Your own business! Over the duration of our blog, we have
covered many investments, Insurance, Mutual Funds, and other techniques to place a value
on your business. I’d now like to switch
to why it’s critically important to invest in your own business. As a starting point, let me be clear, I am
not talking about your everyday business expenses such as rent, lease or mortgage
payments or phone, or your basic overhead expenses. What I’m referring to is
investments to make your business grow so that you have a greater value if you
were to sell or when your family takes control of your business.
The first investment I can
think of is REFERRAL MARKETING. Actually
such an investment requires very little capital outlay if any at all. The best referral is from your own clients or
customers. However, let me caution
you. I do not think it is wise to smack
your customers on the side of their head with a 2 by 4! I think you should first develop a friendly
conversation with your clients/customers.
In that friendly conversation politely tell them you are continuing your
expansion and would like their help. Say
something along the lines of, “when you’re speaking with a friend or family member
and the topic of my services comes up, please mention my business to them and I
promise you I will extend them the same attention I’ve given you.” Then do that and also give them discounts or even when appropriate, free items. As an example, in my own business we do objective, written financial plans for a fee. I have frequently offered to do this for free for valued clients. Put on your thinking cap and I’m positive you can come up with many new and innovative programs to show your customers that you value their business.
A good follow-up to that
approach would be to do PROMOTIONS. This
may involve an outlay of money on your part.
Print up signs to post in your business, take out ads in our local
newspapers, or have you and your staff mention to customers while in your
store. These promotions may take the
line of, “Bring a friend and/or family member to our introductory package where
all goods and services have an X % discount.”
I know of several marketing firms in our area that would gladly assist
you in this endeavor.
Those are just two
ideas. Next we will discuss other
marketing endeavors using our new technologies.