Know what you want. If you’re taking on clients or tasks that you don’t want or that aren’t your area of expertise you go off on a path that is a slog in your business. You need to know your area of expertise and stay in your lane. If you want to expand, consider hiring contractors to fill the gap.
Where will you work? A separate room in your house? A corner of the kitchen table? A coffee shop? If you’re just starting out and if you’re not welcoming clients into your workspace, find a place that suits your needs when you’re in the start-up phase. In the future, you may find you need, or want to rent a space or find a co-working situation. You may want to rent a PO box or rent a box at a UPS store that provides a street address – this amps up the idea to clients that you are a thriving entity.
Keep moving forward. It’s easy to throw your hands in the air and give up, especially if you lose a client or don’t sign the client of your dreams. What will separate you from other solopreneurs is your ability to keep moving forward and overcome challenges.
Network with others in your situation. It’s easy to give up if you feel as though you’re the only one doing what you do. That’s why a co-working situation is ideal for some. Network online or attend in-person events.
Make sure you have a business plan. It doesn’t need to be hundreds of pages long, but it does need to have your financial goals written down, it should have a plan for ebbs and flows in business. It should have your mission and vision statement, the ideal client for you and your area of expertise and even a statement of those clients with whom you don’t want to work.
Don’t skimp on the tools you need. If you’re going to be in front of the computer all day you need to have a computer that will perform the tasks you need. You will want an ergonomic set up. Don’t invest in low end products because you will eventually need to replace them and it will cost you more in the long run.
Automate the tasks that you do repeatedly. Don’t waste time on duplicate efforts and tasks.
One of the benefits of being a business owner is the freedom that comes along with it. It is easy, though, to take too much of that freedom and put yourself behind the eight ball and on the verge of missing deadlines. Enjoy being your own boss but keep your eye on the prize — a successful business.
There is no denying it. Customer service is horrible. The pandemic certainly had something to do with and we honestly think that friendliness has gone by the wayside. No longer is the “customer always right.” In fact, the customer is rarely listened to or treated with any kind of respect. Truly if your business is struggling and your employees are not bending over backward to help those customers who are loyal and come back to you, you’re better off without them — the employee, not the customer.
When is the last time you walked out of a store and thought, “wow that was a great experience”? I don’t know the last time I had that. In fact, if I have to get so excited that I finally had a great experience, that shows the decline of our society and the way in which we treat people.
Customers aside — this is an example of how poorly we treat humans. Bottom line.
Customers are the lifeblood of your business and didn’t you truly see that as being true when the pandemic shut down so many businesses? Yes, I understand that it’s hard to find employees and that it’s hard to keep them and the employees you do find don’t want to be there so what can you do?
Do Your Customers Feel Appreciated?
As the business owner, it’s up to you to step up and make your customers feel appreciated because without them you won’t have a business. How can you show appreciation and put a smile on their faces? We have some tips.
Provide introductory offers. Businesses that offer introductory pricing or a first-time-purchase coupon are more likely to earn your loyalty. What can you offer a new customer?
Are there loss leader products or services you could offer at a discount or for free to reward the loyalty of a long-term or repeat customer?
Do you have free samples you could provide? If you’re a bakery, that’s easy. If you’re a service provider, offer a free pool cleaning or dog nail clipping, as a couple of examples.
Build a community and work with beta testers for your goods or services. VIP communities are easy to build and can garner great word-of-mouth referrals.
Stay in touch. If someone buys your product or hires you, stay in touch. Let them know what the onboarding process is and what the next steps are. Don’t leave them in the dark.
Say THANK YOU! Two simple words that carry a lot of weight. What do you to do show your customers that you appreciate them?
What can you do to appreciate your customers? Also, what can you do to reward and thank employees who give good customer service?
Have you ever heard the saying, “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life?” It may be true, especially if you have a passion that you can turn into a profit. What are you passionate about and how to turn that passion into a profit is something Rex Richard talks with his coaching clients about.
Are you passionate about?
How To Turn A Passion Into A Profit
Dogs? Start a grooming or dog walking or pet sitting service.
Swimming pools? Start a pool cleaning business. You’ll need know how and tools.
Baking? Start a catering service or sell your baked goods at vendor fairs. Check the rules in your location for what you need in order to do that safely.
Driving? Yes, you can drive for one of the ride services or even for a delivery service like Amazon.
Children? Start a child care service or even offer “date night” babysitting services for overworked parents.
Love helping people? Become a coach. Take courses and learn how to coach in a particular niche
Are you great at graphic design? Become a freelance designer.
There are many ways to take what you love and turn a profit. Remember, though just because you think of it as a hobby, if you’re earning money, and if you have expenses you will want to treat it like a business and talk with an accountant, an attorney and with a business coach to ensure you’re charging properly and that you are making the most of your unique talents. Contact Rex Richard for a consultation.
It’s not a badge of honor to work sixty hours a week or more. Honestly, the beauty of being a business owner is that you should have more control over your time than you did when you were working 9-5 and commuting to and from the office. When I talk with entrepreneurs I tell them, “biz owners need to tame their time.” If a budding biz owner drives him or herself to the ground, the business won’t survive and perhaps the entrepreneur won’t either. That isn’t why you went into business for yourself is it? To work more hours, see your friends and family less and be so stressed that they don’t enjoy the ride, is it?
