Getting Back to Small Business Basics

Tips on Managing Your Small Business Better

With a heavier focus on technology, metrics, media, and big time marketing in many small and large businesses, owners find themselves getting lost in complicated webs when it comes to running their company. Although dealing with some of these issues is vital to business success, it is important to make sure you do not lose sight of the basic business practices that got many successful companies where they are today. Here are some tips to help better manage your business in a very simple way.

Become a Master of Introduction

More often than not, business owners have a very limited amount of time to make a great impression on a new client. Without boring them to death with the detailed history and operations of the business, it is important to present them with the information you want them to know while also presenting it in a simple, fast way. Consider creating what is known as an “elevator pitch” – this should be a two sentence introduction that includes introducing yourself as well as the key points about your business. Premise is that you have the time of an elevator ride to convince someone to do business with you. Make it powerful, but keep it short and to the point.

This elevator pitch will provide the client with the information they need to know without losing their interest during a longer speech. These pitches can be used in a number of different situations including tradeshows, business mixers, as well as meeting new client and employee prospects, which is why it is valuable to take the time to create one. By keeping this introduction simple, it helps to show clients that you know your business and do not want to waste their time or your time with the sorted details.

Let Customers Know When You Provide Them a Discount

In small business, there are many reasons why a client may receive a discount on their product or service. They could be receiving a loyal customer discount, a reduced price if their item was not in stock, or a first time customer price reduction. Just as important as providing these discounts are, it is also important to let them know they received a discount and why. When presenting the client a bill or ringing them up at the register, point out what discount they received and why – this will help customers to feel like they are important to your business (which they definitely are!).

Use Business Friendly Credit Cards, Hotels, and Airlines

If you are in a business that requires you or your employees to travel often, make sure you are taking advantage of many of the perks that are available for business travel. For example, many different major credit cards offer rewards programs on airfare, hotels, and other travel. Consider investing in a mileage earning credit card and seeing what hotel chains offer frequent guest perks, such as earning a free night when you stay with that chain a certain number of times. Although this may not make traveling for business free, it can definitely help to cut down on expenses and earn some of the money back.

Don’t Be Afraid to Fire Bad Clients

We have all heard of a client firing a company, but what about a company firing a client? Although we all want to provide our customers with the best service and products, sometimes working with difficult clients can be detrimental to the business overall – clients who do not pay their bill on time (or at all), those who adopt unethical business practices, or simply drain too much time and energy from your employees are all clients that can easily be fired. If the relationship between your business and the client is not mutually beneficial, it is ok to sever the relationship and not work with them again.

If you need help with your small business, consider contacting Stacy O'Quinn. Stacy, at one time, was deeply in debt, and then he found Dani Johnson training. After taking Dani's classes, Stacy started his own work from home business. In a short time, he was out of debt and making six figures a year! Now he helps other entrepreneurs do the same thing, teaching them everything he has learned from Dani. For more information about Stacy, please click here.

What Does it Take to Become a Successful Small Business Owner?

4 Traits All Successful Small Business Owners Have

Stacy in the front row of
Dani Johnson Training Session

One thing that all small business owners have in common is that they believe there simply are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. Between running the day to day operations of the business, growing your target audience, and everything else that goes into running a business, they may not be wrong, which is why it is so important for them to be multi-tasking masters. Multi-tasking, among other important traits, is what sets successful business owners apart – but how do they do it?

Successful entrepreneurs have a specific set of skills that allows them to be so good at what they do. Although many of us have a dream of opening our own business and having it be lucrative, the reality is that not everyone is cut out to be an owner – not having the right mindset or the right skills could mean the business will never take off or it will flourish and then fail. It is possible, however, to hone your skills and acquire the traits of a great business owner as long as you keep these things in mind.

Keeping Up with Trends – Focusing on Digital Content

Some of the most successful business owners know how important it is to stay on trend with how consumers prefer to receive their communications. With the explosion of the Internet and social media over the last decade, it is no surprise that a majority of owners are focused on areas such as email, social media marketing, and maintaining their business’s blog. While tradeshows and other traditional marketing efforts worked in the past, successful business owners are marketing for the future.

Digital Communications – Email is Your Best Friend

Another digital asset that small business owners love is email – in a recent poll, 56 percent of business owners say they send email marketing campaigns out at least a few times a month to help keep in touch with their target market. Additionally, 70 percent of those polled say that email communications help to generate additional revenue for their business. Email can also help business owners save time with favorite features like newsletter scheduling, dependable delivery, and auto-responses.

