This is a good time to look at your marketing. Repeat business often lulls owners into not searching for new customers, but as you lose regulars, you need to draw in new people. Consider this an opportunity to find new ways to promote your business. Maybe try holding an event like a competition or demonstration to draw people in. Perhaps you could offer smaller portions for lower costs to encourage people to remain and advertise on being a healthier option. Be creative in your advertising, and the customers will come. Give away “freebies”, they get to taste what you offer, while they are in your restaurant. Lastly, never forget to promote yourself every day, your charm, personality, you.

Websites these days can be very inexpensive and worth creating for a more expanded presence, i.e. tourism, new people moving into the area. Local search and local marketing is also gaining popularity on the Internet. Recent research by the Kelsey Group reported that 70% of Americans consult the web before making local buying decisions, while 36% of search engine queries now request local results. You should also utilize local review sites like Yelp, Insider Pages and Angie’s Lists

Having a website can allow you the opportunity to expand into new self promoting product lines like t-shirts, coffee mugs, embossed reusable ice cream cones with your logo on them sold through the website.

The answer to this might be much simpler than you think. If you’re losing customers, it might be time for you to reduce your prices a little. Check your surrounding competition and price yourself just under them, start pushing for volume and repeat business. It doesn’t have to be much to make a big difference. Also, try offering specials and discounts. Referral discounts work really well as they also increase your customer base.

Being next to a vet is a great location for you, but just location won’t help you expand. There are several marketing strategies you can use, but your best bet would be to try targeting audiences in corresponding businesses. Like you do with the vet’s office, see about partnering with smaller pet stores or dog walkers. Think about whom else works in your field and work with them to attract new customers. One of your best advantages is that you have a clientele who can benefit from knowing other good companies that will help them with their pet ownership issues, and never forget viral marketing; word-of-mouth is your best business friend.

We do not tell fortunes here. This is one of the hardest questions that only you can answer; your success depends on you. All businesses are different, and there’s no way to predict whether it will succeed or not. However, realize that so much of your success depends on you. The work that you put into your business translates into success, so be aware that no matter what you’re doing, it won’t necessarily be easy. Visit the Services Section at www.EM-Advisory.com to get a few more ideas for yourself, and always think out of the box.

While it sounds like you’re doing the right things to run a gym if you want to draw new people in, you need to do something unique. What kind of group fitness classes do you offer? Talk to your existing members or set up a suggestion box (if you don’t have one already) to see if all of their needs are met. There needs to be a reason to attend your gym that makes it different from any other in your area. Consider this question, are your members leaving and not working out, or are they leaving for another gym? If it’s the latter, consider why these other businesses are taking your customers. What do they have that you don’t? If it’s the former, what can you do that will convince people that working out is a smart investment? You might change your ads to focus on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, or sponsor events that focus on healthy living and how regular workouts can contribute to that. You need to research both internally and your surrounding marketplace.

When negotiating to get a product into stores, the major thing you need to keep in mind is what the advantage is for them. Why should they purchase your product? Just the idea that “it’ll make you money,” won’t cut it. Do your research and figure out how many parents would like to keep a baby journal but don’t have the time. Try selling direct at parenting classes, children gyms, and similar places (always with permission from the location, of course) to give these boutiques an idea of how in demand your product would be. Having knowledge of your product and unique “out of the box” placements will make any negotiation easier, especially if you know how it will benefit the other person.

For one, talk to your customers. Being in business means building a relationship with your customers, and if they have a problem with your business that you don’t know about, ask yourself if you have been listening to them. Talk to the customers that haven’t left and even those who have, find out what they like and don’t like about your service, then fix it. Try a little new marketing by offering your current customers better discounts for referrals. They can show off your work to their neighbors. Ask if it would be ok to take a certain amount off the bill if you could put a sign in their yard, choose the yards carefully. Your best advertisement is good work.

There are several advantages to a teleclass if your company is large enough to support it. You can reach a wider audience for less cost. It’s more environmentally sound to not have people traveling all over the place. People can review later if they want. The risk is that you distance yourself from the people you’re trying to teach. I wouldn’t entirely eliminate the face to face contact of in-person lessons, but consider adding teleclasses to your arsenal of communication tools, and consider having the teleclass in employee groups.

You need to consider whether it’s worth the time to stay open. Do you have a large electricity output? Are there costs associated with operation that need to be offset by actual customers on a daily basis? Is there a reason for the slow day that will pass? Depending on what your business is shutting down on Wednesday might be your best option.

