As 2019 comes to a close, many companies will think about their plans for 2020. These plans include new budgets, new marketing efforts, and new ways to keep your employees engaged. Try these tips to grow your small business in 2020.
Know Your Customers
Financial institutions must comply with “Know Your Customer,” or KYC regulations. Each country has its own variation of these rules; KYC requirements in India will be different than their equivalent in the United States. But one thing remains the same: these institutions are required to have a basic understanding of the identities of their customers. Unless you are engaged in a highly regulated industry, governments don’t generally require small businesses to know the identities of their customers. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t at minimum know the types of customers that are attracted to your products and services. Spend some time to profile your existing customers. How do you segment them by gender, income, location, and other attributes? How do these qualities correlate with their buying behaviors? On which customer segments should you focus your efforts? Figure these things out, and then create an action plan for 2020.
Nurture Your Customer Base
Identify your top customers and let them know that you have their interests in mind. Find out what value you can bring them in the coming year. You’d be surprised what you can learn from a quick phone call or email. Plus, word of mouth is the best form of advertising, and happy customers will refer their friends. Spend some time developing a customer-centric lead generation campaign for 2020.
Support Your Team
Remind your colleagues, direct reports, employees, and partners that they are important. Spend some time sitting down with each person on your extended team, in order to identify ways to bring each other value in 2020. Identify some of the top health and wellness trends for this coming year, and consider applying them to your small business culture. Think about how you can improve the overall well-being of the people who surround you and your business. You may not be able to compensate your staff in the same way as an international corporation. But, with the right culture, you can make every day that they come to work feel rewarding.
Attend Networking Events
Spend some time finding local networking events, and then go! Not only will you start to generate new leads at every event that you attend, but you’ll also learn new strategies from your connections. Go to these events with the needs of the other attendees in mind, and bring them as much value as you can. You’ll find that they reciprocate more often than not. Just keep in mind that you don’t need to attend every single event. It’s okay to be selective in your business development efforts. Remember the 80/20 rule and invest time where you expect the greatest returns.
Update Your Website
If you don’t have a current website, then spend some time building one. You can get good website hosting for as little as four bucks a month. WordPress is super-easy to work with, and with the variety of themes available, you can be up and running within an hour.
