Mine Your Own Business

Local and Social with Google

We did a posting in July of last year in Slick new Google tool how Google was improving their search by using a Google gadget to improve driving directions and improve local results. We all know that Google has never been a company to rest on one's laurels, so they have been working hard on improving search results by showing what is located closest to the searcher's neighborhood. Small Business Trends presents a very good summary on Google's new Nearby search option, as well as links that provide more detailed information. Check out the whole article on all the changes to Google to improve local search results.

Google has also been working on improving social search results so live news, tweets, and blogs post directly to the search results. The latest source to pull contents into search results is Facebook and the article describes how important it is for business owners make sure your Facebook Fan page is up to date with sales, events, and other important happenings at your business. There is a lot more information in the article on how important this is to market your business, and three excellent links near the bottom of the article on improving your Facebook Fan pages and getting people to join it.

Store Traffic Part 3

The post for today on increasing store traffic is from an article about a way to not only get more customers into your store (as the previous two postings have been), but is literally a way to make customers walk further in your store. The idea starts with creating a bargain bin in your store, but the really interesting part of the idea is to make sure you locate the bargain bin at the back of your store so people have to walk through all your high-margin items and sale items to get to the bargain bin.

So how does the bargain bin itself work? The article describes how it could be slow selling inventory or popular utility items, but the bargain bin inventory  must be full and fresh. The other important point is that you promote your bargain bin in all your promotions and advertising. If you keep your bargain bin full of well priced items that change on a regular basis, you'll not only build traffic through your store, but into your store as well. The last nice thing about the bargain bin is that it can also help reduce overstock or get rid or some items that are difficult to move at their normal price.

Store Traffic Part 2

Yesterday we did a posting on five easy ways to increase store traffic and promised everyone another take on this topic today. We ran across an article by Jeff Haefner that presents a different approach, giving out coupons to customers at the point of sale. The author makes the point that it is cheap , especially when compared to other techniques such as direct mail, newspaper ads, radio ads, etc. Coupons can also be effective because they are a reminder to the customer of your store and where to get service and any expendables your product might require.

The article then provides some different ways to generate your coupons. A good way is a small business owner could get them professionally printed at a reasonable cost, very easy and cheap. Drawbacks are employees may forget to hand them out and the same coupon will be used for all products and for some time.

A better way to generate coupons suggests the article, is to print your own coupons with a receipt printer. This allows a great deal of flexibility, such as coupons for something they just purchased.  There is also less chance that you or your employee will forget to give them the coupon. Two ways to do this is to use your Point of Sale software or a special receipt printer. There are many great links in the article to sources for the printers, Point of Sale hardware, and other resources to help you increase your store traffic with coupons.

Stay tuned for another tip on increasing store traffic later this week.

Store Traffic Part 1

We did a posting earlier this month on increasing customer referrals and we ran across a similar article that provides five tips on increasing store traffic, one being how to set up a simple system to reward current customers for referrals. Here is the whole list:

1. Create contests.
2. Partner with complimentary retailers
3. Reach out to new homeowners.
4. Hold workshops
5. Bring a friend

Some of the ideas will work better in your particular situation than others, but there should be something any small business owner can use effectively. Tomorrow we have in store another article on increasing store traffic and improving your business image at the same time.

Small Business Web Tips

There is lots of information on Internet Marketing available both in print and online, but very few focus specifically on small businesses. Here is an article that specifically targets 5 mistakes that brick and mortar small businesses make on the Web. To summarize:

1. Failing to Understand the Basics of Internet Marketing
2. Unreasonable Expectations
3. Having a Subpar Website
4. Google Centrality
5. Misunderstanding Social Media

The article provides lots of information on these five tips and provides a lot of helpful examples. The article also inspired many interesting comments and Tweets so you might want to check those out as well. If you're still interested in further information, you can check out our post from December 10th of last year, Web Site Suicide, which views this topic from a different perspective.

Recession Benefit

We've done numerous postings on the terrible toll the recession has taken on everyone and especially small businesses, now comes an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal that points out one benefit of the awful economy. It describes how for small business owners that have weathered the economic storm there has never been a better time to expand the size of your establishment. The reality is that commercial rents are down 44% from their peak in October 2007. The other great thing about the current commercial real estate market is that better locations are available, still at greatly reduced costs.

if the combination of reduced rents and better location has got you thinking of considering an expansion or move, what is the best way to take action? The article describes how some business owners have used brokers, but a lot of them have just found a new location by exploring areas they are interested in themselves. This has the advantage of watching traffic in the area and also observing the other businesses in the area. There are a lot of food examples in the article that might give you some ideas.

Not Too Late

We did a lot of postings in December and January about possible trends in many areas for 2010 and we even posted one, 2010 Resolutions, that linked to an article that had a New Year's Resolution Generation tool. If you didn't get around to making any resolutions (procrastination can be a curse) or simply didn't want to make any, there may be a new site that might entice you to set and achieve some goals for 2010. The enticement is that you can receive merchandise and services for meeting the goals.

There is a new program called Staples stickK to it! Business Challenge (obviously sponsored by Staples) that has a four step process for completing your goals redeemable for Staples merchandise and services. The four steps are:

1. Select you goal
2. Get a Referee
3. Earn EasyPoints
4. Achieve Success

Sound Interesting? You can read more about it and register here.

Customer Referrals

How would you like some inexpensive and uncomplicated ideas to increase sales and profits in our present difficult economy? It sounds attractive and here is an article that gives 7 tips to do this by increasing customer referrals to your business. The 7 tips from the article are:

1. Talk to your customers.
2. Serve their needs.
3. Engage your customers.
4. Get your employees involved.
5. Hire customer friendly.
6. Post reminders.
7. Celebrate good news.

Some of these are pretty obvious without reading the whole article, but it is worth reading because it does provide further details and examples that will help any small business implement at least some of these ideas. After all what could be better than using satisfied customers to get more satisfied customers?

A Different Buy Local Trend

We've done numerous postings on small businesses and buying local in the past. Most of the buying local trend in the past has been encouraging consumers to shop at small local stores such as in the 3/50 Project. Now comes a new article from Business Week that takes a very different approach describing a new trend of some small business groups encouraging big buyers such as hospital, colleges, and governments to shift some of their spending to small businesses in their community. The article gives several examples of the big impact that can have on local economies and also provides some advantages to the large institutions for more buying local.

Imagine if you had a vacuum shop located near a hospital and were able to persuade them to purchase some of your product line. The lowest price might not always be the only factor in getting the business. In the article they describe how University Hospitals in Ohio state factors such as superior service or the location of a supplier are big factors for them. Think about dropping off a vacuum for repair and having a very quick turn around , instead of sending it back to the vendor for repair or just junking it and replacing it. That is just one advantage for large institutions to buying local and we're sure you can think of many more.

A Word to the Wise

There was a short article recently in USA Today about how the IRS and several states are keeping a close eye on companies that are changing the status of employees to independent contractors. Since many small businesses legitimately use independent contractors as mechanics, teachers, etc. we thought it might be a good idea to post something the use of independent contractors. The article describes how businesses can save up to 30% in payroll, so states are acting more aggressively during these tough times to shore up their struggling budgets.

At the end of the article are two excellent links that give some very good information on the differences between employees and independent contractors and in what situation to use each. Some of the best advice is in the article Should you hire an employee or independent contractor?. The point it makes is if you are going to use independent contractors, make sure and check with your attorney to make sure you are well within the law, and talk to your accountant to make sure all necessary tax forms are completed and done correctly. In these times the IRS and states are going to make sure small businesses are in complete compliance.