Mine Your Own Business

Small Business Tips from Infomercials

Everyone is familiar with infomercials (especially insomniacs who catch them on late night TV). Who would think that they could provide some valuable tips to increase small business sales? Here is an article that provides 10 ideas that small businesses can use to sell more effectively regardless of the medium used. Be sure to read all 10 ideas, there are bound to be some you can use for your small business.

One other interesting thing about this article is that there are over 70 comments giving some more ideas from people who have read the article and have some other ideas. many of the ideas expressed by readers are very good. One other noteworthy aspect of the comments is that of the 73 comments, 65 were from Twitter.

 

Some Light at the End of the Tunnel

Tacony Corporation is based in St. Louis and we have already broken the record for the most rainfall in October in St. Louis since they started keeping records in 1873. We didn't break the record by just a little either, the previous record was 8.52 inches in 1919 and we are already at 9.47 inches as of yesterday. By the way it rained all day today and is supposed to rain most of tomorrow, so it looks like we will destroy the old record. If you would like to view the final total you can follow this link or we'll update you on a later posting. The good news is that early November weather looks like normal St. Louis October weather, sunny and dry.

So what does St. Louis weather have to do with small business? If we compare the lousy St. Louis weather in October to the lousy recent economy, this article may make small businesses feel a little better. The article describes how a recent survey of small businesses finds that 44 percent plan to hire new employees in the next twelve months. There are a lot of other positive statistics in the piece as well as some warnings on some struggles ahead as well. Let's just hope this optimistic outcome does happen in 2010 and for the sake of St. Louis, that November is dryer than October.

Social Media and Small Business

We did a posting on October 14th on Customer Contact Options where we mentioned social media, but focused on the best use of e-mail and actually making a phone call. We got a comment from one of our readers that they actually thought the best method of communication was some of the new social media and provided several excellent reasons.

Now Reuters reports on a recent survey of small businesses and the results were surprising. While overall use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedln have increased, three quarters of small businesses have not found such sites useful for increasing business. There are a lot of other very interesting statistics in the article about how small businesses are using company Web sites, advertising,  e-mail marketing, and other methods to increase business.

2010 Economic Planning

The economy has been in decline forever (or so it seems), but it has actually been 22 months as mentioned in a recent piece from Business Week. There are many ideas about what is going to happen in 2010, but since crystal balls are in short supply how does any small business plan for 2010? The article goes on to recommend three possible scenarios for 2010:

1. More of the Same
2. Things Get Worse
3. Rapid Recovery

The author provides some possible reasons for each scenario, but probably more importantly he also gives a key marketing strategy for each of the scenarios.

So what do you think the 2010 economy holds in store for your business? Here at Tacony Corporation we were already planning  on the 2009 level of business and only increasing spending as we see an increase in revenue, but also have a scenario assuming the economy does rebound. As you can see, Tacony's strategy is very similar to the one proposed in the article.

Employee Morale

We do a lot of postings on employees, simply because having good employees is so essential to any successful small business. Times are still tough even though there are some signs of possible improvement. Here is an article that describes that employees are feeling the stress. The good news is there are some things a small business owner can do to reduce this stress. One thing the author emphasizes is that letting employees know how the business is doing can be a great help. Here at Tacony Corporation we have been putting this into practice even before the current difficult times. Ken Tacony hosts a meeting for all associates once a quarter in St. Louis and visits all of our branch locations for meetings at least once a year.

Some other reasons for more openness with staffers is that it can make them more effective employees by getting their ideas on how to positively impact the business. One last thing is that occasional incentives and rewards to employees can be a big help as well, and there are even some suggestions on some free incentives that can still have an impact.

Customer Contact Options

Way back on May 27th of this year we did a posting on all the different social media options that have become available in recent years such as Twitter and Facebook (you can revisit the posting here). Now comes a good article on some ideas on the best way to contact a customer, is it a phone call, e-mail, or one of the new methods now available? The recommendation in the article is to try to determine the option that might be most appropriate for the situation or simply ask the customer.

If you're not currently using one of the new social media options, how do you decide between a phone call or e-mail?  We recently had an issue with a thermal printer that prints directly on a CD and we found that a combination of phone calls and e-mail worked the best.

We used e-mail initially to provided serial numbers, invoice numbers, and other warranty information. That way we established some documentation of the situation and we were also in different time zones so that was another consideration. E-mail is probably not the best option if the situation is very complicated or if it would take a two page e-mail.

We then used phone calls to actually speak to a person to explain some of the more complicated parts of the issue and to troubleshoot the problem with a technician. In this instance we used both options to  more efficiently resolve a very complicated issue.

Recipes for Small Businesses

We are not talking about cooking recipes, so a better title might have been recipes for success for small businesses. Here is an article in USA Today that compares the reasons we frequently have favorite cooking recipes (they produce good and consistent results), and recipes or techniques to keep your current customers and add new ones.

The article gives some good ideas for recipes for success, such as an ad that seems to always work, or a special type of sale that always seems to pull in customers. But to be really effective, several recipes need to be developed to cover different business and economic conditions. Finally the article gives five tips for creating additional profit centers. So, do you have a small business recipe that works for you?

Nothing and Sales

Here is a short piece from Tibor Shanto who has over 20 years of sales, executive, leadership and sales operations experience in many different industries. In the article he describes how many sales people have questioned him on what responses he recommends when potential customers ask various questions. He goes on to describe that for many (or most) sales people the greatest fear is when they have nothing that fits the situation.

He then presents the argument that sometimes nothing is the best response in some situations and can even be a powerful sales tool. He provides many examples on using a response of "nothing" in interacting with customers and makes the point this it obviously does not work in all situations, but is just another tool in a salesman's toolkit.

Free Lawyer Advice

The title of this post is accurate, believe it or not, because it concerns an article in USA Today written by a lawyer who gives seven tips for small businesses on ways to eliminate or at least reduce law expenses. The trick is knowing when you can do it yourself effectively and when it is safer and smarter to consult your own attorney.

There are some great links in the article to some do-it-yourself law products and even a tip on protecting your intellectual property with a link to the US Patent and Trademark Office. You can handle your own copyrights and trademarks on that Web site, but patents will probably require a lawyer. There is also a great tip at the bottom of the article that we often forget and that is simply to put it in writing.

Employees as Honored Guests

Earlier this year on July 24th we posted Some Secrets for Happy Employees that covered how happy employees made for better employees and then provided a link to an article that provided four tips for improving the happiness of employees.

We recently came across an article that provides a slightly different take on the same general concept. This article suggests that business owners should treat their employees as honored guests. The writer of the article comes from a background in the hotel and restaurant industries, but the same concept should hold true for any small business. You can read the whole article here.