How to Make Customers Love Your Small Business

Customers are the heart and soul of your business. Without them there just isn’t a business.
And when you have loyal and devoted customers it just makes being a business owner the
best thing in the world. There’s nothing like building a community of like-minded individuals.
So what can you do to build and grow the love? Here are a few ideas to make your customers
love your small business.

Freebies

Everyone enjoys a good freebie. When you provide your customers with regular value that
costs them nothing, not even their email address, they really start to feel appreciated. They
also start to truly appreciate you too. Freebies can come in the form of promotional offers
like a BOGO (buy one get one).

You can also share free downloads and information. It’s more than offering free content.
Offer free downloads too. Think about reports, videos, checklists, comparison charts,
workbooks, and lists. Help your customer by providing extra value for free.

Superior Customer Service

Over deliver when it comes to customer service. Provide them with an exceptional customer
service experience and make sure the experience is consistent. Each time you interact with
a customer - whether it is on a social networking site, via telephone or email or face to
face - make sure they know how much you appreciate them.
How? Create systems that support a great experience. Autoresponders can ensure each
customer email is acknowledged in a timely manner. Apparent policies and procedures and
a FAQ page can help ensure customers can easily find answers to their questions. And a
friendly, polite, and welcoming communication can reinforce your customer service vision.

Quality!

Make sure everything you do is done to the best of your ability. Always put forth quality
information, products and services. Quality matters. It not only helps you earn customer love;
it also helps build credibility and authority in your industry. People will share the good news
about you and your business. You’ll receive referrals and recommendations. It’s one of the
best ways to build a business.

Create high expectations for yourself and your business. Then rise up to the challenge to
meet them. Provide an exceptional customer service experience. Give your customers a
steady supply of no cost value, and take steps to ensure each and every product or service
you deliver or represent is top notch.

Treat your customers like you want to be treated and you’ll be well on your way to building a
loyal and loving customer list. They’ll buy from you more often. They’ll refer you to others and
they’re the best people to work with. Loving customers make being a business owner worthwhile.

How to Streamline Your Business Processes

If you own and operate your own online business then chances
are you have a multitude of processes. Each process contributes
to your bottom line. And each process consumes time. Your time
is money as they say. If you take the time to streamline your
processes you can make more money in less time. Here are
four steps to streamline your business processes.

Step #1 Test and Time

Do you know how long it takes you to accomplish each core task 
associated with your business? For example, do you know how 
long it takes you to pay your bills each month? Bill paying is a task 
that doesn't generate any income. Therefore it makes sense to 
reduce the time spent and streamline the process as much as possible. 

The first step to streamlining your processes is to gather the data. Time 
yourself with each of your core processes. For example, when you sit 
down to pay your bills this month, write the time that you start. When 
you’re finished, take note of how long it took you to complete the task. 
Repeat this process with each of your business tasks. 

Step #2 Know The Value Of Your Time

Do you know your hourly value? This is essentially your annual income 
divided by the number of hours you work each year. It’s often easier to 
determine if you break it down by month. So how much did you work last 
month and how many hours did you work? For example, if you worked 
20 hours a week last month and you earned $3600 then your hourly 
value is 3600/80 (assuming there were four weeks in the month) or $45/hour. 

The value of your time is important. It serves as a motivator to spend more 
time on profit generating tasks and less time on administrative or management 
tasks. Additionally, it’ll help you make budgetary decisions when deciding how 
to streamline processes. 

For example, if you are trying to streamline your bill paying processes and you 
determine that it’ll cost you $35/hour to outsource the task to a bookkeeper then 
you know that it is a financially wise decision. You’ll save $10/hour. Of course this 
is assuming you replace that hour you would have spent paying bills with a profit 
generating task.

Step #3 Look for Ways to Save Time

In step #2 outsourcing was mentioned. There are essentially three main ways to 
streamline a process. You can:

Outsource or delegate

Use templates or blueprints

Automate processes

As you’re working through each task, always look for opportunities to save time. 
Embrace the tools that make sense for your business. 

Once you've added technology or outsourced some or all of the task, consider timing 
the task again. Just as you did in step #1, assess how long it takes you to complete 
each task. Also occasionally evaluate your hourly value. Ultimately, the goal is to make 
more and do less. 


