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Right after starting a new small business, funds can be tight. Payroll, office space, taxes, and production can eat into capital. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to have a capital investment. If you are like many entrepreneurs, you’re not worried about investors; you’re bootstrapping your business on a shoe string. There’s no way you have $100,000 lying around to conduct a direct mail campaign (and that’s what it often costs, by the way). Newspaper ads, telemarketing, billboards, and television commercials can also run six figures each. And what’s worse is that newspapers, landlines, and traditional TV are all being replaced by websites, cell phones, and streaming video. Even low-cost awareness-building activities can eat up between $15,000 and $75,000 of your annual budget. For a small business, that’s a lot of money. In this context, marketing or advertising can get short shrift. So what’s a small business owner to do? …

Social media platforms are among the best sources for lead generation and brand awareness. Yet, businesses and entrepreneurs often overlook the value of using them for customer service. Connecting with customers through their preferred communication methods tends to result in greater satisfaction. Most consumers are already using social media to reach out to companies so it’s a no brainer that you should be as well! One study found that about half of all social media users have used these platforms to contact businesses. Whether you are already active & knowledgeable with social media, or you have no idea whatsoever how to navigate it, this article will break down the key things you need to know. So let’s find out how to leverage the power of social media to gain and retain more customers.. Why Use Social Media for Customer Service? Many businesses use email, phone, and online chat to communicate …

  Although getting return customers isn’t rocket science, there is definitely more to it than hanging a sign on the door that says, “Please Come Again!”. We all wish it was obviously that easy, but there are plenty of things you can do to make sure customers happily come back to your business. Here are 11 effective ways to earn repeat business and keep your customers coming back.   1. Earn Repeat Business with a Habit Forming Product   Having an “addictive” product doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be something that people physically crave, or something upon which they are emotionally dependent, like Instagram or Twitter.   It may just be something that is so much fun, that they can’t go a day without it. Maybe you are an online service provider with a user interface that is really simple and fun to use, or maybe your packaging …

  It can be difficult to find great people to work for your company, and it’s hard to hold on to them. It’s not even the fault of the person hiring an employee. Many times, it just can’t be helped for a variety of reasons that we’ll touch on here.. Though it’s not all that complicated to create a satisfying work environment, it can be tough to know what you can do on your end so that the people working on your team are happy with their jobs. As a business owner, you want to hang on to the team members you’ve got because replacing them is obviously time-consuming, costly, and stressful. Here are a few pointers you can use to make sure your people stay with you, practicing good strategy from the moment you hire them & even before then.   Sometimes People Just Don’t Work Out   No …

  Attention Business Owners: You have to take a vacation sometime. The unfortunate truth is that business owners work too hard, rarely even having the thought that they will get to take a vacation. Running a business is difficult. It’s truthfully one of the most stressful jobs in existence, automatically requiring you to handle a wide variety of responsibilities. You have to do all those things very well, too, because the consequences of an error on any front can be much greater than those of a typical job. Making a mistake could mean an employee doesn’t get the correct pay, or a marketing decision results in the loss of hundreds of new sales, or the new person you just hired never even shows up for work. While everyone thinks that business owners have the greatest dream job ever, you’re toiling away every day just hoping that the company doesn’t go …