Search engine optimisation aka SEO is on everybody’s mind these days. A term that strikes fear into many small business owners hearts, as it is jargon and nobody really know what it is or what it really means. Answering the question is complicated.
Therein lies the problem. I hear from many clients that they had SEO done(!) and nothing happened. Asking what SEO means to my clients, the answers are often along the lines of getting more traffic to their website. It did not work, why did it not work?
After all how would you know, if the ‘friendly advisor’ knows what SEO is or if he/she is just playing with your fears? Easy – put their website into alexa.com (not an absolute measure, but good enough) and see what their world ranking for their website is!
Anything more than a million – don’t even think about it – if they can’t do it for themselves, how are they going to do it for you?
For most big businesses customer care is a ‘cost centre’ – in other words it is something that costs them money, they outsource it (often to India, to save some more money) and they generally wish it would all go away so the quarterly results look a little better to their shareholders.
Here is the thing – who pays your bills, who do you sell to? Yep – that would be your customers! They call, you should be happy and thank them for it AND mean it! This is your golden opportunity to get some business.
Why are you spending money to advertise, if your customers are calling you already? Take care of them and they will take care of you!
Starting a business is often an act of passion, you want to change the world for a better place, love how it makes you feel to do what you do; in short it is often more than only making money – it’s like finding true love in what you do.
You are probably very good at what you love doing or better, because you love what you are doing, you are very good at it. Being distracted and frustrated, however, makes us less focused and our business suffers. We often do things we are not good at, because we don’t like or even hate doing them. Business suffers again, i.e. a badly designed web-site, or wrong and unfinished bookkeeping.
Luckily we as people work well in groups, we are not islands. Finding ways of dealing with all the unwanted admin is easier today than ever – use virtual assistant services or business process outsourcing to keep you focused on your ‘true business love’.
Only business focus AND business passion makes for a successful small business.
You see this face in the crowd (I’m terrible at remembering names) you know this face and then you remember you met this person during a networking event, a trade show or a business meeting of some sort.
You say, “Hello”! The problem is you can’t remember what his/her business was, what products or services they offer, big business, small business – even ‘what business’? BUT, you said “Hello”.
What we learn from this is, as humans, we may forget the details but we never forget how a person makes you feel! That will decide if I say ‘Hello’ the next time we meet!
How would I feel meeting you, as a customer, supplier …..
Hat Tip to @adrianswinscoe – he made me aware of this first!
