The new age of entrepreneurship and business is upon us, and it’s as tough as it has ever been. Even with new advantages such as the Internet, and social media to help level out the playing field, getting your business off the ground can still be a daunting task. Here are seven key ways that you can take back the advantage, and thrive in this digital age as an entrepreneur.
1) Geo-Targeting
When planning out your SEO strategy, make sure you’re targeting people in the area you wish to market to wit the appropriate keywords. This means using geo-tags for local marketing, and less specific keywords for campaigns intended for a national, or worldwide audience. An added benefit to this strategy is that not only does it focus your marketing efforts on your preferred geographic demographic, it also helps to cut down on the competition in many cases as well.
2) Focus On The Back End
Many new entrepreneurs focus so heavily on front-end sales that they forget how powerful back-end marketing can be. Make sure you take the time to develop a way to stay in touch with your customers, such as through email so that you can market to them again and again.
Done right, this strategy can actually produce more revenue than front-end sales, and will much higher profit margins. This is because back-end marketing has the very little cost of acquisition per customer, and conversion rates are much higher. If you’re not focusing on back-end marketing, you’re leaving a huge amount of revenue on the table.
3) Communication is Key
As Bill Gates said, communication is a skill necessary in all walks of life, but it is especially important in the world of business. Frequent and accurate communication with your employees, contractors, and especially your customers is critical for success. On the other hand, poor communication can lead to inefficiency that costs you time, money, and in some cases, even potential customers.
Be mindful of how you communicate, and encourage frequent and clear communication among your employees/contractors as well. The last thing you want is an opportunity missed, or an incident that goes unreported until it is too late.
4) Get Business Liability Insurance
One of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur to ensure the survival of your business is to get business liability insurance. These days people are all too happy to use lawsuits as a way to solve their problems or score a quick payday. If you get sued, for whatever reason, it could destroy your business overnight if you don’t have business liability insurance.
The good news is, you can always consider taking such insurances from trusted insurance providers like Youi Public Liability Insurance. They specialize in keeping entrepreneurs like you from being sued into bankruptcy. If you’re going to run a business, get business liability insurance to pay compensation for personal injury to third parties and damage to their property.
5) Sales Funnel Analysis
Many entrepreneurs get into business without properly planning out their sales funnel. This oversight can come back to haunt them when they realize that they aren’t meeting sales goals, and don’t know what the problem is. Map out your sales funnel, and collect data on each part. This way when there is a lull in sales, you can immediately pinpoint the problem, and fix it ASAP.
Having a fully mapped sales funnel can also come in handy when you’re looking for ways to expand or scale up your business. You can find areas that are performing well, and learn from your successes, giving you a clear idea on how to move forward with your business.
6) Employees vs Contractors
These days many businesses are getting ahead by hiring contractors instead of employees. This allows them to get the same value, while not having to waste money on the various benefits you would be required to provide actual employees. This also allows you to fire/rehire much more quickly than you can with traditional employees.
If hiring contractors over employees may seem exploitative to you, just remember that contractors have their own benefits, such as being able to work from home in many cases, and being able to enjoy flexible schedules and work hours while spending more time with their families.
7) Customer Service Isn’t Optional
If you’re a solo entrepreneur then you probably already know how vital good customer services is for success since you’re doing it yourself. However, even when you expand to the point that you’re outsourcing customer service you need to remember just how big a part it plays in both bringing in new customers and retaining current customers.
A bad customer services experience can be all it takes for someone to stop doing business with your company, and bad mouth you on social media. This can tarnish your reputation, and cost you a lot of revenue in the long run if it gets out of hand.
