Marketing

The Downtown Vancouver Association is sponsoring a motivational speaking event called "Give Em' the Pickle!" on Thursday, September 10 at 7:30 a.m. at the Hilton. Bob Farrell of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor talks about how to provide high quality customer service. Thanks to the DVA, everyone is invited but you must contact the Downtown Vancouver Association to sign up.

Intellectual Property

The August 31 edition of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
newsletter has some interesting content about protecting intellectual property outside the United States. Of special interest is a new nationally accredited IP training package and a link to a site discussing how to protect trade secrets.

Small Business Success

There is a new report online called Small Business Success Index (SBSI) which is a research study of small U.S. businesses. The SBSI is commissioned by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business and was designed to measure a business owner's asssessment of success. To see the full report and other good information, go to http://growsmartbusiness.com.

Marketing

Is Your Business Customer-Driven?

At the core of every successful business is a clear focus on the customer. Focusing on the customer does more than drive a business’s marketing strategy-- it lays the foundation for the whole business plan. There are several things you must do to create a customer-driven business: 1) understand your customer 2) deliver on your promise; 3) and commit to continuously meeting customer needs.

Understand your customer

Businesses fail for many different reasons. However, failing to understand and target customers is high on the list. Business owners often describe their customers in broad terms--anyone in Vancouver, anyone who drives a car, anyone who breathes! These definitions may define some aspect of your customer but real customers have very discrete attributes. Think about what your customers have in common. Do they share demographic (age, gender, income, location) characteristics? What about their lifestyles and how they make decisions? Once you identify a “profile” of your customer, you need to think like that customer. This is important because customer satisfaction is defined by whatever your customers say it is. That means you need to know what they are thinking and to do that you need to ask and listen. Ask them why they buy from you and what is important to them.

Deliver on your promise

Once you understand what satisfies your customer, it is up to you to deliver it to them. The first step is to create quality standards for products and services. Customers expect you to have goods and services that meet their needs. However, they want other things, too, like good customer service, convenience, and value. How you deliver products and services positions your business in the customers’ minds. You can influence how your business stacks up by giving customers something they might not expect. Examples are: deep or broad selection; friendly people; return policies; buying incentives; bargains; etc. Customers have many choices as to where to spend their money. What do you want your customer to remember about you?

Commit to continuously meeting customer needs

If you keep your customers happy, they are likely to continue trading with you. However, you have to stay committed to a strategy that continuously meets customers’ needs. You also must communicate that strategy to employees. Without their commitment and desire to succeed, the business will fail. Create an organizational culture where 1) commitment to customer satisfaction is key; 2) standards of quality for products and services are clear; 3) employees are accountable, empowered, and rewarded; and 4) feedback from customers and employees is acknowledged and used to continuously improve the business. If you formalize the process of gathering feedback, you can regularly evaluate how well you are doing and make adjustments in the business that keep you clearly focused on the customer. Successful businesses are built on customer satisfaction!

Thriving in SW Washington

One of the things that gets a business into trouble is straying from simple business principles. At the heart of every business are three basic concepts: 1) market driven trade, 2) profitability, 3) cash management.
1. A market driven business always adjusts to what customers need and it knows how to meet their needs. It also recognizes that the market is dynamic and it is possible that customers don't recognize they have a need. This knowledge inspires innovation.
2. To survive, a business must also generate more revenue than expense. Profits are the source of debt repayment, reinvestment, and distribution to owners. An important tool for assuring profitability is break-even analysis.
3. Profits are not the same as cash. A profitable business can fail if cash is not managed well. This is due to the timing of cash in and out of the business. A strong business manages its cash conversion cycle to assure cash is available when needed. The tool to use to manage cash is a cash budget.
Remember to use your informal management team to help you with this concepts, this includes your CPA, industry mentors, SCORE, and the SBDC.



www.wsbdc.org