With all the talk lately of fancy social media marketing and SEO, it’s good to keep in mind the importance of human to human direct marketing, and how it can play a crucial role in helping you through the hard times. This has been a major help to me in recent times and I’d like to share my story of how I was able to keep my business growing during hard economic times and the techniques I used to do it.
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Building a lasting reputation: the Do’s and Don’ts
Abe Lincoln once shared an interesting metaphor about reputation. He said that if a person’s character is like a tree, his reputation is like its shade. People value a tree for its shade and a person for his reputation, but just as shade cannot exist without a tree, a good reputation cannot last without character.
For a business, the importance of reputation cannot be overemphasized. Your brand is made of two parts – your message (what you say about yourself) and your reputation (what others say about you). Your message – communicated on business cards, ads and a nice shop sign – tells people that you exist and might get them to try you once. But your reputation is what keeps them coming back.
A strong reputation not only gets you more and better clients without spending thousands, but also shields you from all kinds of problems, from a spiteful ex-customer to trouble with the economy. But reputation has to be earned painstakingly over months and years. It cannot be purchased or embellished. This is especially true today, when anyone can write you a bad review on Yelp for the whole world to read. We are living in times when all it takes to tear down a business built over a lifetime is for one mistake to go viral on the Web. The only reliable strategy to build a reputation is to consistently do excellent work.
Building a rock-solid reputation can be like seeking the Holy Grail, but this list of Do’s and Don’ts could make your Quest a little easier:
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How discount coupons can destroy your computer business – and how to use them anyway
Discounting is a minefield. Just ask JC Penney.
In 2011, JC Penney learned a hard lesson about the dangers of discounting. JC Penney had always been a discount store – and a successful one at that. You wouldn’t shop there for gold watches encrusted with blood diamonds or limited-edition hats made of penguin feathers. People shopped at JC Penney for one and one reason only – discounts. If JC Penney wanted to sell a suit, they’d price it at $150 for six weeks, and then offer it for sale at $75. Of course, their customers loved it. And all was well, until one day, JC Penney wondered, “Why have a suit hanging on a mannequin for six weeks, if it can be sold at $80, or even $90, flat price, from Day One?”
If JC Penney was expecting a stampede to their stores, they were wrong. Loyal customers ditched JC Penney like rats off a sinking ship. JC Penney learned an important lesson that year: people do not simply want to save money – they want the thrill of a steal. By taking away this thrill, JC Penney had entered into a price war with brands like “every day low” Walmart. And lost.
The JC Penney tragedy is not an endorsement of steep discounting. In fact, it teaches us that your customers are motivated by positive experiences, even if they claim that low prices are what makes them choose you.
How NOT to use discounting
Ask any of your customers if they want discount coupons, and invariably, they’ll say, “GIMMIE GIMMIE GIMMIE”. But using coupons to increase sales can be the business equivalent of swatting a fly sitting on your face with a sledgehammer. Here’s why: [Read more…]
5 Simple Ways To Increase Revenue In Your Computer Business
If you are a computer business owner you likely are always looking for way to increase revenue in your computer business. Besides, increasing revenue is what we all want… right? The more revenue you have to more options you have and the more resources that become available to you.
There are so many ways to increase revenue but many aren’t all that easy. In this article, I will show you 5 easy ways to start increasing your revenue. These techniques are used in many business markets with great success. Put at least one of these to use today and see results very quickly. [Read more…]
5 Surefire Ways To Crash Your Computer Business
Listen… hear that?
It’s the sound of dozens, if not hundreds of people telling you how to run your business. The advice, tips and tactics are all great but there’s another side that rarely gets mentioned.
In this article I’m going to dive into five simple things you can do to crash your business.
No, I don’t want you to fail. It’s just so much easier to start with what you should NOT be doing rather than all of the things people say you should be doing.
Do your best to avoid these things and you’ll have a much better chance at succeeding with your computer business.
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Case Study: Making the Transition from Living Room to Brick and Mortar
I began my business in January 2012 by offering computer repair on the side. I literally fixed computers on my coffee table in the evenings and on weekends.
There was no shortage of work. I found myself running home over lunch to continue scans that were in progress, and using vacation time to keep up with the demand.
I did this for two years, but couldn’t continue this pace any longer. On January 6th 2015 I left my job of eleven years. Then three months later I opened a storefront. This is an account of my experience making that transition.
Why a Storefront?
Working from home was great! I could pick the hours I wanted to work, and schedule my work around it.
Take a day off? No problem!
Kid home sick from school? Not an issue, I’m home anyway!
However, the negative side was starting to present itself. Parking is at a premium where we live. I had to schedule clients to avoid traffic congestion in the street out front.
I had intentionally kept my address out of my advertising, and I’m sure this made some people question my legitimacy. But I didn’t want people just showing up since I have a family here.
I also didn’t have the ability to offer merchandise for sale, or to display the refurbished systems I had available. Time to open a storefront!
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What Does It Mean To Be HIPAA Compliant?
If you’ve been around the IT business world, there’s an increasing likelihood that you’ve run across the term HIPAA or HIPAA Compliant. Previously I wrote about how to break into the Healthcare IT niche and spoke about it on a podcast episode about Healthcare IT and HIPAA. Now, I’d like to explore exactly what it means to be HIPAA compliant.
So what does this have to do with IT professionals?
First, some definitions.
HIPAA (not HIPPA) is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It was enacted on August 21, 1996 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. If you were in the “working world” around that time you may recall the media coverage about how important it was that workers be able to carry their employer-paid insurance after separation of employment, at the employees cost.
Along with health insurance portability, the law also created regulations to protect patient privacy. This patient information is usually referred to as PHI (Protected Health Information) or ePHI (Electronic Protected Health Information). You may even see it referred to as IIHI (Individually Identifiable Health Information).
PHI includes any IIHI that is transmitted by electronic media, maintained in electronic media, transmitted or maintained in any other form or medium. In order to effectively protect PHI in electronic format it is imperative that IT professionals understand what and who HIPAA pertains to.
Now that we know what all these acronyms mean, let’s figure out if any of this actually applies to you… [Read more…]
5 FREE Tools To Make Your Computer Business More Professional
Perception IS reality!
This is very evident in business. How your customers perceive you and your business is extremely important. Their perception will be the determining factor in a number of areas:
- How much they trust you
- How much they’re willing to pay
- How much confidence they have in you
- How much they like you
- How comfortable they are
- How serious they take you
Now, let’s look at 5 FREE tools that can make your business look more professional. These tools will not only create this perception of professionalism but will actually cause you to be more professional as a result of implementing them in your business.
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Case Study: Marketing Your Computer Business on Facebook
Photo by eston
Since the time my business, Techie2u Mobile Computer Repairs, was set up in 2009, it would be fair to say that I have tried most types of advertising and promotion. I have advertised via my own Website, newspapers, physical business cards, and flyer drops. You name it, I have done it.
I have learned many painful lessons along the way and spent many thousands of dollars from my marketing budget in attempts to grow my business.
Which brings us to the inevitable question: which advertising method is the most effective in terms of gaining actual new clients?
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Breaking Into The Healthcare IT Niche
My decision to focus on the healthcare IT niche, and give it my best, has completely transformed my business and my life.
When I tell potential healthcare clients that my company only focuses on healthcare, they immediately perk up and pay attention. I’m poised to double my revenue over last year even though I haven’t even been marketing much over the past few months.
Now, approaching the end of my 2nd year fully focused on healthcare I’ve been able to pick up new clients on a regular basis.
How was I able to get to this point?
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