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Your
Questions Answered
Q.
What
attributes are important in being a
successful entrepreneur?
We
talk of ‘Born Leaders’, people who
have that certain ‘X-Factor’ when it
comes to decision making and leading
others, but I must dispel the myth right
now that these are qualities which you
cannot develop within yourself over time.
Even the meekest, most humble little clerk
can develop themselves into a lean, mean
dealing machine with hard work and
self-confidence. So if you’re reading
this and think that this is all over your
head, ask yourself: ‘Is that really what
I want?’ So you want to be a follower
all your life, obeying orders at every
turn? I doubt you want to look back at
your life and find that there’s nothing
spectacular to note.
But
back to what I consider to be important
parts of a successful entrepreneur, I’ve
found that a handful of key aspects prove
to be the most noteworthy:
1.
Bravery:
Success
is gained through innovation and
trailblazing, not playing it safe and
closet-mindedness. Truly great
entrepreneurs will rather take a leap into
the unknown rather than take a well-beaten
track.
2.
Focus:
Having
a thousand ideas a second may sound like a
fantastic state, but it’s next to
useless if you can’t develop a focused
and concentrated state of mind. A single
idea, focused to its maximum potential can
outweigh a hundred half-baked initiatives.
3.
Courage:
To
experience a setback or a failure is a
disappointment, but to soldier on through
it all, pick up the pieces and start again
takes courage and determination. Too many
people give up if they make a mistake,
only a few are prepared to learn from them
and turn them to their advantage.
4.
Open-Mindedness:
Closet-minded
thinkers are typically the worst,
unwilling to share with others or allow
their vision to be altered. The best
entrepreneurs know that they don’t know
everything, and that for the best results,
they need to leave their concepts bare for
examination and judgment by those who
know.
5.
Methodical
Care: The
line between bravery and foolishness is
preparation, a good idea rushed can do
more harm than good. A good entrepreneur
knows this and will take every care to
ensure that their idea is fully thought
out, tested, altered and re-tested before
they commit to it.
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Quote
of the week
"I'm
a big believer in growth. Life is not
about achievement, it's about learning and
growth, and developing qualities like
compassion, patience, perseverance, love,
and joy, and so forth. And so if that is
the case, then I think our goals should
include something which stretches
us."
Jack Canfield
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Tip of the week
You
Will Never Lack if You Keep Your Customers
Coming Back
Good times, bad times, business ups and
downs. Profit gains and money loss in a
merry-sales-go-round. Oh yeah! Finding new
customers is not always easy, and you can
suffer for it during those times when it's
not.
You can keep putting out the deals in
expensive advertising, but when that fails
does that mean you go broke? Absolutely
not!
Not if you have already built up a
customer base, and have provided those
customers with good service and good
products. What you have built up by doing
this is your company's number one asset.
Do you know how much that asset is worth?
Do you know the lifetime value of your
customers? That is how much a customer
spends a year on average with you, times
the number of years they stay a customer,
times the number of customers you have.
It can add up to a lot, if you are doing
things in the right way.
Do you have marketing geared toward your
current customers?
Do you take the trouble to find out things
they specifically and generally like and
dislike? Do you ask what you might do to
serve them better? Do you publicize a
solid guarantee and honor it?
With the right customer service you can
keep your customers for LIFE!
Find out information about your customers.
Keep a list of their names and addresses
so you can keep in constant communication
with them by sending a heads-up on deals,
new stock, and anything that would make
them feel special. Postcards are perfect
for doing that. Even get their month and
day of birth so you can send them birthday
cards giving them their own special
discount on anything they want.
Give away things to your customers. Make
promotional items freely available like
pens, pencils, pocket planners, calendars,
calculators, key-chains, mugs, you name
it. All those things will have your
business name, address, and phone number
on them. Sending something like that to
them in the mail would even give it more
value in your customer's eyes. The more
useful the item, the more you will be in
the customers sight and mind. That is a
good thing!
