Traps Common to Small Businesses: Pt 1

1. What works will always work.
Ideas are the currency of entrepreneurs. Play with many ideas and see which ones bring money and success. Trends change, the local consumer base will change, so your store must change. Many retailers make the mistake of investing most of their money into fixtures and décor, making it impossible to change when the local economy changes.

Stores should never stagnate. Displays, colors, image and attitude needs to change.

2. Procrastination
Many retailers wait until they are in financial trouble before implementing a plan of action. Advertising runs on a six-month cycle. Waiting until sales drops can devastate an otherwise solid company.

3. “Advertising doesn’t work.”
This myth contributes to the high failure rate of small businesses. Successful businesses invest 25% of their profits into advertising. The belief that advertising doesn’t work comes from retailer’s lack of understanding. Newspapers may deliver 100 000 copies of your ad, but 30 000 copies are returned, 10 000 copies are never read, leaving 40 000 copies. Of them, only 10% of readers will see your ad. This means that a $900.00 ad in a large newspaper will produce less results than a $900.00 ad supporting a local event.

Retailers also expect ads to produce instant results. Not all products appeal to impulse buyers. Knowing your product, customers, and advertising mediums is the foundation of a good advertising campaign.

4. No Marketing Plan
Marketing plans keep you ahead of the pack, not trailing behind, following what works for other retailers. A marketing plan puts your store in front of the right types of people. A good marketing plan eliminates the need for trying things to see if they work. They outline different plans of actions, then when compared to the customer satisfaction data, identify most cost effective and potentially successful plan.

5. Know Your Customers
A solid customer care program can include newsletters, e-newsletters, fliers, surveys, and suggestion/complaint boxes. The information collected at the point of sale, and through customer feedback, can give your business the edge, leaving the competition in the dust. However, customer feedback data is useless without a good marketing plan.




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