Not all companies are seeing their sales drop during these turbulent times, some are doing really well. There are many examples of successful small and mid size companies so what can we learn from them?
Our research shows that there are a number of areas businesses should focus on or try out, below are 10 of these for you to consider, most importantly hang in there!
- Keep overheads light and eliminate unnecessary expenditure;
- Set realistic and achievable budgets and measure how you are doing on a monthly basis;
- Be aware of the fundamental shift away from the “Offline” to the “On line” economy and access how you can move your business “On line” as quickly as possible;
- The buying patterns of customers do change, be flexible in your pricing and offerings ;
- Make sure you have systems in place to keep existing customers “Happy”, they should be your biggest fans!;
- Regularly review whether you are offering “Value for Money”, it is the most important factor right now in helping potential customers decide whether to buy from you or one of your competitors;
- Experiment. Throw out the rule book and every so often try something different. A good example would be “Pay what you think it was worth”, done by a number of restaurants recently;
- Make sure potential customers know you exist. Get some publicity (see also above), sponsored charitable activities generate interest, write to other local business who have a success story to congratulate them. Whatever you do plan for time to make it happen;
- Do not lose sight of why you started your business, rekindle your ambitions every so often, take time out to think about what you want from your life and remember the purpose of your business is to help you achieve those ambitions;
- Never give up. Someone famous once said “If at first......”!