30 of the Best Business Tips for 2010
The collective wisdom of our readership never ceases to amaze me.
Over the past couple weeks we’ve been asking for your Best Business Tips for 2010, and the responses did not disappoint.
And, as promised we selected one of these great tips at random, and that person won a $25 Amazon gift card courtesy of Smallbizbee.com (you’ll have to read to the end to see who won).
A big thanks to everyone who contributed – Here’s to taking your business to a new level in 2010!
What’s Your Best Business Tip for 2010?
Website: www.pencilbugs.com
Don’t sit on your ideas because doing nothing will guarantee nothing. Everything takes effort.
Bob Baylor
Website: www.ccca.org
Whenever possible, always try to give your prospect — and customer — more than they’re asking for. Under promise, but over-deliver; they’ll appreciate it, and keep coming back.
Trevor
Website: http://twit101.com
Don’t hesitate, but make plotted decisions.
Nick Leung
Website: http://feedbackjar.com
Not only should you listen to customer feedback, but engage them on how you could improve your products and services.
Cindy Miller
This is something simple I learned from my days with Mary Kay Cosmetics….always carry your business card with you and each time you get into conversation with anyone (at the grocery store, at a restaurant, etc.), introduce yourself and hand them your business card. Have them handy (in your pockets; not your wallet or purse). Make it your goal to hand out a minimum of five business cards a day! Oh yeah, keep record of your mileage as you are making your errand runs since you are going to be discussing business.
Jamie Glass
Website: www.artfulthinkers.com
Identify three groups, associations or networks that you can join in 2010 that have your target market decision makers as members. Look for opportunities to join groups that your competitors wouldn’t join so that you can definitely stand out and influence them over time.
Website: www.publiside.com
Continue to communicate coherently, consistently and credibly.
Jessie Burke
Website: www.posiescafe.com
For new businesses: Make sure that there is actually a real need for your business (just because it will make all of your dreams come true is not a good enough reason… unless you have the money for that).
For existing businesses: Know that everything is renegotiable, especially in a tough economy (rent rates, vendor pricing, etc.)
Jenna
Website: www.verticalresponse.com
Fill in your small businesses pot holes. With things like social media sticking around, it is going to be more and more important that each customer’s contact with you is an experience. In order to make it an experience you need to have all your bases covered. Make sure you know what happens to your customers the second they step in the door until they no longer have a need for you if and when that happens.
Website: www.postsurgerycomfort.com
Have a good plan and stick with it. Change is bound to happen, so make sure to incorporate it into your plan. Work your plan, and plan your work!
Anita Campbell
Website: http://smallbiztrends.com
If you run an online business, stop wasting time looking at stats and surfing around. Set goals: sales goals, profit goals, and other achievement goals. Tell your spouse your goals, or hire a business coach and share you goals with your coach — you need someone else to hold you accountable for meeting your goals. Give it respect as a business.
John Carroll
Website: http://trescoach.blogspot.com
Keep it simple – don’t over-complicate the work that must be done in 2010 to ensure your success.
Brian J. Smith
Website: www.scanmonkeys.com
One of the best tips is to get everything in writing before you begin a service or deliver a product of any significant size. This includes expectations for both parties. If everything is laid out properly up front, there are less chances of things veering off course. Clients tend to be happier when you hold up your end. You tend to get paid easier making it a win-win. (Oh and coming through on your promises is good for business, too).
Chris Taylor
Website: www.CustomPlanet.com
Embrace Social Media. Businesses, both with or without a web presence need to get next to the idea that sales and conversations about their brand or product are occurring whether they are present online or not. These conversations are happening millions of times per day on social media sites. Businesses that recognize this will be more successful.
Recently, we were hired to print custom t-shirts for an upcoming event for a cheer team. We posted the design to their facebook page and sold 30 more shirts, not to mention that we exposed our brand to 600 new potential customers that were fans of their facebook page. These people would have never heard about us otherwise.
Michelle Mangen
Website: http://www.thevirtualasst.com
For marketing on a “shoestring” I would highly suggest you do two things which can have a significant impact on your business 1) get a WordPress site and begin to blog 2) join the social media craze
Both of these things will take time but you will find, if done properly, can have an amazing impact on your business and bottom line
For great free software I have so many but will limit my suggestions to only two.
1. Free online accounting software www.outright.com
2. For remote screenshare sessions www.crossloop.com
There are so many great things out there that can help you and your business succeed – and the most important one is “other people’s knowledge”. So start building your relationships now!
Michelle @mmangen on Twitter
Ken Conn
Website: http://www.dataprojections.com
Postal mail your customers hand written thank you notes once a project is complete. With customer service becoming more and more automated or outsourced it is valuable to show your customers that you are there for them and to treat them more like a partner and not just another customer.
Simon Paul Louw
Small and medium sized business entrepreneurs should not allow themselves to be bullied by some of these big conglomerates, but look at effective ways to grow their businesses. Now with this downswing of the economy world-wide they should take the opportunity and race ahead with their marketing, creating a niche market for them. Take good care of the meager finances you and don’t splash on anything that is unnecessary.
Lynn Strand-Meyer
Website: www.OutsideKnowledge.com
When face to face networking, remember to be a good listener. Too often, we spend time giving “our pitch,” and forget to listen to what the other has to say. You will be surprised what listening can do to help your understanding of what the other person might need.
