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Key Factors in the Success of Small Business

Monday, September 24, 2012

Many people dream of owning and running a business that can be taken to greater heights. But not everyone is successful in realising this dream. Often, business owners end up making a number of blunders that result in the failure of a business set up. Improper planning, lack of capital and a lackadaisical approach towards marketing the products are some of the factors that lead to the failure of the any business. By taking these factors into account business owners can avert financial losses quite effectively.

Some of the chief factors that have to be taken into consideration to make the small and mid sized companies work are as follows:

  • Focus on pricing

If you operate in the B2B space, it is important for you to keep in mind that your client will revert to you provided you offer value at a lower price point. You should not price your products at a higher price point, as that will turn your prospective clients away. However, the pricing should be competitive to make sure that you can avoid negative sales and increase demand for your products.

  • Market products properly

Effective marketing initiatives can help you to carve a niche in the market within a short span of time. For this, you should be able to access the right marketing channels. This will help you to cater to the demand in the market.

  • Offer value to clients of all kinds

Although you are required to sell all your products at a lower price point it is important for you to remember that you cannot offer poor quality product. Whether you are an auto parts supplier or a business consultant your services should be of the best standard. Through this you can ascertain your reliability in the market.

4 Proven Steps to Internet Marketing Success For Small Business

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The most important secret to becoming successful on the internet is, YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE A PLAN!

Your internet marketing efforts must be created as a purposefully thought out part of your overall business strategy. But you've got to have an honest marketing approach based on common sense and your specific business needs.

Here is my 4-Step Internet Business Success Program.

I've developed an Internet Success Program that is a proven process that shows you in clear decisive steps how to create your internet strategy and radically increase your business success.

The core of my program consists of these 4 steps:

Dream. Design. Develop. Deliver.

So how can you use them to chart your online success?

Step #1 Dream.

You must first outline the end result of share you want to be. Your destination must be well defined in order to achieve it.

So before you start looking at blogging, social networking, or building a website, you need to determine what end result you are expecting.

Ask yourself, "What does success look like to me?"

Remember, your dream can change and evolve. Make a point to periodically re-evaluate your dream and adjust your plans accordingly. Ask yourself repeatedly if each activity will get you closer to where you want to be.

Step #2. Design.

Once you have a well defined dream you must design your internet marketing plan around that.

Start where you are. And determine what you can offer that people are searching and will gladly pay for. You have to evaluate if you are working smarter and not just harder.

Stay true to your chartered path and then effectively choose the choices that best suit your needs.

- Online Commerce

-Articles and Press Releases

-Blogging

- Social Networking

-Membership Sites

-Corporate/Company Website

-Affiliate Programs/Sales

Instead of planning all of this by yourself, I highly recommend that you work closely with trusted business advisors and peers to help with feedback and input to assure you are staying in line with your true desires.

Step #3 Develop.

Once you've accomplished establishing a plan it's time to put those plans into action.

Remember to apply the Law of Action. Don't fall victim to over-planning. No amount of research can lay out everything you're going to need to know. Take action. You can always adjust as you go.

It is also helpful to not begin working on too many things at once. This leads to many half-started and undone efforts.

Step #4 Deliver.

As each of your marketing tactics are designed and developed you will then reap the benefits of all your hard work. One by one you will see your plans manifest into successful business goals as you finally have the financial success you have always dreamed of.

Congratulate yourself on your diligence, attention to detail, and staying on your path to success.

Remember the 4-steps for Internet Success:

Dream - Where you really want to go.

Design - How are you going to get there?

Develop - Put your plan into action.

Deliver - Announce it to the world and reap the rewards.

5 Steps To Success for Small Business Owners

Everyone wants to succeed in life. Most people want to succeed in business. And no one starts a business of any sort wanting to fail.

Yet the sad fact is that 80% of businesses will fail in the first 3 years of operation.

So what can you do to ensure your success?

Luckily these five simple (never confuse simple with easy), tried and tested steps dramatically increase your chances.

1. Vision

It might seem like management techno-speak or newage psycho-babble but all the evidence is that developing and articulating a vision for your business and life is a major key to success.

Take time out. Really think about what you want from your business and life.

Write it down.

A vision statement should not be long - it doesn't even have to be in words. If you think graphically then capturing your vision in a picture or diagram could be just what you need. You are striving for a short, to the point description of where you want to be in 1, 2 and 5 years time.

In addition to your financial vision you need to ask yourself some questions:

What will our major products and services be?

