ideas to boost business

Ideas to Boost Business

A collection of practical business, financial, legal and personal tips to help your business survive
31. Invite Complaints About Your Business Or Product
a. Make it easy for your customers to complain about your business. Call them after the sale. Send a post card Was everything OK? Howre we doing? etc.
b. If your product has a problem how will you know about it? Isnt it better to get complaint feedback right away rather than wait until you have hundreds of unhappy customers.
32. The 100 percent Perfect Problem
a. If you continue to work on an ad, brochure, mailer long enough, eventually you will get it perfect. This is false.
b. The reality is that no communications project is ever more than 90 percent perfect Theres always something that could be revised and improved.
c. It is better to accept a 90 percent perfect project and finish it so it can begin to do its work, rather than keeping it caged while chasing the elusive 100 percent perfect goal.
d. If you have a new business or product, the important thing is getting some kind of message out there. You need customers or clients and you need them fast. Every day you delay the better chance your competition has to reach your customers. Your materials will go through several evolutionary changes over the years and you will never be totally happy with them.
33. Start A Swipe File
A swipe file is a collection of ads and brochures that copywriters and artists collect, or swipe from other artists, for those times when they are stumped for a good idea.Dont copy them exactly, but many good ideas can come from what the guy down the street is doing. And if theyre doing something, so should you.
34. So It Must Be Important To Our Customers
a. Just because issues are important within an organization they do not automatically have relevance to your customers.
b. This is a by product of fuzzy thinking and the problem points to managers that lack experience.
c. When you consider any project look at it from the customers point of view, not the company. The rule is take care of the customer and hell take care of the company .
35. Give Your Customers More Than They Expected
a. Instead of the 101 business tips you expected, you will get an extra 13 you didnt expect.
b. What small thing can you do for your customers that will surprise them without additional cost to the company?
c. Good service generally goes unnoticed, and does not receive a comment. Exceptional service does; so does exceptionally poor service.
36. Use Suppliers And Vendors For Information
a. Talk to your suppliers and salespeople who call on you, they know more about your competition than anyone else. Sometimes in the course of casual conversation they may, unknowingly, give you important information about your competitions future plans.
b. If your competition is a public company, buy stock. As a stockholder you will receive all their annual and quarterly reports.
37. Pay Attention To People With Disabilities
They are becoming a big market. If you can serve some subgroup of that market effectively you may be able to capture a loyal and lucrative customer base.
38. Know The Demographics Of Your Sales Area
Demographics are the breakdown of the area you live in or plan on servicing. How many Whites, Blacks, Hispanic etc. What are the income levels? Number of homeowners, etc. This is important information because if the area cant afford or doesnt want your product then youre out of business before you even start.
39. Subscribe To Industry Magazines
a. Keep up with changing events in your industry by subscribing to trade magazines.
b. Lists of all available magazines are available at the library.
c. Many of these magazines do surveys of their subscribers that answer questions such as.
40. Subscribe to Magazines
No matter what the state of the economy is people are always starting businesses. People are still running successful businesses every day of the year. Look for magazines that deal with positive business messages. There are plenty of them out there.