The Most Effective Sources To Improve Your Personality

It's been said that if you want to earn more then you have to become or
grow more. What it means is that you have do personal development to
become a more effective person  when dealing with others.

You must have asked yourself this question often, “How do I improve
my personality and become a more effective person?” People
throughout the ages have realized that personality is a very important
contributor to success. Indeed, you cannot succeed without having a
great personality. When you are inspiring, confident, charming, optimistic,
etc. you are improving your personality. The sheer magnetic effect that it
adds to your charisma is what brings you to success.

But, where do you go to improve your personality? There are actually
various places where you can learn.

The most effective school for building a personality is life itself. Learn
from the people that you meet everyday. Just think about the people who
inspire you the most. What do they have that you don’t? What is it that
makes you and other people drawn to them? Surely it is not just about
physical looks. When we are talking about success in business, a person’s
physicality does not really matter. So, there’s something else. Maybe:-

(i)   These people are more self-confident than you are,
(ii)  These people are able to do things by themselves in a much
       better way than you can,
(iii) These people are able to speak and communicate in a better way,
(iv) These people have a better sense of humor,
(v)  These people are friendlier

…and so on. These are the things that really build their personality. Analyze
which of these traits they have and try to emulate them in your own personality.
Even if you take one positive trait from the influential people that you meet and
work them in your own personality, you can see how your life will be improved.
The second source – and a very considerable source too – to hone your
personality is through books. Some of the best sellers of the world have been
personality development books. Some names that come to mind without any
effort are:-

(i)    How to win Friends and influence People
(ii)   Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
(iii)  The Secret
(iv)  Who moved my Cheese?
(v)   Rich Dad, Poor Dad
(vi)  The entire Chicken Soup series of books

These are just a few examples. Go to the nearest bookstore and you will find
so many titles. Even if currently you think that books cannot teach you anything,
you must make an attempt at least. Read any one of these titles and you will
see how they can influence your way of thinking. You won’t have to do anything
special, but these books will add to the richness of your life.

Improving personality is not something that you can start and then stop; it has
to be an ongoing process. Start learning from these sources and you will see
that you reach where you want to.

I am a believer in the  study & practice of personal development. If
you are ready to begin improving yourself, subscribe to the blog so,
you will find out about what is working  & what books to read.

Are Home Parties Still Relevant?

Do people like to still have fun & gather with families
& friends? I know I do as well as you do also. It seems
like they are getting together more now than they did
before.

I believe that social media has brought us out of our
self imposed prisions.

What is a home party? A home party or a party plan is a network
marketing gathering at the home of a distributor (known as the host).

This business model is made popular many decades ago by a
company called Tupperware. It works by having a party host organize
a Tupperware party and they invite their friends and neighbors to their
homes to see their product line. According to the company’s policy,
the host who organizes the home party is given lots of free products
based on the number of orders taken or the level of sales made during
the party. These parties also take place in offices, schools/colleges
and even in community groups such as country clubs and churches as well.

In fact, these home parties have extended (but are not limited) to product
lines such as lingerie, computer and video games and even sex toys!

Today, the biggest concern for the 21st century is – are home parties still
relevant in the Google era? With the introduction of YouTube, you can virtually
see an entire product demo unfold right before your eyes. In fact you do not
even need to drive out of your house (to the host’s home) to watch the
product demo there.

So are home parties still relevant? In my opinion, the answer is yes and no.

You have to learn to be savvier when it comes to organizing home parties.
Simply just sending out to invitation cards and pestering your friends and
neighbors to come to your home party isn’t as easy anymore because people
are getting wiser. They are aware of your ‘schemes’ and they know more and
more about MLM.

When you want to pitch your product, you have to be able to engage it in
such a way that doesn’t look like you are hard selling or obliging others to
buy your product.

On the other hand, when you consider that the Internet is a place that is devoid
of the persona, face to face interaction, you will begin to wonder if being virtual
is the best way to go or not? There are some things that only the personal touch
can achieve, like giving prospects the comfort for them to make a decision.

Sometimes, the prospect needs to see and touch the actual product in order to
decide if that is the thing that they want to buy.

The best solution is to combine both elements for your home party. You can try
running an online ad to gather leads, you record your own YouTube video to show
people how the product benefits and finally invite them to your house in order to
do the product demo, right after the autoresponder has helped you to build a
relationship.