What will be our target market?

Will we be market leaders, followers or niche players?

What will our unique competitive position be?

How will we 'know' our ideal customer?

How will we be perceived by our customers?

How will we promote your services to our customers?

An old Japanese Proverb says,

"If you aim at a tree and fall short, you may only hit the ground.

If you aim at the sky you may hit a tree."

Make sure you don't set your targets too low.

Just before leaving the subject of 'Vision' - the number one key to achieving your vision is to communicate it widely. Make sure you tell your family and friends. Make it a central pillar in corporate literature. Include it in job descriptions.

The more you communicate your vision the more you demonstrate your commitment and the more likely you are to succeed.

2. Set Out Your Goals

Success means something different to us all. A self-made businessman worth millions of dollars would be thought successful by most. But if that businessman only rarely sees his family, never gets to play golf and spends all of his time on airplanes or in some exotic sounding (but usually antiseptic) hotel, is that really a success? Would that businessman think his life a success?

Possibly, possibly not.

But if that man had set himself goals for his business, private and social lives he at least has some way of measuring his achievements.

Your vision is all about 'what' you are going to achieve. Goals are about the stepping stones to achieving that vision.

Before starting on any endeavour - set your goals.

Make sure your goals are specific enough that you know when you have achieved them. "I want to make lots of money" is weak. "I am going to make $100,000 next year and $200,000 the year after" is much stronger.

The more specific and well articulated your goals the greater your chance of achieving them.

Don't forget to include your private and social goals. Many rich people complain that they have all the freedom that money can buy - but money can't buy the time to enjoy what they have earned.

An old boss of mine from my days in corporate consultancy once observed, "You can't buy back the years of your children's lives". He's right.

Make sure you know what real success would mean to you.

3. Plan, Plan, Plan

If the number one key to success in retailing is location, location and location, the number one key to success in business is plan, plan, plan.

Remember the 5 Ps success model - Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. (When I was taught this in the military there was a 6th P - for the sake of a mixed audience I have left this out. Use your imagination - you'll guess what it was :-))

If you've done your goal setting you know what you are going to achieve. The point of planning is how you are going to do it. Break each goal down into constituent steps needed for its achievement. For each step decide what, who, where and when it is to be done.

Be realistic and make sure that every step is achievable in the time set. Be prepared - when you plan-out all that you need to do, the amount of work can be daunting. Better to know this up-front than sale merrily into a venture only to find it is a huge monster that is going to take you a lifetime to kill.

4. Action Counts

I've seen some beautiful plans. Highly researched, well thought out and presented. I'll talk to a business owner and they'll say, "We've got a plan" and pull it out of the bottom draw of a filing cabinet somewhere.

"So, why aren't you using it", I'll ask. Nine times out of 10 the plan was produced to obtain funding. Lot's of really good work is done but once the money is obtained the plan is put to one side and ignored.

Big mistake. Taking action is the only thing that counts.

Every successful business I have looked at has clear, current business, operational and marketing plans. It doesn't matter whether your business is offline or online. It's taking action that delivers the results.

5. Another 5 'P's to Success

Passion - You have to believe in what you are doing. No where is this more obvious than on the internet. You can spot the 'me-too' advertisers in a second. The people who succeed are the ones in have passion, who truly believe in what they are doing. Do something that you love.

Push - No matter how good your plan you have to provide a big push to get it moving. Your plan inevitably involves change. Achieving change takes effort. Think of it as if you were trying to move a boulder. To get that boulder up and moving takes a lot of muscle and effort. Once it is moving though it becomes much easier.

Persistence - Getting started is relatively easy. Afterall, you are all fired up with energy and enthusiasm at that time. Few things worth achieving happen over night. Instead, there will be problems, hold-ups and frustrations. Don't allow yourself to become disillusioned or demotivated. You need persistence.

Patience - Results don't happen instantly. Allied to persistence you will need some patience.

Profit - OK, OK it's trite. But follow the steps here, gear yourself to provide these 5 Ps and you will succeed. In business, profit is a measure of your success.

No one can guarantee your success whether in life or in business. But you can dramatically increase your chances of success through these five simple, very well established principles.

The question is, "WILL YOU"?

Tips for Sales Success for Small Businesses

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Write down your personal goals daily. Write down sales goals as well as profitability goals. It is just something about writing down your goals which should lead to a written plan of action to accomplish those goals.

