SHAKING THE TREE ... #31

10 simple ways to enhance your small business experience

Naturally, there are dozens of ways you can help clients and customers enjoy their experience of your business.

Here’s a list of 10 things you can do to help you help the people who are buying from you (or who could buy from you but who aren’t buying from you just yet):

1. Create and defend a clearly-defined brand identity. Developing a strong brand identity that outlines who you are, where you’re from, what you do, what you stand for, what you stand against, who you do it for, and why you do it—something that reflects your values, mission, and unique selling points—will set you apart from the pack. Notice here that I’ve said nothing about logos or typefaces or company colours.

2. Ask for and address customer or client feedback. By regularly gathering, listening to, and acting on customer feedback, you’ll do much to identify areas for review and improvement. When someone comments or complains about something you’re doing or not doing and you ignore that feedback, you miss out on a huge opportunity to show clients and customers that you care about their input.

3. Set up an online presence. Look, your website doesn’t have to be hundreds of pages long: a simple one page site is enough. But that presence needs to be current— in needs to be up to date. Likewise a handful of active social media profiles, to help you stay in touch with the people you’re serving.

4. Focus on offering quality products, goods, and services. I don’t care what you offer or what price point you’re at, five top quality services or products will outshine and outsell 100 sub-par products and services. When your offerings meet or exceed customer expectations you build trust, loyalty, likability, and belief.

5. Get your team onboard from the beginning. Your staff and team are at the forefront of your business and when they don’t give a crap, your sales will drop like a stone. So take time to foster a positive workplace culture that encourages employee engagement.

6. Stop seeing other people in your niche as your competition. By building supportive, caring relationships with other vendors in your industry and community you gain a reputation as someone worth connecting with and you develop valuable insights and potential partnerships with people who can help you and who you can help when business isn’t as good as it has been, either for yourself or for them. A rising tide floats all boats.

7. Develop and regularly revisit an effective marketing strategy. I’m often stunned by the number of business owners who don’t set up clear ideas of who they’re serving, how they’ll reach them and how they’ll track their results. Take the time to develop a well-rounded marketing strategy that includes online and offline tactics that help you reach a wider audience, share more offers, and fine tune your approach.

8. Work smarter, not harder. By streamlining your business practices and processes so that you’re spending less money, making the best use of your time, and maximizing your profit margins you cut down on inefficiencies and you wind up providing your clients and customers with more a consistent service.

9. Ask questions and track your numbers. If you don’t know where your money is going or what’s coming in or going out in terms of inventory and fees, you’ll quickly find yourself in trouble. Use data to help you make informed decisions about where you’re heading and how you’re doing.

10. Be willing to change. One of the saddest and potentially most harmful phrases in business is “We’ve always done it this way!”Unless your business is anchored in some sort of hand-made, craft-based niche in which tradition holds sway because there’s no other way of working, your ability to welcome adaptability into your business will do a lot to keep you on your toes. If you want to stay competitive you really need to keep an open mind and you needs to be agile enough and open enough to change. Be willing to embrace new technologies and trends.

Yes, i know, there’s a lot more that could be said here, but this list is a good place to start. Good luck.

As always, thanks for reading.

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P.S. Next time on Shaking the Tree … What does a ghostwriter do and how do you become one?