Starting a new business can be an exciting, new adventure. But it goes without saying that there are many obstacles and hardships facing new business owners. It’s a sad stat but 20% of Aussie startup businesses fail within the first year, and 60% go bust within three. So how can you – as a business owner – avoid being a number in those stats? These 5 revenue boosting life hacks for small business will help you stay on the right path to growth and success, instead of falling of the wayside. Let’s check them out!
Life Hack 1: Find and focus on your niche
One of the biggest life hacks for small business is finding your niche. Many first time business owners try to do too many things in an attempt to cater for the largest amount of people. While this might sound like a good idea (the more people I target, the better!), in reality, it’s one of the most common and crippling mistakes for small businesses.
Instead, you should be finding and focusing on dominating your niche market. A niche is a specialty or position that targets a specific group of people. A good example is Active Truth, an activewear company that caters for pregnant women.
Why is it better to target a niche though? First of all, it makes you stand out as a business. When you’re known for a specific niche, people are quick to recognise your brand, separating it from your competitors. It also provides you with the best chance to attract and convert customers.
If you’re targeting a specific niche, you can tailor your message, your offering and your marketing, making it more relevant and valuable to your target audience. This results in higher engagement, interactions and ultimately, transactions and sales.
Life Hack 2: Start building your social media presence early
The popularity of social media is no industry secret. Over 3.6 billion people use social media in some form or another, which means that having a social media presence is almost required as a business. A strong presence on social media will increase brand awareness, recognition and visibility, all important things for growing a small business.
Apart from growing brand awareness, there are a litany of other reasons why you need to be on social media. This includes:
- Developing relationships with your target audience
- Increasing website or storefront traffic
- Retaining and nurturing existing customers with content
- Displaying authenticity as a brand
- Communicating your brand values and authority
If you’re new to social media marketing, it’s important to figure out which social media platforms are best for you and your brand to be on. Each platform has their pros and cons, for example, Instagram is great for visual content but is limited in its text capabilities. Researching your niche audience to see which platforms they prefer can help. Regardless, you need that social media presence to further grow your small business!
Life Hack 3: Dab your toe in email marketing
A great life hack for small business is email marketing. Email marketing is an effective tool, capable of generating a number of results that will help your business grow. With that being said, we understand that getting started with email marketing can be quite daunting. Automations, optimisations, contact lists… it can all be a bit overwhelming!
It’s why we suggest easing yourself into the world of email marketing. The first step would be to start emailing your customers today. Direct emails thanking customers for their business or following up about their purchase are a great way to start.
Once your customer base has grown, you can start looking into email marketing service providers to set up essential automations such as abandoned cart emails or welcome emails. Automations like these both save time and help nurture customers. It sounds like small steps but your email marketing efforts will help attract new customers while retaining your existing ones.
Life Hack 4: Prioritise customer service
One life hack for small business that a lot of first time owners get wrong is not prioritising customer service. When you’re starting off, it’s important to value every single customer that comes your way, showing that you care about them and the potential business they bring. Providing high quality customer service does just that.
There are a lot of things that go into great customer service, but here are a few that we think are essential:
- Being able to respond quickly
- Genuine efforts to solve customer problems
- Meeting and exceeding customer expectations
- Honest and transparent communication
Good customer service is effective in building positive relationships with customers, ensuring that they see your brand in a good light. Exceptional customer service also has the potential to attract new customers. When people are impressed with your service, they’ll be more likely to tell others about their experiences with your business. And as we all know, word of mouth is a very powerful means to grow your small business.
Life Hack 5: Create a team you trust
The most crucial resource for any business, let alone small businesses, are people. Your employees and team members are the driving force behind the success of your business. This is why making sure your team is made up of superstars that you can trust and rely on to get work done efficiently and effectively.
You may think hiring employees is a big expense, and while it is, the ROI you’ll get on a stellar team member will bef ar worth their pay. Great employees will help you reach your business goals, attract and retain new customers, and make your workplace a joy to be in!
Don’t cut corners when hiring new employees. Look past their lists of qualifications and experiences and take their work ethic, attitude and personality into consideration as well. By being picky, you’ll be able to find the people you need to help skyrocket your business to greater heights.
Grow faster with these life hacks for small business
Life as a small business owner is filled with hardships but at the same time, it can be an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience! With the life hacks for small business, you can start generating more revenue, sales and profits; ultimately helping your small business turn into something greater. For more tips on successfully running a small business, check out our other articles on the ZipZipe blog!
