Ten Tips for Small Business Owners

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Our next event will be at Indigo Blue on 9^th November. The topic will be “having established demand and support for our product, what else should we do to ensure commercial viability”? This should be a familiar question to most small business owners. Once you have an idea, how do you put it into practice? What sets your product apart from others? What makes it unique? How are you going to communicate with your target market?

Take a look below at our ten tips for keeping your small business on-track, innovative and customer-focused.

1. Have specific goals. Break your big goals into small, measurable ones that are easier to obtain. Kn0w what you want, how you’re going to get it and how you’re going to measure success. This will keep you and your employees on-track and focused.

2. Be personal and tell stories.

3. Think carefully about layout, design and photography. Unfortunately, appearance does matter.

4. Do your own PR. People want to hear from you. Make it personal. Tell your story in the way you want it to be told. No PR firm is going to be as passionate about your product as you will.

5. Logistics are key. Customer expectations today have been heavily influenced by companies like Amazon, Netflix and Uber providing products and experiences almost on-demand, smoothly and intuitively. It’s no longer merely about offering the right product, you need to offer the right delivery service too.

6. Free shipping. Customers would rather that the price of the product include the extra cost.

7. Stay networked.

8. Bloggers are your friends. Working with influencers, bloggers, reviewers and journalists is important. This maintains a steady stream of referral traffic from your site, and establishes your product as unique and different. Each influencer will provide a different perspective on your product but also ensures that you target markets in which your product will be well received – they’re not going to promo something they don’t like, unless you’re paying them a lot of money.

9. Listen to your customers. Honest customer reviews provide the best feedback. Make sure you know what your customers like and dislike – respond to those comments and make changes. This will develop brand loyalty because your customers will feel valued. Your customers are the ones who will use the product so let them be your guide.

10. Use social media. It’s free! Everything you need to promote your product can already be found on your laptop, phone and/or tablet from video editing software to apps for managing your social media presence.

Find Out More

10 Things Your Employees Expect You to Know How to Do to Lead Them and Run a Successful Business - http://www.inc.com/thehartford/ten-things-your-employees-expect-you-to-know.html

Olympian Sally Gunnell’s exclusive tips for small business owners - http://businessadvice.co.uk/from-the-top/olympian-sally-gunnell-provides-some-exclusive-tips-for-small-business-owners/

6 Smart Budgeting Tips for Small Business Owners - http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8323-small-business-budget.html

50 Tips for New Small Business Owners - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140617140953-7089637-50-tips-for-new-small-business-owners

Please comment below with your thoughts on running a successful small business. What would your top tips be? We always love hearing from you!