You Need 3 Things to Create a Lasting Business
While small businesses are responsible for offering lots employment opportunities to a huge number of people in America, they barely stand the test of time. Most of these small start-ups have a tendency of fading into obliteration after approximately two years from their start.
Issa Asad Florida businessman, entrepreneur, and CEO of Quadrant Holdings and Q Link Wireless says that “starting up a business is nothing when compared to the efforts and precautions necessary to keep that business afloat and more so after two years.”
You need 3 things to create a lasting business.
1. Keep Track of Your ROI
Just how good are your returns on investment? This is one question for which you must have an answer. Throwing money into various projects such as marketing strategies, strategic partnerships, new product development and even recruitment of new employees is useless if you do not know which projects are working and which ones are not. You must be able to identify the investments that are bringing profits and those that are not. That way, you will be able to cut your losses, and in so doing, double your investment in the projects that are bringing in more profit. This can only be done by accurate and meticulous research and monitoring of the various projects/investments that you may have.
2. Customer Satisfaction
It would be impossible for your business to exist if there were no customers for your goods/services. But customers not only serve as consumers, they also serve as marketing tools. A satisfied customer is likely to have positive reviews about your company and its products. These reviews will be passed on to their friends and relatives. In this age of social media and the internet, a positive review from one customer may end up influencing and convincing hundreds of people to purchase your products and services. A negative review on the other hand, could signal the loss of more customers and prospects to competitors. Simply put, customers are one of the best marketing tools you could ever hope for. Keep your customers happy!
3. Don’t Side-Track Your Employees
Most businesses do pay attention to the customers. However, some of them end up forgetting that it is the employees who are the mediums through which products and services reach the consumer. It is the employees who are in regular and direct contact with the customers. Happy and satisfied employees are likely to treat customers with respect and care hence leading to happier and more satisfied customers. In addition to that, happier employees are more productive than unsatisfied and unhappy employees.
A good way of keeping your employees happy is to develop an organizational culture that emphasizes the importance of the employees as much as it does with the customers. A total rewards system composed of appropriate monetary and non-monetary rewards is just one way of doing this. Others include getting in touch with the personal and social aspects of the employees lives and showing them that your care. By making employees feel loved, wanted, and integral to the achievement of the company’s goals and objectives, you gain their trust and loyalty.