12 Sep 10 Why Should a Small Business Consider Going Online
A small business is small only till it intends to remain small and unfortunately most of the small businesses decide to remain small, consciously or unconsciously. This is such a shame. If it wants, a small business can break away and become big, and for that they need to break free from the tyranny of physical space.
Unlike big businesses, customer base of a typical small business is located in one particular area. A small business need to break the spell and stretch its wings to reach out as far as possible should it want to become a big business.
And how can one do that?
A small business can break the tyranny of space, time, and working hour by going online. Just take your business online and see how your business fares. There are measurable benefits of taking your business online, which I am going to show you below.
Benefits of taking a business online
- You will not be dependent on your clock to open your shop. Your business will remain open throughout, and it can take order 24X7.
- You can exponentially increase the reach of your business by going online. Your business will not be confined to one geographic location, nor will it be dependent on local buyers for profit.
- By going online, you will level the playing field because the Internet offers you the same opportunity that any big business gets over here.
- Your online business will help you maximize the return you get on your investment by opening doors of new market for you.
By going online, you will add wings to your small business, which will help your it fly higher and higher. And taking your business online is not that big a deal. It is just a three step process.
- You buy a domain name
- Purchase web hosting account on a reliable server, and
- Find someone to design, develop, and deploy your online store.
Yes, the process is this simple, but it will take some time for you to get hang of. But, it is worth the effort. And if you want to save some money on web hosting and domain name registration then you should consider going with Gossimer.com. The web hosting plan of Gossimer will cost you a mere $4 a month, and you will get everything that you will need for successfully running your online business.
Tags: Business Fares, Business Need, Business Online, Clock, Customer Base, Domain Name, Fly, Geographic Location, Measurable Benefits, Opening Doors, Physical Space, Purchase Web, Small Business, Small Businesses, Space Time, Such A Shame, Tyranny, Web Hosting Account, Will Take Some Time, Wings
19 Apr 09 Integrity Selling: Why People fail to make a Sale?
Everyone around is a salesman yet selling is considered to be a very tough job, why? Actually, the problem is in the way we define selling. When we say selling or salesman, a figure starts forming in our mind, a picture of a person who is carrying a briefcase, donning a nicely ironed shirt and well-creased trousers, sporting a nearly perfect smile on the clean-shaved and well groomed look. So far so good, but this is not all. This image of a salesperson seldom produces any positive feeling in any of us. Almost all of us see a salesperson as a scrupulous person who is devoid of any sense of right and wrong, and as the person who is just concerned with making a sale, and has no regard for the buyer whatsoever.
Close your eyes for a while and think, will you like to do business with the person whom you do not trust? Will you put your hard earned dollars in the hands of a person whose intention is not to help you but just to take money out of your pocket? No, you will not do that! Then why do you expect your customer to behave differently, just because you are on the opposite side of the table? Well, no matter how many times you turn the table, and how many people you bring on the other side of the table, you cannot be successful in making a sustainable customer base.
There is only one golden rule of selling and that is honesty. Be honest and sell only the product your customer needs, not the product your company wants to push to every customer. This is what we call integrity selling. Integrity selling will not only build a reputation for you, but it will also give you a rock-solid foundation made of loyal customers to stand on.
Integrity selling is the only way to maintain a long sustainable base of customers. In order to be successful in applying integrity selling in your business, you genuinely need to believe in solving the customer’s problem. I am saying believing, not feigning to believe, as most sales people do. This is how you can build reputation for yourself and your business. Till the time you are concern with just meeting your target for the month or the quarter, you cannot succeed in winning the hearts of your consumer. You need to win a significant share of customers’ hearts to remain in the business for the long run. Integrity selling is indeed tough, but the return it fetches makes it worth trying. As said, integrity selling will build a long term reputation for you, and the more you practice it the more equity gets deposited to your reputation-bank, which in the long run will mean more business for you.
Let’s think over a very famous quote: you can cheat a few people for a long period of time, you can even cheat many people for a short period of time, but there is no way in which you can cheat everyone (or many people) for the longer period of time, it isn’t possible. If you are salesperson, always remember this and never ever try to sell lie. A lie can help you meet the immediate goal, but it will hurt you badly in the long run. It is always wise to fix your eyes on the long term results, short term results will never last.
Tags: Briefcase, Customer Base, Earned Dollars, Golden Rule, Honesty, How Many People, Image, Integrity Selling, Intention, Loyal Customers, Money, Perfect Smile, Regard, Reputation, Rock Solid Foundation, Sales People, Salesperson, Sustainable Base, Tough Job, Trousers
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14 Jan 10 Using Social Networking To Drive Your Business
Having a website for your business isn’t enough anymore. The web has become so commonplace, you have to evolve with the rest of the internet to keep driving new clients to your business. You just can’t rely on search engines and your website to do your talking. In the era of social networking you have to get involved in the world around you, not just provide a resource for anybody that’s searching you out.
Now internet advertising consists of making a social networking presence. You need to have a blog, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter account, to really make your company known. So first things first, set up a company blog. This will be a resource to write about the goings on with your corporation, and provide insightful social commentary on culturally relevant news. So you want a decent writer who can write regular, engaging content.
Now you need Myspace and Facebook accounts. Both are essentially the same, just with minor differences. Keep the page professional, and a resource to sell products and ideas as well as provide news. Myspace has been in decline, so that doesn’t have to be as big of a priority. But at the moment Facebook has been holding strong, and could end up being a great interface with your customers. Listen to them, and communicate with them. This way you can learn what selling tactics will work, and what your customers expect from you.
Finally, the Twitter account. This will probably be the most important, because here is where the most people are going to turn for news and information regarding your company. Linking a blog with your Twitter and Facebook accounts will create a wealth of resources to contact your customer base, and do your own free research into what they expect. You grow name recognition, and also get a great customer data tool, all rolled into a few easy to use websites.
Tags: blog, Contact, Customer Base, Customer Data, Data Tool, Decent Writer, Decline, Facebook, Interface, Internet Advertising, Minor Differences, Myspace, People, Presence, Priority, Relevant News, Search Engines, Social Commentary, Social Networking, Twitter