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How to Grow Your San Diego Small Business
Growing and expanding your San Diego small business can be challenging. We here at San Diego Corporate Law are a small business too and we are constantly looking for ways to find new clients and serve our existing clients better. Here are some thoughts from one small business to another.
Focus on What You do: Hone Your Skills and Your Products
Growing a small business is, first and foremost, focusing on doing what you do and then doing it the best you can. Hone your skills and hone your product. We are lawyers here at San Diego Corporate Law and we try and be the best lawyers that we can be for every client and every legal task. If you are a retailer, then focus on retailing. If you manufacture a product, focus on that product and make it the best product. Sometimes, small businesses get distracted and think they can make money by “diversifying” and doing 10 things. Sometimes that leads to doing 10 things badly. Focus on one thing and do that one thing really well.
Focus on Your Best Customers: Best Selling Items
Next, focus your best customers, your most loyal customers, and your best-selling items. Before you can grow, you need a solid base of business. So, taking care of your best customers is your first priority; THEN you can begin prioritizing how to grow.
“Taking care of your customers” does not have to be onerous. Sometimes, it is as easy as a quick “what’s-going-on-this-month” email or similar. Personalize as much as you can. Let’s say you are a service business and your best customer is ABC Company. Who is the boss? Who is in charge of your contract? Can you drop off a sample new product for the boss? What is his or her birthday? Would a birthday “shout-out” be appropriate? (See below). How about an end-of-the-year holiday company gift basket?
More to the point about growth, satisfied customers are likely to remain loyal, and may expand their business with your business and are also more likely to bring new customers to you.
Talk to Your Best Customers
In a similar way, your best, most loyal customers are often a good place for ideas with respect to new products/services, ideas on how to be even better at customer service, and ideas where you might be able to expand and grow.
Be Aware of Changes in the “Market”
As lawyers, we constantly observe and internalized changes in the law that might impact our existing and future clients. Like many things, the law is constantly changing. There is a constant stream of new statutes from Sacramento and from Washington, new regulations from state and federal bureaucracies and administrative agencies, and new case law from both state and federal courts. We make a point to keep up with the changes. In the same way, small businesses have to keep a close eye on their market and see the changes. What are the new trends? Is a competitor developing a new product to compete with my core product? Are buying habits changing? How do I appeal to the new generation of buyers and clients? When markets change, your business must change too. Change is an opportunity for business growth.
New Businesses Need Social Media
Particularly with younger demographics, an online social media presence is needed for small growing businesses. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, etc. Your online social media presence does not have to be fancy or extensive. A few photos posted every month with a quick update is often all that is needed. These types of accounts serve many functions. They can be the method of keeping in touch that we discussed above and can also facilitate personalization. Maybe ABC Company has a Facebook page. Maybe their page is where you read about the boss’s birthday. So, maybe now you add a post to the wall like everyone else. It is easy and non-intrusive and allows a bit a personalization. Social media can also allow customer feedback that might help you hone your product/service.
Social media is also a marketing mechanism. If you have new products or promotions, a quick broadcast to your customers on social media can be a cost effective form of advertising. Social media can also be a means of “watching” for changes in the market, getting the first “warning” of a competitor’s new product, etc.
San Diego Business Law: Contact San Diego Corporate Law
If you are growing your new business and need legal advice from an excellent and skilled corporate and business attorney, contact attorney Michael Leonard, Esq., of San Diego Corporate Law. Mr. Leonard provides a full panoply of legal services for San Diego and California businesses. Mr. Leonard has been named a “Rising Star” three years running by SuperLawyers.com and “Best of the Bar” by the San Diego Business Journal. Mr. Leonard can be reached at (858) 483-9200 or via email.
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