You need to take control of your time because if you don’t it will continue to control you. That also means you need to control client and customer expectations. If they think you are available 24/7 because you’re always answering email and phone calls and texts they will expect that. If, however you tell them, you answer the phone from X to X on this day and that and that you take holidays off, they will understand and appreciate it. Believe me, it’s easier to set expectations up front than it is to try and “take away” what they’ve grown accustomed to.
Biz Owners Need To Tame Their Time
Here are a few quick tips to help you get control of your time and enjoy being a business owner.
You can delegate tasks even if you don’t have staff. Are you good at blogging? No? Hire a copywriter. Do you love to crunch numbers and do spreadsheets and balance the budget? No? Hire an accountant. Could you defend yourself in court? No? Hire a lawyer. There are tasks that a business owner, no matter the budget, should consider the cost of doing business and plan for that. Marketing and web development is one of those tasks that an entrepreneur feels they don’t have to worry about and then wonder, “why don’t I have any clients” when they don’t have a website, social media presence or a blog.
Draw the line between business and personal. As mentioned, don’t work 24/7. Keep a calendar and make appointments with yourself –whether it’s going out for lunch with a colleague, taking a walk, going to the gym, etc. Also the line needs to separate your home life from your work life and this is especially true if you work from home. Close the office, or close the laptop at the end of the day. Make it a symbolic, end of the day ritual.
Just say no. I know that when you’re starting out it is hard to say no to a potential client or job but you need to. You need to be very clear on what you will do as well as what you won’t do. Don’t dilute your efforts because if an ideal client comes along and you’re so busy with tasks outside of your zone of genius, you will be frustrated and angry.
It’s a question I get asked all the time by potential business owners, “can introverts succeed as entrepreneurs?” The answer is yes. In fact, sometimes an introvert thrives because he or she isn’t afraid to be alone in the office doing the work that needs to be done. They don’t need to be out and about nor do they need to be the center of attention.
Introverts, by nature, thrive in quiet, solitary spaces but that doesn’t mean there aren’t entrepreneurial pursuits that will feed their physical and emotional beings.
What should an introvert who wants to start a business think about?
Choose a business that will allow you to work from your strength. If you don’t want to be in front of crowds hosting meetings, then don’t choose a career as a public speaker — makes sense, but some people let themselves get lured down a path that doesn’t quite suit their natures.
If you get drained by people, consider activities that maximize interactions while minimizing emotional energy drainers. Decide what kind of business you may be suited for that allows you to interact on your terms (or mostly on your terms because if you work with clients, you will need to accommodate their needs as well)
Start small, no matter which niche you pursue, to gauge whether being a business owner suits your personality. No matter what type of business you’re in you will need to sell — product, services and/or yourself and you need to be comfortable enough to do that.
Can Introverts Succeed As Entrepreneurs?
Look for business partners or colleagues who complement your introverted personality. If you need a boisterous sales person to reach out to potential leads and that’s not your forte — hire that out. You don’t have to do it all yourself, but you do need to know what you can and cannot do and recruit people to pick up where you left off.
If your company grows to include more than you, you have the luxury of setting up a work environment that suits you. Whether that’s an in person setting, work from home or a hybrid approach. Develop the environment that helps you thrive.
Coronavirus has made Zoom and online networking more than acceptable and that works to the advantage of the introvert. You don’t have to beg off of meetings – you can just send a zoom link.
Spread your wings and stretch beyond your comfort zone — you’re a business owner after all! Celebrate that fact in the company of others.
In the customer service world, having an email chain of conversation can be helpful. It is a great way for the customer to have written instructions if that was the reason they wrote. Even for customer service complaints, email can be a helpful medium. That being said, you need to have customer email best practice tips in place to keep every one of your customer service reps on the same page.
It makes sense that at times your customer service reps may go off script so their emails don’t make them sound like robots. However, this can be an issue if the customer service rep is dealing with a disgruntled customer.
Whether you are dealing with supply chain disruptions and may businesses still are because of coronavirus or if a customer received a product they consider subpar, the emails your team sends can either calm a customer down or ruffle his or her feathers even higher.
Customer Email Best Practice Tips
Whether your customer is justified in their feeling, it is up to you to work with him or her to see what you can do to help address the situation. After all, an angry customer is more likely to take to social media and run your company down than is a happy customer.
Here are some best practices you should put in place.
Don’t be defensive in your email practices. Be proactive. Try to anticipate customer complaints with shipping delays and other issues. Don’t be patronizing and say, “all business is suffering slowdowns because of coronavirus.” They don’t care. They want to be taken care of and came to you to ensure you do that just.
Answer a customer complaint in fewer than twenty four hours. The longer a customer has to wait for a response, the angrier they will be. They don’t want to be ignored. Even if you don’t have any answer, let them know you received their message and that you’re working on it.
Remember that a “joking” tone doesn’t show through in the written word especially if you don’t know how high of a level of understanding the customer has of your language nuances. Stick to a friendly, warm tone and skip the jokes.
If you work in a small company, encourage the team to talk to the customer on the phone. It’s easier to send an email, but a phone call is so much more personal and the customer could appreciate that.
Keep i mind that just because you know something, doesn’t mean your customer does. Think of this in the tech realm. It may seem simple to you to hit “control, alt, delete” but those terms may not mean anything to the person you’re speaking with. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and address them from there.
How often do you review customer service emails and best practice tips with your staff and vendors? It may be time to review those now.
