Tag Archive for 'customers'

Small business success fundamentals for 2012

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 16, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Management Fundamentals
. 0 Comments

Don’t worry – this column isn’t about resolutions; resolutions are optional.

This is about fundamentals that have served businesses since humans decided to trade with each other instead of taking what we wanted by force.

Focusing on these ten fundamentals will help you have the maximum opportunity to find success in 2012.

  1. Cash is still King. Managing the relationship between accounts payable and accounts receivable is as essential to survival for your business as breathing is to you.
  2. Declare war on excess inventory. Don’t let one piece of inventory spend a night under your roof unless it’s turning or paid for.
  3. Convert non-performing assets to cash. What things were worth last year has no bearing on what they’re worth today, and they will be worth less tomorrow. If it’s not being used, cut it loose.
  4. Employees spend most of your cash. Ask them to identify ways to find efficiencies and maximize margins. Install these into the new year’s budget and operation.
  5. Review all operational steps and eliminate, or fix, inefficiencies. My friend, Michael Stallard, recommends the four “Ws,” “What works, what doesn’t, what do we stop and what do we continue.”
  6. Outsourcing is a best practice. Call a planning meeting and ask this question about every task in your operation: “Must this be done in-house?” Everything that does not directly “touch” a customer is a non-core competency and a candidate for outsourcing.
  7. Keep your banker informed about business opportunities AND challenges. The title of the shortest book ever written is “Loan Officer Courage.” An uninformed banker is a scared banker and you’ll never get help from a scared banker.
  8. Success burns cash. Prepare a financial projection that anticipates at least 10% growth in sales this year. See how that impacts your cash requirements due to increases in inventory, A/R, etc., and start thinking about how you will fund this growth (see #7, above).
  9. If you don’t have a banking relationship with an independent community bank, start one this week This is not a banking alternative – it’s a small business financial fundamental.
  10. Every customer and prospect has expectations that are changing faster than ever before. Keep asking what they want and deliver what they say. Remember, you get to decide what you do; customers decide how you do it.

Focus on the fundamentals, plan for success and grow your small business in 2012.

I talked more about these 10 business fundamentals today on my radio show. Take a few minutes to download or listen now.

Six success fundamentals for 2012 with Jim Blasingame

Four more 2012 success fundamentals with Jim Blasingame

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Let customers read about your authentic side

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on March 2, 2011
in Customer Care and Networking
. 0 Comments

Adam Smith, the father of modern economics and author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), identified writing as one of the three most important inventions of mankind – the other two being money and economic tables.

More than two centuries later, the Internet has powered the written word to levels unimagined only a generation ago, let alone during Smith’s era. Indeed, it is the driving force behind a handy new-media maxim, “Content is King.”

Today we’re consumers of many kinds of online content, including streaming audio and video. But even in the face of such multi-media majesty as iTunes and YouTube, most of the kingly content is still in the graphic form so highly regarded by Smith.

So what does all of this mean for small business owners? It’s simple: In an era when content is king, if you want to connect with customers competitively and stay connected, you have to produce more written words than ever before. But not just any words – authentic words.

Since 1999 – long before blogs and social media – two of the things I’ve encouraged small business owners to do is: 1) develop better writing skills and 2) publish more of their own words online that communicate to and connect with customers.

In the 2nd decade of the 21st century, prospects and customers want to read about the stuff you sell before they meet you. But they want more than marketing messaging; they want authentic, straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth information that delivers three things that are increasingly a big deal to customers: the voice, vision and values of the human beings behind the stuff, as unartful and unscripted as they may be.

So don’t worry if you’re not a professional wordsmith. When you need fancy words for strategic marketing messaging, online or otherwise, hire a pro. But you must become comfortable with conveying your vision and values online, in your own words – the voice – about a variety of issues from explaining how to use a product you sell to a local cause you care about to your philosophy on serving customers. And it’s just fine if some of these authentic words come from employees.

In the Age of the Customer™, now armed with as much information as the businesses they patronize, customers expect to be treated more like insiders. The good news is that no one makes this connection as effectively and authentically as a small business.