If you have a clothing store, get to know
your customer's sizes. As soon as they
walk in the door, greet them by name and
say you have saved something for them that
you know will look great on them. Then
pick the newest most expensive piece of
clothing to show them. Say that they
simply must try it on, and while they will
be in the changing room anyway, fix them
up with everything to go with it for
trying on as well. You will collect sales
for more items once they see how good they
look in them. Throw them over the edge by
giving them a break in price if they get
the entire outfit with accessories.
If you do not have a clothing store, find
a way to get samples of what you do have
to your customers that they can try. Get
them to use something on a trial basis.
Once you do that, their ownership of it is
practically assured! Once someone is in
possession of something, giving it up
creates the painful emotion of loss.
A happy customer is a loyal customer.
Loyalty comes by your customers knowing
you care about them, are actively
educating them in the things they are
interested in, and knowing you will
continuously be able to meet their needs
in the best way for them.
The customer is always right in that they
know what they want. You are always on top
of it by presenting what you have as not
only something they want, but something
they've got to have. And not just
something they themselves got to have.
Maybe they have a husband, wife, or
children. Compel your customer to treat
the family too.
Here is something to jump on. Perhaps your
customer is a business owner. Get that
person to send the customers for their
business over to your business. Beyond
word of mouth referral, they can do that
by giving coupons good for things in your
store, or maybe you can get permission to
put a raffle box in their store that gives
prizes given by your store. You can either
pay them to do it or return the favor.
There can be many ways to help each other
in cooperation, even paying each other
commissions, and also bundling your two
company's products and services together
at favorable prices for customers. You
will find that such arrangements, called
Joint Venture Partnering, can be very
lucrative as it quickly builds your
customer base.
It pays to know your customer, and to know
how to supplement and expand your products
and services with things like go-along
additions, deluxe automatic maintenance
service, special package deals, premium
upgrades, complimentary products, etc.
Think of anything you can.
Give your customer something to put in
their purse or wallet, something that
equals money to them. A discount card that
gives discounts on purchases, or a buyers
card that gives rewards after a determined
amount of purchases accumulated from
multiple visits are two examples. The
surest way to get your customer to spend
more with you is getting them a charge
card. Your own store credit card in your
customer's possession is guaranteed to
spike sales.
You will have a solid relationship with
the customers you have already gotten, and
through that relationship, your business
will evolve!
This gives lifetime value of a customer a
whole other meaning. You are finding ways
to improve yourself and your business.
Take periodic customer surveys. That way
the customer is giving intellectual input
as well as money into your business, and
if you are innovative enough to make use
of them, the customer will more than
likely also be giving you new customers by
recommending you to their friends.
Other things you can do: offer your
customers incentives for making referrals
& collect testimonial stories from
them to use in your ads because the best
advertising comes from satisfied
customers. Not only that, a customer that
gives a testimonial for you will become
even more loyal by doing it. Imagine that!
It just goes to show how things get
solidified when written down. Do you write
down the goals you have for your business?
How about the goals of your business?
Write a Service Pledge to your customers.
Post it up where you do business so your
customers know what great service they can
expect. Find the greatest benefit that
solves the most major concern to your
customers, perhaps something unique that
no other business in the area offers. Make
a catchy slogan out of it. Use it wherever
the name of your business is displayed so
that your business will be known by the
slogan. When employees eagerly answer the
phone, have them not only say the name of
the business, but the slogan as well,
followed by giving their name and asking
"how may I help you?"
If you spruce up your business enough to
make it an interesting topic of
conversation, your customers will even
talk you up to strangers they meet. Your
reputation will travel by work of mouth.
Instead of you looking to find new
customers, they will be finding you. And
on top of that, their lifetime value will
be much greater by your building the
greater value into your business. This
happens just by catering to your current
customers rather than doing the usual
routine of chasing after new ones.
That is why you will never lack if you
keep your customers coming back.
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