Category: Small Busines

by rvdburgt

24 Ways To BOOST Your Sales! (Part 1)

Just when we think we’ve grasped what’s happening in business, something changes to disrupt the precarious balance. It may occur in the economy, an industry, a region, a particular market or technology that alters even the most flexible business plan.

Establishing a strategy, then staying with it, was possible for most businesses until the last decade. Planning a year or more in advance was relatively easy. Ups and downs would occur but with a high degree of predictability. Hitting sales and revenue targets was almost taken for granted.


Now, dramatic changes in technology, international conditions and distribution channels are constantly upsetting the balance. Banks are looking more like insurance agencies and insurance agencies are quickly taking on the characteristics of banks. Wal-Mart had long avoided selling name brand fashions–until the nation’s department store companies were reconfigured and 
downsized. Suddenly, Wal-Mart saw an opportunity to move brand-name clothing lines.

How can a business cope with a marketplace where erratic conditions are–and will be–the norm? What is required is a strategy that takes constant change into account. Even with notable disruption, it is possible to attract new customers, keep present ones and increase sales.

Here are 24 practical, useful, put-them-to-work-now ideas for building business in unpredictable business conditions.

1. Get sharp. 
Yes, how a company presents itself makes a difference. Is the logo appropriate? Is it dated? Does it communicate the right message and the correct image? Is the president the only one who understands it? What about the company colors? Are they reminiscent of the late fifties? Do the 
letterhead, mailing labels and business cards convey a strong, positive message? Or, are they dull and ordinary looking? If you don’t think this is important, your competitors will be thrilled. Corporate identity is the face you put on your company.

2. Target the right person. 
The big job in marketing and sales is getting to the right people inside a company. Addressing mail to “Facilities Manger” or printing a “routing slip” on the outside of the envelope is ineffective. Hitting the target is the challenge. Scoring a bull’s eye means making contact with the right individuals and is the only way to make the sale. Taking time to be highly targeted in business communication is essential.

3. Tell the story one piece at a time. 
There’s a tendency to jam everything about a business into one brochure, ad or newsletter. “What have we left out?” is the most common question. The difficult job is to pull it all apart, break ideas into their component parts and then roll out a continuing, intriguing campaign. Communicating a message over a period of time works best because it allows it to sink in slowly.

4. Focus on what customers care about. 
After listening to the admissions director talk about what should be shown in the school’s new recruiting video, the marketing consultant asked, “Is this what parents and prospective students are interested in knowing?” Suddenly, everyone became less confident. Someone suggested asking the student tour guides what questions the visiting parents and kids asked? Whether creating an ad, a brochure, or a sales presentation, knowing what the customer wants, needs and expects is what works.
 
I strive to bring you the best information to enhance your business plan and its various components like small business development, business marketing and best of all business profits!

James Burgess
Management Consulant, Synergen-X

by rvdburgt

Lose weight and grow your Business

Is one of your goals to “lose” some excess weight? Why not have the same goals for your business?

When you hear people talking about sales goals, they’re almost always referring to gross sales. “I want to do 0,000 in revenues. I want my company to grow to million, million, etc.”

But which is more important, sales or profits? Shouldn’t the goal be to increase profits? The money you keep after paying your expenses? Doubling your revenues doesn’t equate to doubling your profits, does it? In many cases quite the opposite happens. Sales may increase, but the profits lag far behind.

Perhaps a better idea is to “trim” your business – stop calling on the unprofitable and time consuming accounts – so you can reduce your costs and dramatically increase your profit margins. This in mind, let’s look at company XYZ, Inc.

XYZ Inc. is a Mfg Rep Company. It does nearly million in total sales. The manufacturers pay commissions of 30 percent, so the company earns .8 million. The company pays out .5 million to its 30 employees and other expenses, leaving a 0,000 net profit. XYZ Inc. has nearly 600 accounts, but the bottom 200 accounts don’t do much business with them. They do, however, take up a lot of the sales and service time, effort and attention.

Doing an analysis, XYZ Inc. discovered their 200 smallest accounts spend only 0,000 annually, but take up more than one-third of the sales staff’s available time.

Considering the implications they came to these conclusions:

If they stopped calling on these small (the bottom third) accounts, sales would drop to .5 million Commission income would drop to .65 million from .8

However, they could reduce their employee count and related expenses by 1/3, or million (a 0,000 savings).The result would be a 0,000 increase in profit to 0,000. “Trimming” the business was step one.

Step two was to have the entire company focus their efforts toward improving the quality of service to their best, or their “A” Class customers. This meant the team could easily keep their best customers very happy, turning them into raving fans who referred additional business to the company. The bonus was that the prospective customers referred by the “A” Class customers were just like them – also “A” Class. They were also able to find additional products and services they could sell to those “A” Class customers.