Recently on The Small Business Advocate Show, I talked more about using language to reach and connect with your customers. Take a few minutes to listen and leave some ideas on how you connect with your customers.  Authenticity through the written word

Do you know how customers are finding you?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on February 23, 2011
in Customer Care
. 0 Comments

In the old days, when someone would call or come in the door of your business for the first time, you would ask them how they found you. And since it’s not your customer’s job to catalog such things for future retrieval, you probably had to help them a little by reciting examples of where you might have spent your marketing budget: an ad on the radio, TV, newspaper, Yellow Pages, a Little League uniform, etc.

Here in the second decade of the 21st century, asking how customers find you is still important, but with one new element: For the past 10-15 years, you should also include, “or did you find us online?”

Not too long ago, saying “our website” instead of “online” would have been appropriate. Today, online is best because customers can find you in other places on the Internet, including the social media and customer review platforms, even if, Heaven forbid, you don’t have a website.

The question is not whether your company is “out there” online today, but rather to what degree and – this is so important it will be on the test – what is being said about your business.

We wanted to know how much small businesses are attributing sales performance to the Internet, so recently we asked our radio and online audience this question: “How much of your 2011 sales do you think will result from some kind of Internet activity, even as simple as people just finding your business mentioned online?” The results made me very happy. About 90% of our respondents said they would be able to attribute some sales in 2011 from the Internet.

Breaking the numbers down, over 50% said less than half of 2011 sales would be attributed to online activity. The next number is really exciting: About one-fourth said they would see more than half of their sales from the Internet. And finally, the bookends: Those who said all of their sales would come from the Internet were almost the same – around 10% – as those who recorded a goose egg because (read this with a nasal whine), “We don’t have a website.”

As the Age of the Customer™ becomes the marketplace norm, your customers are increasingly demanding more connection and support from you with online resources. Any company that is not making at least some effort to meet the growing online support demand will experience the painful death of irrelevancy.

You don’t have to win the online race to be successful, but you do have to show up and compete.

Today on The Small Business Advocate Show, I talked more about the Age of the Customer and why you should have an online presence. Click on the link below to listen and, as always, leave your comments.

Do you know how customers are finding you?

To participate in this week’s Small Business Advocate poll, go to SmallBusinessAdvocate.com.

Small business brands in the 21st century

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on September 17, 2010
in Branding, Customer Care and Marketing - Branding - Advertising
. 0 Comments

There was a time when most people thought having a brand was just for big companies - you know, like the Nike swoosh. For years, I’ve been telling small businesses that they have a brand, too, maybe even more than one.

But for small businesses, our brands are less tangible. The thing that makes customers remember us is more about the experience they have with us, including the relationship they have with our employees, the way we customize our products and services to their individual requirements and, just maybe, the fact that we remember them every time they connect with us.  Yes, my friends, these are the critical, often intangible, elements of a small business brand.

Recently, on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, I talked about the intangible, emotional, impressionable brand concept with long-time Brain Trust member and world-class brand expert,  Tom Asacker.  Tom reveals how your attitude about your business and behavior around customers is also part of your brand and what compels customers to do business with you - or not. You can find Tom, his many books on branding and his work at acleareye.com.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to listen to this important conversation about what small business branding looks like in the 2nd decade of the 21st century. And, as always, be sure to leave your own thoughts.

Listen Live! Download, Too!

The “Age of the Customer™” goes interactive

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 30, 2010
in Customer Care and e-Business
. 3 Comments

One of the major topics I’m devoting a lot of my time and resources to these days is talking and writing about what I call the “Age of the Customer™.”  In this new Age, the Customer is in control and the Seller is subordinate for one primary reason: access to information.  Today, Customers have almost all the information they need to make an informed purchasing decision.

In the new Age, connecting with Customers is more important than marketing to them.  And what better way to connect with Customers than to provide an interactive element to the relationship?

Recently, on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, I talked about interacting with Customers with Joseph Jaffe.  Joe is an outstanding member of my Brain Trust, and we talked about the shift toward interacting with Customers, plus other paradigms that are shifting away from 20th century marketing toward 21st century connection and communication with prospects and customers. In his day-job, Joe is the President and Chief Interruptor of crayon and author of Life After the 30-Second Spot and Flip the Funnel.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to listen to what Joe and I have to say and, as always, be sure to leave your comments. Listen Live! Download, Too!