You can’t build a skyscraper on a sandy basis.
Some business owners make a big mistake thinking too small. When you are just starting, setting up big goals is a little bit difficult thing. And you can do it. The question is: Are you willing to set up your business for growth?
Now I want to tell you about my uncle John. Uncle John had a normal family – a nice wife and a beautiful daughter. Through the years we have been together often on a family gathering. John always joined our party latter, sometimes he missed the dinner. He missed also his daughter first step because he spoke on the phone, he late for her ballet competition, for the first day of school, for a graduation…. Only because he was in a business meeting. Of course, his wife – my aunt, gets used to eating alone, to drink her glass of wine alone, to sleep alone, to prepare every holiday without him. She was absolutely sure there is another woman. When their daughter grew up and moved out, my aunt decided to reveal the truth, followed my uncle and discovered the terrible truth – her husband was obsessed with his job. I have to admit it – John has a successful company. One of the best in its segment. In private conversation, once uncle John told me what he learned for business through the years and save my family stability.
Here’re uncle John pieces of advice.
1. Prepare your business for growth from the beginning
Even in a beginning of a new business, you should think about his growth – about a growing number of customers who will make more purchases, new types of products and directions of development.
Please, follow these questions:
– Is my brand name illustrating the essence of my business? Your brand name sends message to your customers. He shows what is your attitude to your business, your ideals which you cannot change in the future.
– What are my basic values, constant elements? Every business needs of fundamentals values on which to be built.
– What are my advantages over my competition? Everybody has a unique style, skills, and ideas. You should know what you are better. Refer your efforts in this direction.
– How you send messages to your customers? You should know that you contact your customers not only in your store, fabric or local. You contact them via your brand name, your site, even your labels and packages. Everything needs to bring one message.
– What do you want to reach? It’s good to know from the beginning what is your target group – do you want your business to be a local, national or international? Then you could build your business this way.
2. Good online presence is a must
Uncle John thought that internet changed everything in a business world. He learned that in a difficult way. For a temporary business good online presentation is obligatory. From the beginning you need to prepare your website for more traffic, more hits and more requests.
Here’re uncle John main things:
– You should choose a perfect platform for you which be able to cope with a big weight. Nobody wants site overload and problems with using it. Think about cloud hosting – it could give you more space. Maybe you need a Virtual Private Server and higher or unlimited bandwidth with your hosting account. Make everything to protect your site from a crash.
– Your site is your business identity to the customers and it needs to be in absolute synergy with your business values.
– You should think about a hosting plan which can save you money if you pay for a long period, like a year. Some hosting providers make a 25% discount for advance payment.
3. What is the average day of your customers?
The last advice of uncle John was about information. He thinks that a good information is a key word for every success. Of course, it will be perfect to know what your competition planning to do but I don’t want to make you like a James Bond in the business world. More important is to know your customers – what they purchase and what they looking for. In one word – you need a good DATA for your clients. From the very beginning of your business, you should start to gather information – tracking and measurement will help you to know what’s the reason for your success, where your grow come from or maybe why there is no growth, what are the problems. With Google Analytics you can track your traffic, you can use also Hot jar it “gives you the ‘big picture’ of how to improve your site’s user experience and performance/conversion rates.”
Thеse were uncle John’s pieces of advice. I hope that they will help you in the way they help me!
