Are you the owner of a small business? If the answer’s yes — and if you don’t currently have a great deal of financial flexibility to play with – then you’re probably wondering how you can take your venture to the next level without ending up ‘in the red’.
There will probably be some challenges ahead – especially when it comes to deciding how best to use your limited resources. But the great news is that there are plenty of things you can do to help your small business flourish, even if your budget is tight.
Use Social Media To Your Advantage
When it comes to marketing your business and spreading the word about new products and promotions, social media is every small enterprise’s best friend. Not only is it free to use — which is always a big boon for any cash-strapped business owner – but social media sites also provide you with a far-reaching platform to reach out to new customersand interact with existing ones.
Social media is also a very effective tool for developing your brand identity and promoting your unique values and your mission as a small business. This, in turn, can help you to stand out from your competitors and attract more business, as potential customers will be able to gain a clear view of what you stand for and what you’re aiming to achieve.
Outsource Some Of Your Essential Tasks
One of the downsides of running a small business — especially if you’re currently the only person involved, or you are running it from home — is that there are so many important responsibilities to take care of. As a result, you can find yourself juggling too many tasks, which means you don’t have enough time left over to focus on growing your business.
Fortunately, there is a simple and budget-friendly solution: outsourcing.
Need a good example of what effective outsourcing looks like? Just think about the difficulties involved in the daily running of a business when you need to be tied to a desk all the time, waiting for the phone to ring. The fact is, it’s probably not going to be possible for you to be constantly available to answer phones, take bookings, and answer customer queries at all hours of the day when you also have other vital tasks to carry out.
However, if you decide to outsource this role and sign up for a live receptionist service, provided by a reputable, experienced, and helpful company such as Signpost, then your quandary is solved. For one thing, you’ll be free to get on with filling orders or helping customers and building up your enterprise.Plus, you’llhave friendly and efficient receptionists on hand to field your customer calls at any time of the day or night. This kind of superlative customer service will help your small enterprise stand out from the crowd and make an excellent impression on new clients.
Focus On Building A Connection With Customers
As a small business, the truth is that you simply won’t be able to compete on the same level as larger businesses in your niche. Consequently, it’s a good idea to focus on the areas in which you can excel in comparison to those bigger brands.
Customer service, for example, is an aspect of running a business in which many small enterprises can actually surpass their rivals, even though they have more limited resources. Thanks to your smaller size, you will most likely find it easier to provide a personalised and friendly service that includes calling your customers by name and becoming well-acquainted with their individual needs and preferences.
This kind of customer treatment is something that your clientele is bound to appreciate and will probably encourage them to favour your venture over larger and more impersonal companies that struggle to build a comparable rapport.
Offer A Loyalty Scheme
Of course, it’s not just enough to know all of your clients by name; you can also encourage repeat business and build up your customer base through other methods too, such as providing a loyalty scheme.
By providing repeat customers withspecial perks such as discounts, free shipping,birthday surprises, and exclusive sales access — to name a few potential rewards you can offer – you will be giving them an irresistible incentive to keep coming back for more.
Make Your Presence Felt
In order to help your business grow, you need to make yourself as visible as possible — not just in your local community, but further afield as well.
There are a number of effective techniques you can try to make your presence felt and boost your brand identity. These range from holding customer events, where you can showcase your latest products or services and build new connections, through to entering local politics, donating to charity, or attending networking events to forge beneficial links with other businesses.
Publish Great Content
Every small business worth its salt needs its own website as well as social media accounts. You can then use this website to create and publish industry-relevant content that will appeal to existing and potential customers and drive up your conversions, with the help of digital marketing techniques such as SEO and backlinking. The better optimised and more original your content, the higher your Google ranking will be, which will help to boost your brand visibility.
Yes, there’s no doubt about it: content marketing is a highly effective method of spreading the word about your business and the unique products or services you have to offer — and perhaps the best part is that it doesn’t cost the earth.
Of course, the results of your content marketing efforts won’t come overnight, but as long as you persist with your publishing, you’re bound to experience a significant increase in your leads that will make the work worthwhile.
If In Doubt — Persevere
As you pour all of your energy into growing your business, the reality is that you will probably face some disheartening obstacles along the way. Running your own enterprise comes with various challenges after all, especially if you have limited financial resources to draw upon.
However, with the help of these budget-friendly tips and techniques — and a healthy dash of passion and perseverance — you will probably find that you manage to weather whatever storms crop up along the way, and your business will slowly but steadily blossom.