Promoting Your Website

Put your website address on all business cards, stationery, product literature, invoices and all print advertising. If you web address is short or easy to remember, there's no limit to where you can use it. Use it on promotional give-aways, signs, t-shirts, magnets, vehicle lettering and uniforms. If you are a Chamber of Commerce or BBB member, make sure it's listed in their directory and on their website.

Think of other places where your customers and prospects look or things they read and make sure that you're there. If you sell locally, consider a billboard on a busy street with your site in big letters with and offer or gift for visiting. You can also trade links with other companies that are after the same target market but are not competitors. Do so by adding a link on each other's site. The more people who visit your site the fuel you will have for growth in your business.

More in chapter 8 of my latest book "90 Days to Success as a Small Business Owner" available at Amazon.

How to Keep Customers/Clients

I know you are going to say that you know all these things but do you practice them every day? It never hurts to review what you can & should be doing to keep the people who support your business coming back. Print this list out and hang it in your office or break room.

*Use customer/client's name, often
*Give more than you promise
*Hire friendly staff and watch them
*Always say Thank You, every time
*Ask & listen to customer input/comments
*Change with the times and technology
*Know the long-term value of your customer
*Exceed what competitors are doing
*Visit competitor's website often
*Show your patrons benefits not features
*Keep your website fresh and informative
*Reward customer/client loyalty
*Treat employees well and fairly
*Watch your industry for new ideas
*Stay in contact with customers
*Handle problems/complaints promptly
*Provide customer education and help
*Cross train your staff
*Offer VIP treatment (everyone loves it)
*Get testimonials whenever you can
*Know your customer's changing needs
*Use your staff's ideas (and reward them)
*Use your smile all the time (it's free)

I have several speeches that explain and show how these points and others all fit together and how you can use them easily in business and life. I include stories and humor to drive a point home. Go to www.idealetter.com for my speaking information.

Mistakes Lose Customers

I know that you're going to say that everyone makes mistakes. Well, you are right but it's how you handle and eliminate them that really makes a difference. I'm not saying that honest little mistakes are going to lose customers & clients, it's the big mistakes that should never happen. And having a policy in effect to catch them before they occur is the best way.

These mistakes happen when someone is not paying attention or following general company procedure. Problems on orders can really inconvenience a customer or those that occur more than once. Most customer/clients won't put up with repeated problems and will look for another source for their needs. Watch for little things that can turn into big things and stop them in advance so there will always be a smile on your patrons face during and after every transaction.

More in chapter 14 of my book "Save Your Business" available at Amazon.

Trying to Sell Everyone

We have all heard the saying, "You can't please all the people all the time" and of course it's true. Once you satisfy one person's or group's wants and needs, another will reject you. That's why there is always room in each broad market for differnt companies, different products, services and at different price levels. There is no 'one sure thing' that will always work for everyone, every time. Variety and choices has become a way of life in the business and consumer world and will probably stay with us for a long time.

Select a market that you want to sell to and do every thing possible to serve that market and tune out the rest. If you keep jumping from one market to the next and back again your business will look unstable and some buyers will shy away. Knowing and providing what your target market wants and needs is like a science project with many variables. Stay in contact with your market and ask buyers what they like and don't like, then try to make those changes. Being a 'household name' in your target market will keep your company stable in tough economic times and growing in good times.

Keep Learning to be an Expert

Being an expert if your field or industry takes more that just learning everything there is to know today, then sitting back and relaxing. The word expert means you have to learn and know what's new tomorrow, next week and next year. As soon as someone asks you about an innovation in your industry and you have have to answer "I don't know" or "I will look into that", you are not the expert anymore. This can happen quickly as the world is always changing.

We never outgrow or "outexperience" (is that a word?) our need for knowledge because there is always something or someone coming along with what we don't know YET. Read or scan all you can find in your field and search the internet for new ideas at least weekly and be the first to know what here or coming soon. Keeping the Expert status will make you more valuable in business, speaking and life. People will come to you for answers and you you will love giving them. It's never time to stop learning.

Wal-Mart Facts

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at
Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.

2. This works out to $20,928 profit
every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from
January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all
year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot
+ Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million
people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak
English.

6.. Wal-Mart is the largest company in
the history of the world.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than
Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only
fifteen years.

8. During this same period, 31 big
supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than
any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores
in the USA, of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than
it had five years ago.

11. This year 7.2 billion different
purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's
population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)

12. 90% of all Americans live within
fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.

Find a Better (Newer) Way

How well do you know your customers/clients and what they want? How well do you know your market and what's missing? How many times have you seen something new and said, "Why didn't I think of that?" It happens every day in some market somewhere. Just think back 20 years and you'll see all the things that have changedthe world and how we do things. I wasn't really that long ago that most people did not have a personal computer but could you live or do your job without it today? As of 20 years ago there was no widely used internet as we know it today, hard to believe isn't it?

Why not take a serious look at your industry or market and see what needs to be improved, updated or reinvented. Sometimes even small changes can make a big difference if they make a product or service easier, faster or less expensive. We all have ideas on how to make things better but many of us don't follow through on them. It doesn't have to be the beginning of the year to start testing changes, anytime is the right time. Don't toss your ideas in a drawer for the future or bury them in the back of your mind, work on them to see if they can make the world and your market a better place. Only you can turn your ideas into reality.

More ideas for your business in my book, "The Jelly Bean Principle"