Wearing Different Hats – Become a Multitasking Master

When you think of a small business, you think of a company who does not have a lot of employees. Many small business become very successful even with a small number of workers – a recent study showed that 94 percent of the most successful small businesses have five employees or less and 9 out of 10 owners own all of their marketing efforts. The reason these internal associate models work is because the business owner wears many different hats and hire the talent needed to get the job done.

Learn from Others – Staying Connected with Industry and Marketing News

Since many small business owners act as their own marketing experts, they know how important it is to stay up to date with the latest news and trends happening in their industry and around the marketing world. Successful business owners most often check different news outlets, such as email newsletters, online publications, social media pages, blogs, and other areas to get the information they need in order to stay ahead of the curve – if the fall behind, it could mean losing their success and their business.

Do you need help getting your small business out of the starting gate? Have you ever heard of Dani Johnson? Did you know Stacy O'Quinn started his home business out using techniques he learned from Dani Johnson training and teaches those very techniques to other work at home professionals today? If you would like to learn more about Stacy and how he can help you with your own business, please click here.

One Failure Does Not Make YOU a Failure

How to Effectively Turn Defeat into Victory

All of us have made mistakes in our lifetimes, whether it has been in our personal lives, professional lives, or both. In some cases, we have made more than one mistake and often those slip-ups consume how we feel about our current positions in life and about ourselves. It is important to remember, however, that making mistakes is just a part of life – we all make them and we are only human! What is more important than making the mistake is how we react to it and what lessons we learn from it.

Dani Johnson, a renowned motivation speaker and teacher, talks about making mistakes in one of her latest blog entries. In this entry, she stresses the importance of not giving up when mistakes are made and how simply changing your mindset about these kinds of slip-ups can make all the difference in how you view yourself. Ms. Johnson suggests to begin living your life “like a winner” and no matter your current mindset about setbacks, it is important to stop focusing on losing and start focusing on winning.

Do Not Get Discouraged

Ms. Johnson’s first tip to turning defeat into victory is to stop getting discouraged so easily. Making a mistake or being rejected is not the end of the world and although it is understandable to feel defeated or beat down when these things happen, it is important to brush off the disappointment and keep going. Instead of focusing on what made that moment in your personal or professional life embarrassing, difficult, or bad, try and focus on what you can do now to make the situation positive moving forward.

Use Defeat as an Opportunity to Learn

Going through a period of defeat is a great opportunity to learn from your mistakes. It is important to remember that you are not defined by the mistakes you make but how you react to them. Think about what your knee-jerk reaction is when you make a mistake – do you curl up in a ball of self-pity? Or do you shake it off, learn what you can, and move on? Ms. Johnson stresses the importance of  remaining teachable even through hard times and how your reaction to a mistake can change the outcome.

Do Not Be Afraid to Make Changes

Going hand in hand with learning from mistakes is making corrections. Once you have determined what went wrong and how it can be fixed, make sure to take action and implement those changes. If lessons are not learned and changes are not made from mistakes we encounter, nothing will improve and it is possible to continue making those mistakes over and over again. Ms. Johnson says that although the saying “practice makes perfect” may apply, “practice and correction” is really what makes a difference!

Ms. Johnson understands how it can be easy to get discouraged and not want to fight back when we make big mistakes in our lives. But, the only way to improve upon those mistakes and not make them again is to remain teachable throughout the situation and be sure to make corrections along the way. Remember – we are all human, we all make mistakes and how we react in these types of situations will be more remembered by our family, friends and peers than the actual mistake that we made.

Stacy O'Quinn has been using the techniques he learned in Dani Johnson training to create not only his financial independence, but to also help dozens of other entrepreneurs realize their financial dreams. If you would like to join the ranks of those that Stacy has helped, you are only one click away from changing your life forever. For more information about Stacy and how he can help, click here.

Make Every Day Productive

How to Minimize Time Wasting in Your Small Business

Stacy helping another
home business entrepreneur

When it comes to a small business, time is often a business owner’s most valuable asset. But, what many owners come to realize after their business is up and running is that there simply is not enough time in the day. It is important to ask ourselves this important question when it comes to proper time management – “Do I really have this much to do, or can I manage my time better?” The thing about time is that it is not a tangible item that we can buy, sell or trade for – time is something we simply need to reclaim as small business owners. Here, we will discuss different ways to reclaim that precious time.

