(Network marketing) During Shaky Tmes, Be Careful What You Cut
No commentsBy Robert Schumacher
When a small business cuts back advertising, it is like tossing kerosene on a fire (in this case, faltering sales). If promotion is considered a soft expense many small businesses reduce the size or frequency of their advertising.
Big mistake.
Small businesses should resist cutting back on anything their customers will notice or that will drive them away or fail to bring them in or back.
The No Cut Back List should include:
*Maintain portions at the same price;
*Resist reducing the quality of your products and services;
*Make sure your staff is knowledgeable and caring and
*Provide hassle free returns and adjustments.
Add advertising to your No Cut Back List.
The deeper-pocketed big boxes can and do cut back by indiscriminately reducing payroll, closing under-performing locations, slashing prices, and generally ing consumers off . . . all of which spell opportunity for the more tightly-niched small businesses.
When the economic light starts blinking RED, the savvy small business owners can make some hay (increase marketing share)by helping customers and prospects understand how their business can do a better job than their competitor down the street.
Word of mouth by itself simply will not cut it in tough times. Effective advertising will.
Four dollar gasoline and two dollar loaves of bread are taking a larger bite out the wallets of all of us . . . but people do and will continue to buy what they want or need . . . especially from businesses that back up their advertising with over-the-top service and quality products and services.
Many consumers have cut back on discretionary items but they are still spending.
In a shaky economy, buyers become more picky about where they shop and more selective about allocating their dollars. Small businesses have to work harder to get their cash.
Curtail and cut out the shotgun ads aimed at no one in particular! When the Ad Circular Monsters (big boxes) are hawking price and closing check out registers at the same time, small business guerillas can move in and build their own customer base. They can if they continue to advertise but not when they pull back or out.
Guerilla marketers often maximize the effects of their print and broadcast ads by reproducing their advertised offerings on quick printed hand-outs (flyers) and on jumbo copies of their ads strategically placed inside their stores and in their windows . . . thereby adding impact and legs to advertised promotions.
Well run small businesses do not furlough good help. Instead they get every member of their team re- focused. Be honest and frank. If sales are down, say so. Cut loose non-performing employees. Redeploy more people to the front lines–sales and marketing. Identify and eliminate busy work. Get out of the office and on the street or the sales floor.
Like advertising, resist cutting employee perks. As tempting as it may be, eliminating free coffee and bagels or holiday parties can make employees feel undervalued and potentially lead to losing them. Small extras tend to be taken personally. Retaining perks maintains employee confidence in your company and may even inspire them to go the extra mile.
Take good care of your loyal clients along with your keeper employees. It costs less to retain a valuable existing customer than to find a new one. On the other hand, fire customers that cost you money. Figure out why customers come into your business in the first place as well as what will keep them coming back.
When the going gets tough, be smart enough to ask for help from others. There is remarkable strength in new and different ideas. Ask your customers–How can we better serve your needs? What additional needs could we serve? While you are at it, ask your employees the same questions.
Stop being busy being busy. Get strategic. Slow down. Think about your own situation and ignore gloom and doom headlines. Break up those lofty longer range game plans into 90-day action plans. See to it that every one of your team members share accountability for implementing the plan at hand. Make it a big deal when the team meets a stated goal.
Buy your outside vendors a cup of coffee to discuss ways that might benefit both of your businesses and cut costs at the same time. Printers, suppliers, media, etc. Brainstorm ideas that will keep your businesses percolating even when coffee is $10 a pound and rising.
When tough times hit, the primary goal of small business owners should be to not only survive but to position themselves to thrive. Cut expenses and reallocate your dollars by daring to invest more in marketing and advertising. Going this route is good business for small business.
Bob Schumacher books and articles give entrepreneurs a clear coffee-shop English perspective on how to steer their business or profession into the top 20% who achieve 80% of the business and profits. Visit http://www.20do80.com for a complete directory of his articles and books.
