Small business owners face tremendous amounts of competition. They must compete against big businesses, other small business and online stores. Keeping profits high and stress low will be easy with these steps.
Get Online
Having a website is vitally important. People want to be able to look at your products, location and maybe compare prices. Once upon a time, creating a website was only something that computer programming specialists could do. Today, anyone can create a website and they can do it free of charge. Websites such as Weebly or Wix are absolutely free. There are a wide variety of templates to choose from and easy drop and drag functions. An attractive, interactive website can be built in an hour. It's online and it's ready to go. The global visibility of your business is increased while expenses remain the same.
Capital
Personal capital and business capital should be two distinct entities. Using your personal savings or checking account to do business transactions will ultimately lead to unnecessary headaches. If a joint personal account is used the potential for problems increase. What happens if a significant other writes a check at the same time you write a check for business and the check written for business expenses bounces? Suppliers will think the small business owner is unreliable or unethical. Customers will have to wait longer for their product and may seek to do business with another company. Always have an account for your business. Lots of banks offer very small fees or no fee for opening a checking account. Have a credit card that is used exclusively for your business while using another for your personal expenses. Keep an accurate account of all purchases and income from your business with the business account. A small business is an entity of it's own and it will prosper when it's treated as such.
Customer Service
When entering certain businesses you are immediately greeted with a smile and asked if you need anything. This immediately gives the customer a sense of value and makes him see his needs will be met quickly and courteously. Businesses, small and large, exist to fill the needs of people. If you treat people like one of the most important parts of your business they will return and your business will grow. On the other hand, if you treat customers like they are an annoyance or hire employees that aren't knowledgeable about the product you sell, customers will leave and will probably tell their friends and family not to frequent your establishment.
Advertise
The best product or service in the world can't help anyone if no one knows it exists. A small business owner must inform the world about his fantastic product or service. For the small business owner with little economic resources or unlimited resources, certain types advertising is a must.
Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube must be utilized. Seeing these icons on a website or a business card automatically allows your customer to associate you with things they recognize. The best thing about these social networks are they are absolutely free and registration is extremely simple. The only requirement is an email address, with YouTube a Gmail account is required but there is no cost to obtain one. TV commercials and newspaper articles are great but generally more costly and they don't have the global impact as the social networks. Any small business can soar if the right steps are taken. The most successful businesses have websites, provide excellent customer service, advertise and use accounts exclusive to their business. Follow these steps and watch the money start rolling in.
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