Regardless of how well your company did in 2011 you have the opportunity to make 2012 a better year for your business. To help you accomplish the best year ever for your business here are our 12 Tips to Implement in 2012. We implemented every tip listed last year except for our 1st tip which we started this year. The result was we saw increases in new business and increased business with our existing clients.
Our top 12 Tips:
1. Visit your clients NOW! – In the past we sent out end of year surveys to our clients to find out what we did well and what areas we could improve upon. We saw the same clients filling out the survey and providing the same answers. This year we decided to visit with all of our clients around the country and talk with them about what worked, what didn’t work and what are their goals and focus for 2012.
The result: We start 2012 with new business from 22% of our existing clients. This came from actual conversations where our clients talked about what was on their minds and we offered solutions.
2. Conduct a SWOT analysis – I have mentioned in the past about how important a SWOT analysis is for your business. This is the perfect opportunity to see what opportunities are available for your business to take advantage of. A SWOT analysis is also a great way to uncover threats that may rob your business of profits and customers.
To carry out a SWOT Analysis, download this SWOT Worksheet provided by Mindtools and write down truthful answers to the questions in the SWOT worksheet:
You can get more information on digging deeper into the SWOT analysis and using the information to build your marketing plan at Mindtools.
3. Learn something new – Make a commitment to learn whats new in your industry. Furthermore make a commitment to read other Blogs, whitepapers and case studies to keep abreast and ahead for your industry. People do business with experts and the best way you can be perceived as an expert is to keep acquiring knowledge.
4. Publish Content – In academia there is a saying called “Publish or Perish.” The same holds true for growing companies. You are considered an expert when you publish something. It can be a whitepaper, an eBook, a case study but make a commitment to publish and share your knowledge.
5. Plan less and act more – Planning is great however, if you’re planning for the right alignment of stars, resources, money etc. you will never launch your great idea and someone else will beat you to it.
The perfect book, movie, song, software etc. will never be produced as long as people wait for everything to be perfect. There are success stories in good economic climates and bad economic climates. So why are you waiting to launch your great idea?
6. Let prospects sample what you sell – The best way to ease the anxiety of a new purchase is to let prospects sample your product/service before they make a final commitment. The software and online industry successfully use this model of letting you download a free trial of the product so you can test the product. Simply put it works and we use this same model with prospects and we achieve higher closing rates than when we didn’t offer the sample our service option.
7. Grow your network – I firmly believe in using my network to increase my net worth. View the calendar of events for your local business chambers and other business organizations and make a commitment to attend one new event each month. As you meet new people ask to connect with them on social media platforms especially LinkedIn.
8. Discover a new niche – There are industries large and small that have a want, need and desire for what you sell, you only have to research and uncover these niches. We like to market to specific niches because we can tailor our expertise to assisting those companies achieve their goals. One of our most profitable niches is providing mobile][social media services to unions. We research their industry and developed best practices on the ways that our services can assist the unions and their members. There are other niches that we focus on and we ensure that we’ve built expertise in a niche before we direct our focus to another niche market.
9. Give Back – I remember during the 90s recession when a local dry cleaner was cleaning business suits for men and women who were unemployed and job hunting for free. I also remember the feeling that if I was in his neighborhood that would be the place that cleaned my clothes. We support volunteering and working with non profits because we believe the best use of our blessings is to give them to others.
Giving back can lead to positive PR and new customers who want to do business with you because you care more about being a good citizen than making a dollar. Even if you don’t get PR you will get new business and the thanks of people who lives you made a positive impact upon.
10. Get healthy or stay healthy – Being an entrepreneur is stressful and a recent study by Manta revealed that small business owners are forgoing health for wealth. There is no way you can enjoy wealth if you have bad health. So commit to taking time to exercise regularly whether from your home office or a gym.
Another reason to exercise is that when you workout you become more creative. You can work through nagging issues just by having a good workout.
11. Develop new processes – It’s said that failure is the refusal to give up that which does not work. Holding onto a process for doing certain things because its comfortable is the best reason to develop a new process. We really learn when we are faced with uncomfortable situations. However if you consistently do things a certain way because its comfortable then you are not learning anything new and you will consistently get the same results.
Innovation comes from the quest to change how things are done to create new and better processes, products and services. Get out of your creature comfort zone and do things differently.
12. Don’t make a resolution – Everyone of these tips can and should be implemented now. See number 5. You can choose today to make a difference by making a commitment to change not a hollow resolution that will be broken in 14 days or less. If you need help ditching the resolution and taking action now, our friends at Discover Leadership Training have a whitepaper on the subject titled “Running to Gain.” The whitepaper is free and it discusses some of the underlying issues that interfere with keeping resolutions and achieving desired goals.
That’s our Top 12 Tips for 2012. If you have other tips please share them with our readers.
Thank you for the information. Continued success!