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We’ve spent thousands of hours creating our product, perfecting our services, and running our businesses. But how much time has been spent thinking about whether customers actually want what you are selling?
The New York Times recently wrote an article about how important it is to really research and address the simple question “Do customers want what I am selling?”. Below are a few questions to help you find out.
Whether your business has revenues of $50,000 a year or $500,000 a year, new ways to increase can benefit all business owners. The New York Times recently discussed five tips for reaching $1 million in revenue from Nell Merlino, the founder and CEO of Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence. Her tips include:
For most small businesses, trying to get PR can be a difficult task. Today, Small Business Trends discussed “5 Killer Press Release Tips for Small Businesses”. These tips will help generate public relations buzz and hopefully keep the press releases we slave over out of the trash! Below are a few of the noteworthy tips from Small Business Trends .
Publicizing community outreach and pro-bono work is a great way to drum up buzz about your company. Whether the entire office participated in a beach clean-up day or organized a toy-drive, these stories are noteworthy to local journalists.
BookFresh is excited to announce a partnership with TypePad, the leading hosted blogging service and social media platform. The partnership will allow the millions of TypePad users including professionals and small businesses to offer online appointment booking.
Even though it feels like summer just ended, now is the time to start thinking about the upcoming holiday season. The next few months could represent 25-40% of your annual sales so it is critical to figure out your holiday strategy now.
During these tough economic times, many customers will be looking for discounts, great value, convenience, and practicality when gift shopping. Nobody hates a Scrooge more than your customers so make sure you embrace the holiday spirit with the following tips.
Give your customers a sense of urgency to buy your goods or services with limited offers. By putting an expiration date on a discount or special offer, you will help avoid the procrastination of shoppers.
A lot of holiday shopping is done online during non-business hours or at work. Offering customers the ability to book services online 24 hours a day will give customers the convenience and customer service they are looking for this holiday season. To add online booking to your website, check out BookFresh’s online booking and appointment software.
Many small business owners struggle with advertising their services and products. Either the traditional mediums of advertising are too expensive or they do not know how to advertise online. Google AdWords allows businesses to advertise their business in a very targeted and inexpensive way. Be careful though- without a bit of knowledge you could spend lots of money on GoogleAds with no results.
The New York Times recently discussed Google AdWords and came up with a few tips for new users. Lets start with the basics.
Google AdWords are keyword-driven ads that show up on a Google search page under the header “sponsored links”. When a person searches for something related to the keyword(s) you select, they will see your advertisement. Let’s say the keywords you chose to use were “massage therapist los angeles”. When somebody enters “massage therapist los angeles” or “massage los angeles”, your ad will pop-up along with the Google Search Results. The more money you spend on the Google AdWords campaign, the higher your advertisement will rank.
Yesterday we launched our new and improved widget. The new look is clean, professional, and provides a much better user experience. One of the new features you will find on the widget is the “Shopping Bag”. This allows users to see their bookings at the top of the widget during checkout.
Remember- you can also use the BookFresh Facebook App to allow bookings straight from your Facebook Profile Page. Check it out here.
One of the hardest things for a small business owner is acquiring a new client. So why would we choose to terminate business with one of those clients we worked so hard to acquire and keep?
Well, Paul Brown of the New York Times discusses this in one of his latest blog posts. The fact is that sometimes the customer is not always right.
There are going to be those customers that unfortunately do not fit your business or way of doing business. Sometimes the headache and time spent outweighs the profit potential- at which time we must cut the cord.
Keeping the following things into consideration when deciding whether to go separate ways with a client. This can help preserve your business’ reputation that you have worked so hard to maintain.
For most of us, making a profit is an important and crucial part of sustaining business. If the “tangible and intangible costs of serving the customer outweigh the cash and any good will received from the customer”, it is probably a good time to let go of a customer.
As we start to see the economy pick up, many small business owners have one thing at the top of their wish list- more employees. Before rushing out and hiring, check out the New York Times’ “Hiring: A Five-Point Checklist”. It will save you time and effort in the long run.
Choose your words carefully. Let potential employees know exactly what you are looking for, what skills are required, and a little bit about your company’s culture and environment.
Do not take the interview lightly. As important as it is for potential employees to prepare for an interview, employers should prepare questions that will give you an idea of how they will fit into your organization. Also, be sure to get some basic training on the legalities regarding hiring interviews.
For small businesses who have held out on creating a website due to its tremendous costs- we have a solution! Weebly, a user-friendy website builder service, is free and easy-to-use.
After signing up with Weebly, you will be directed to their website builder. Even the most technology-challenged can build a site in little time using their “Drag & Drop” Website Editor. Photos, text, logos, and video can be easily added to your website by simply dragging them into your Weebly website.