Member Article

How to modernise your business in 2016

Watching an episode of the “Great British Food Revival”, a show where Cooks and Chefs set out to re-popularise traditional British products.

In this particular episode they were trying to re-energise the humble cabbage, a vegetable that has decreased in popularity in recent years due mainly to a poor image and bad cooking practices.

This got me thinking, is your business like the humble cabbage? A great product suffering from a negative image, and behind the times?

As a business coach, I meet many businesses owners and one of the biggest challenges they face is differentiating themselves from all the other businesses out there and getting a larger portion of the wallet share. But I’m not interested in market share, more of the wallet share of the people that are already buying.

So how are you going to modernise your business? Get it ready for 2016?

Here are my top seven suggestions:-

• Build your online presence through social media and websites.
• Find out what your customers needs are? Remember we may not fill a“want“ but we must fill a “need”.
• Train our staff to interact effectively with customers, the answer to the question “can I help you?” is invariably “No just looking”
• Work out your point of difference and make sure you get that message out to all your prospects and customers.
• Make customers feel they belong to you, have a membership invitation only event etc.
• Keep changing. Business is like a tree, it’s either growing or it’s dying there is no standing still!!!
• Get outside support You NEED to have a coach or a mentor to support you and guide you.

So when did you last look at your business and see where it sits in today’s marketplace? Get clear on your target market, it’s not “everyone”….get specific “my target market are males aged 35-55, that own their own business in ” or “ My target market are females looking to start a family” the more detailed knowledge you have on your customers the better you can target them.

Have you asked the question “How relevant is my business today?” by implementing some changes and modernising your thinking and your business you’ll build trust and loyalty, in a time when we’re all connecting, very few of us feel connected to others!! Remember that humans are still pack animals we like being with others that are like us!!!

Build a plan for your business and get started with help from your coach. The choice is yours, your business could stay “an old fashioned boiled to death, stinky cabbage or become a fresh modern, tasty coleslaw, that has customers queuing to get it”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by George Koritsa .