When it comes to owning a local business, what matters most? Time? Money? Your personality?
As a self-proclaimed introvert...I can tell you that my own personality has held my company back from proper growth. But I'm changing that word by word here. What is holding you back? Are you doing enough to make the large changes you want? What makes your company stand out compared to the competition?
In my line of work, I prefer to stand out by having fun zoom meetings and coffee meetings with business owners while providing them with as much free information as they will take in. That's the benefit of my line of work. If you have a service-based business - do this as it will keep you feeling good and keep your business in a positive light in the mind of the potential customer. If you've got a product-based business...I wouldn't suggest giving away everything for free or even at all.
Freebies only go so far in the product-based world because the moment you give something away for $0.00 you immediately create a false price anchor and they will come to expect that or close to that in the future. In this area of the business world, this is where I love seeing and using loyalty-based incentives. This keeps your cost per acquisition where you want it and it also keeps folks circling back to the product they love.
These two strategies only scratch the surface and won't be a long-term series of actions to take. After all, who wants to fill up their days with only giving and not getting anything in return? Sounds shitty but at the end of the day, we are here to build our business.
At a certain point, we need to pull in more quality customers and take a step beyond the competition. This is where 99% of businesses are after 12-24mo of being around. And below are the typical action steps they take:
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Inaction
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Hesitation
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Dive into the deep end and never look back
Inaction - This step is when business owners get wrapped up in the giving backstage and never have the business sense to step back and say "What about me?" This person will burn out, get stressed and likely quit and tell their friends and family that people didn't want what they were selling when that's usually not the case. Inaction is also seen when owners open their doors and think that's all that they need to do to rake in the cash. They might have had prior success and expected that again. Lighting won't strike twice unless you stick out a lighting rod my friends.
Hesitation - This is even worse than inaction because it wastes the one thing in this world we can never get back, time. There are a lot of reasons that a small business owner would hesitate to scale their company. What if I fail? What if I succeed and we can't keep up? How much will this cost me? Do we have enough help/product? What is the competition doing? Will I burn out? The list goes on and on. However, folks in this bracket will end up taking action at the expense of time. You see, while they wait; their competition is taking action. If you wait a week or a year, that is time you will never get back. That time is full of opportunities that others have taken from you. To me, action is binary and this grey area is the worst.
Dive in - This takes guts. This takes confidence. This is literally the only option for growth. You should have as many of the questions in your head answered but at some point, action is required. A lot of those questions will remain unanswered until action is taken. If you got into business to take control of your life, this is just part of that mindset. You need to move forward or others will pass you.
Diving into the deep end does seem scary to a lot of small business owners. But the funny thing is, opening a business and starting one is way scarier. Once you're open and started...growth is uncomplicated and can often be the most fun. Of course, you need to surround yourself with the right people.
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You need employees that you can trust and have a good relationship with.
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You need managers that can take some of your stress and responsibilities off your shoulders so you can focus on growth.
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You need the right partner for that growth.
When it comes to local businesses, a lot of companies in the marketing world tend to over-complicate it. In reality, there are maybe 2-3 main things that will help your business explode if done properly.
First off, your website needs to be handled. Because no amount of fancy ads, emails, or sales pitches will matter if your site is garbage. Sorry but that's the fact about growth. What does a great website need to aid in growth?
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Fast Loading
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Mobile Friendly
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Clear + Concise
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Easy method of contact
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SEO prioritized
Most of those above are obvious but the last two have some bulk to them. Sure, having the phone number and location easy to find is simple but what if you ever do things like Google Ads? Wouldn't you like to know how many folks call from an ad and if that ad is working? Your number needs to adjust to track that. Does your map page or link open in the right mobile app? If not, that needs to be attended to.
Secondly, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the keystone to ongoing growth. This is the marketing goldmine if your SEO team knows what they are doing. This will allow you to step over the competition without spending a dime on pay-per-click advertisements. And per the bullet point list above, your site needs to be set up properly for this to function. Throwing some random keywords on there won't do the trick.
Lastly is the PPC efforts. This is at the bottom of this list for us because while it is the main driver for marketing teams to generate revenue it is not for us. Ethically speaking, we don't believe that PPC efforts should be set in motion for a small local business until SEO is moving too. It's a waste of time and money.
If any of these points struck a chord with you and you'd like to share a cup of coffee (in person or via zoom) - never hesitate to reach out. That's something I love to do!
If you've liked what you've read or said "Shoot, that's totally me!" then let's find a time to talk a bit more on how your business can make some solid steps forward!
