Small Business Success

Quotes to Consider

From time to time, I'll post some quotes from people who have had a very positive effect on our world. Here are three for now:

— "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." — Mark Twain

— "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." — Thomas Edison

— "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." — Mahatma Gandhi

A Truly Key Position in a Small Business

(or any size business for that matter)

Who is the first person that your customers (or prospects) come into contact with? Is it your receptionist? Is it someone who takes incoming calls? Whoever this person is, they can have an enormous impact on your business.

We're all pretty familiar with the expression: "you don't get a second chance to make a first impression." Well, this definitely applies to the business world. If the person who makes this first contact for your business is not SUPER friendly, then I suggest you make every effort to get someone who is.

When you consider all of the competition there is for your customer's attention and patronage, it is vital that you make their first encounter with you an absolutely positive experience. This is not an airy-fairy concept. This is legitimate business know-how. Unless you've got a complete monopoly on what you're selling, the people coming to you have options. They have the option to shop elsewhere. They have the option to wait. They have the option to spend their money on something completely different.

When this person contacts your business for the first time, they are evaluating very carefully what your business is all about. How quickly does the call get answered? Are they put on hold right away? Are they put on hold for too long? How friendly is this "first contact" person? Are they treated with respect or do they feel like they've just taken a number.

I should probably clarify what I meant a bit earlier by "super" friendly. I mean someone who just genuinely likes people. They are truly interested in other people. Factually this kind of person has most of their attention on others, not themselves and they really enjoy being in communication with other people. And yes, this person does exist. And your business will be greatly enhanced by having this kind of person on your public contact lines, especially first contact.

Let's say you're new in a town and you want to find a nearby dentist. You pull out the yellow pages and you list out three that are just a couple of miles away. Ideally you'd get a referral from someone you know and trust, but in this case you don't know anybody in town and, well, you've got a toothache, so you're a bit pressed for time.

In calling these dental practices the following happens:

• The first one answers with a voice mail giving you five different options to listen to first. You wade through these five options...and a few more...and eventually you're put in touch with a live person.

• The second practice is answered by a lady who seems rushed and just a wee bit irritated that she had to take your call.

• The third practice was answered by someone VERY friendly and genuinely eager to talk with you about your needs and wants. You come off the phone with this person feeling acknowledged and even appreciated.

Without knowing much else about these three different dental practices, which practice has the best chance of getting your business?

Yes, this was somewhat of an obvious example. But I submit this kind of decision-making (on the part of your prospective customers) is happening all the time. And I also believe this is happening with your current customers, some of whom may have taken their business elsewhere without telling you it was simply a not-so-friendly phone call that soured them. It's amazing what we don't know about the customers we lose.

Yes, there are other skills this "first-contact person" may need to have. They may need to know quite a bit about the business to answer people's questions fully and professionally. However, the focus here is simply their level of friendliness. Bottom line: a high level of friendliness allows more prospects to become customers.

It Worked for Amazon...It Could Work for You

About 2 months ago, I was at Amazon's site looking for a particular book. Their home page was promoting a new shipping plan. You pay $79 up front and for an entire year you get free 2nd Day Air shipping on everything you buy from Amazon. Also part of this plan: if you wanted something right away, you could get it overnited for only $3.99.

I did the math and decided, yes, I buy enough items from Amazon over the course of a year to justify paying the $79. This way, I figured, I'd always be able to get something I ordered within 2 days (at no cost) or I could get it the next day for just a few bucks.

Well, I think Amazon also did the math, because their idea must've been that I would come back more often because I had this "free and fast shipping" method in place. And I did. I've probably bought more at Amazon the past two months than I have in any previous two month period.

This simple idea could work for you. What could you offer an existing (or prospective) customer that would bring them back to you more and more?

Instead of coming out to clean someone's rug once, offer them an annual plan that will reduce the cost (per cleaning) for them. Dolng this will also bring the cost down for you as you will not have to market/advertise to that individual to get his business. You've got it for a year.

Instead of scheduling a patient for a teeth cleaning 6 months from now, offer a year or even a two year plan.

Maybe you give your customers a little coupon book that gives them 10% off of any item and there's 12 coupons in the book—one for each month of the year.

