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We hope you find this arcthve useful. A subscription to The Small Business Advisor Newsletter is free. Subscribe now - it's easy! The Small Business Advisor Newsletter for January, 2000 CONTENTS
Pricing your Product or Service Finding Good Employees Tell Them Who You Really Are NOTES/TIPS/etc SEARCH public records. Visit http://www.knowx.com. Cost is minimal and you can search bankruptcy records, lawsuits, liens, etc. There is also a reverse address and telephone finder. LOOKING FOR A PRINTER. Consider the NEC SuperScript 870 Laser. $300 and is very highly rated. http://www.nectech.com. GOVERNMENT BUSINESS. Try the Internet's largest source for government sales leads absolutely free for the first two weeks. Bidline.com, http://www.bidline.com specializes in sales information for companies seeking government contracts and has recently enhanced its services with sales leads from all areas of local government and abroad. All you need to do to try any Bidline service...web or e-mail versions...at no charge is to simply go to www.bidline.com and log in with the User ID "BETTER" and the Password "SALES" GREAT SEARCH SITES.
Try one of our current favorites: CHEAP PACKING SUPPLIES. Don't forget The Container Store for excellent prices on packing materials in small quantities. SHOP FOR THE LOWEST PRICES ON THE WEB. Visit http://www.pricescan.com LOOKING FOR HI SPEED INTERNET ACCESS (and who isn't?). Find out what is available in your area: http://www.getspeed.com. INTERNET FACTS. According to Zona Research you have only 8-seconds to keep a visitor at your website ... 25% of all U.S. households now have Internet access! FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ON THE WEB. The LookSmart search site (http://www.looksmart.com) has a neat feature called "LookSmart Live!" that allows you to type in any question or request for information using plain English. The LookSmart folks will return an answer to you within 48 hours and usually much sooner. The Internet Marketing Center, http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/7115 Marketing tips, strategies, and secrets for internet marketing, online advertising and website promotion that will skyrocket your small, medium or home based business profits through the roof. Pricing Your
Product or Services Pricing means more than how much you charge. Smart customers look beyond pricing when considering a purchase. Price is important but so are delivery times, guarantees, customer support and quality to name a few. Small and home based businesses can - in many cases - do a better job than "big businesses" in some of these areas. You should evaluate your pricing based on this fact. You're small and don't have the inertia or paperwork logjams of a bigger business. You're quick on your feet and can change direction easily and quickly. You cannot determine prices based only on costs and desired profit margins. First step is to do a little research to get some "real world" pricing guidelines. You don't need a high priced marketing firm to help. Remember, you know your business better than any consultant. Here are some marketing research tips: 1. Contact your competitors. Call, like any customer, and ask for pricing information. Quick and easy. 2. Find out about competitor's costs. Use trade groups, suppliers' sales reps, former employees. 3. Trade associations are a great source of pricing data. Use the library and the Internet to find these appropriate trade associations. 4. Use the Internet for research! This can be your most valuable research tool. Visit competitors websites; trade associations; newsgroups. Search the Internet using any of the major search engines. 5. Review catalogs that carry your product(s). With this information and your own costs you can determine where you set your own pricing and still be competitive. Price carefully. You might not be able to compete on price only but remember your advantages as a small business and emphasize your "quick service" or "outstanding customer service." You may be able to price higher and still win customers within your market niche. Be careful about lowering prices just to meet or beat the competition. There are, however, some good reasons to lower prices: 1. A strategy to
increase market share. Sometimes you have to increase prices in order to cover, for example, increased cost of materials, labor, etc. When an increase is necessary ease the pain for your customers by considering the following: 1. Notify your existing customers of the increase and, if possible, give them an opportunity to purchase at the existing prices. 2. Try and advertise the increase along with "new and improved" products or services. 3. Give the customer something in return for the increased costs. For example, free shipping with orders above a certain value. 4. If possible, delay the increase for existing customers. The biggest mistake small businesses make concerning pricing is not reassessing pricing on a regular basis. The marketplace is constantly changing making it mandatory you keep a close watch on your pricing. Raise or lower prices as necessary keeping the above suggestions in mind. Visit The Small Business Advisor website at http://www.isquare.com for a wide variety of useful small business information. It's not recruiting...
