BOOK US

With over 25 years of frontline experience Tom Shay is America's leading small business management expert. He's a "Must Have" for your next event.

Beating the summer doldrums
Finding ways to get more business

Here’s a scenario that I have seen play out more times than I care to remember:

“How’s business this summer?”
“It’s okay, but we could use some more. Hard goods sales are a little soft.”
“Is there anything you are going to do about it?”
“I thought I might put an ad or two in the newspaper. Maybe I will run some radio spots. It depends on if I have time to get to it.”
“Anything else you are planning to do?”
“Don’t have time for anything else. I’m too busy.”

Having been in the industry for many years, I do understand this situation—and I do not understand this situation. I understand the situation because, as the season progresses, we get very busy with the day-to-day operation of the business. It seems that as we get busier, we take off our owner hat and put it away until business slows in the fall.

We put on our salesperson hat and definitely our put-out-the-daily-fires hat. We put away the owner hat and put on these hats because they come to us disguised as situations that need our immediate attention. Let’s look at some situations.

There is a difference between advertising and promoting. When you advertise in the media—television, radio, newspaper, direct mail—you are talking to the public. The majority of the public has no interest in doing business with you. This is because they do not need what you are selling. They may be satisfied where they are currently doing business, or they may have recently made a purchase and have no interest in anything new. Perhaps they just live or work closer to another business. This is what makes advertising so expensive for the return it delivers.
.
A second way of looking to your customers for more business is to examine all the daily receipts that have accumulated from the start of the season. One of the neat things about this business is that we are able to easily gather contact information from our customers—name, address, phone, and e-mail.

Yet, for most businesses, this gold mine of information remains only a stack of sales receipts. Did you know that 65% of all customers who stop doing business with one business do so because they perceive a lack of interest on the part of the initial dealer?

What if your business were to take home a stack of these receipts and call each of these customers? The business could ask if the new purchase was performing as the customer expected.

The business owner might notice that a customer made a purchase at the start of the season and has not been back in the business since. How can a good customer possibly stay away from their favorite business for more than a few days when you have so many exciting things to offer them?

It is understandable that the business owner might be hesitant to call the customer in anticipation of hearing a complaint—but it is much better for the business owner to hear the complaint than to have that customer telling all of their friends about it.

While the dealer would like to have all of the business from a customer, you likely know the customer is doing some of their business elsewhere. Still, you would want more of their business. How can you earn it? With those phone calls and asking one question: “What one thing could I do to make it easier for you to do business with us?”

Imagine a business that has added a new product line. It could be a major product line or a line of accessories or consumables. How will this business share this information with their customers? The likely answer is by placing an ad in the newspaper, on the television or radio.

There is a low response because the majority of readers, viewers or listeners have disqualified themselves as potential customers. Instead, we want to talk to real customers—those who are qualified—and we know who they are because they have done business with us before.

To tell these real customers about our new line, we could send them a note. We could use a simple postcard. You may want to ask the representative of the new product line what resources they make available for your business so that you can announce the new addition.

Of course to make any of this happen, at some point during the day you will have to put your owner’s hat back on for a short while—or you will have to take your owner’s hat home with you.

If you find that these two options do not work for you, there is another option. You could look for someone to work part time; perhaps you have a retiree who is looking for something to occupy his time and to earn some spending money. Where do you get the money for this person?

Remember those ads that you were thinking about placing, and instead you are going to use the phone and some postcards? That is where the money comes from.

And one last point. This is not going to get you away from all of your advertising. If you stop advertising, you will find that you will eventually go back to advertising—when you start your going-out-of-business sale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MAY 2024
Have the Small Business Advisories and News sent to your inbox. Subscribe HERE

Small Business

AdvisorieS

The May Small Business Advisory is titled "Planning for a successful accountant" and is appropriate for many with the April 15 tax deadline having passed.

 

Did you work with your accountant? Or, did you just give them a bunch of papers and wait to receive a completed tax return?

 

Successfully working with an accountant requires a partnership. This month's Small Business Advisory gives suggestions of how to make this happen in 2024.

Small Business

News

Top Story

We see that many small business owners have too much of a focus on the "top line" of their income statement.

 

Increasing revenue is great, but it is not a cure all for any challenges your business is facing. And sometimes, incresing revenue can create a challenge.

Article of the Month

Who is your customer? Some small businesses have no focus. Their customer is whoever calls or walks in the door.

 

And some small businesses have determined which customers, in sufficient numbers, they should spend their efforts to attract.

 

The article of the month shares an old Southern rhyming couplet about business; "The bertter you niche, the more you get rich."


Book of the Month

Lean Startup by Eric Reis is our suggested book for May.

 

As the title suggests, the reader of the book would be someone that is starting their business. However, we see more value than just that.

 

Perhaps you have been in business for many years. We think this book could give insight to items, and methods, that a small business owner should think about with their business today.

BOOK US

With over 25 years of frontline experience Tom Shay is America's leading Small Business Management Expert. He's a "Must Have" for your next event.

Small Business

Advisories

The May Small Business Advisory is titled "Planning for a successful accountant" and is appropriate for many with the April 15 tax deadline having passed.

 

Did you work with your accountant? Or, did you just give them a bunch of papers and wait to receive a completed tax return?

 

Successfully working with an accountant requires a partnership. This month's Small Business Advisory gives suggestions of how to make this happen in 2024.

Small Business

News

 

Top Story

We see that many small business owners have too much of a focus on the "top line" of their income statement.

 

Increasing revenue is great, but it is not a cure all for any challenges your business is facing. And sometimes, incresing revenue can create a challenge.


Article of the Month

Who is your customer? Some small businesses have no focus. Their customer is whoever calls or walks in the door.

 

And some small businesses have determined which customers, in sufficient numbers, they should spend their efforts to attract.

 

The article of the month shares an old Southern rhyming couplet about business; "The bertter you niche, the more you get rich."


Book of the Month

Lean Startup by Eric Reis is our suggested book for May.

 

As the title suggests, the reader of the book would be someone that is starting their business. However, we see more value than just that.

 

Perhaps you have been in business for many years. We think this book could give insight to items, and methods, that a small business owner should think about with their business today.