According to the SBA, 62.
8% of all businesses fail in less than 6 years! The purpose of this article is to hopefully help you avoid becoming one of those statistics.
I really dislike the doom and gloom that we are hearing so much about lately on the news.
If we listened to them we would all be out of business and standing in the welfare lines.
Here we are going to try and learn how not to "participate".
Instead we're going to talk about a 93% chance of success.
I REALLY like those odds.
Albert Einstein, the noted physicist, stated "Compounding is the most powerful force in the universe".
Al was a pretty sharp guy.
However most people just apply that statement to money, usually in the bank or invested.
For our purposes we will use a slightly different approach and apply those very principles to growing our businesses by compounding five small changes.
By becoming just 15% more effective in five areas you can more than double your sales.
You don't even have to be great at any one of them.
I don't have enough room in this article to touch on all five of the areas that will double your sales.
However, I can give you some things to implement right away that can potentially increase your sales by 15-30% .
Let's start with traffic, people coming through your doors, your internet site, etc.
What if you could just increase your traffic by 15%? Say you have 400 people coming through your door per day, week, whatever, and 15% actually buy something.
A 15% increase is only 60 more visitors.
The power of numbers dictates that as long as you have what they potentially want or need, they will buy.
You do not need all 60 to take action - only 9 need to do something to increase your results by 15%.
The key is to get them to take some action beginning with the visit.
Let's look at a practical example of how this looks.
EX: 400 visitors x 15% (60) that actually purchase an item for $20.
00 = $1,200 in sales.
By increasing traffic 15% (60) x 15% that buy (9) x $20.
00 = $180.
00 in additional sales.
You just increased your sales 15% simply by getting more traffic.
Now this is where most small business really screw it up.
They NEVER follow up by capturing the customer name and contact information.
This list of clients, who have already purchased something from you, are exponentially more prone to buy from you again provided they had a pleasant experience.
So few businesses actually do this that it is simply amazing to me.
These folks need to be made to feel special, and they are! You just need them to become aware of how you feel about them.
They will nearly always return to where they are made to feel special even if you have somewhat higher pricing.
It's the personal relationship that needs to be established and nurtured.
With careful nurturing such as birthday cards, special "client only" sales, greeting them by name, etc.
, what is the likelihood of them returning 15% more often? You have now increased your results another "compounded" 15 % with very little additional expense thus increasing your margins for those additional sales as well.
A simple postcard or email announcing your special offer, educational info or congratulations every 2-3 months, will keep you in their minds instead of your competition's.
How about some free education for your clients? A shoe store could send out a little blurb on what to look for in a quality shoe.
A dress shop could send out a flier talking about different fabrics and how they wear while incorporating news about some newly arrived styles.
Your list is invaluable - or worthless - depending on how you handle it.
If you don't have one, irregardless of whether you are a pizza shop, restaurant, hair dresser, clothing store, or manufacturer, you must create and maintain that list.
Then you need to treat those clients like royalty (or royaltie$) which they certainly are.
In future articles I will address 4 other areas that will help compound your business and bottom line.
Remember, even if there is a recession going on, that doesn't mean you have to participate.