Let’s face it, this past year has been a difficult one for all of us. It’s forced us to rethink just about every piece of our businesses—what’s working, what’s not, and how we can do more with less while still achieving a positive outcome for 2012. JIAN.com is no different: we’re a small business, too, and we’ve asked ourselves these same questions and had to work through some difficult decisions to keep our own business healthy.
What We Discovered
Here are a few of the most important things we learned as we reevaluated our own business, lessons that we think are relevant for any small business owner:
- Customers are still out there.
People are still living, breathing, and buying what someone else is selling (it’s true, and it’s happening every day). Your customers are no different. The key questions are how they are finding you as opposed to your competitors, and whether you are able to provide them with the services and/or products they are looking for NOW!
The Biggest Key is “now.” If you can’t fill the order or handle the request in real-time, trust me: someone else will, as fast as the customer can hit the back button!
- Traditional marketing and advertising still works (well, kind of).
Magazines, newspapers, and phonebooks are still in print for a reason: people look at them, read them, and share them. However, they are no longer THE primary source when it comes to a customer deciding what to buy. Instead, we’ve seen a huge shift from traditional advertising and even online advertising to “Local Results Based Searches” and Social Media Feedback. I’ll have more on this later.
- Web advertising is not what it used to be.
Buying banner ads on websites and looking for a flood of customers is wishful thinking at best. Getting found by people looking for what you’re selling is the new Holy Grail of online marketing. I’m not talking SEO, SEM, or some other cool web 2.0 acronym—those days are over. I’m talking mobile search and location aware devices. Not sure what I’m talking about? Then you owe it to yourself and your business to keep reading.
- Word of mouth counts more than ever.
Your customers are in charge, and the smallest defect in your product, process, or service will send them running for the hills or a competitor’s store front faster than you can say, “I’m sorry.”
Have an unsatisfied customer? In the past you could simply discount them and move on to the next one in line. Today these dissatisfied customers can Tweet, Review, and Facebook you right out of business. You need to be on your game and ready in an instant to solve your customer’s issues. No excuse is good enough and damage control, no matter how good, moves much slower than bad press (this is doubly true in social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
So what’s a small business owner to do?
In light of the changing environment, what should you do? To start with, you need to look at what you’re doing right now, and if you can’t honestly say, “I’m doing this because it produces results,” then you need to STOP. Not tomorrow or today—I mean STOP right now!
From this point on every step you take must have some identifiable gain attached, or it’s a wasted step. I’m not talking strictly about profits here (though you should not ignore them); I’m talking about making certain that all of your activities are geared toward making your business more efficient, more attractive, and more ready to serve the needs of your customers today and tomorrow. If not, then stop and find something else that does these things!
When I asked myself these same questions, I discovered that much of what I was doing was no longer of any value to my business. You see, I had gotten so efficient at “it” over the years that these tasks started to feel productive and of value, when in reality they were nothing more than busy work. And since profits are rarely generated from busy work, these tasks had to go. Next I had to fill that gap in my day; golf was not an option, according to my accountant. This was harder than I thought, since I had convinced myself that I was doing everything I could do already. So what was left? It turns out quite a bit!
Next time I’ll talk about what we did and what you can do to win one more customer!
