Of course, you want the New Year to be a great one for your business- think costs covered, clients happy, and healthy profit margins.But what are you going to do to make this happen?
Here are five things you could do to make this year’s business brilliant.
1. Strengthen Your Customer Care and Feedback Mechanisms
Feedback from customers is important. You’re in business to meet their needs; without them, your business wouldn’t exist. Work to improve customer care, devise new and more effective ways of engaging them and make them feel valued. Find out the best ways to do this by reading Top Five Ways to Get Customer Feedback.
2. Find New Partners, Build New Networks
If you’re looking to make new deals and break new frontiers, you’ll probably have to establish new business relationships. There may be markets for your products that you’re not aware of. New contacts, especially those who are knowledgeable about those markets, could help you open up new windows of opportunities.
You can build your contact list by attending fairs and networking sessions- such as ConnectNigeria’s eBusiness Fair and Business Mixers -where you can meet with like-minded entrepreneurs who operate in sectors you’re interested in exploring.
3. Zero In On Your Target Market
Focus your energies on serving your core customer base. If your business is a specialized one, you’ll know that this is a no-brainer. But not everyone knows what the market for their product really is. Find out if you don’t- a detailed study of your customer demographic will be worth the time it takes if it’s done well. It’ll help you know what sector of the public your ad campaigns should be targeted at, prime your products to satisfy customer’s wants, and, on the whole, help you work smarter.
Capturing the core will mean securing a sure revenue source. That’ll be better than just aiming for several ‘possible’ sources, hitting none of them, and wasting limited resources in the process.
4. Launch an Ad Campaign
How about getting some publicity for your company?
Advertising is a proven way of letting the public- or a section of it –into what your business is about, and what it can do for them. Ad campaigns can yield significantly increased patronage (and sales) if they’re planned and executed properly. Note that what “properly” means is, in some respects, relative. That is, you’ll have to decide what sort of adverts will cater for your business’ needs as far as its size, target demographic, cost and other factors are concerned.
5. Get Online
The online space is an integral part of the modern business world. The world’s population is coming online, and businesses are closely trailing them, setting up websites, and targeting them via social media. This has been touted as “the future of business.” And you can be part of this future.
Have your website up and running (if it’s not already functional) so that people would be able to find out about your services through it. Your products could even be sold on it if it’s enabled for eCommerce. Hire a content and social media manager, and have your digital marketing team take charge of reaching the online community with your brand’s solutions.