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We picked up a few strategies through reading several entrepreneurship magazines and listening to other small business owners speak. Below are a few small business tips we came across over the past year that we thought were worthwhile to share:
- Don’t mine for gold, sell shovels
- During the gold rush of the 1850’s, the people who became wealthy were the entrepreneurs selling the supplies needed to extract gold, not the people digging for gold
- In today’s world, look at what is trending e.g. there is a significant increase in the purchase of plants during the COVID pandemic, instead of trying to sell plants too, look for products that support plants for example, consider supporting infrastructure like selling soil. Also, there has been a significant spike in the sales of bicycles due to the pandemic, consider starting a bike winter storage unit business.
- Four Simple Rules for Successful Businesses
- Create a product that satisfies a need or want
- Market the heck out of it
- Listen to your customers’ concerns
- Improve your product based on customer feedback
Individuals don’t start a business because they want to start a business. They’ve solved a problem somehow and they see potential to solve that problem for others whilst making some money doing it. Remember – money is just a byproduct of a well-run business
3. Know how much money your competitor makes e.g. local boutique store
- Purchase an item from the store on a Monday evening
- Go back to the store the following Monday at the same time
- Compare the receipt number on both receipts and subtract
- This will tell you the number of orders they received in a week
- Come up with an estimate of the average spend per customer (e.g. $30 per customer)
- Multiply $30 by the number of orders to provide the average weekly revenue
- Four personalities that make a successful business
- Entrepreneur: One kid looks out the window at his school and sees grass. Another kid looks out the same window and says, “hey we need a parking lot,” because there’s never enough parking at school. An entrepreneur sees a pain point that can be monetized. The visionary.
- Producer: Not the ones who come up with the vision, but the ones who are good at “downloading” the vision. They hear the vision and say, “yep, got it. Makes sense” and their brain starts realistically building the vision out and creations an action plan.
- Administrative: The person who supports the entrepreneur and producer so things can actually get done. This includes compliance, vendor management, payroll, etc.
- Integrator: The person who teaches the others how to work together to achieve the vision and be cohesive over time.
- How to surpass your Competitors
- If you are looking for ways to gain an advantage on your competitors, one of the relatively cheap ways to go about it is reviewing your competitors’ social media pages i.e. Yelp, Twitter and Amazon
- Review some of the complaints consumers have about the business. Then make sure you double down and be good at that attribute consumers complain about.
- E.g. A common complaint on social media about Nigerian restaurants in the US is lack of customer service, as a result, when starting your business, double-down on providing exceptional service and be known as that one restaurant that provides good service.
- Starting a newsletter business
- Pick a hobby that you spend too much money on
- Create a newsletter for that hobby
- Market the newsletter to other enthusiasts via Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter
- The Ferrari Market Letter has 5,000 subscribers and does $2 million in revenue with a team of two people
- Five ways to develop social media content
- Read a trending news in your field on social media, add your two cents and re-post it
- State a business goal you are trying to accomplish, once a week write a note on what you did that week that will help you reach that goal (people love to hear about your journey)
- Screen shot your interactions on social media and post it
- Take a picture with a vendor, customer, or employee, add a comment and post it
- Write a short note about a success or challenge you had that week, add a picture that illustrates it and post