Do a Better Job Managing Your Email

An email box is often where business owners begin to work and somehow lose so many precious hours of their day. The tricky thing is, although it is supposed to streamline communication and save time, it often pulls us away from what we should be working on for an extended amount of time. When the email alerts to a new message, it often takes someone 10 minutes to answer, and then another 15 to 20 to get back on track with what they were working on. In order to manage this time better, and save it from getting lost in a black hole, designate times throughout the day to read and answer emails and, when working on other projects or tasks, shut off the notification feature so as to not get distracted.

Do Not Believe the Myths about Multi-Tasking

Many business owners, and really all business professionals, believe that multi-tasking is a great way for them to save time and get more work complete. Doing payroll, expense reports, answering messages and have a million applications open on your computer or phone may make you feel like a lot of work is getting done, but are you really getting anything accomplished? The truth is, this is completely the opposite of what we all think and only two percent of people can multi-task successfully. Instead of striving to do more than one thing at a time, schedule out blocks of time and focus on one project or task. Believe it or not, 15 minutes of complete focus is more productive than trying to complete two tasks at one.

Minimize Unnecessary Distractions

Technology, in many ways, has made running a business much easier and much simpler. But, every ring, ding, ping, and other noise that our computers and cell phones make can be a huge distraction to getting more important items complete. While these notifications are sometimes important to make sure that critical items are handled, the truth is that not every email, text message or phone call needs your immediate attention. In order to minimize unneeded distractions, think about using different filters on your email boxes and text message cues so that only the most important messages are alerted during different times of the day and, like mentioned before, only check messages during specified times.

Do you need help running your small business or in making your home business more profitable? Did you know that Stacy O'Quinn has served as a small business mentor to dozens of entrepreneurs using the techniques he learned from Dani Johnson training? If you would like to see how Stacy can help you, please click here.

What to Do with Customer Feedback

How to Properly Review and Act on Customer Feedback

Stacy telling his story at First Steps to Success

Gathering feedback from your customers is an important part of growing a business and offering an amazing level of customer service. But, once you have gathered this great information, what do you do with it? Usually, businesses simply share the comments of customers with their employees with hopes that the customer service or a specific area of concern will improve. Although this a great course of action, there is so much more that can be done with this information not just to improve your customer’s experience but also to improve your business and sales across the board.

Compile and Review Your Feedback Information

The first step in truly making the most out of customer feedback is to gather all of the information from all of the different channels and compile it into one place. Find a system that works best for the company when it comes to gathering data from customer surveys, social media, and other informational channels. Once you have all of the information in one place, it is time to really review what consumers are saying. Go through the comments and organize them into different categories – for example, use headings like “product issues,” “customer service,” and “overall experience” to organize the data.

Next, take a close look at any trends that may appear – is there one product in your line-up that seems to be failing over and over again? Is there a flaw in your customer relations department that needs fixeing right away? Are customers frustrated with the accessibility of your website or social media pages? If 10 customers are making the same comment, it is safe to assume that many more of your customers are thinking the same thing. Issues that continue to repeat should be addressed right away to help boost your customer satisfaction and let them know your business is listening to their feedback.

Share Feedback with Employees, Good or Bad

As mentioned earlier, it is a good practice to share customer feedback with your employees, especially those who interact with clients on a regular basis. Do not discriminate between positive and negative feedback – all types of feedback are great for your company, so make sure to share it all with your employees. But, sharing information is more than just forwarding comments on to employees through email. Find a system of sharing that helps employees stay engaged with the process but also shows them that you have reviewed and acknowledged the information you are sharing with them.

Also, make sure to mention the trends you are seeing in the data and suggest or implement ways in which the business and the individual employees can help to improve negative comments or to continue to offer great service that customers have praised the business for in the past. It is also important to share positive feedback to help make employees feel as though they are doing a good job for customers and the company – if a customer calls a specific employee out by name for great customer service, make sure to give special recognition to that individual to help encourage more positive behavior.

Would you like to see more small business tips from Stacy O'Quinn? What?! You have never heard of Stacy? Stacy has created a six-figure small business using Dani Johnson training and now helps other entrepreneurs do the same thing. Learn more about Stacy today and then contact him to see how he can help you create your own successful small business. Click here.