If you’re running a small business of nearly any variety, it’s incredibly important to understand who your niche market is. Unless you’re one of the Wal-Marts or Amazons of the world, you definitely do have a niche and being able to define and cultivate it will help you with improving your web analytics, increased sales revenue, and robust brand management. Here are 3 tips for catering to your niche through social media:

Offer promotions, contests and incentives. Creating a verdant garden of discount possibilities, savings, and incentives is one of the best ways to cater to your niche. In short, people like getting stuff for free. They also like to compete for free things, so hosting contests on your social media sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, is a great idea for creating an online stir. Have a logo design contest, or a viral video contest and host it through YouTube. Inviting user generated art and design can be a tremendous boon. Also, promote your brand on Foursquare, where you can offer discounts on products in exchange for check-ins.

Promote valuable independent resources. Customers respect a company or site that is not afraid to refer to others. For example, if you’re running an online education forum and your site lacks decent tutorials, you should provide links to great sites that do have tutorials such as the Khan Academy or Open Culture. Not only will this enhance your community, it can lead to you getting linkbacks, blogroll features, and considerable street cred. There’s always the opportunity that later on you will be to partner with these other sites in a way that is financially agreeable to both of you. In short, put your money where your mouth is—if you claim to be “the leading authority on…” don’t tolerate obvious gaps in your knowledge base.

Use media effectively. Consider having a YouTube video of the day that is relevant to your niche. See the previous tip about viral video contests. Many companies use online video as vehicle for ingenius marketing campaigns in which the consumer ends up doing your marketing for you. Or consider having a photo contest through Tumblr, Flickr, or Imgur. Beyond just video and photos, investing in some research as to what kinds of visual aesthetics your niche prefers can go a long way. You don’t have to get too psychological about it, but your website and company ethos should appeal visually and emotionally to the demands of your community. For example, if your niche is science fiction, a general space-age aesthetic wouldn’t be too cheesy would make your fans feel at home.

Appealing to your niche market is one of the most important elements of running a small business. Investing considerable effort and resources into defining who your niche is and how you will reach them is an excellent idea for the present and future.

kyle lacy
ExactTarget
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy

It seems these days that all the media wants to talk about is how bad the economy is doing. With the continual talk on the airwaves and the Internet about everything from the debt crisis here and in Europe, to falling consumer confidence, it seems that if the media had it their way, we’d simply all give up hope, stop doing business completely and let full-blown economic Armageddon ensue.

I want to challenge you to think very differently about these Merchants of Doubt as I call the media, by offering up a few ways to move forward with greater success by developing and keeping a positive mindset despite what the competition or media think!

Here are three, simple, yet highly effective, mental strategies to help you combat
the merchants of doubt so you can secure the space in a consumers mind, as Dan
Kennedy describes, and serve more people.

#1. Become a merchant of opportunity. This is not the time to be down, especially
when talking with customers and prospects about how your business is doing. People
seek out and prefer to do business with people that are successful and make them
feel good. This is Marketing 101, but so many businesses still manage to mess this
up.

With cost-cutting in fashion, far too many businesses continue to skimp on training
or paying better wages to attract and retain better people. I’m always baffled as to
why this is still allowed to happen.

Attitude is a huge component in the sales process, and so many firms let poorly
trained or negative employees sabotage their ability to win new and repeat business.

With the cost of getting new customers time and fleeting attention proving more and
more difficult, happy customers are a huge plus and heres why: they talk to other
people they know, which often turns into referral business.

This unpaid advertising is the MOST VALUABLE, period! End of discussion.

The equation is simple:

Happy Employees + Happy Customers = Greater Referrals

#2. Ask for regular input from your best customers. Your best customers are a gold
mine for several reasons. They know you best, and, if asked, they will often tell
you what they like the most about you and how you can get better.

This is always valuable, but the real goldmine is when you ask them for advice on
additional product/service offerings that they’d like to see.

For example, when I worked in the ad agency business several years ago, we always
asked our top clients what else they’d like to see us offer.

This was extremely valuable, and better than any focus group of complete strangers.

In addition, before we ever rolled out a new service, we always went to our top
clients first to get their reaction and feedback. This not only saved us a ton of
time and effort, but it also provided our best clients input and a voice in the
creative process.

As you might suspect, when we circled back to them when the new offering was ready,
many of them were more than willing to meet with us, and several of them signed up
immediately, thus increasing our ability to serve them and positively add to our
bottom line.

