4 Ways to Get New Customers in Your Small Business
I’ve been seeing several posts from small business owners- telling people in their community to support small business.
Yes, absolutely- support small businesses in your community- 100%. I believe the healing of any economy happens in our own community, because we can’t control things where we don’t reside.
As a small business owner going on 18 years... I get it, owning a small business is hands down one of the hardest things I have ever done, and will ever do. It's spiritual, physical, and emotional- but this is a path you choose- it's not for everyone, but you chose it.
Small business owners have to take responsibility, and do a better job if they want to win more business- that is getting exported online, to the closest metropolitan area, or the next town or state over.
4 Areas Every Small Business Owner can improve on:
1. Providing jobs, and being world class leaders in their communities.
>>>Stop saying nobody wants to work, the fact is, nobody may want to work for you. Plenty of people are tirelessly looking for jobs- and are eager to work for a someone with a vision, a mission, a purpose, a plan, and willing to pay a livable wage.
2. Marketing
>>>You may have a fancy sign on Main Street, that people who drive by may never actually see... so there are still more people in your community who don’t know you exist, let alone that your business provides a service or products they have yet to fall in love with.
>>> If you can market are social media- are you? Do you donate to local charities, support local teams, and events? Hosting special sales and events? Promoting all your products, services, new and old? Are you utilizing at least 3 streams of leads? Growing an email list or text list?
3. Do better business
>>> if you can’t beat pricing - you have to win in service with a smile, face and name recognition, honesty, kindness, and followup. The customer isn’t always right, but neither are you. Relationships, experience and service will always win.
4. Spruce up the joint
>>> Small businesses, need to update and improve their stores, facilities and ways of doing business to keep up with the times, even in small towns. It’s respect to your business, your customers, and your community. People want to do business where there is an experience every time they walk in the door. If your business stinks, is messy, or hasn’t been updated since the 80’s don’t be surprised if it’s hard to demand higher prices, or attract new customers.
I see you busting your tails, spinning your wheels and feeling frustrated, and at times hopeless- the posts that tell people to support your local small business- reek of desperation (which begging people to do business with you is a strategy- but not a good one.)
It’s easier to focus on - what can I improve or update in my business today?
I am offering 3 brick and mortar businesses a 45 min audit of their systems, marketing, and experience of their business- so that this time next year your business more profitable, fun, and fulfilling.
You will leave this audit with a strategic plan, that doesn’t involve guilting people to do business with you, but instead attracts and invites more people to do business with you. Click here to book a time to connect.
Your Biggest Asset & Biggest Liability In Business
I will never forget the day my entire team walked and took 85% of my clients with them. It was 3 days before Thanksgiving in 2016.
I had built a successful million dollar per year business- and I almost lost everything I had built in a matter of moments.
There was nothing I could do to change it, but I knew it was my fault.
Somewhere in my leadership I had dropped the ball, eroded trust, and had a company full of employees and clients who hated me more than I knew anyone could be hated.
I will never forget the day my entire team walked and took 85% of my clients with them. It was 3 days before Thanksgiving in 2016.
I had built a successful million dollar per year business- and I almost lost everything I had built in a matter of moments.
There was nothing I could do to change it, but I knew it was my fault.
Somewhere in my leadership I had dropped the ball, eroded trust, and had a company full of employees and clients who hated me more than I knew anyone could be hated.
It was brutal, but I lessons I learned that day and the months and years following I will carry with me my entire life.
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Your biggest asset and biggest liability in business is the people who work for you.
A great hire will help propel your company to the heights you have imagined and beyond.
A bad hire can cost you time, energy, attention and respect of other employees.
Your largest company expense will always be your payroll and subsequent payroll taxes- it’s the first place businesses owners cut from when it’s time to make make budget cuts- for better or worse it is what it is.
You as the business owner and leader have the opportunity to turn a good hire into a great hire with your leadership, or a good hire into a bad hire.
That day I realized a few things about being the boss:
You have more power than you will ever know or want to acknowledge.
If you have never had a boss, or it has been a long time since you have worked for someone else- it’s easy to diminish the impact your words and actions have on the people who work for you.
You see the people who come to work for you, are doing so of their own volition- some people only work for a paycheck sure- but most people pick jobs that they believe they are uniquely gifted for.
People want to know that the work they do matters, that they matter, and that they are seen.
You can built people up and help them grow into the people they were always born to be, or you can tear them down into people who hate you, your company and sometimes the damage goes even deeper into the long term psychology and beliefs they have about themselves.
Simply put you are the artist- they are the clay. Mold people accordingly.
You can either speak life or speak death to the people who you spent the most time with- your employees.
Everything is and will always be your fault!
The person who works for you may make a mistake- it’s your fault for not training them or communicating expectations.
They may have done irreparable damage- it’s your fault.
When you become the boss, you have to give up the notion that you must be liked and loved, because as the boss of a growing business- EVERYTHING FALLS ON YOUR SHOULDERS.
You are the bad guy, even when you are the good guy.
After the fog lifted and I got through those first several months of hanging on for dear life for what was left of my business, I forced myself to become a better leader and a better business builder.
I have created an entire system to help entrepreneurs and small business owners to avoid the pitfalls of leadership that many, including myself succumb to, that can cost your your entire business.
Nobody is a natural born leader- but your inability to grow as a leader will keep you stuck in the launch stage forever- you doing most of the doing that needs done in your business.
Your inability to grow your company beyond your wildest dreams is a direct relation to your ability to lead, train and grow your team, people, and profits.
If you want to grow and grow fast you can’t do it alone- business was never meant to be done alone.
If I made a free training of how to grow a better, stronger, and more profitable business by building the people you already working for you- would that be of value to you? Let me know in the comments.