Creating a Model for Small Business Success

[Cricket]

First, please take a moment to read the following post on the V7N...

Following a Model for Small Business Success
http://blog.v7n.com/2012/04/16/a-mod...iness-success/

Then, please share your feedback on ways you can improve your chance for success as a small business owner.

[Cricket]

WOW! No responses? Isn't anyone serious about discussing ways to improve their success? Is everyone just looking for shortcuts?

[Ebla]

So few independent businesses in the offline world really stand out to me, and I make an effort to give them a chance. My point is, if it is difficult for offline businesses to stand out, it is especially difficult for online businesses where there is no face to face contact. It is also difficult as a website may have readers and advertisers, so the question is which one is the true customer?

I haven't any suggestions for you...I'll have to think about it some, but I wanted to bump your thread because it is a great topic.

[Jim Gillum]

I believe that many small businesses treat their project as though it were a "job"'.

The "enough to get by" attitude....and then wonder why they fail.....it
is the "extra" that will make a business stand out from competition and move into the success column....

Treat each customer as if they are the only one....and provide quality...

[Marx Melencio]

Hi,

Fundamentally, it all boils down to:

Offer solutions to the immediate needs and urgent problems, of a specific group of people, who can't satisfy those needs and solve those problems on their own...

Next, integrate transformational value into those solutions. For instance, if you're offering an extensive guide for increasing traffic and sales of a website, then the content of your guide should inform and educate readers about ways they can do to, not only improve their online traffic and sales margins, but also:

To continue increasing their online traffic and sales margins, by constantly implementing the same things they learned from your guide. Teach them ways they can do, to get from a point where they receive 100 visitors per day, to a point where they should receive 200, to 300, to 500, to 1000, to 5000 to 10000 visitors per day. And, your guide should also inform and educate them about ways they can implement, to increase the conversion rates of that traffic, from potential customers, to buyers and repeat customers...

Establishing your reputation, as a friendly, expert resource of relevant and useful content, info, advice, products and services, in online places where your target customers hang out, to discuss related things, will help you build mutually beneficial, professional relationships with your viewers. They should think and feel that your main objective is nothing else than their unconditional happiness...

Integrate your personality into your content. Some of your viewers will be able to relate to you, more as a real person running an online business, than just digital text and images in their monitors, and a few won't most likely like you, but hey: Not everyone in the world likes Elvis Presley, though millions still do, and he's still the King of Rock, right?

SEO isn't everything. Why? Getting more viewers to your site doesn't guarantee more conversions, sales and repeat business for you. And besides: Backlink spammers have made it quite difficult, for Google and other popular search engines, to do their job the way they should, that they need to constantly implement changes to their algorithms, in an effort to fight these spammers and provide users with the best user experience, so your SEO campaigns have a higher likelihood of being ineffectively obsolete, after a short amount of time...

[Kyle_1973]

That's a good article, and I loved the tie in to community. It can be a little daunting to think of the world wide web as a "community". Though, it is forums like this and others where people can share ideas and experiences and get to know others that one can feel a part of an "online community".

[shaymm]

I didn't read the article yet.

But, keeping track of financials is key. Sounds obvious, but I have known (while working at a tax office) to many people disregard their financials because they believe they have more money then they actually do, want to attempt the 'latest' marketing trick or just plain can't financially manage. So, in my view, tracking financials is the most important key for small business success.

[Czorny]

I don't know much about runnin' small businesses in USA or elsewhere, but here where I live the main thing is to have good relations with the officials.