It's marketing (or, How to Find Good Employees ... ed) After 18 years in the Human Resources and Recruiting industries, I've found that the key to attracting quality employees lies in establishing a well-thought out recruiting plan for your business. You can't expect great employees to find you. First, you must develop a recruiting plan to identify, target, and reach them. Once you do this, you'll greatly improve the caliber of your job candidates, lower your recruiting costs, and ultimately produce better business results. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind: It's not staffing, it's marketing... You have a marketing plan for your business, right? That plan identifies your target customers, describes where you'll find them and how you'll reach them, and lays out a proactive strategy to raise your target customer's awareness of your unique attributes. Well, guess what, you need to do the same thing with your staffing efforts. Define your target candidate: Look at your best employees. What skills and qualities do they have? Be specific. Write down the attributes of your best employees. Use this information to create a description of your target employee. When you're done, you should be able to describe the education, work history, job skills, professional affiliations, and personal interests of the employees you want to target. Where will you find these candidates? Once you've described the qualities you'll be targeting, think about where employees like this can be found. Again, start with your best employees. Where did you find them? Newspaper advertising? Professional societies? Employee referrals? Internships? Whatever the source, describe the top three or four sources you want to focus on to get your message in front of your target employee audience. How will you reach these candidates? So far you know your target candidate, and where you're likely to find them. The next step is defining how you'll reach these people. What methods are most effective in delivering your message? Flyers? Radio advertising? Job postings? Recruiters? Personal recommendations? Which options are most credible to your target audience? How much do they cost? How will you allocate your recruiting time and dollars between these different channels? What makes your job unique? This is vital. Think about it? If you can't quickly, clearly, and confidently answer this, why would a quality employee choose your opportunity? You must take the time to write down what your opportunity has to offer to your target audience. Best pay? Most flexible hours? More responsibility, sooner? Advancement and growth opportunities? You need to understand what your target candidates want, how your opportunity provides this, and then sell the candidate on your position. Build a pipeline. Once you know your best recruiting sources, you must build a consistent, long-term relationship with three to four of them. Even when you don't have open jobs, you should be sponsoring their events, offering $500 scholarships, meeting with professors and/or top managers, placing adds in their professional journals, etc. The key is to build name recognition and credibility among the best potential job candidates. Over time, the best candidates from these sources will begin to seek you out to inquire about working for your company. These tips illustrate the proactive recruiting approach that consistently produces quality candidates. If you follow them, you and your business will both benefit. Good luck. Contact David at dsikora@peoplesense.com or visit People Sense at www.peoplesense.com Tell Them Who
You Really Are There is a lot of talk about building loyalty and trust on the Internet. Various strategies and techniques have been discussed, different strategies orchestrated. Yet, it seems the majority of people miss the main ingredient of this trust-building process: being vulnerable. The old advice "give before asking" applies here, as well. To earn someone's trust, we need to trust first. Just as people are preconditioned to smile in response to someone else's smile, we are naturally interested in people who display a genuine interest in us, and we find it easier those who trust us first. A friend of mine will not share a picture of herself with visitors because she feels too unattractive. Another friend doesn't even want to disclose that she *is* a woman because she feels that some people will not take a female-owned business seriously enough. One of my male friends, a Black American, shared with me that he will never show his photo on the web, because he knows that some people will refuse to buy from him only because of the color of his skin. I even know a business owner who is so concerned about the possibility of being harassed that he doesn't display his name, phone number or address on his website (funny thing is that the first thing you will see when you visit his domain is the annoying java script box asking you for your own name). I agree that, sadly, some people refuse to do business with a woman only because she is a woman. And there are too many of those who will not buy from a person of color. Some buyers want to deal only with a large company, even if they know that you will solve their problem for less money. No matter how good you are, some people will reject you for a very superficial reason. That's fine. A blessing in disguise, really. Consider that *they* didn't qualify to do business with you - not vice versa. After all, why would *you* want to do business with someone like that? The Internet is a huge place, full of wonderful, progressive people with imagination. People who are able to make intelligent and rational decisions based on facts and on their own values. Look for these kind of contacts on the Internet. Build your website and your Internet presence with them in mind - not with the others. And once they come to you, don't alienate them by hiding your face and by telling them half truths. Trust their intelligence and common sense. The more truthful you are with your true prospects and customers, the more comfortable, safe, and non-threatening they feel with you. Don't be afraid of being vulnerable. A few people might be turned off by some of your characteristics, some might even try to ridicule you. But those you would really like to do business with in the long run will recognize who you are, will identify with you, and will be inspired to trust you. Share with visitors who you really are - show them your values, your photograph, even your shortcomings. People will respect you for this more than you might think and they will drawn to you. Ironically, it is one of the major trust building factors. Try a sample of Wanda's newsletter mailto:newsletter@loska.com or a free teleclass at http://InternetSuccessCoach.com Return to top of page - Back to Home Page - Back to Archive Index |