#3. Watch whom you associate with, the shows you view or listen to, and the books
you read. Yes, those whom you choose to spend time with the most, be it in-person,
listen to, or read via the Internet or in print, will have an impact on you.

If you’re around negative, cynical or fear based people and information most of the
time, guess what: it will bring you down.

I know this seems obvious, but again, defending your mind on a daily basis from the
excessive amounts of negative people and information should be a top priority.

Here’s an interesting exercise to do. Grab a piece of paper and pen and sit down for
2-minutes in a quiet area. Next, scan the mental rolodex of your mind and list the
top ten people you speak, associate, or meet with the most in a given week, either
online or in social/work settings.

Now, next to each person, rank their overall attitude on a one to ten basis, with
one being very negative and ten being super positive. After youve ranked them, if
you see a pattern of 10s in your immediate circle of influence, then you are on the
right track.

On the other hand, if you see a pattern of people that rank lower than five on your
list, let this evaluation serve as a powerful wake-up call as to why your attitude
and mindset may be in the doldrums.

I am once again reminded of the great NEW book Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to
Freedom and Success by the late Napoleon Hill which addresses full-force why fear
and doubt are the predominant enemies of achieving your goals.

If you still haven’t picked up a copy of this book, jump on over to Amazon right now
and get this powerful, timely, and incredible book.

Tony Rubleski
Mind Capture
1-800-420-1450
www.mindcapturegroup.com

Making things happen takes action

Several weeks ago, I was conducting a sales seminar for designers and salespeople. Since I was the last speaker for the week, I asked the group what was their biggest challenge with the information they received. The answer: how will we implement these great ideas? You see the participants weren’t owners and couldn’t go back and immediately make changes. This wasn’t the first time I’ve heard this but this time I decided to add some sales strategies for the participants.

What good would all this information be if no one would listen?

1. So what do you do? First you must understand that if you’re selling customers you are an owner! Without you and your sales the business would die. Trust me, if you can’t sell anything you’ll be out the door and be replaced by someone who can sell. That’s how important you are.

2. Think like an owner. Being an owner and worked with many, I can tell you they think about money and sales. Without sales the business will not exist and a smart business owner puts as much money and time into training their sales staff. If you’ve been sent to a sales seminar consider it an honor and take it seriously. The owner has made an investment in your future. It means you are valued.

Your job? Rise to the occasion and learn as much as you can and be prepared to go back to your business and as they say: learn it, teach it and do it!

3. First things first. You’re probably excited and learned so many things you don’t know what to talk about first. Think like an owner and discuss the things that are connected to number 1. –sales and money. You will have learned lots of important things and many will stand out in your mind but are they the ones “most connected to the bottom line?” Are they ones you can implement easily, will they have the most impact on your business? Start with these things first. As someone once said, we’re learning how to be “mini moguls!”

4. Make sure it “makes sense.” Do you have the data right, do you have an example of how it gets done? If you need more info before you present your ideas, go get it right.

5. Make an appointment with the owner or manager who will be implementing your ideas and use rule 2. as one of your bargaining tools. “You sent me to these informative seminars, and there are ways that we can make more money and improve our sales. Who wouldn’t want to listen to this sales pitch? This will be the best sale you’ve ever had!

6. Have your list written and ready to go. Have examples of what other profitable stores are doing and use the names of industry people providing the information.

7. Back up your ideas with “clout.” By the way, don’t give up, offer your services if the owner wants more information and go find it. Hold yourself accountable for getting things done. Have a list of as many ideas as you want but start with the top start three. When you have some success, go back for another three!

8. Remind yourself why this is important. Changes that will improve your business will improve your personal business as well as make you more valuable to the business. It’s up to you manage your own career, build your brand and get educated. If you know it’s right, make it happen. Chances are your self-esteem will improve if you can make changes for your business. If you haven’t seen the movie “Moneyball” I suggest you see it. I love movies that make me want to go out and change the world.

9. Pat yourself on the back, know you’ve done a good job and pay attention to the results. Good luck!

10. Final suggestion: “When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.” Cynthia Heimel

Lisbeth Calandrino
Fabulous Floors
Associate Publisher &
Director of Consumer Research
lcalandrino@nycap.rr.com

A few weeks ago I spoke to the Professional Association of Consulting Engineers on “Unorthodox Strategies to Improve Profit in Business”. It was a great group of people and they had some interesting responses to some of the questions that were discussed. But just like every other business owner, financial management isn’t their passion; engineering is. But they know that learning about how to improve financial performance in their business is critical to their long term success.

