When you run a business, you should always be considering if and how you can make your company run more smoothly, more productively, and more successfully. Take every opportunity to maximize profit and increase efficiency. If you’re in a bit of a business rut, take a look at these simple tips and see if they could help your small business thrive.
Get to Know Your Customers
One of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur or business owner is getting to know your customers: their needs and wants, likes and dislikes, and day-to-day routines. Think carefully about the product or service you are offering, and consider who is most likely to need that product or service: this is your target consumer.
Once you have this target customer in mind, you can narrow it down further to think about the specific demographic you are trying to reach. Are they young or old? Male or female? Rich or poor? Do they have kids? Do they have pets? Are they employed? Try to pull together a thorough idea of who your customers are and use this image of your ideal customer to create more appropriate marketing campaigns and product designs.
A great way to get to know your existing customers better is to reach out to them personally. If you have a mailing list or any contact details, reach out and ask them for feedback on your product or your branding – just make sure you’re abiding by GDPR.
Make Smart Use of Tech
Technology is developing at lightning speeds, and it can be hard to know if you’re making the best use of the tech that’s on offer. An easy way to upgrade your company’s use of tech is to make sure you’re using a cohesive system across all processes. For example, don’t use Microsoft Word for one thing and Google Docs for another.
Streamline your use of tech by making full use of cloud-based software. Dial a Geek offers comprehensive Office 365 support to help you get the best of your software and make sure you’re using it to its full potential.
Using one system for all your processes will simplify your business and will cut down on wasted time. Time spent uploading documents from a hard drive to a cloud storage system will be saved, allowing you more time to focus on the important aspects of your business.
Set Business Goals
Without a business plan, you cannot expect your company to thrive. You need to sit down with your partners and discuss where you want to take the company over the next six months, year, or five years. Work out some business goals and create a plan for how you will achieve them.
Without targets, your company won’t have any direction, and you can all but guarantee that you won’t be successful in your entrepreneurial endeavours.
Treat Your Staff Well
No matter how big your company is, you need to ensure that you’re treating your staff well. Employees who are happy at work are more likely to be productive members of a team – in fact, a recent study by Oxford University suggests that happy employees are 13% more productive at work than their unhappier counterparts. Beyond that, employees who are treated well are more likely to stay with the company for the long term, meaning you’ll reduce the amount of time and money you spend on hiring new staff.
People deserve to be paid a living wage and to have a generous holiday allowance. If you can afford to, you should also offer a motivational bonus scheme, and private healthcare and a dental plan will always be hugely appreciated by employees.
However, it’s not just financial perks and plenty of annual leave that will make your staff happy. Treating them well on a day-to-day basis – with flexible working hours, remote working options, on-site perks, comfortable meeting spaces, and team activities – will foster a better work environment for everyone.
Harness the Power of Social Media
The world of marketing changed hugely with the explosive popularity of social media. It’s estimated that 50% of the global population now uses some form of social media, and that number seems set to continue growing.
With that in mind, it makes sense to use social media to your company’s advantage. If you manage to create a popular social media account, you can use content marketing strategies to build your business’s popularity and drive engagement. Once your company has an audience, you can increase your conversion rate exponentially.
Consider hiring a social media manager if you’re not an expert. You’ll want to put together a cohesive and strategic social media marketing plan. Spending money here will likely be cheaper than using traditional advertising avenues, but it could have far-reaching results.
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