As a business owner, you’ve undoubtedly been asked many times before: How is business?
Whether it’s been good or slow, many businesses are caught off guard when there is an uptick in customers and typically find themselves overwhelmed. This often puts those businesses in precarious situations where they over-commit to too much business and are unable to make good on their promises, sometimes going into debt, or not having the personnel to meet demand and find themselves stressed to the breaking point. We’ve seen surges in business cripple companies who weren’t prepared for success. The key is believing you will get bigger and better—without a doubt.
So then, how can you better prepare for an uptick in business? Here are 6 tips to put yourself in a position to ride the wave like a pro and to be successful.
1) Take a look at your website and make sure it’s ready for more traffic…
That includes possibly upgrading your hosting plan, creating more email addresses to direct messages from consumers to you in an efficient way, and updating your information/content. Also, make sure your social media is up-to-date or that you at least have a presence in some.
2) If you have a brick-and-mortar location…
Make sure the amount of parking is sufficient. Adjust the interior of your store to create easy access, exit, and efficient flow. Also, position furniture, walkways, and equipment to guide consumers to where you want them to go. Whether it be to certain merchandise you want to highlight, a waiting area, or the checkout counter people like to be guided.
3) Go over how your business handles customers from start to finish…
Going from before they even know about you to long after they interact with you/make a purchase. Pretend you are a consumer and walk through the entire process, checking for any flaws and inefficiencies. Start with how the consumers will find/come to know your business, how they will initiate the relationship (website/call/walk-in), how they will find out more information about you/your products, how they can purchase them, how to gain their contact information, what your post-sale procedures are (returns, exchanges, follow-up, relationship nurturing) – everything!
4) Make sure all employees are trained…
For customer service have at least basic knowledge about the business and products to minimize the chances of appearing unprofessional.
5) Create an “all-in-one” business document…
That includes everything about the business in it. In marketing, we call these Brand Books. They help everyone in the company stay on the same page and give a uniform look to everything. A Brand Book is essentially a set of rules that explain how your brand works and provides guidelines to employees and any marketing or media professionals you may work with. Making sure that your brand has the same overall look and feel throughout not only reinforces your credibility with your customers, but it also makes you stand out from the crowd.
6) Have a few top-notch resumes on file…
For positions, you will need to hire if business takes off. Finding good help is extremely difficult, so it’s incredibly important to have an idea of who is out there and who you can call upon should the need arise.