Last night we talked about offering some variety of products and services to your customers, but that a large array of offerings can be intimidating to your customers. To summarize, people are attracted to variety, but are much less likely to make a purchase because there are too many choices. Too many options will paralyse a customer from making a decision, if they do make a choice, they may choose badly. Too may choices can undermine the customer's satisfaction in their product, your customer will end up second-guessing if they made the "right" choice. You want your customers to be satisfied with their purchase because satisfied customers will return.
Another technique to improve your small business is to look closely at the issues facing your business. Are you framing the issues correctly? Is there another way to look at the situation you are in, what other solutions may be available to you? You need to challenge your assumptions to be sure that your assumptions will hold up. If your assumptions will not hold up under scrutiny, then are you able to change your position to achieve your goals? On a more basic level, you may want to look at why you want those goals. Are these goals for your personally, or for your business? Take a look at what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it.
Some may call this a paradigm shift. You want to step out of the virtual box you are sitting in and take another look at your business. Try to look at it from an outsider's view. If you were an uninterested party looking at your small business, what do you see? What you would to to make it better? If you hit a roadblock, try to look into what the block is and work to make a new opportunity out of that. I know that sounds trite, but it really does work. The reason you want to look at the roadblock as a new opportunity is the same as a paradigm shift, you want to look at the same situation with a new perspective. There is most likely another way to get through or around that roadblock. If you are stuck, and cannot see beyond the block, enlist the help of trusted friends or family. They may be able to see what you cannot. They may not be as close to the situation as you are and may be able to help you find a way to work through the problem. Even if the friend of family cannot help, they may be able to say something that triggers other thought processes in your head and that may inspire you to look at your business differently. It is always good to have other opinions, you don't have to agree, you are not even obligated to follow through on what they suggest, but by accepting other opinions, you are leaving the door open for new ideas and most likely new solutions.
Entrepreneurs are driven by a passion to do something better. We have all most likely worked for someone and felt that, if given the same opportunities, we could do that particular business better. That is usually why we started a small business on our own instead of picking up another job. The key is to really like the products or services you are working with. If you 'love' the products or services, you become emotionally involved and may not be able to help your business grow or succeed. You need to keep emotional distance from your business so that you can critically look at it to make improvements.
Good luck.
Until tomorrow...
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