When you’re talking about working with suppliers, you’re talking about a relationship with another business owner. That relationship has to be about more than money. I can see that you’re concerned about quality, but have you considered service? Delivery? How fast you’re taken care of and how carefully? All of these should factor into any decision regarding a supplier. Consider also your customers. They might not mind a small price jump if you can keep it reasonable and the quality remains the same. They might be ok with a different quality product. Is there anything you can do with the leather to off-set the quality difference? Sometimes quality craftsmanship can make things better in the long run. In the end, your situation is not unique, but it will benefit you to do the research you need to, not only on other suppliers, but on your customers and your own capabilities.

A USP is an acronym for “unique selling proposition.” Basically, it’s a concept that originated in the 1940’s and the idea is that every advertisement makes a proposition to the customer that suggests that buying the product or using the service will grant them a benefit. The proposition must be both unique and strong enough to move a large consumer base. To make it even simpler, the USP is the thing about your product or service that is different from all similar products and services that makes yours worth buying instead of theirs. Everybody should have some idea of what this is.

If your regular customers are going to the other bakery, there’s something that they offer that you don’t. It could be that they’re simply closer to a large portion of your customer base (walking distance?), but odds are that they are doing something different from you that is attracting your customers. Find out what that is. Are they offering a different promotion? Do they have products you don’t make? Is it a presentation or customer service issue? Once you discover what the difference is between your bakeries, you can find a way to make yours more attractive again.

Keep in mind that in a business like yours, you’re not just selling a product; you’re selling the prospects on the benefits of doing business with you. Frame your pitch in terms of what’s good about working with your company rather than just what’s good about your product. Do you provide solid customer service? Are your people friendly and reliable? Do you have a good track record regarding delivery? What’s better about working with your people and not just what’s better about your product? Most importantly, what is your competition doing?

Honestly, you may be worrying too much about this. A common problem that small business owners have is that they underestimate their own product and its worth. A reasonable price increase is unlikely to drive away most of your key customers and might even draw more as they feel that higher prices equate to a better product. Keep in mind also that if you have, for example, a 10% profit margin, a 1% price hike means 10% more profit. A little bit can provide you with what you need to continue providing the service your customers have gotten used to. Also, consider offering discounts while raising prices, such as a referral discount, that will also have the benefit of increasing your customer base.

Obviously, you should talk about your business. What’s important to remember is that you need to be straight and honest. You can try and fast-talk your way into new clients with half-truths and false promises, but that won’t provide you with a nconsistent client base, and it eventually falls apart, usually sooner than later. Being honest and direct will encourage long-lasting relationships with your clients and help you succeed. Keep your ears open for your “new customer” nlikes and dislikes, stay away from his dislikes, try slowly to relate to his likes which might be in common with yours. You are always selling and marketing yourself.

Your best options as an entrepreneur is to focus on your own strengths first, you’ll discover your use of time, after you’ve identified your strengths. Then identify one by one people in business you can separately learn from who are experts in the specific areas that you are not for your project, this takes a little time, I’m still learning after 30 years and hope to never stop. Focus on the things necessary to get your project up and running, do not be afraid to ask lots of questions to everyone you can. When you’ve got yourself organized enough to move forward, step by step, then find your way to hire the people who you can help with your project. I wish I could tell you step by step 1 – 100 do this and you’ll succeed, but that’s not the answer, hard work and smart work is. Read through our website www.EM-Advisory.com and more of the questions and answers supplied through this site to help you identify more questions for yourself to answer.

Generally, the best option for this sort of thing is a screen name that will be easiest to remember and says the most about the service, or not. If you Google twitter for a definition you get hundreds of them from other twitters, if you search for the definition of Google, it seems they have managed to buy the definition of “search”. The company’s actual name is sometimes a good way to go look at abbreviations or even descriptions of what you do. Social networking sites can be great for your business, but people still have to take you seriously, so keep that in mind.

As per usual, it depends on your business, but when you’re trying to factor in all of the costs, leave nothing to question, it is your bottom line which is much more than money. With VoIP, your voice quality is directly related to your internet service and speed. Factor in that you might have to upgrade internet service in order to accommodate that. For many businesses, a DSL line would be ok, but if consistent, clear service is absolutely necessary for your business, then you’ll need a provider who can work with a T-1 or better and can provide “managed service” with SLAs. At this point, your costs may be nearing or exceeding standard phone service. VoIP sounds like a good deal, but you need to be sure that you keep all associated costs in mind; the most important is the customer service you may provide to your customers.

Truly depends on the nature of that small business. Make sure there’s something on your site that gives people a reason to keep coming back. It’s one thing to get them to your site, which these days could be a marketing nightmare to get it right. You need something unique on there that appeals to your target audience.

