Four Changes A Business Shouldn’t Make
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 12:47PM There are many things you should be doing as a business owner at the moment.
Here are four you should not.
1. Charging Less For The Same Service.
This is a one-way ticket. Once you give more for less you establish a new normal. There is no way back from that.
Instead, look at your business from your customer’s eyes. What’s valuable to them? Charge for that. And replace the things that aren’t valuable to them with things that are.
2. Trying To Be Something You’re Not
Understand what you do. Which is not always obvious when you're involved in the day to day.
The best way to make sure you really know is to ask your customers why they use you. If you refuse to accept platitudes and the easy answers, you'll gain incredible insight.
Once you really know what makes you great in the eyes of your customers, look for other ways to use that expertise.
This will do two things.
Grow your business against your fundamental strengths - always the strongest platform.
And prevent you from getting involved in trendy areas that seem like a good idea, but which are almost always expensive distractions.
3. Cutting By Cost or By Experience or By Position.
Every company has its own view about how to cut overhead. In my experience, they almost always use the wrong one. Assuming you've reached the point where salary cuts just aren't enough then there's one simple method you should apply.
Cut by value. What someone costs is not the criteria. What each employee is worth, is. We've developed a Value Matrix™ to help our clients do this. You should have something similar.
4. Jumping Into Social Media Without A Strategy.
It’s time consuming to do it well. And not everyone should be doing it.
If you’re going to get into the white-water rapids of social media, you need to understand how you're going to benefit by doing so.
Then if you decide it's worth it to you, get in. With purpose.
Reader Comments (3)
Reciprocity. Innovation. Value. Strategy. Your post is a small businessman's guide to decision making in 200 words or less.
Think before reacting. What are the consequences to your actions? There always is one but with a little vision you can control the outcome. Or, at least the best anyone can do when trying to anticipate the future.
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