Business is simple as it all really comes down to two numbers: the overheads and your revenue. The difference between them is your profit. This reductionist picture of running a business misses out of all the complex ways of getting your revenue to go up and your overheads to come down. However, one way of increasing your revenue is by getting more customers. This too is much easier said than done, but if you want to succeed and continue to grow your business, you need to spend time and money working on it.
There are a lot of different ways of doing it, but not all of them are cheap. In fact, a lot of the techniques that entrepreneurs use will increase their customer base, but their overheads will increase concomitantly too. This is fine if you want to earn about the same amount while doing a lot more work. However, if you are smart and creative, you can reach more customers without spending drastic amounts of money. Here are a few ways of doing it:
1. What do customers always like? Free stuff. It may sound expensive to just start giving your products away, but if you think of it as an investment that will produce a return, it starts to seem more reasonable. Whatever it is that you sell, or the service that you provide, you can find something that people like and use a company like Brandables to put your name, logo, and contact details on it and just give it away. You could ask your employees to go to a busy part of town and hand them out to people around, or if you want to be more targeted, why not get something like ice coffee and hand them out at a major train station during the morning and evening rush hour? Lots of people are sure to take one and they will learn about your brand. The people who see them drinking it will too, as will their colleagues who may come out and find you to get their free drink.
2. If you want to raise your profile amongst potential customers and earn money at the same time, you could volunteer to speak at a local business convention or at a local college. You have real life experience and insight that a lot of people would like to learn more about. If you charge a minor fee, or agree to waive it in return for a chance to mention your business, you can reach a lot of people.
3. Currently 88% of Americans use the internet as of the start of this year. Reaching them on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat is important, but a great way of encouraging your customers to keep coming back to your sites is by writing a blog. If you produce interesting and useful content, they will want to read more.
1. What do customers always like? Free stuff. It may sound expensive to just start giving your products away, but if you think of it as an investment that will produce a return, it starts to seem more reasonable. Whatever it is that you sell, or the service that you provide, you can find something that people like and use a company like Brandables to put your name, logo, and contact details on it and just give it away. You could ask your employees to go to a busy part of town and hand them out to people around, or if you want to be more targeted, why not get something like ice coffee and hand them out at a major train station during the morning and evening rush hour? Lots of people are sure to take one and they will learn about your brand. The people who see them drinking it will too, as will their colleagues who may come out and find you to get their free drink.
2. If you want to raise your profile amongst potential customers and earn money at the same time, you could volunteer to speak at a local business convention or at a local college. You have real life experience and insight that a lot of people would like to learn more about. If you charge a minor fee, or agree to waive it in return for a chance to mention your business, you can reach a lot of people.
3. Currently 88% of Americans use the internet as of the start of this year. Reaching them on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat is important, but a great way of encouraging your customers to keep coming back to your sites is by writing a blog. If you produce interesting and useful content, they will want to read more.
This will drive traffic to your website, which will also increase your SEO rankings. These dictate how high your website appears on search results pages when prospective customers use sites like Google. Starting a blog is free, and if you enjoy what you write about, you will not begrudge the time spent writing either.