If it's something that people know they're going to do or need on any kind of a regular basis, then work out some kind of longer term plan with them. Your customers will win by saving money and you win by having steady, stable customers. All the time and money you normally spend on trying to get these customers to do more business with you...these resources can now be devoted to creating new business or to improving the quality of your delivery.

This could work.

"Asking" Your Customers to Improve Your Bottom Line

We talk with our customers all the time. We're servicing them, selling them things, transacting with them. All the work day long, we're in communication with them.

But have you ever stopped for a second to ask your customers how it's going? More specifically: 'how it's going doing business with you?'

Ask a few questions like:

• How do you feel about the service we provide you?

• Is there some way we can service you better?

• Is there someone here who services you really well?

• Is there someone here who doesn't?

• Are there additional hours we should be open that would make it easier for you to do business with us?

• and other questions you'd like to ask your customers

When you ask your customers (clients, patients) questions like this, two things happen:

1) Your customers feel their opinions are valued and they feel they have some real input into how they will be serviced. They genuinely like this.

2) You have just collected some incredibly valuable information on how you can improve things.

You may find out that there's a particular employee who gets on the wrong side of too many of your customers. Fix things with that employee or have them seek employment elsewhere.

You may find out a few incredibly minor things about your service that, when corrected, improve overall productivity. Or you may find out something major that you had not been aware of...and now you can take steps to resolve it. Elephants in your workplace can be really hard to handle, especially when they haven't become visible yet.

Whatever you find out, the more you ask your customers for their feedback, the more you'll be able to improve your service. And this tends to have a very nice effect on your bottom line.

A Good Hire Could Depend on This...

When hiring new staff, there are a number of things to consider: Their previous experience (what's on their resumé). How they present themselves in the interview(s). Some small businesses will even use various testing services to determine skill level, personality characteristics, etc.

I have a recommendation that will really help you during the hiring process:

Get in touch with the person's previous employer. Not by way of a letter, fax or email, but by direct phone contact. Ask the employer about this person's performance, ask about how they interacted with other employees, ask why did they leave the position. You may find out some things that are very different than what's on the resumé or was communicated in the interview. You may not always be able to get a hold of the person's previous employer, but make a real effort to do so. All too often, this person can tell you in a few short minutes more quality information than weeks of interviewing will provide.

Many small business owners hire people that interview well, that present a great appearance and demeanor and have a great-looking resumé. And all in all, that's certainly the way to go about it. But take one more step and talk with the previous employer (or employers). You may just save yourself a lot of potential heartache, time and money.

More helpful information on hiring can be found in The Small Business Success Manual, a book authored by yours truly.

A Different Way of Looking at the Financial Picture

After years of working with small business owners, I made a somewhat shocking discovery.

Quite a few business owners turn their finances and accounting information over to a book-keeper or an accountant. That step, in and of itself, is not particularly problematic. It's what comes next that surprised me. Too often the small business owner will let the book-keeper or accountant "manage" the finances. This arrangement is not ideal.

In some cases, the owner does not routinely know the specifics of how much money is coming in and how much is going out. That can seriously hamper an owner's ability to manage the scene. And if I had a dollar for every time a business owner told me in March/April how stressed they were because they had to come up with an unexpected, big chunk of money to pay the IRS. Those kinds of unanticipated financial demands can be completely eliminated with a basic shift of viewpoint.

The finances of your business are a crucial part of making it all work. And yes, I understand the role of the book-keeper and accountant. But that does not mean that the owner gives up knowing what the financial scene is on a regular basis.

And when I say regular basis, I mean at least weekly. At the end of every work week, you should have in front of you a breakdown of what came in and what went out. This breakdown can be very simple or it can be quite sophisticated. If your business uses products like Quicken or Quick Books, you can produce this report very easily and within seconds. There are other financial software programs out there that are also designed to rapidly produce these reports.

Whatever you use, whatever your book-keeper or accountant uses, it is very simple to print out a line by line report of the income that came in and the expenses that were paid out. And this report can be done daily, weekly, monthly, annually...whatever format you desire is just a few keystrokes away.

Managing your business on a week-to-week basis requires having the right information and having it in a current form. If you are not monitoring your financial scene on a regular basis, I suggest you do so. You might be shocked by what you discover, but you'll be a position to do something about it as opposed to being told at the end of the year or in March/April that you've come up short!