The Inspired Hive has just turned five. To celebrate this milestone birthday for my thriving small business, here are five universally useful business strategies for making a smashing success of any business you care to create.
Doing all five has been crucial to my success in 'The Hive' and in my previous small business life as the boss of a bustling agribusiness.
Wherever you're at in your business, starting up, starting over, slowing down or ramping up, these brilliant business basics will help you thrive.
1. Know your customer
Imagine a day in the life of your ideal customer. What might they wish for to make their lives easier? What might excite them? How might they feel about the issues, big and small, we're facing as a community and a planet?
Connecting to customers and gaining their trust involves understanding how they'll most likely feel, think, and act at each stage of their 'customer journey'.
This is 'marketing speak' for how customer needs and behaviours change as they engage with you.
The journey starts when someone discovers you and your business and (ideally) ends (although it never really 'ends') when they become dedicated buyers and brand ambassadors.
Want loads of tips for knowing and nurturing your customers at every stage of their customer journey?
2. Diversify
Putting all your eggs in one basket is risky business. What if that single, albeit sensational product or service you've invested your 'all' in … fails? Offering your customers a small or sizeable suite of related good things is intriguing and exciting for them and much safer for you.
Example: I have at least three revenue streams: strategic planning services, mentoring, and marketing done for you. My strategic planning service is a 'seasonal' favourite. At New Year and mid-year, it sells like hotcakes. Outside of these two high-pressure points, demand for strategic planning fluctuates. In festive high times and holidays or the lead-up to days dedicated to good causes, I'm flush with demands for targeted marketing campaigns.
3. Scale your prices
Structure your prices like rungs on a ladder. Offer some 'try and test' price points so people can start small with you. While a customer may not have the budget for the full product or service, they'd love to have it right now. Who knows where they'll be in a year?
Balance your signature offerings with all their bells and whistles with some generous-spirited, enormously enticing freebies.
Example: Early in my career, I worked in a travel agency. A lovely man bought a monthly Melbourne to Sydney bus ticket for a year. Then, one day, he bought a round-the-world QEII (Queen Elizabeth II) cruise. He'd come into a fortune and appreciated how we'd always given him great service.
4. Keep your 'why' clear and fresh
Your great big 'why' gets you out of bed in the morning. It's your purpose – your source of meaning, fulfilment, and joy. It drives the difference you make for others. Over time, it evolves as you and your business grow and change. Keep tabs on this evolution by asking yourself these five questions: Who am I? What is it that I do? Who do I do it for? What do these people want or need? And how do they change as a result?
For an inspirational listen on defining purpose, lend your ears to The Imperfects Podcast, Ben's Crowe's Purpose
5. Nurture your existing customers
We often overlook the game-changing practice of nurturing our past and existing customers. Frankly, this is a bit weird because it's much easier to deepen relationships with existing customers than to cultivate new ones. Not convinced? Have a squiz at the stats in this article.
Your current customers have chosen you over your competitors. You've already helped them and made a difference in their lives, so why not keep sharing the love?
Ask them this simple question: What else can I do to make your life easier, more interesting, or more fun?
What else can you do?
So, lovely reader, there you go - Laura's famous five strategies for sustaining a successful small business.
As I look back and smile at all the marketing magic my clients and I have made in five fantastic years of building business buzz, I wish you many happy business birthdays followed by many more merry un-birthdays.
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