Tips for Business Growth on a Shoestring Budget

You may be from the “you have to have money to make money” school of thought, and in some respects, this is true. Obviously the more you can put into your business, the faster the business growth will occur. But does this mean people with no money can’t start a business and succeed? Certainly not! And history is full of examples of people who have done just that.

If you are a self employed entrepreneur or SOHO, chances are you don’t have the type of business that attracts financial backers or entails teams of employees or contractors working for you. It’s just you and your wallet and the sweat of your own brow. That’s okay. You can work with that and still achieve business growth.

Your main challenge is likely to be sales and marketing. Maybe you hate networking and don’t have much time to spend going out to meet potential clients. Maybe you don’t feel comfortable in those situations, or maybe you have some other life challenges that makes it difficult to get out and attend networking events. That’s okay. There is more than one way to market your business, and for the financially challenged, ways that cost very little.

These ideas won’t suit every business type, but think outside the box and ask yourself how you could adapt the ideas to suit your line of work. For starters, do you have a corporate client or contact? Leave some business cards with them and ask them if they’d mind mentioning your company to their contacts/clients. You can also leave your business cards on the counters of other local businesses, such as the local vet. Be creative!

Is your business the type that you can invite some clients together in one place, perhaps offering them a free seminar or an informational meet and greet occasion? If so, do it and encourage them to bring a friend. If your business is “virtual” – suggest an e-group situation in which they can openly share and discuss issues relevant to their business and again, allow them to invite friends. In this way you introduce your business to potential customers, while servicing existing clients.
Ask your existing clients or contacts for referrals. Encourage their participation by offering them something in exchange, like an incentive scheme. This could be discounts for your products or services, free samples, or gift vouchers. If you don’t like to ask outright, design a “Referral Form” and include it with your invoices, but don’t send it with the first invoice! Prove yourself first. Ask them if they have any leads for you to follow up, and to really make this an offer they can’t refuse, suggest you may be able to put business their way too, using the same methods.
Affiliate yourself with other companies/entrepreneurs who can put business your way in exchange for you offering referrals for them. A kind of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours situation. Even appropriate links on websites can be useful, but make sure you are linking to a professional site to safeguard your reputation.
Whether or not you have a referral program, when you do get a new client from a referral, always thank the referrer. Send a thank you note and a small token of your appreciation – it might be a gift voucher or even a lottery ticket. If you haven’t got a referral program in place, whenever you gain a new client from a referral, remember to send a thank you and a small gift to the “referrer” – even a lottery ticket! They won’t mind sending you referrals!
Consider joint ventures. For example, if you are a hair dresser, find a beauty salon or other related business who would be willing to market you to their customers in exchange for you marketing their business to yours. You can offer each others clients special deals and prices that only your and their clientele can get. Find ways to add value to each other’s customers and you will both benefit.

Use the press. Align yourself with a local charity dear to your heart and the next time you do something that benefits them, invite the local journalists or send a press release yourself to your local papers.

Use social media. It may not be the promised answer to everyone’s marketing prayers but at the very least it gets your company name out there and known!

There are as many strategies for promoting business growth as there are types of business. Think outside the box, keep your eyes open for opportunities, experiment and be creative!

5 Rules to Boost Business Growth

Owning your own small business should be financially rewarding as well as provide the personal satisfaction derived from wearing the captain’s hat and steering your own ship. And in an ideal world, boosting business growth should be as easy as choosing which photocopier to purchase. The reality, however, is usually the opposite for many small business owners.

If you are a small business owner searching for ways to boost your business growth, here are five simple, yet effective, rules that will help put you on the starting line, facing in the right direction:

1. Be “in business”
Unsuccessful small businesses, especially SOHO’s and network marketers, often don’t think of themselves as business owners. Some don’t even have the business basics like a dedicated phone line, fax machine, business name, domain name, letterhead, business cards, brochures, merchant status to accept credit cards, contact management software, etc. How can you expect people to do business with you if you aren’t really in business? You must commit 100%. You are either in business or you are not. There is no grey area. Well, there is… that’s where you find people who are dabbling at being in business and failing. There is a huge difference between a hobby and a legitimate business. Once you make that commitment you must have a business plan. These are not inflexible and will change as your business needs change.

2. Know your products and services
Have you ever tried to buy something from someone who couldn’t answer your questions about their product or service? Hardly confidence inspiring, is it? Your customers expect you to be an expert about whatever it is you are selling. If you don’t know everything there is to know about it, who would? How can you compare what you offer to your competitors, to stay ahead and remain competitive? Customers want to know facts and figures and they want all the features and benefits explained to them in terms they can understand. That’s where you come in. If you don’t deliver, they will take their business somewhere else where they have more confidence, and this applies whether you are selling widgets or services.

3. Fear of Marketing
You won’t experience business growth if you sit back waiting for customers to materialize and come to you. You have to not only let your potential customers know you exist and how to contact you, you also have to tell them how they can benefit and how your product/service will solve their problems. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your product or service is, it just won’t sell itself.

4. Fear of Selling
Many small business owners have stories of used car salespeople swimming around in their heads and they equate sales with being deceitful or pushy. Well, unfortunately, there are people in the world like that, but you don’t have to be one. In fact, you will taste success more quickly and easily if you are NOT like that.