Website: http://SweetTea-StraightTalk.com
Get comfortable with business planning in the midst of chaos. Planning is good – but when you spend your time saying “going to do” and “learning to do” you are not doing. Implement. Test. Measure. Revise. Rinse. Repeat.
Ken Shenkman
Website: http://www.bulkcandystore.com
Reinvigorate yourself every so often. It’s human nature to become complacent when things are going well. Every now and then find a reason to push yourself to bring your business to the next level. For me, it was an article about how well a competitor was doing. That article forced me to push even harder and double our our online business this year.
Dave Kollasch
Website: http://greenerbilling.com
People can go to many Web sites, can use numerous similar applications … but they will remain faithful to the business that supports them and their needs. Before launching a business, it is imperative that you assess the level to which your customers will be in control. Some of their needs may not deliver a high return on investment (monetarily), but if those result in a flurry of positive word-of-mouth advertising, then it has paid for itself!
Kamau Jackson
Website: http://www.internetknowledgesolutions.com
Building a local search engine presence– with optimized listings, online coupons and customer reviews– will give you a competitive advantage. Especially so when you don’t limit yourself to Google alone. The tight integration with social media makes it even more powerful.
Peg Kelley:
Website: www.meetingtoolsandjewels.com
Have only the meetings you really need to have. One of the biggest complaints of businesspeople is the time wasted in meetings. Therefore, have fewer of them.
Ask yourself a few questions such as:
Does the size of the group make a meeting feasible?
Is the knowledge required for any problem solving dispersed among several people?
Is the commitment of several people or groups necessary for successful implementation of the results?
Are there likely to be conflicting points of view that need to be reconciled?
If the answers to this are YES, then a meeting makes sense. If not, then consider email or phone calls instead.
Always respect the time used in a meeting and give a second and third thought to your first impulse to call a meeting.
Merchant Account Provider
Website: www.ampyourcashflow.com
Find creative ways to trim your bottom line. This could include finding new vendors for cell phone service, Internet, web hosting companies, and merchant account providers (to name a few). A little bit of research could pay good dividends for your business.
Kristi Hines
Website: http://kristihines.com/
Be honest with potential clients. Even if it costs you one sale, you will gain their trust. If they recommend you to others, you will benefit with many more sales and loyal clients.
Julie
Dedicate yourself to entrepreneurial reading materials at least 1 hour a day and applying at least one insight within the next week.
Timothy Kioko
Website: https://twitter.com/CRMBrussels
2010 is the year of relationship building… segment your customer base and build a one on one relationship with the customers in the most profitable segment… do not forget the other segments…. success
Daniel Watson
Website: http://uniqueinsights.com.au
What’s your best business tip for 2010? Read all 26 business articles published at http://uniqueinsights.com.au and apply the relevant advice to the areas you know your business can improve. The hour or so invested in reading and absorbing the article will pay dividends many times over for your business.
Andy Hanselman
Website: www.andyhanselman.com
Think in 3D! That means be ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ in your chosen market places. In ever more crowded markets, and massive customer choice, remember ‘same as’ sucks!
Matt | Small Biz Bee
Website: http://smallbizbee.com
Set specific goals for what you want your business to accomplish in 2010 – and make sure they’re SMART goals!
And the Winner is…
All the business tips were great, that’s why I had to pick a winner of our $25 Amazon Gift Card at Random. The winner is…Cindy Miller! Congratulations Cindy, we’ll be in touch to send you our gift of thanks for your contribution.
Your Turn
If you think a small business out there could benefit from these tips, we appreciate you sharing this post with your network.
Have a tip you want to share? The comment section is waiting…
Headline Photo Credit: rachaelvoorhees
Fantastic post, I got to both learn from some great entrepreneurs and I got to follow up by visiting their web sites. Here’s my own 10 cents:
Embrace the difficult, the daring, the costly, and the complex. Even if your idea is brilliant in its simplicity if anyone can do it than everyone will. If you are a tough act to follow, however, you will get far fewer imitators.
Here’s hoping for a fantastic 2010 for all involved!
@Tyler
Thanks for coming by Tyler….love the quote, ” a tough act to follow gets fewer imitators”
Matt
Absolute coolnes. To have all of this sage advice from such a diverse group is just rockin’.
Oh, and your site is looking great!
I’ve got lots of link to start exploring so I’m gonna quit yammerin!
George
Wow great tips! I learned something from each and every comment. The tip I wanted to share is One that is inspired by John Warrillow’s book that I had to opportunity to preview (it will be out on shelves Feb. 1), “Built To Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell.” I learned that if you have a business (no matter what it is) you should learn how to make that business appealing so that if the day ever came that you needed to sell it, it would be worth something. I hadn’t ever really thought about it before, but by following John Warrillow’s techniques you really are just building your business to be the best it can possibly be which in return will only result in success.
@George
Aren’t the people around here smart! It’s inspiring for me to see all these great tips coming from our readers.
Matt
@Becky
Good point. You should always think about the value of your business both to yourself, your customers, and finally to an outside party who may be interested in purchasing.
Matt
Yeah to Cindy for winning! What a great list here and it was also nice to see some familiar faces here on this post as well!
Great list. I own a small and this will help me a lot as a new entrepreneur. Thanks.
Good useful content is what we all want. When visitors land on your website, blog or business venture you want them to think “this is what I am looking for” period.
Paul
I also thinking creating strategic partnerships with other local companies shows customers that you care about the quality of work that you hope to deliver.
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