The sales team identified their “ideal customers,” their qualities, size, values, culture, etc. – customers they wanted to do business with, and then went after them. The attitudes and morale of the organization changed. The salespeople were making more money, and everybody was having more fun because they were spending their time, energy, and effort serving their “A” Class customers. And, with their new found free time, they are able to look for new opportunities and clients with the same profile as their “ideal customers.”

XYZ Inc. can now set its sights on growing the company to million, and then million in sales, by doing business with only the “best” customers, with much higher profit margins.

So, how can you reduce some excess weight in your business this year?

Here are the three things we just went over:

Trim your customer base. Stop calling on those who take up lots of your time, are hard to deal with, price shop, etc., and don’t do much business with you anyway.

Create a profile of your “ideal customer,” and then find more clients who fit that profile.

Give your best customers a consistently incredible, “wow” level of attention and service.

“Under commit and over deliver”

Paul Chaderjian interviews Armenian National Committee of Hollywood (ANC Hollywood) activists Paul Seradarian and Rostom Sarkissian about the August 28th Small Business Tax Seminar, organized in collaboration with the office of the California State Controller John Chiang and the sponsorship of the Armenian-American Chamber of Commerce-Little Armenia Chapter, to educate and equip small business owners to succeed in the current economy. The seminar will cover a broad range of topics including the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, regional business opportunities and incentives, employment and payroll taxes as well as income, sales and use taxes. WHO:Armenian National Committee of Hollywood Office of California State Controller, John Chiang Armenian-American Chamber of Commerce (Little Armenia) Supporting Business Organizations (see list below) WHAT: Small Business Tax Seminar WHEN: Friday, August 28th 8:30 am Registration 9:00 am 1:00 pm Small Business Tax Seminar WHERE: Karapetian Hall 1614 N. Alexandria Avenue Parking available at church parking lot TO RSVP: Call the ANC Western Region office at (818) 500-1918. SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS: Thai Community Development Center; Thai Chamber of Commerce; Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles; Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ANC-Professional Network and Consumer Action. The RSVP form is included in the …
Video Rating: 5 / 5

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by rvdburgt

It’s a dream for many people to own their own business. People want the freedom to earn a good living while being their own boss. They could have the flexibility to do whatever they want. This dream for many however, ends with a high price tag – including the loss of people’s personal savings and homes.

Traditional small business required leasing a building or some kind of office space to start up operations with. High startup costs were also incurred with either capital equipment requirements or product inventory.

Along with these costs came the need to hire and train qualified employees. Operational policies and procedures needed to be written and enforced.

Starting this kind of small business requires a lot of money and effort. It also assumes you have a product or service which people want to buy. If they do not, all this work is in vain.

Bottom line is that starting a traditional business is a high risk venture. According to the US Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail with the first five years. Talk about risk! Sure, the rewards are great, but only 5% make it this far.

Much of this risk correlates with the experience level of people starting a new business. They can see the end result, but how to get there can be difficult to achieve without having learned or experienced it. But learning does not come unless they risk – so they risk.

Today, the internet has changed the business world dramatically. An online business can simply be started with a website and the whole world becomes potential customers. An average person can do this without investing large amounts of money.

An online business is still a business and people need to treat it this way. But learning it can be done without all the risk associated with a traditional business startup. If fact, one could even do this an hour or two part time each day.

An online business could be as simple as displaying ads for other company products on your website. Visitors would click on these ads which would bring them to another company’s website who would sell the visitor on their product. If they buy, you receive a commission for sending them – no inventory, selling or order handling.

Other kinds of ads placed on your site can bring you a commission simply by having the visitor click on the ad. For example, the ad could be for a different “work at home opportunity”. The visitor would click on the ad and you would instantly earn whether or not the person buys from this seller. The seller is willing to pay for this kind of advertising because they know that based on a given number of clicks, a certain percentage of those people will buy their product or service and they can make money overall.

Building a team of other people below you may be more to your liking, otherwise known as multi-level-marketing. You earn commission from the sales of every one of these people in addition to the commission you earn from your own sales.

All this probably sounds just a little too easy? Well, you’re right. It’s not simply a matter of creating a website and people will come and spend their money. It takes time and persistence to follow the internet marketing techniques required to generate sufficient traffic to your website and earn a large income.

The point is however, that starting an online business CAN be learned by average people without investing large sums of money. It’s not completely risk free; you’ll need to invest time into it. But starting a business of any kind is not easy, so why not start one without betting the farm on it?

There is no time better than today to start a work at home business!

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