I don’t know about you but isn’t it frustrating when every single customer seems to want something just a little different and you can’t get any real pay back on work previously done for other customers.

So what do you do?

Well, my biggest problem is in saying NO because I think it can sometimes be the difference between getting a sale and not getting a sale.

Or so it seems to me at the time!

You know what I’ve found… Often the customer is only seeking to clarify what is and isn’t included. Sometimes if I try less to accommodate them and tell them exactly what we can and can’t do for them it gets easier because instead of me compromising, the customer makes a compromise.

Often when I’ve been worried about losing a customer, I find that by being honest and straight forward about what we can and can’t do, the customer automatically works out if we’re going to be able to help or not.

And you know what?

In the end it makes it a whole lot easier for me!

So what are your experiences in this?

I have personally found this quite a difficult question to answer because for so long we have relied on advertising to achieve our reach to prospective customers.

We relied on other people such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television to reach people with our marketing messages and to bring in leads.

However, now that people are responding more to what their friends think than responding to advertising, we are all having to become a mini media company with our own targeted list of prospects that we are communicating with.

So how big should my list be if I’m to achieve a steady list of inquiry coming into my business?

I know of two businesses where the customer list is approximately 200 and the list of prospects is approximately 30,000 but both of these businesses market to very large corporate customers.

I also know of another business where the customer list is approximately 25,000 and the overall list is approximately 100,000.

What I’m picking is that as a small business owner you are somewhere in between these two examples.

So what’s a good ‘rule of thumb’ to get started at?

In our own business we’re looking to achieve a list of prospects that is 10 times the size of our customer list and the reason for this is that we’re looking for substantial growth.

Many small business owners do not even keep or manage their list of customer prospects effectively and therefore have no idea what the size of it is.

Can I suggest you find your list and get it organized today.

What is your experience on building a list?

Is it very different to the three examples I’ve given in this post?

One of the most valuable assets of a small business is an online list of people who are prepared to receive information via email.

I bet you have an effective way of communicating with your customers because without it you can’t send out invoices and collect your money

But what about your list of prospects?

What about the people you’ve met at networking events, trade shows or other business meetings?

What do you do with all the details?

If you’re like many business owners these details are kept in a variety of places with no specific system for follow up.

Developing an online list which keeps all the details and through which you can distribute valuable information and offers is becoming a key marketing requirement for small business owners.

Outbound email to your list is the new advertising of the 21st century and the most cost effective way of bringing high quality leads into your business.
How are you going with your list?

What experiences do you have?

There is a creative part of every human being, but unfortunately it has often been locked away by parental or educational conditioning that says, in effect, “The most important thing in life is to be safe and have enough money to make ends meet.”

There are literally thousands of good business ideas in people who don’t even realise it because they have lived most of their life in the logical part of their brain and never been released to be creative.

Can you imagine your parents encouraging you to be an artist or a musician?

For the last century, children have been encouraged to be doctors, engineers, architects, accountants. Schools have been set up to ‘manufacture’ these types of people and students who don’t ‘fit in’ are often made to feel second rate citizens. This has led to them suppressing much of their creative flair.

Good business ideas come from releasing your creative flair. And the simplest way to do this is to help solve problems that people encounter on a regular basis. All you have to do is solve the problem for people for a price that is more than what it costs you to solve it.

For example, a problem used to be that people needed ice for their drinks when having a barbeque at home. The solution: Party Ice which you can now buy from most garages. Simple problem – simple solution

The key in finding a good business idea is observing people and situations and look for problems that need solving. Then find the simplest and most cost effective way of solving this so that people think they’re getting a bargain and suddenly you’ve created a business opportunity.

What experiences would you like to share on this?

What are some of the simple problems you’ve found for your customers?