Better Business and Marketing

Better Business Tips June 2005

There has been lots going on in my life of late –
some great and some not so great. I have been
learning a lot about what makes people tick and
some lessons have been rather painful.
You take great care to try and do the right things
by people and friends, but sometimes you slip up,
things get misconstrued and a great friendship can
end up in a mess.
We really are complicated creatures, us humans.
We all are different and what works for one, doesn’t
work for someone else. It is sometimes difficult to
figure out and you can never please everyone.
That applies to business and marketing as well. We
try different approaches. Some work well and others
not so well. We need to work on percentages.
We need to test and measure our strategies and
marketing efforts on a small scale. If some work
well, we can then apply them on a larger scale and
really reap the benefits.
If some don’t produce the results we want, we
leave those, take the small loss and concentrate
on the ones that do work.
That way we are protecting ourselves and get more
for our marketing Dollars, rather than pouring big
money into a campaign that has not been tested
and finding that it may fail.
There are many strategies that have been proven
to work exceptionally well and if we copy those, we
stand a better chance of success right from the start.
Rather than re-inventing the wheel, we should look
at what the successful in our midst are doing.
Dynamics are changing constantly along with fashions
and believes, but you can never go wrong with good
old fashioned friendly service and giving the customers
that little bit extra. They usually appreciate it and
chances are they will come back again.
People talk. They talk to their friends about your
business and service. It’s up to you whether they
talk in a positive or a negative way. Make them feel
special and do things that your competitors don’t do
and they will remember you. That is the best and
cheapest way to grow your customer base and will
also help you enjoy your business a lot more. Look
not only at the profit you can make on every sale today.
Look also at the potential profits you will make in
the future. Consider the lifetime value of a customer.
That is the number of times they are likely to come into
your business times the amount of profit you can make
every time they do. Make them happy and they will
come back again.
Personally I much prefer to deal with people who
have a smile on their face and are excited about
doing business with you than long faces who are
just doing a transaction with you because they have to.
This comes down to more than just business and profits.
It’s also about enjoying your business and your life.
Let’s face it, we do spend a considerable amount of
our lives running our businesses. We may as well make
the most out of it and enjoy it.
Also we must be persistent. Colonel Sanders, who
started Kentucky Fried Chicken was retired and when
he got his first pension check, decided that he didn’t
want to live on the paltry sum of money. He took the
only thing he had that he thought was of any value –
a chicken recipe – and hit the road. He knocked on
restaurant door after restaurant door asking that they
try his recipe and if they liked it to pay him a small
percentage of every chicken dinner they sold using
his recipe. He knocked on over 1000 doors before
he got his first “yes”. As he went along he took note
of reactions to his approaches and changed them
until he found ways that got people to respond.
Today there is at least one KFC store in just about
every larger town in most of the western world.
Colonel Sanders didn’t give up.
“The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its
ground.” That statement holds a lot of truth.
I hope that you can see some of these ideas will
assist you in your endeavors.
You can find more ideas and some great and
powerful strategies that you can apply in your
business right away to boost your income and help
improve you life by clicking on the following link:

http://www.tkbetterbusiness.com/EGuide.html

There are always new things to learn and to try.
Sometimes we just need reminding about things
we already know and get a little push to motivate
us to take action. We can get our inspirations by
talking to the right people or reading and learning
from books and publications and I hope that you are
getting some inspiration from this letter.

There is a lot more detailed information available for
you at

http://www.tkbetterbusiness.com/EGuide.html

Wishing you a great day

Kind regards

Tom Kress