Marketing Techniques For Your Success In Business
How To Sell Your Internet Business For A Profit
By Chris Simpson
If you are in a situation where you want to sell your business, whether this is something that you want to do immediately or simply at some time in the future, you’ll find that there are several things that you can do to increase the value of your business to the point where other people will be all about buying it. If you find that you are in situation where the sale of your business is on your mind, take a look at some of the steps below to get you started.
1. Make a solid client list
If you are a business with a number of different clients that you will be leaving, you’ll find that one thing that you can do is to make a client list that you can sell somewhere else. You’ll find that many similar businesses, several of whom where once your rivals, are quite interested in purchasing your clients in an aboveboard manner. You’ll find that doing this can make sure that your clients are not left in the lurch when you do depart.
2. Keyword optimization
When you are in a situation where you are looking to sell the website as well as everything else, make sure that it is a very attractive website. You’ll find that if your website is easy to find that it will be much more attractive. Take the time to make sure that you know who is coming to your website and why, and you might have a good idea of who might be interested when it comes to figuring out what you can sell your website for!
3. Good name recognition
It is easier to have good name recognition than you think. You’ll find that if you can simply take the time to make sure that your website and your products are fairly well known in your industry that there will be plenty of people who are looking for a way to capitalize on that. Take the time to make sure that you are in a good place in terms of your industry. If the name is recognizable, you’ll find that there are plenty of reasons to move forward in this direction.
At the end of the day, simply remember to make sure that you keep looking. Take the time to explore every possible venue of sale, and remember that everything must go! Get started with some steps to make your business worthwhile, and remember that you want to make sure that you are moving forward quickly in order to do so.
Chris Simpson is dedicated to helping people find honest and legitimate work at home jobs and home based business opportunities. Find a legitimate work at home opportunity and start working from home today at: http://www.HomeNetPro.com
Is The Best Rated Home Business Necessarily The Best For You?
By Ben Needles
It seems like there are so many best rated home business opportunities around. Each says that it can make you money. But, even with the countless millionaires produced, would that so called best rated home business even make you $20k, $50k or even $100k?
We see the glossy brochures, the big charts showing potential incomes, we hear the testimonials from people going from rags to riches with a certain best rated home business, but is this really how it can be for you? Lets cut the hype, and look at the truth of the matter.
Lets look at those so called best rated home business opportunities and consider for a moment the position. Consider a best rated home business is one which has many recommendations, this means that it must be working for some people. But, this does not necessarily mean it works for everyone. Because we know many will fail. But why do they fail in the first place, even though this opportunity has been rated as the best rated home business?
There will only ever be 3 stories that come out from those home business opportunities, whether they are rated the best or even the worst rated home business opportunities. This is the one who joins and soon leave, claiming it is a scam; those who watch, and instead have too much fear about it being a scam; and those who make it, and make it in a big way.
The reason people fail in the best rated home business opportunities is that they either dived in for the big money or they joined because they thought it would be easy. Either way it generally is for the money aspect. However, this is not all of the people, and it is worth looking at both of these people - the successes and the failures.
We can learn a lot by looking at and considering why some fail and some succeed, and succeed in a big way. Usually the ones who fail have not thought about the amount of work that will be required to make lots of money. Instead they join because of the low cost, and when problems crop up, they leave. It is difficult to go through those initial hurdles, and it is easier to go back to a day job.
The successes however are an interesting bunch. They dont generally have lots of money when they join a best rated home business. Instead they have determination, and also they know it will take time and effort. What they do is go about the business in a different way. The approach is usually to serve, and be of value.
They constantly learn, and gradually jump over the hurdles. They have invested a lot of time into the best rated home business and as a result the opportunity really becomes an opportunity and makes them a lot of money.
About the Author (text)
Find the best rated home business opportunities by visiting http://www.successu.co.uk or http://www.businesstobusinessportal.info
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 4:40 pm and is filed under business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
