You have survived and beat the odds as a small business owner. However, your profits are far from exciting. The good news is that you’re still standing and turning a profit annually, no matter how small. Thankfully, there are several ways to improve your bottom line.
Your Staff
Hiring the right employees can make the difference between a mediocre profit and something to brag about. While you are the owner, you count on your employees to produce sales and keep your existing customers happy. Hiring the right people can help to turn things around. When searching for a new employee, make sure that the recruiter or placed ad has a detailed description of what the job entails and the skills required.
Another way to find the right employee is to ask around from others in the business or even your existing staff and acquire a few names. Then, use a company to find the contact information of employees and referral business owners such as Jim Plante. It’s also important that once you narrow the search to just a few people that you perform several interviews for compatibility to see who stands out.
Marketing
Marketing is as important as hiring the right people. Luckily, there are many effective techniques. Trade shows and involvement in the community are a few on the tried and proven ways to stand out among the local competition. Another way to draw a large crowd is to use social media. Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter attract millions of people daily. Even if a very small percentage actually visit your website, it will increase the traffic and improve sales.
Keep Potential Customers Interested
Many companies still don’t understand the importance of having a comprehensive website that’s easy to navigate. To retain those that you attract to your website through a running ad, you need to have valuable content and something that keeps them interested. One way is to add an animated whiteboard. This technique created from content you provide uses animated videos to sell your products or services. And, in most cases, people remain engaged until it ends. Email is another way that successful businesses improve their customer base. Securing a list of emails for local people is relatively inexpensive and once you have the list, you can use it again.
Customer Service
Even if you have a great product to sell, if your business is lacking in customer service, you’ll never reach your full potential. Especially today, with everyone connected, it’s important to treat customers fairly. Have a written document that identifies your company’s policies, to avoid misunderstandings as much as possible. It’s also essential that you have a fully-trained staff that is sensitive to your customer’s needs.
Rewards
Not too long ago, businesses started to understand the benefits of offering a rewards program to keep their customers loyal. With many companies offering similar products and services, it’s critical to your business growth that you remain one step ahead of your competition. Offering incentives to find new customers and rewards for staying on are effective ways to sustain growth.
Small business owners have many hurdles to climb to keep their company successful. Thankfully, there are old and new ways that will help you remain in the green.
This infographic was created by House of Webster, private label food companies
