What are small businesses?
Small businesses are businesses with less staff. The staff limit is different for different areas. These businesses are generally owned by individuals or are started in partnerships. Other criterions to decide small businesses are the turnover and profit. The less is the turnover or the profit, the smaller is the business. The smallest businesses are called as ‘micro businesses’ and those managed by families are called as ‘mom’s and pop’s business’. These smaller businesses generally have employees in number from 0 to 10. Many a times, the owners are the workers in these businesses.
Advantages in small business:
The basic advantage of starting a small business is that you need less capital and money to start the business. Also, one can start a small business on part time basis. The basics of a successful business are the regular modifications that one does to it. In small businesses these modifications can be easily done as one does not need to follow any trend or face any compulsions in small business unlike in big businesses. Also, a small business can give much more to its customers than a big one as they have the power to provide each and every customer the required personal attention and take into account all the suggestions and even implement some of them. Small businesses provide daily bread to many a people and thus are very important.
Marketing small businesses:
The most common methods of marketing small businesses are customer referrals, mouth publicity, radios, newspapers, internet, directories, boards, etc. Television ads can be a bit expensive for advertising small businesses. Internet marketing is considered the most cost effective and result oriented method of marketing small businesses. The ads can be placed on websites or even search engine web pages. The costs are decided on the size of the ad and thus can be easily moderated.
Small business ideas:
- Franchisee business: this is one of the extremely profitable ideas of a small business. The only things that you need to start this business are a place and some capital. The best part of this business is that the things that you sell are already quite famous in the market and thus you need to do very little expenses on the marketing.
- Event planner: if you know the knack of organizing things perfectly, then you can become an event planner. You need to plan out meetings, parties, weddings and other such get-together for your customers in the given budget. The best part of this job is that it is extremely interesting and your work does the marketing for you.
- Computer repair: if you have done any hardware or software course or have learned any computer language then you can start the work of computer repairing. You just need to sort out simple problems in computers. The best part of this job is that you get to learn a lot more than you have about computers. But, you should do only the work that you can manage and avoid doing any guess work.
Marketing is not like shooting an arrow and hoping that you get to anywhere near the target. It’s not like pumping the market with too many marketing collaterals, even that of letterhead printing, just so you can reach out to as many prospects as possible and then praying fervently that anybody would need you and thus purchase from you.
If you want to waste tons of money and energy on strategies that don’t create the results you want then that’s the exact route to go. Running an ad here and there, and then hoping that you reach somebody or anybody who would need your products and services, is the simplest way to flush your money down the toilet.
Marketing is more than that. It’s more than creating marketing collaterals such as your letterheads and then praying that you get the results you want. Marketing is hard work. If you want to have the outcome you expected, then you need to work for it. You need to grow your business through marketing in order for you get ahead and stay there for a very long time.
When you do start marketing, there are certain things you need to know so you can have an effective marketing campaign in your arsenal:
1- You have to know your market
This means targeting those who would have a need for your products and services, as well as the benefits you can give them.
It’s not about selling to everyone who might buy from you. It’s about getting your offer to those who are actually going to buy your product. Don’t waste your time talking and calling on every person in your phone book just so you can convince them to try you out. Instead, focus on the people who actually need whatever you’re selling and have the capacity to pay for it.
2- You have to know what they care about
What’s important is what you can give them; not what they can give you. It’s all about your target market and the benefits they can get from you. Once you know your target market, you’re more in the position to provide them with the solutions that matter to them. You can then create headlines and offers even in your letterhead printing that would make them pay attention and want to know more about your products and services.
3- You have to determine your Unique Selling Proposition
Nowadays, the USP or your Unique Selling Proposition is a very popular term coined for marketing. This means knowing what makes your business unique from your competition so that your target market can only get that particular benefit from you.
The point here is that if you can give your target market the reason to buy your product, then they will definitely give their hard-earned money to you instead of the guy next door. Everything starts with knowing your target market. If you know your clients and prospects well, you can provide them with what they need, thus giving them the reason to rely on you for solutions to their problems.
Business letter writing is all about being formal and choosing your words correctly. Not every self-proclaimed writer is good at business letter writing because the target readers are not the casual, every day readers. This type of letter is aimed for companies, organizations, businesses or parties from high ranking social classes. There are different types of business letters, but the format remains the same. It may seem difficult at first, especially if you’re not the formal type, but business letter writing is actually very easy to learn.
Sender Information – The sender’s address and other contact details should be placed at the upper left part of the letter.
Date. The date when the letter was made should follow.
Recipient Information. State the name of the company, if you’re writing to an individual, acknowledge his or her position in the company then write the business address.
Greeting – Usually, the first name of the individual being written to is not used in the gretting.
• Use “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam” if you do not know the names of the people you are writing to.
• As much as possible use “Ms” for women unless you are specifically told to address them as “Mrs” or “Miss”. If the recipient goes under a title, such as Dr. or Gen. use those instead.
• The greeting should be ended with a colon, not a comma.
The Body of the Letter – Make sure that you are direct to the point. Be concise about the reason you are writing the letter. Do not use vernacular terms, a business letter should be formal. Avoid using shortened form of words, instead of using “won’t” use “will not”.
• The first part of the letter should state a reference for your reason to write.
o With reference to our meeting scheduled the other day,
• Next you should state what you want. It could be for apology, confirmation or an inquiry.
o I would like to apologize for not being able to join you.
• The next statement should be written in a different paragraph. It should contain a request or a confirmation for a request, if you have any.
o Could we make an appointment once again for another date?
• If another contact is to be made or if the mail has an attached document, address it before the closing.
o If you are interested, please give us a call immediately.
• Close your letter with a thank you.
o Thank you for your consideration.
• Finish the letter with a formal valediction with your name, and signature.
o Yours Sincerely, Yours Truly etc.
Forms and Spacing.
• Use block style, paragraphs should not be indented.
• A single line should be used to separate two elements or paragraphs.
• Use two to three lines to separate the sender’s information and the date.
• After the date, use three to four lines before the details of the sender.
• After the valediction, use blank lines for the sender’s signature.