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Small business are grappling with the issue of market retention, technology and competition from their bigger counterparts but still this is the right time to be in the small and medium business as technology has solved many of the issues that existed not long ago. Only thing is to avoid some mistakes. Old style of getting new clientele, and managing and offering services are out dated and it would be prudent to give a though on how the a business can be given a new outlook by avoiding some common mistakes.
Some of the topics which are critical for success of any business are:
1. Avoiding some marketing mistakes: Lack of proper marketing strategy, identified budget allocation and resources can prove costly for any business. Most importantly getting to know about the proper marketing channels, both direct and online, for client acquisition is critical.
2. Client engagements: clients today have a varied options and hence building customer loyalty is not and easy task. It can be done only through better and prompt customer service, effective listening to them and engaging them at various levels.
3. Services selection: Offering a single service may be not sustainable in the long run. With clients requiring one window service to cater to all of their needs it would be wise to diversify the service basket. This is also critical on account of increased competition where one service may be not profitable in future and hence to have an alternative revenue source.
4. New learning curves: Market trends are always changing and so are the accounting standards and practices. Be the first to grasp their significance and offer the customer the services making the changing trends as your USP and stand special in the crowd.
5. Value added services: Besides your core services always offer some value addition to it for your clients so that the usefulness of your services stands justified and it is helpful in retaining customers as well.
6. IT cost management: any application that you use has its IT equivalent and support and management of software need a proper forecasted budget allocation. And the IT costs should be justified by its advantages and resources used. And you have to decide whether you want to manage the resources on your own or outsource it say to an application service provider. For example you may go for application Hosting solutions like QuickBooks accounting application hosting, Hosted CRM or tax software or PRM.
7. Online presence: Online presence may be as useful as the direct marketing or in fact more important in terms of getting new business, building brand or customer engagement. Social media is one part of it and may consists of professional networking sites, PR strategy and Search engine paid and organic listings.
