Business Success: Golden Nugget #3

Rates are up all over the shop in Australia. Our dollar's rate is shoulder to shoulder with the US dollar. Our interest rates have just gone up another notch. But what about your rate as a small business owner?

We often don't put ourselves into the equation because we are our businesses. But now's the time to take stock of your own inputs and use my Golden Nugget #3 of Small Business Success to reassess things:

Rate yourself

* Look at what you do every day in terms of an hourly rate. If someone asks you to do a job, what would you charge yourself out at? Then apply this rate to everything you do through the day. It'll make you think about what's really important to your business's bottom line and what can be outsourced or left till later.

* Think of yourself as the brain surgeon of your business. Would you pay a brain surgeon to unpack the scalpels and mop up after the operation? Then don't do it in your business.

* Set your priorities: plan your day in a list, and tick things off when you get them done. It helps you stay focussed, and actually achieve things.

* Handle each piece of paper only once.

* Trust that others can do just as good a job as you. Empower those you employ and others you outsource tasks to with extra tasks you've always done. It's a bit unnverving at first, but liberating too.

Every success!

Margie

Unique selling proposition 101

I've been talking a lot about unique selling propositions USPs) lately. These USP's are the thing that makes your product or service king.

The trouble is, a lot of small businesses can't articulate why their product or service is different from the rest. They think they know, but they can't tell you in 20 words or less. So they blend in with their competitors and miss out on market share, on new business.

The key to marketing power is to be specific about why your business is unique. Why you're the best, and why people need to buy from you over someone else.

How do you do this? Ask yourself the one question your customers will ask: why should I do business with you over anyone else?

Answer this, by spending the time drilling down on your selling proposition, and you have your unique point of difference.

Being specific will bring you success.

Margie

Small business success: Golden Nugget #2

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

So too in your business. It really does pay to carefully plan how you're going to tackle the enormity of your enterprise, know which measured risks you're prepared to take, and have a finger on the pulse of your customers.

The trouble is, so many business owners I've worked with 'think' they know what their customers are looking for, but they've never actually asked them. This might be fine for a while, but if your customers' tastes and buying habits change, you'll be left, literally, floundering on the shelf. Which is why I'd like to share with you my second Golden Nugget to Small Business Success:

Golden Nugget # 2: Know what your customers want.

This comes down to spending time researching your market. Not just in the start-up phase, but at regular times of the year. Write down the answers to these questions:

1. Which particular group of people needs a product or service like yours?

2. How big is this group? Have they changed?

3. What would they pay today for your product or service?

4. Can you see any of these things changing in the next six months? 

Doing some basic market research can reduce your risk: you’ll be in the business of knowing what your customers want, and the best way to give it to them.

There are many online tips on doing market research that means something (there’s a comprehensive list in my book). One that’s particularly worth looking at is from the Queensland Government’s site called Smart Skills (go to www.sdi.qld.gov.au/virtual and click on ‘Marketing and promotions’).

Get to know more about your customers today!


Margie