What sort of business are you in? A company name should be something relevant to the business, memorable, and maybe interesting to people when they speak its name, something “unique”. It should say something about what you do and how you do it. There are no other hard and fast rules for naming a company. After considering the above, look in the mirror and ask yourself, what will my new company’s name be?

There’s no one way to develop and execute an effective marketing campaign, and it can change from location to location. The thing to remember is that your marketing campaign determines the presence your business will have in your area.

Your best bet is to actually contact your local SBA and ask them for advice for your area. They’ll be able to tell you what people are looking for and how to be reach them.

These are not mutually exclusive propositions. To begin with, you should always be learning. Business continues to evolve and you need to know what direction it’s going in and what direction you want to go in to parallel with it while adding your own twist for new directions. That being said, you shouldn’t be afraid to implement the things you’ve learned. The trick is to ask yourself: “Is this appropriate to my business?” Every company is different, and while something may work for one, it might not really apply to another. You should implement your new knowledge as soon as you can, providing that it’s a good fit for what you do. If not, then keep learning while you evolve the new knowledge in to your own structure.

Generally speaking, tough economic times is a good time to look into buying and merging companies since you’ll be able to get it for a good price, but you should also make sure to do your due diligence, this is not a time to guess. If you’d like specific advice on an upcoming purchase event you can contact us directly at EM Advisory Corp, or thus make sure you contact someone who can be completely objective by understanding both your needs and the other company’s wants. Just by your question please contact someone.

In most cases, it doesn’t really matter. Most small businesses use the calendar year for simplicity. However, it can be useful to use a fiscal year if your business has a busy season at a particular time. For example, this adviser was previously in the toy business working at a toy manufacturer. We made the bulk of our sales to retailers in the last quarter of the calendar year for the holiday season. We got paid for these sales January through March. In this situation, we ended our fiscal year in March and started the new year April 1. That is an example of when a fiscal year makes sense. Tourist businesses may also benefit from a fiscal year

We would urge you to speak with your accountant regarding your particular new business.

Our answer might seem a little incomplete, but we do not know what type of product you are trying to present to children or their age group. Children are among the most highly sought-after marketing demographics in the country. Part of this answer depends on what you mean by “children,” as marketing to teenagers is vastly different from marketing to kids under ten, for example, but there are some tips that remain the same for both.

First, remember that in the end the parents control the purse strings. While they might not be directly exposed to your advertising a lot of the time, the way you present your product is going to affect how the kids present it to their parents, so make sure that what you’re selling has a benefit that will appeal to the adults as well as the kids. Make sure also that you’re placing your product where kids are most likely to have access to it. Mall stores are going to be much better than large chain superstores if only because kids are more likely to hang out at malls than their local Walmart or Target. If you have your own store, find ways to also make it a hangout for kids. If the kids are there, they’ll be more likely to buy your product or at least be exposed to it.

With children it’s also extremely important to keep an eye on trends. Clever marketing finds way to take what is currently “in” and use it to draw the attention of the target audience, in your case, children. nnOlder kids often like the same things as younger kids, but attempt to show that in an ironic way, like taking a popular cartoon character and making a t-shirt with a witty or mocking statement regarding said character. With kids it’s even more important to think out of the box and craft a marketing approach and presence that will make owning your product, ultimately, fun.

When you say “more customers,” that implies that you have some to begin with. If that’s the case, then you have the seeds of new customers already. Start giving referral bonuses to your current customers if they bring new people to your business. Let them have 10% off of cleaning services if they get you five new customers, for example. You can compound this by going a little bit extra with your current customers by doing things like sending thank you notes on a major holiday or simply asking if there’s anything you can do to improve your service. If your current customers see you as attentive and interested in their business, they’ll be more likely to recommend you to your friends.

Actually, now is a great time for entrepreneurship for exactly the reason you said. The bigger companies are floundering, so there is more of an opportunity to get into markets that were previously dominated by them. Part of what is changing in the markets is that there is a noted lack of faith developing in the larger companies. The perception of large companies these days are as untrustworthy, uninterested, and generally not in tune with their customers.

This isn’t to say that new industry titans will rise out of the ashes of global economic meltdown, but rather that it’s making a little space for new companies as the current titans don’t have the resources to focus on competing with smaller entities. More to the point, smaller, local shops are more likely to be able to win the trust and comfort of their customer bases again. This is a time when knowledge of a product, passion for the purchase and production of something, can go a long way. Doing something well at a local level makes it more likely that a small business can be successful, especially when you would add today’s technology and communication advantages for the small business owner.

Also keep in mind that in economic hard times, new and clever business models emerge. People are losing jobs, and they have been so corporatized that it’s sometimes hard to conceive of doing something on one’s own. However, there are needs out there to be filled, and clever people can be the ones to fill those needs. Finding a new way to produce, market, package, or present an already established product or service in a cheaper, faster, or more efficient manner changes the playing field from that point forward and is better both for companies and consumers.

