Running a small business (and helping other small businesses succeed) means signing up for a lifetime of lessons, learning, and growing If you want to be successful, anyway.
The second that you think you have the world of small business figured out is the moment that everything falls apart completely. Just think about all those business empires created before the internet.
They were cruising along, dominating in ways smaller businesses never had an opportunity to, with true global reach that only their bottomless marketing budgets allowed access to.
Today, though, thanks to the internet anyone with five dollars, a web connection, and a back bedroom can create a legitimate global business – and start making sales from around the world that afternoon, too!
Josh Henry-Hicks of MuteSix has certainly learned a lot about small business and what it takes to succeed these days. Below you’ll learn a handful of the most important lessons he’s discovered, lessons that can help transform your business for the better going forward, too.
How to Build a Business with the Customer in the Driver’s Seat
If there’s one thing that you take away from this quick guide let it be this lesson:
You absolutely, positively, MUST build your business – right from the start – through the eyes of your perfect customer.
Ignore this lesson and you’ll be doomed to mediocrity. You’ll watch as your competitors gobble up customers and sales you would have made easily with your products, services, prices, and customer support if only you had listened.
Businesses in the past used to be able to be created almost whole cloth, right out of thin air, with nothing more than a generalized promise.
That tactics simple do not cut it in today’s hypercompetitive business environment.
No, you need your business to stand out apart from the rest of the pack immediately. In the best way to do that is to build a business from the beginning through the perspective of your customer.
Instead of thinking about what you need to offer to make sales, instead think about what your customer wants to buy most.
Instead of thinking about what products you should sell, think about the ideal solution your customer is after and then reverse engineer it.
Instead of thinking about what you have to say to sell something, consider what your prospect wants to hear to make buying almost automatic.
These shifts seem somewhat subtle to be sure. But there’s a world of magic in them. The second that you start thinking about your business this way is the second that you start to change your financial future forever.
Build your business from the perspective of your customer. None of your competitors are – and you’ll be able to clean up because of it.
How to Generate Sales Almost on Autopilot with Smart Email Marketing
Email marketing is (somehow) still a bit of a secret weapon for successful marketers and business owners.
Leverage it ASAP!
A lot of people in the direct response marketing world talk about how all the money in your business is hidden in your list. They mean your email list – your list of prospects and customers that you can email anytime you like, day or night, 100% free of charge and instantly.
Think about that for a second.
Business owners just a few decades ago would have paid any amount of money for access to a marketing tool that let them:
… And have the opportunity to automate 99% of that marketing, too.
You’d have to be at least a little bit crazy not to make the most of everything that email marketing has to offer.
The best time to start working on your list and sending email messages was the day that your business started up for the first time.
The second best time is right now.
Social Media Really (REALLY) Matters
Social media has taken over our day-to-day lives in ways no one could have expected (some of them good, and some of them bad).
What cannot be debated, however, is the impact that social media has when running a business these days.
For one thing, it’s almost impossible to enjoy any real success online without having an account on all of the major social media profiles. Just like you had to have an email address and a website 15 years ago to be thought of as a legitimate business you have to have a social media presence to be legit today.
Secondly, there may not be a better tool out there for generating real authority and real influence online then social media – when done correctly, anyway.
It doesn’t take much research to find businesses that really hit social media out of the park.
These are the companies that are active and engaging with their customers and prospects. These are the people that don’t shy away from tough questions or angry people online, either.
These are the companies that always lead with integrity and with purpose. There’s a real value connection with their social media followings, and that almost always translates into cold hard cash, too.
Of course, you shouldn’t discount the impact that having fun on social media can have on your bottom line, either.
Go check out the “Slim Jim” or “Steak-um” brand Twitter feeds for perfect examples of how to use humor, memes, and affinity on social media to generate some serious sales and loyal customer basis.
At the end of the day, though, the most important lesson to remember about small business is that you’re still running a business here – and nothing happens in business until something gets sold.
That’s where your focus needs to be. That’s where your energy needs to be. And that’s the mission that MuteSix has today.
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