You need to communicate the features and benefits of your product or service without exaggeration or dishonesty. You must develop strong inner beliefs that support serving others, sharing your products/services, secure in the knowledge that you are doing them a favor, being in business and bringing them great products and services. Coming from a place of trying to push people into buying will only push people away. People hate to be manipulated and they can spot a phony a mile away. Wanting to sincerely serve others will attract people. Think “serve”, not “sell”.

5. You Don’t Fully Believe in Yourself
When you doubt yourself and your ability to be successful, you set in motion circumstances that will hold you back and stop you from achieving business growth. You will hold back from investing in your business and spending money on areas vital to your business success. And if you don’t truly believe in your products or services, this will reflect in your sales and marketing (or rather, lack of) and rather than attract customers, you will make them doubtful and go elsewhere. Surely, you have been to a business where even the atmosphere screams the owner isn’t really all that interested? You must be interested and believe you will be successful… because it influences how others see you.

Challenge your beliefs. What is really behind your fears and doubts? Are these truly your stories or have you allowed other people’s doubts to infiltrate your better judgment? Yes some businesses are facing challenging times right now, but there are also businesses who are thriving, and yet others who are coasting along comfortably.

Ever heard of Dream, Believe, Achieve? When you believe the dream can be real, nothing will stop you.

Sharing My Secret…

I’ve written a lot about a lot of products and services over the years and today I want to share a tip about a service I’ve been using for many years — a company that allows you to share products you have created. I say they are the best kept secret in my business and they are responsible for all my custom products!

I don’t have an affiliate deal with them. I just am sitting at my desk today thinking, “Where would my business be without them?” and I am feeeeeeeeeeling grateful.

What I love about this company, Vervante (http://www.vervante.com/) is how easy they are to work with and how quickly they make my products ready for distribution, send out my products and handle any problems customers may run into.

Prior to using Vervante I was spending my valuable time duplicating CD’s and DVD’s or having to pay virtual assistants to do this task. Then someone had to go to the post office and ship things out. Having Vervante not only gives a professional look and consistent look to all my products it gives me full service support, helps me establish my branding, and takes a load off my mind as every order is automatically fulfilled by them as they come into my shopping cart!

Here’s another reason I recommend Vervante (http://www.vervante.com/ ) … they also print all my products on demand! I don’t have to pre-pay or sit on huge inventory. I teach all my clients and coaching students and business owners that the only way to publish these days is using on-demand publishing and distribution for their books, CDs, DVDs, training and coaching programs, and information products. Vervante allows you to share your products with the world by having high quality products at super competitive prices.

In fact the company takes great pride not only in producing high quality products it also has helped hundreds of my clients see their dream of being published come true.

You can contact them here: customerservice@vervante.com or sales@vervante.com and although there is no affiliate relationship please tell them I referred you so they will know how much I value their services.

If you have any questions about Vervante, just post them in the comments below. Or, if you have suggestions about other services, please share them.

Six Tips to Restore the Motivation to Work

The past couple of years has seen an unprecedented shift in business and financial challenges and opportunities on a global scale.  While some western countries experienced serious downturns, many developing countries found their feet, making their fortunes by attracting western businesses to set up base in their country where business costs and labor are so much cheaper. While the wisdom of this is being debated and some governments are actively encouraging their home grown businesses to invest and remain on home soil, the major effect of this outsourcing and taking industry overseas is diminished job and career opportunities at home, which has a demoralizing effect on those who’ve lost their jobs.

Now, as businesses in the major western countries get back on their feet, one of the key factors to their success is not going to be in the number of new products they can invent or manufacture for less than their competition, but from the people who work for them… the employees who drive their business. If a company is to rebuild itself and continue to grow, it must have enthusiastic, productive and committed people and motivating the workforce must become a key strategy in business growth plans. 

Studies show that money alone does not provide long term motivation, because employees have to know the difference between being paid for the job they do as opposed to being rewarded for doing a good job, so with many companies still facing the necessity to watch their spending, here are some examples of motivational programs and options they can consider. (more…)

The Challenge for Today’s Manager

What do today’s managers have in common with yesterday’s? Despite progress and changes in the landscape of today’s modern business, the one constant, the one thing that has not changed, is that Managers are still playing the role of the middle-man… that go-between for upper management and the people they manage. The line they must walk is fraught with challenges and stresses, with each day presenting them with a new conflict of interests they must somehow deal with.

Managers are a species apart, expected to please all the people, all the time – which we know is impossible, right?

They must protect the interests of those they work for and those they manage. They must represent the view of those they work for and those they manage. When something goes wrong, guess who is in the firing line?

This is all in a day’s work for today’s Manager, who gets little thanks and acknowledgement, but plenty of criticism and blame.

But it doesn’t end there, in-house… (more…)

How Changes in Management Can Improve Bottom Line Results

By this stage I am probably preaching to the converted, but on the realisation that every year a new, inexperienced generation enters the workforce who face similar challenges to those with managerial aspirations who went before them, this information is still valid.

When change is introduced into the workplace there is often a degree of resistance, anxiety and sometimes even ridicule of the new methodologies. People equate change with difficulty and something to be feared. This is where open communication is so important and it starts right at the very top.

If you don’t have the full support and understanding from those in key management positions, any organizational changes being made are going to be thwart with difficulties. It is up to CEO’s and Presidents to champion the cause and ensure their managerial teams are also in full support, so that it can filter down through the ranks more smoothly.

Here are 5 areas where guidance and training can help: (more…)