Why Unorthodox Strategies? Unorthodox means breaking with tradition or doing something that everybody else isn’t doing. 80% to 85% of small businesses (those under $20 million in revenue) don’t utilize these strategies on a regular and/or consistent basis.

Unorthodox Strategy #1. Set a Profit Target

Most business owners don’t take the time to set annual or monthly profit targets. The probability of hitting a target is much greater if there is one. So establish a profit target for the year and work towards that goal every month.

Unorthodox Strategy 2. Benchmark Your Company Regularly

A bank was worried about the performance of a customer. They were doing well on the revenue side; but were not making the money they should have been. After I did a benchmarking study of the client, I found that businesses in their industry were making $700k more a year than they were. They had pricing formulas out of kilter with the market.

Unorthodox Strategy #3. Your Business & the 3 Legged Stool

A 3-legged stool had great economic importance to large dairy farmers until the early 1950′s. It was an asset that allowed the farmer to milk many cows without tiring (can you imagine milking for 15 or 20 minutes on one cow without sitting?). For the 3-legged stool to be effective, it has to be strong, strong legs with a strong seat and the legs connected securely to the seat. It takes all four components to have an effective, strong stool.

Can you image how the farmer would act if just one of these legs was weak or brittle? He would be worried about falling down while doing his job of milking the cow – not a pleasant thought. So it is very important that the farmer be confident that all components of his tool are strong. He can depend on it and it gives him peace of mind.

Now allow me to explain how the 3-legged stool is structured just like a business. The four primary functions of the business are:

1) Marketing & Sales – without sales a business is dead and marketing is the precursor of revenue generation.

2) The Product or Service Provided by the company – if you don’t have a good service or product to provide to customers, the business is doomed.

3) Finance – money is the lubricant that keeps the business machine running – a machine that is well lubricated – will run forever with fewer problems.

4) The Seat of the Stool – that is management, the component that keeps the 3 primary legs of the business together: 1) sales/marketing, 2) product or service and 3) finance. The better these three legs, then the stronger the business and the greater likelihood the business can grow and maximize its potential.

Unorthodox Strategy #4. Setting and Managing to Your Profit Target

Understanding profitability is probably the most overlooked aspect of business management. Profitability is one of the primary keys to business success and the ingredient that funds growth, value and retirement benefits. The accounting profession isn’t helpful in helping business owners understand this aspect either.

Why profit is critical to a company?

Funds growth
Builds equity, which enables a business to increase leverage (if they want to)
Pays down debt
Increases cash in the company
Provides stability for the employees
Peace of mind for the managers and shareholders
Managing to your profit target is relatively easy, it just takes a little time do to it. Once you have established your annual profit target; assuming you have created a budget with revenue, cost of goods, gross profit and operating expenses to get to your net profit before taxes and you have created this by month; based on your historic revenue trends; you have a document that you can compare with every month.

Every month evaluate your monthly actual profit with your planned or budgeted profit and go from there. It if it goes over, great, if it is under, then find out what happened and take corrective action so that it won’t happen again.

Unorthodox Strategy #5. Financial Statements

Financial statements are the cornerstone of business financial management. These are black and white, non emotional, documents of what has happened in your organization over the last period (month or year). Make sure that your financial statements are:

Accurate
Timely – you need to see these by the 15th to 20th of the following month
Accrual – make sure your financial statements are on the accrual basis that matches revenue and expenses in the same period. Cash statements do not measure profitability because they don’t look at income and expenses in the same period.
Consistent format – don’t let someone change your format without really good reason.

Unorthodox Strategy #6. Know Your Magic Number

Your magic number is where your company transitions between a loss and a profit; it is your break even point. This is the point where your company becomes profitable. It is critical to know this number because it is where you have to manage PAST each month. In most businesses, once break even is attained, profit can dramatically accelerate. Small business owners know where their break even point is and what to do to get past that each month. Business millionaires are made by just knowing this number.

As I indicated to the group of professional engineers, doing all of these unorthodox strategies will accelerate your businesses financial performance as well as increase your personal net worth.

Dan Lacy
Growth & Profit Coach, Financial Strategist, Cash Flow Doctor, CEO Mentor
dan@dynastybuilder.com
phone: 765-644-8887

Learn each of the next 6 unorthodox strategies in the Business Growth Workshop beginning September 20. Call 765-644-8887 for more info.