Running a successful profitable business is the immediate objective of all new entrepreneurs, however, this is a long-term goal that you have to work towards achieving for a prolonged period of time. Getting there, nonetheless, is far from easy, which is why there are several tips that might come in handy when it comes to achieving this worthy goal. Here are six of them that tend to give the most reliable and consistent results.
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Make a unique selling proposition
One of the things that pose the biggest problem in running a profitable business is the inability of a small business to find an adequate unique selling proposition. This makes them believe that it’s all about the price of the product, which is a field in which they simply can’t compete in with some of their larger industry competitors. On the other hand, there’s always something unique that you can offer to your audience and this idea may yet come to resound soundly amongst your audience. For instance, Avis managed to use the fact that they were a No.2 business in the industry for their marketing campaign and came up with an iconic slogan “We’re number two. We try harder.”
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Launch early
There’s a belief that if the first version of your product is flawless, you’ve launched too late. You see, there’s a fine line between an unfinished product and the one that still has several bugs, flaws and glitches. The latter is acceptable in the industry, even if it is somewhat frowned upon. Still, this brings several hidden perks.
First of all, it gives you a chance to include your audience into the product development process. Second, it gives you a chance to show the full prowess of your customer service. Provided that this department performs admirably and you have a lenient refund policy, the fact that you’ve launched a bit too early won’t be a setback but an advantage. Why? Well, because it gives you a chance to start making profit a lot sooner.
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Provide your business with some legal insulation
Expecting everything to run smoothly is a mindset of a gambler and not that of a businessman. Most commonly, these unforeseen expenses will come from legal issues. For starters, you need to ensure that you’re doing everything by the book when it comes to commercial law. Next, you need to be covered when it comes to the field of commercial and retail leasing. Aside from this, provided that you don’t intend to start a home-based one-person startup, you need to have someone on your side who’s skilled in an employment law.
Now, from the above-listed, it’s already transparent that these legal services are most likely something that you’ll be needing on a regular basis. This is why it’s important to go with a local firm. This will allow you to both meet them in person and have them on speed-dial. Still, skill is the main factor here, not just the location, yet, there’s no harm in at least checking out the local talent. For instance, if your headquarters are located in Sydney, near Port Jackson, you should probably look for a reputable Northern Beaches Lawyer, before extending your search to the whole of Sydney.
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Research your competition
The next thing you absolutely have to do is keep an eye on your competitors in order to see if there’s anything new that you could bring to the market. If there’s a new trend, you need to know about it as soon as possible. This form of simple, subtle industrial espionage is something that will keep you in touch with all the latest occurrences in the industry. Some even do this by registering an account and making an inexpensive purchase from their competitors in order to get a customer’s insight into their checkout system. Needless to say, this can give you more than a couple of ideas on how to improve your own website.
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Adopt a pricing strategy
The next thing you need to understand that setting a price doesn’t solve this problem for good. Over the course of months and years, this price will have to change, which is why you need to adopt a pricing strategy instead. In order to get there, you must first understand what you want. If you’re new to the market and want to gain a customer base as quickly as possible, you could go with penetration pricing.
This is the most common tactic, seeing as how you enter the market with the lowest price of the product and increase it later on. Opposite to this, you could adopt a tactic known as price skimming, which requires you to set a high price and then reduce it over the course of time in order to allow more and more people to buy it. Either way, you need to find the strategy that’s both sustainable and appropriate for your industry. Without it, you won’t be able to get that far.
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Make return customers
At the very end, you need to understand that it’s highly unlikely that a one-time person will spend so much money in your store or e-store in order to make a significant difference. Therefore, the greatest value from these first-time-buyers comes from the potential of turning them into regular customers.
With each subsequent buy, these regulars are easier to persuade to come back, meaning that you get a better ROI from the purchase in question. Second, the more they spend with you, the more comfortable they will be with the idea of spending more the next time. So, don’t be surprised if each subsequent purchase exceeds the last one in both volume and value.
In conclusion
The very fact that you need a business model, is a great indicator that the success and profitability of a business may come down to more than just the rule of supply and demand. Sure, the latter may be enough for some short-term money-making, however, in order to be able to truly consider your business as a successful one, you need efficient long-term solutions.