans restauranteur, Ella Brennan, who ran the famous (and fabulous) Commander’s Palace, was the queen of customer care. Reminiscing on her death, her executive chef said “she understood that business is about how you feel when you walk into a restaurant. You may not recall the quail or the Chardonnay, but you remember a feeling a restaurant gives you.”

A savvy business woman, Brennan made sure her staff provided outstanding customer service. If a customer complained, she responded immediately.

She understood customer care, and she will be remembered for making French dining accessible and fun. (Source: Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2018)

Smart companies know that poor customer service can kill a deal….and worse, go viral….quickly spreading the word that you’re a lousy company to do business with. Social media and business rating apps like Yelp make it imperative for companies to stay on their toes. Constantly. Because reputations can be sullied in a heartbeat.

Case in point: Starbucks. Wonder how much business they lost a few years back after arresting two black men who asked to use the bathroom while they were waiting for a meeting but didn’t buy any coffee. It hit national news immediately and became a full-blown nasty stain on the Starbucks brand.

To deal with the fallout, all locations were closed for mandatory 1/2 day training. For all employees. Stores with closed doors can’t do business, so this was a costly error for Starbucks.

Poor treatment isn’t easily forgiven. Odds are when you think of Starbucks, the racial incident will be top of mind for a long time to come. And all because of the ineptitude of one employee.

How much smarter to make customer care an integral and ongoing part of employee training. It may determine whether you succeed in business or fail.

Read more about customer care and delivering a great customer experience.

How to deliver a remarkable customer experience.