By Owen Mead-Robins Becky asked me to write an article about finding or developing a niche. So let’s go back to the beginning of Oprius, where the need was identified. My girlfriend was working for Cutco selling professional knives, and was having trouble keeping track of all the little details. My girlfriend was working as…
Click to Play In a product based business, it can be tough to pull together items from many different manufacturers. To help customers make easier buying decisions, Becky McCray recommends three tips: Simplify Standardize Add ratings New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
Exclusivity is a terrific motivator for your customers. Reader Robert Ellis is taking full advantage of that with his tax firm. He is not advertising, not accepting any new walk in clients, not keeping pain in the neck clients, and only taking referrals from existing clients. And the firm is growing. Read about his Liberating…
Remember Nairobi Paul’s business idea of importing Kenyan handicrafts to the USA? He (and you) could get started by talking to someone successfully importing from the developing world, like Kristen Evans. Evans is importing crafts from Bolivia, like the angel pictured to the right. She’s succeeding in spite of increasing political difficulties and the constant…
Our Friend Chuck Huckaby wants to share some ideas on where to find local sources of merchandise to resell. This is a solid model for a small town business: take a local resource into a larger market. Find your local sources: landfills, garage sales, auctions, local manufacturers, local retailers, local farmers. Look for their overstocks,…
Two truths about your customers and your business: 1. It’s not a popularity contest. The organization that actually motivates people to act positively wins. Read more of the story at the Donor Power Blog. 2. Happy customers reward you. Our Friend Zane Safrit boils it all down to just that. Go read how those happy…
How to market your rural area: focus on rural strengths For the first time that I can remember, the state’s push for people to consider bringing their business and/or their family to Iowa is not apologizing — it is celebrating all that makes it such a terrific place to live. Found at Drew’s Marketing Minute….
Today’s idea is how to use mobile marketing for your small business to reach tourists. Small towns are frequently tourist towns. Small businesses are looking to market to anonymous crowds who arrive for a short time. We need a method to give customers an incentive to go out of their way to stop in at…
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