As small-business owners know, a business needs customers coming in the door to survive. But a common fallacy is that customers will flock to your store just because you open the doors. Building a customer base is a huge challenge, but it is reality. Even with a great product, you need to let customers know…
This first appeared in our weekly email newsletter, A Positive View of Rural. Even though I love local business, I’m about ready to ban “shop local.” Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, I’m something of a shop local champion. So why am I ready to get rid of “shop local”? Because I’m afraid it has…
One of the principles of a small town business is to be personal. Sometimes, automation can help you to be personal. Here’s what I mean. A friend was taking registrations for an event. If you’ve ever dealt with event registrations, you know it generates a lot of emails. One of the options in his marketing…
It’s hard to ask for help, isn’t it? We hate to admit we need help. It hurts our pride. We hate to let go of our independence and control. All of that is scary. If it’s hard for you to ask for help, imagine how hard it is for your customers. That makes it your…
If you’re trying to make something better, I have two questions for you to ask everyone who is involved. My winter view of Port Dover, Norfolk County, Ontario. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing it this way? These great questions are from Norfolk County, Ontario, Mayor Dennis Travale. Dennis is serious about…
Who is first among the equals in your retail store? This is something fellow retailer Daniel Gordon and I were discussing long ago, and I think it’s a valuable topic for business outside of retail, as well. Do you make a point of treating every single customer equally? Do you make decisions about them, based on how…
By Jon Swanson “Are you Martha or Molly?” I figured it was a simple question. He acted like he owned the place. “I’m George,” he said. The sign says Martha and Molly’s,but the customer service was George’s. It was a clothes and shoes shop in northwest Ohio, on a road where most of the cars…
It shouldn’t be hard work for your customers to complain. They are helping you to improve, so make it easy for them to get a message to you. Contributor Jon Swanson. Contributor Jon Swanson worked hard to complain constructively to two companies. He heard back from one, but not the other. He finally wrote about…
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