Think positive. There is nothing worse than talking yourself out of success. The bible says "So a man thinketh so is he." Decide today to let go of any negative thoughts and take complete control of your mind.

Always be closing. This has to be a mindset. You want to close the sale. You don't want to waste your time nor do you want to waste your customer's time. And while your customer is waiting to be closed you are offering something that they have already been sold on or just talking unnecessarily. Always move the sale along with each contact. Set a goal for meeting.

Ask for the sale. You never know until you ask-so always ask for the sale. "Nothing happens until you close the sale."

Listen to encouraging/self help sales audio while in the car. This goes without saying-Garbage in Garbage out. We have to put the right things in so at the right times the right things will come out.

Attend a seminar at least twice a year on sales (4 times a year if you really want to see growth). The only thing that will make you better is learning from others and taking action. This can save you years of time and tons of money.

Read 1 hour a day on some part of the sales process. This is the same as above. The sales process includes so many areas including questioning, qualifying, overcoming objections and on and on. You will constantly have to learn new things in order to stay above the competition.

Be prepared. There is nothing worse than showing up to see a client and you don't have what is necessary to close the sale. This destroys your credibility. Prepare a system that will take a little tweaking for each client. Write out the sales process from start to finish from the initial contact to closing the sale.

Arrive on time. Leave a little early. Prepare for the unexpected whether it is a train, traffic detours or whatever may happen that would make you late.

Know your Product/Service features and benefits. You should know your product inside out. There shouldn't be any hesitation on what your competitive advantage, Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and your brand.

Listen for buying signs. Hit the hot buttons. What makes your customer respond? Speak in their language. Listen closely to customers. Rephrase what customer says.

Know your target market. Who are your customers really? What is their buying process? What problem are you solving?

Have responses prepared for objections. Know the top 10 objections for each product or service you offer. Listen for what your customer isn't saying. Sometimes your customer is unaware of what they need or want. Determine what keeps them up at night. Become a problem solver or solutions provider. Give them the answers they desire in the simplest form.

Test what you are doing. Try new things. Take some risks. Keep what works and test and try new things for what doesn't.

Know your company's sales history. What has worked in the past? What hasn't worked? While sales is a numbers game you can improve your numbers. Know your numbers.

Don't give up. Keep trying testing different ways of doing things. Stay positive. Learn from your mistakes.

Find out what your competition is doing. It is important to know your competition. How can you be different and better if you don't? Knowing your competition and studying trends can catapult your business.

SEO: Facilitating the Success of Small Business

Monday, September 10, 2012

First Tip: Know your Target Audience. When it comes to SEO marketing, the first thing that you should do is to recognize and determine who you is your target customer. Who would you want to buy your products? Or better yet, who are those people whom your product will appeal to? Most people would use their business as the basis of all their SEO operations. Yet, it would be a lot better if you would have a more specific approach. Try to choose one of your products as the core keyword of all your operations and you will see how much traffic you can get.

Second Tip: Look For Other Keyword Options. Even if you have that one specific keyword, chances are Google may not look for the keyword the same way you typed it. Because of this, you will need to have a back up keyword. Try to utilize some keyword research tools to be able to determine how other web surfers would look for your product or services.

Third Tip: Redesign your website. When we say great web design, we mean that the readers should be able to navigate from one page to the other without any problems. If you want to increase traffic to various pages of your site, it is best that you interlink your relevant pages to the other pages in your site. By doing so, your site will have better domain authority and higher rankings.

Fourth Tip: Have dynamic keywords. Regardless of how useful a keyword has been, you should never let it prevent you from remembering that you should cycle your keyword focus. Be reminded that search terms as well as social ones change from time to time so one keyword may be effective right now but it wouldn't have the same effect as times go by.

Fifth Tip: Make Your Business Be Visible On Social Media Sites. These days, many websites and business owners have made use of social media in order to generate long term traffic. When it comes to followers, there is no such thing as too many. You should not limit your business account to just one target group. Remember that the more followers you have, there will be greater chances for a sale or purchase.

Sixth Tip: Reach The Place Where The Competition Did Not Dare Go. We all know how important it is to claim a spot on the more popular websites yet there is nothing wrong in invading less popular websites too. In fact, you can use this to your advantage. As we all know, more and more up and coming websites are now entering the social scene so it is better that you try to penetrate it right away.

With these tips, you can surely go up the search engine rankings. These days, Internet has become a commonly used tool when it comes to searching for or marketing a product. This is why you should capitalize on your SEO regardless of how small your business is.