All I’ve ever wanted in business is an unfair advantage. That is to say, I wanted to succeed by doing everything just a little bit better than my competition. I have never wanted any hand-outs or to rely on anyone else. I just wanted to be the best at everything I did.
That attitude cost me a great deal when I first started my business. Because I wanted to do everything myself, I quickly became stressed, burned out, and broke. In the end, I learned that there are excellent ways to “rely on others” without having to be dependent upon them. Here are four truths we have learned over the past three years in building our business:
1. People do business with people they know. Over the years, we have focused a great deal of energy in building profitable relationships. One of the most efficient ways we have accomplished this is through a monthly newsletter to our client base that includes the latest information about our business, new affiliations we have made with other quality local companies, and new products we are offering at discounted rates.
2. People do business with the people who do business with them. We have created a strong affiliation with a wide variety of businesses in our area. They allow us to place small ads on their counters, in exchange for advertising space in our newsletter. As a result, we have improved our sales with very little effort, helped our affiliate companies grow, and have built a strong reputation our the community.
3. People do business with people their friends talk about. Because we have taken time to build relationships and not just sell a product, our clients have become our friends as well. We have found that quality people usually share positive experiences with their co-workers, neighbors, and relatives. About 30% of our current customer base is based on referrals from other clients.
4. People do business with people they read about. We discovered this shortly after our local paper featured us in an article about working at home in their “Business” section. As a home-based-business, it is easy to be over-looked by the community. After that article was written, we had a huge influx of calls, so much so that we could not handle them all at first. While it was a little taxing on our resources, it was a great lesson to us. We now submit articles of interest to a variety of local magazines and newspapers at least once a quarter and we find that each time one of these articles is published, our sales increase. Best of all, the advertising we get costs nothing!
We have done research on our competitors and learned that we beat them all “hands down”. Our most successful competitor spends a huge amount of money on advertising but does very little that results in keeping their clients. Instead of growing their business, they use all their effort to maintain a status quo. Conversely, all of the steps outlined above cost very little money and take less time in the long run, than finding replacements for customers you have lost through neglect!
If you are struggling in your business, take a look at how you operate now. If you are missing any of these ingredients, we encourage you to try to implement at least one of them over the next month. I’d be willing to bet, your results will be more positive than you ever imagined –possible!
Do you have a success story or an experience you would like to share? We’d love to hear it!
*This Article is Written by by J. Covington, Cedar Rapids, IA
