Do you ever feel like a swan; moving easily, calmly and serenely above the water while below, your legs are flailing wildly to keep you afloat and moving in the right direction?
Getting the basics done each week can be a challenge so the thought of adding to your timetable can be scary, but you know if you don’t your business could lose its edge and customers could start to drift away.
Here are three tips ideas to help you keep one step ahead:
1. Inform – Inform – Inform
Use all the tools at your disposal both offline (networking, leaflets, brochures exhibitions, trade shows etc.) and online (email, social media, website etc.) to communicate with your audience.
Being in constant sales mode; telling people how great you and your products and services are is a massive turn-off.
Whereas engaging your customers by sharing information they need and advice that they can use, such as articles and top-tips, will demonstrate your knowledge of your industry and show you as ‘the expert’ – the go-to person.
One final point; don’t make life hard for yourself.
You do not have to personally create all the information you want to share. In fact, it’s better if you don’t.
If you share content created by others it is another indication of your expertise. The 80:20 rule come in here – only 20% needs to be your own, unique content.
2. Understand Value Rather Than Know Cost
However tight finances are, running a business costs money.
Keeping costs down will improve profit margins; but not spending could end up costing you money, time and sleepless nights.
The decision about what to spend and when to spend should be based on the measurable, desired outcome – “this expenditure will free up my time to concentrate on X”, “this expenditure will bring me X new clients”, “this expenditure will improve my reputation and place me in front of the buyers at X department store”.
Your business expenditure should be viewed as an investment. Yes, know the price – but understand the value.
3. Know Your Competition
It is so easy to get overwhelmed by the everyday needs of your business, so much so you can end up like a tortoise!
There you are with your head in your shell, the rest of the world can go by dong what it does, but you are too busy with your own stuff you haven’t got time to poke your head out and look around.
That’s one step back rather than one step forward.
The brilliant thing about technology is that it allows you to keep your eye on what’s going on from the comfort of your PC, Mac, tablet, phone etc.
Three simple tools I like are Google Alerts, Digg and Reddit .
They help you keep on top of what is going on in your industry – as well as providing you with content that you can use to inform your customers – two for the price of one!
Next Steps?
If you’re unsure about how to implement any of the suggestions I have made in this article, why not take advantage of my free support session?
What have you got to lose?