This largely depends on your specific situation. First of all, is this vehicle an integral part of your business (like a shipping business), or is it a way to make the running of your business more convenient (as in a company car for you or an employee)? nnIs having a new vehicle every two or three years with no major repair risks more important than long-term cost? Or are long term cost savings more important than lower monthly payments? Is having some ownership in your vehicle more important than low up-front costs and no down payment? Is it important to you to pay off your vehicle and be debt-free for a while, even if it means higher monthly payments for the first few years?nnIt doesn’t make a specific difference to your business in the sense that there are no provisions for buying or leasing that have a direct impact on it. However, the same considerations that you would take for a personal vehicle in regards to buying or leasing still apply in this case. nnPlease contact your business CPA and ask them the same question, they do know much more about your business and would be a better source regarding your financial/business conditions.

It really depends on the business, but “customer service” should theoretically be everything that your company is about and represents. If you can provide for your customer in the best way you know how consistently within your own current structure, then you don’t need somebody else to do it for you, as long as your customers are satisfied and more. If your customers aren’t happy by the response when they have questions or comments, then it’s time to consider getting people specifically to deal with customers.

That depends on what business you have, but in general it’s more civicly responsible to do so. Large national chains will almost always be able to undersell local shops just because they have the buying power to keep their costs lower, but keep in mind that money spent there won’t stay in your community and you will get lower quality customer service when the actual decision-makers are hidden away in a skyscraper in another city rather than working behind the counter. If you can afford to do so, building a relationship with local suppliers will get you better quality products and better service than working with a chain.

There’s no formula for business success. No math will help you except the math on your balance sheet, so don’t look for one. There are some things that can help you, though. Sound management practices, technical support, experience in whatever industry you’re in, and the ability to plan will help you make the decisions you need in order to create a successful company. Remember, though, that even with all of these elements, there’s no guarantee that you’ll do well. It will still take a lot of hard work , a realistic outlook, and any number of other factors that you can’t necessarily control.

Without knowing your business we will try our best to give you some options to work with. There are several ways to stay competitive when you find that there are more people in your market space than when you originally started. First, I would ask myself a question, what if I went beyond the 20 mile radius, is my competition more or less? Depending on your own answer please consider the following suggestions

Keep in mind that you have an advantage over them since you’ve been there longest and therefore are established and have a customer base already

If you want to keep that customer base, though, you’ll have to get creative with your marketing. Try offering deals and benefits for your regular customers that encourage them to stay. 10% off coupons and the like go a long way toward maintaining a customer base. Also, since you still need to bring in new customers, referral bonuses will turn your customer base into a marketing machine for you, encouraging the people who have stayed loyal to your business to bring in friends, even ones who have considered your competitors. Holding an event also tends to draw attention to your business rather than the other people who are doing the same thing, so don’t be afraid to bring people in with raffles, small prizes, or similar things that are fun for your customers and get them to come to you

Most importantly, watch your competitors and see what they’re doing. How did they get started? How did they draw the attention of people in your area to begin with? If it worked for them, it can work for you as well. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box with your marketing and your presence.

Telecommunications can mean many things, but keep in mind that all small businesses share several common needs, specifically, the need to serve sales, purchases, financing, and operational functions. Your telecommunications option should be the one that best serves all of these functions. This covers things as simple as your long distance carrier to your internet provider and even fax machine. Only you can know what is most appropriate for your specific business in this regard, but think in terms of meeting the service needs listed above.

Marketing is much more than just advertising and selling. It involves learning about the market you want to sell to, understanding what they can afford, and how best to approach them. There are four basic aspects to marketing: product (description of what you’re selling), price (how much it costs), promotion (how you inform people of what you’re selling), and place (the distribution channels you use to get the product to the market). Keeping those in mind, you have a very basic concept of what is actually involved in marketing.

This will require a little trial and error after you’ve discovered what your competition charges. You’ll find that as you would begin your business and place bids on properties to service, you’ll learn quickly what you can charge to beat your competitors while offering additional services your competitors don’t. Keep supply and demand in mind and always check out your competition to see what they’re doing, both in terms of pricing and services offered.

Market potential in general boils down to a very basic formula. You figure out a customer profile (who you want to target with your marketing) and combine that with the geographic size you want to target (how many of those people are in that area). This is your general market potential.

To get a more specific marketing potential, you need to know also how many competitors you have and their strength in the market area. You can then estimate how much of their business you’ll be able to take from them (we recommend being conservative on your estimates), and that will be the market potential of your business.