Adventures in Business and CRM

      We’ve got only 3 days left until the New Year. Can you believe it? In just this short amount of time, we’ve voted in a new president, tanked our economy, and even managed to burn a little more of Southern California. It’s amazing how much can go down in just one year. Some businesses have flopped, and some have succeeded. This economy has been harsh on pretty much everyone I know, including some of my most successful colleagues and clients. However, fearing the worst will only bring the worst. The environment may be tough, but with a little change, and a lot of dedication, your business can do the best that it possibly can in the following year.

     As a business owner myself, I know how overwhelming it can be going into the New Year. You’re likely wondering how bad the economy will decide to pound your profit margins, or how much more you can safely deduct from your marketing or production budget without completely going out of business. Luckily, we are apart of a generation that has one tool that really gives us the upper-hand when it comes to bringing in more sales for our business, and that’s the internet. Whether you’re marketing online or offline, here are some of my tips that will help your business increase sales in the New Year!

• Re-evaluate your Brand. The logo, the colors… all of it! Get feedback, ask people what they think in that first second that they get a glimpse of a new or revised logo or color scheme.
• Give your website a makeover that truly pleases your users. Take to analytics data, and see what users are really doing on your website. Are they not clicking on certain sections? Leaving after just arriving? Only looking at one type of content or page?
• Start Off Fresh by Organizing Everything from Top to Bottom ; If you’re not like me, you may be knee-deep in paperwork, old invoices, and files that don’t have names on them. The best way to start out the new year with clarity is to clean it all out, get rid of whatever you don’t need, and try your best to convert to a computer-based system of keeping track of sales, clients, invoices, and accounting. Have your employees take a proactive approach to cleaning out old things from last year, and getting squeaky clean for the new year. Get them excited and enthusiastic about productivity for the new year as well!  Your desk will thank you in the end.
• Give something away for free: I know this isn’t a favorite idea of business owners since times are indeed tough right now, but you’d be surprised at the positive (and free) PR that holding a contest or giving a deserving person a free product or service can render.  
• Set specific goals for the New Year: Going blindly into something isn’t my idea of clear thinking, and it shouldn’t be yours either. Being satisfied with “just making it” may seem okay right now, but in reality you may be stifling yourself and your business. Map out a detailed month to month goal chart that specifies sale amounts, profit goals, projected marketing budgets, and where exactly those budgets will be spent.  This really kept me on track during 2008, when I started to become intimidated by the falling economy. Not accepting lower than expected sales is the key here.
• Don’t dwell on last year’s mistakes: So you hired that guy who ended up stealing from the company expense account? Who cares if you accidentally launched a marketing campaign for the site wasn’t ready? And what about that client who just ended up being a giant pain in the butt? Forget about it all. You’re starting out clean. Make sure your employees know this too. Clean slates for all!
• Practice better time management skills: You’d be surprised how many precious hours are wasted doing the “little things”. Take a day to jot down how much time is spent doing what. You’d be surprised at what you find! There are a few great time management apps out there that are free. One that I utilize is RescueTime. It even emails you weekly or daily reports that display detailed information on what you’ve been doing.
• Don’t repeat last year’s strategies if they didn’t achieve your goals: I have far too many clients who initially come to me and say they use similar strategies every year, yet they never achieve their goals. I believe it was Einstein who said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.

What other types of rules do you apply to your business to make a dramatic change? Feel free to add your comments and suggestions!

Cheers to a Prosperous and Successful 2009!

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