Small Business Services
Grow Your Business
Are you looking to expand your current business? Then contact the Roanoke Regional Small Business Development Center (RRSBDC). RRSBDC's experienced counselors can help established businesses expand their business, solve business problems, assist in developing or improving marketing and business plans, and can assist in locating sources of capital.
Steps to Growing Your Business
1) Know where your business currently is and develop a written
growth plan.
a. Understand your company's financial condition.
b. Revisit and update your business and marketing plan.
c. Take a current look at your competitors and use a SWOT
analysis of each. (SWOT = strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats). Determine how you can
differentiate from them.
d. Conduct customer surveys to determine new markets, new
products, customer satisfaction, etc.
2) Become more efficient using technology.
a. Computers - speed up and track every aspect of your
business.
b. Software - use software to keep trck of accounting, inventory,
point of sale, track customers, etc.
c. Blackerry - ability to communicate to your customers,
vendors, employees, etc. anywhere and anytime.
d. Web site - get a Web site if you don't have one or update to
include catalogs, pricelist, brochures, etc. A Web site will
assist customers and reduce the workload of employees.
Consider selling your services through your site, or as a
storefront through another site such as eBay. Use Search
Engine Optimizers (SEO) to ensure your site has the highest
search ranking possible.
3) Notch up your customer service.
a. Customer service is top down - it starts with the owner or CEO
all the way down to the newest employee. Remember, your
company's customer service is only as good as your worst
employee.
b. Offer incentives for repeat customers.
c. Set up loyalty or club programs.
d. Give your "A" customers unexpected gifts. When these
customers feel special they will not only return, they will sell
your business to their friends and colleagues.
e. Send out thank you cards to your customers. Takes a
second, results last a long time.
f. Call your customers personally and make them feel important.
g. Hire for personality, train skills.
h. Employees come first! Your employees will treat your
customers the way you treat your employees. Treat your
employees well and your employees will treat your customers
well.
i. Have a fun environment to work in. If employees enjoy where
they work the customer will pick up on this and enjoy shopping
there.
j. Make the shopping experience enjoyable or fun. This could
include the way the store is laid out, offering free coffee or
snacks, pleasing music, a place for kids to play, etc.
k. Make sure you do the obvious:
i. Greet customers as soon as you see them and with a
smile!
ii. Never say "no" to a customer, say "yes" to every special
request you can.
iii. Go the extra mile.
iv. Always call customers back when you say you will.
v. Make sure you deliver on your promises. Be sure you are
on time or your product or service is ready when you say it
will be.
4) Work close with your vendors.
a. Work to get better terms, either longer aging or larger cash
discount.
b. Discuss inventory buy-back programs to get rid of excess or
outdated inventory.
c. Ask for price protection in the event you buy inventory that is
very price volatile.
d. Just in time inventory where you can be assured of a
guaranteed delivery date of product.
e. Volume discount.
f. Better communication with vendors about new products. Make
sure your vendors let you know as soon as new products are
available, or if possible better, before new products are brought
to the market.
5) Develop current customer base. Your current customers are the
least expensive to reach.
a. Expand your product selection: sell more to current customers
either more of same product or more new products.
b. Survey your customers to find out what they need. Be sure to
ask the one important question: "How likely is it you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague" use a scale of
1 - 10.
c. Get referrals - word of mouth advertising is the most productive and least expensive way to market your company.
d. Do target marketing to reach these customers either through direct mail, telephone, email, newsletters, etc.
e. Be sure you have a computer system that will track your customer's information to include purchasing history. The more you know about the needs of your customers, the better you can market to them.
6) Develop new channels to sell through.
a. Tap into the Internet to sell.
b. Sell on eBay or other online auction or sales site.
c. Create a catalog of products and ahve available online.
d. Look at exporting your product.
e. Consider wholesaling your product.
f. New location or an actual bricks and mortar location.
g. Look at franchising your idea.
h. Hire a sales staff or outsource to manufacturer
representatives.
i. Look into doing business with the local, state and federal
government. Most government agencies are required to do
business with small businesses. Take advantage of all
opportunities.
7) In order to grow you will need to have access to capital.
a. Establish a relationship with numerous lenders so you have
multiple places to shop loans.
b. Work with vendors that can provide improved terms, leases, or
even loans.
c. Have access to debt financing such as traditional loans or
even SBA guarantee loans.
d. Asset lending may be available for businesses that have
account receivable and inventory.
e. Angel investors could be a source for certain growth
businesses.
f. Be familiar with venture capital firms and what they might be
able to provide.
8) Develop a new marketing plan that will increase awareness and
demand for your products.
a. Advertising strategy that is consistent and frequent with the
message.
b. Public Relations - take advantage of free advertising by
sending in anything about your business that could be news
worthy.
c. Become the Local Expert - Let everyone know that your
business is the local expert on the products you sell and they
should always come to you for answers. Make it known to
media outlets that anytime a story is done about a product you
sell they know to contact you first.
d. Teach classes for your customers. The more your customers
know the more the will buy and buy from you.
e. Know your target - Define both demographics and
psychographics.
f. Narrowcasting, not broadcasting - If you know your target
market determine how to best reach them, not use media to
broadcast to everyone if there is a better and cheaper way to
reach them (narrowcasting).
g. Network - Get out to functions such as Chamber of Commerce
or local charity events and have an elevator speech ready all
the time.
h. Trade Shows - If your target market attends a specific trade
show then consider attending. Be sure you are prepared for the
event by having a professional display and professional
brochures. It is better not to show up at all than to show up
with a mediocre display or materials.
i. Professionallly prepared material should include brochures,
business cards, sales presentations, Web site, etc.
j. Develop a customer referral program. Word of mouth
advertising is the best form of advertising. Have a program in
effect that asks customers for referrals, rewards them, and
even tracks the effectiveness.
9) Improve selling ability of your staff.
a. Ensure every person in the organization knows the product
lines you carry and can answer customers questions. This
includes everyone from the CEO to the guy who loads the
truck.
b. Constantly imprtove your sales pitch. If you make a sale, or
don't make a sale, always be thinking of ways to improve your
sales presentation. Also, be sure that everyone in your
organization is working off the same playbook.
c. Make sure everyone is asking for referrals.
d. Cross sell your current customers. They are the best and
most cost effective customers to reach.
e. Make sure everyone knows why your comapny's products or
services are superior to all your competitors.
f. Sell the "sizzle" not the steak. The experience of the outcome
of your product is more important than the actual product.
Think Harley Davidson!
g. Follow up with the customers to be sure they are satisfied. If
not satisfied, fix it and if they are satisfied, ask for a referral.
10) Consider raising your prices..
a. If demand for your product is outpacing the supply then a price
increase may be needed. If your company has a gross margin
of 50% then a 10% price increase will give you 20% more profit
with not incurring any new costs. You could even lose
customers, and still produce more profit.
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