Tag: small business innovation

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What’s the best way to learn to sell?

Selling lobsters. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Selling lobsters. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Today people will make wake up, get dressed and travel to their shop, a showroom floor or prospective customer’s premises to sell. They will be selling cars, homes, furniture, confectionery, insurance, clothes, meat, vegetables, smart phones, tablet computers and large industrial equipment – to name only a few products and services.

Selling is pervasive in our economy. With so many thousands of people making their daily living from the products and services that they sell one wonders how all these people were trained to sell.

Some are trained through company sales programmes, others tag along with experienced sales people on calls and learn the ropes in the field while yet others just bare-knuckle it and learn through trial and error. Continue reading “What’s the best way to learn to sell?”

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It all came down to a customer mailing list

An upmarket stationery business moved its location in a shopping mall for a smaller space because of the economy.

All well and good but business in the new location has been slow.

What’s happening, I asked.

I was told that the business was slow in the new location but they were hoping that things would pick up. After a few questions, I found out that the stationer had not informed its customers of the move, except for a sign on the outside entrance and word-of-mouth. That’s it. Oh, one other thing, they had developed a website to attract customers. How? Continue reading “It all came down to a customer mailing list”

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Ignore your pie-in-the-sky thinking if you want but don’t cry when your competitors steal a scrumptious slice of your market

Why has pie-in-the-sky thinking got such a bad rap?
Why has pie-in-the-sky thinking got such a bad rap?

Last night while driving to a jazz club I was listening to a new Johannesburg radio station and I heard a business consultant interviewing entrepreneurs who have taken a second-hand car sounds business and through innovative ideas have made it super successful.

What stood out for me was a remark made by the wife of the husband-and-wife business partnership. She said her husband was the “pie-in-the-sky” thinker. He was the one who had come up with ideas such as to showcase a classic car from the 60s in their car sound audio fitment centre. Continue reading “Ignore your pie-in-the-sky thinking if you want but don’t cry when your competitors steal a scrumptious slice of your market”

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How do small businesses find new product ideas?

Lifting a Gold Good Delivery bar
Supplier ideas are often gold to small businesses (Photo credit: GoldMoneyNews)

Small businesses depend on new ideas for their survival and growth but where do they find their inspiration for new market offerings?

What’s the one thing that small business owners require for survival and growth?

A constant flow of customers who are attracted to their businesses to buy products and services that are necessities for their homes or businesses or market offerings that they need, want or desire.

Customers want the latest products and services, those that will make their lives easier, those that will bring them benefits.

How do business owners keep serving their customers with new products and services especially as the sales of more mature slow down and gather dust? Continue reading “How do small businesses find new product ideas?”