Customers You Shouldn’t Listen To

Why There Are Some Customers You Shouldn’t Listen To

Any respectable business is driven to listen to its customers—all of its customers, if possible—because that’s how you know what you should change about your product or service and what the shortcomings are that you need to address. The flipside of that coin is that it’s important to know which ones represent your customer base as a whole, and those who just have a unique need that doesn’t apply to everyone else. Therefore, not all of your customers’ feedback is relevant, generally speaking. The Silent Majority The people whom you really want to listen to are the ones who aren’t talking. Unless your product is really bad, in which case you’ll hear from everybody pretty quickly, it will be radio silence from the vast majority of your customers most of the time. The first reason is that if what you’re producing is successful and worth buying, then there is no …

Come Up with Business Name

How to Come Up with a Simple, Attractive Business Name

It’s possible that you have already lost or missed customers because of a difficult or confusing company name. At the very least, there are two main problems with a poorly-conceived name: It either makes it harder for your customers to find you, or it’s difficult to remember your business name. This is why you’re always better off taking some time to come up with a simple, concise, and memorable name for your business. A creative name is overrated; a unique name is not. Let’s be honest. Way too many businesses put all their energy into coming up with a name that sounds really cute when actually, unless you’re extremely clever and witty, they usually end up sounding pretty lame and not particularly memorable. It is far more important to focus on making your name memorable and simple than it is to make it clever. In the end, if the quality …

Insider Tricks for Using a Virtual Phone System

You know when you get a new stereo, and then months later, you figure out things that you didn’t even know it could do? It’s a lot better to know those tricks beforehand, which is why this article contains a variety of tricks and shortcuts that you can use with a virtual phone system to save yourself time, and unnecessary frustration. Route Multiple Menu Options to the Same Phone Not every business has a huge staff of people who are answering phones, wherein the standard structure of each department routing to a different person’s phone line does not apply. You may be the only person answering your phones, in fact, which means you will need a way to offer multiple options for different departments, using only one forwarding phone. All you have to do is simply set your single phone number as the forwarding number for all of the menu …

6 Signs that Your Business is Taking Over Your Life

  This is an article about not letting your work get the better of you; it’s about not losing yourself in your business, which can be detrimental to your well-being. Honestly, it is necessary sometimes to devote pretty much all of your time & energy to your business, at the expense of being involved in your own life. It’s when this becomes the norm and perpetuates itself as a permanent cycle that you should be concerned.   1. You literally only go home to sleep. This basically means that you spend just about your entire waking life at work. If it has gotten this extreme (which is not uncommon), then it’s time to seriously assess how your real life fits into your schedule.   2. Your family is sending you signals. When you have a family at home, they are your greatest allies because they have your back. So when …

The FCC and Your Phone Service: What You Need to Know

According to their official mission statement, the Federal Communications Commission is the government agency which “regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.” The FCC, established in 1934, is subject to Congressional oversight and is “responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.” What does the FCC actually do? So that’s the official background of the agency; now, what is it that the FCC actually does—and how does it affect our phone service today? As you’ll see in this article, it is actually working behind the scenes of a number of different aspects of our daily communications. The FCC is the governing body that primarily makes sure that U.S. communications, including phone service of all types, meet a specific set of standards as it applies to various interests such as regulation, policing, infrastructure, …

How Old & New Entrepreneurs Can Teach Each Other

With a massive, multi-generational assortment of entrepreneurs existing today, who are running everything from the small businesses in your neighborhood, to vast corporations, it means there are all kinds of business owners who each have their own knowledge and experience to teach. To focus on two main categories of entrepreneurs, old-school owners who have been around for a while and owners from the new generation, these can both learn a thing or two from each other. LESSONS FROM THE OLD GUARD Customer service is paramount. Old-school business owners generally took customer service to a degree that is not as familiar to the new generation. There have always been companies that provided terrible service, but in earlier generations, the emphasis was on going the extra mile for a customer. In some cases, that would mean treating customers like family, and otherwise never stopping until they were satisfied, keeping them loyal to …

3 Ways You Are Overcomplicating Your Business

  The idea of this is to encourage you to take a look at your business from the inside, out, and to examine three elements in particular: Your aesthetic, product options, and web presence & design. So many businesses tend to ignore the forest for the trees, in a sense, and end up building a customer experience that turns them off due to it being complicated and therefore, unpalatable. You’ll find here a few simple solutions for business owners who may have alienated customers by making various elements of their business needlessly complicated.   For a Good Aesthetic, Less is More Think of your aesthetic as an advertisement. When a potential customer visits your business, everything they see—and even their other senses are involved—is a commercial for your product or service. The sad truth is that people would probably buy a sub-par product from you if the packaging is good—the …

Shouldn’t Become CEO for Title

Why You Shouldn’t Become a CEO Just for the Title

There’s no doubt that starting a business takes a powerful drive, to build something from scratch and bring a vision to life. Exactly where that drive comes from, though, is significant because it may determine whether the business owner will have the motivation to stick it out for the long haul. Mr. John Q. Important, President & CEO It’s one of the most sought-after titles in American history, and it’s understandable that we clamber to reach that position because let’s face it—it just sounds good. But along with the title comes the responsibility and stress of running a business, among other things. So, if you got into business just for the title and the respect, then more power to you—as long as you can handle the other because if you can’t, your whole company could be in trouble. The Magic Fades Yes, it’s great to be the big boss. Keep …

Why Your Customers Need to Know They’re Valued

  Businesses have a secret. It’s actually glaringly obvious, but they seem to act like it’s a secret because most hardly ever mention it—the big secret is that they can’t exist without their customers. Business owners and consumers alike all know this, so why not publicize it to earn some goodwill with your customers? This is why it works.   The Missed Opportunity Some businesses bring it up from time to time, saying that their customers are their “top priority”, or something to that effect; however, most businesses rarely mention this, if ever. Even if they do, it’s usually just a generic sentiment like, “You are important to us.” Few businesses go so far as to admit that their very existence depends on customers’ continued patronage. If you admit that you’re literally nothing without them, it’s an opportunity to show goodwill and appreciation toward your customers. People value honesty in …

Basic Wisdom for New Business Owners

You can find all kinds of advice through research, mentors, and colleagues about what you should do and how you should be when starting a new business. The wealth of information can be dizzying; so here are a few points that boil it down to manageable tips—a cheat sheet for new business owners. Know What to Worry About Blake Irving brings up an interesting point about worry and stress. Primarily, what he is suggesting is that, when you’re building your business, it’s important to know when you can ignore certain things that happen and some things the people around you are saying to you. Here is the gist of it, in Blake’s own words: “Your parents, siblings, close friends and trusted coworkers will all chime in on your plans. If they’re only radiating fear or negativity, you have no option but to ignore them and move ahead.” Know Yourself Starting …