Back to Business Basics | Business 2 Community

I have had many discussions over the last few weeks with some of our current clients as well as several prospects about the challenges of operating a small business in a down market. These discussions have convinced me that small business owners need to get back to the basics of running a business and not allow poor decision making to affect their long-term success. Many small business owners decide to save money by cutting back on marketing, customer service and bookkeeping. This decision can have long-term consequences and affect the future success of their business.

Marketing: When money is tight, many business owners decrease their marketing budgets. However, this is when you should be increasing your marketing efforts to bring in more clients and promote your products and services in different and more creative ways. Take advantage of the fact that your competitors are reducing the amount spent on advertising to save money, so now is the opportunity for you to attract their potential clients to your product or service. Be creative, be constant, be aggressive and be smart. Marketing is more important now than ever.

If you are attracting fewer customers than normal, expand your market to other industries or a larger geographical area. Perhaps you have been heavily advertising to prospects in only one or two industries, but think of other industries that might benefit from your product or service. You can also easily expand to a larger market area by using internet marketing.

Customer Service: Don?t forget customer services basics: always be friendly to all prospective customers, return the call of all existing clients as soon as possible and do everything you possibly can to ensure each client or customer contact ends on a positive note. Most importantly, make sure your product or service does what you say it will do; if for some reason the product or service cannot produce the expected results, let the client know immediately and offer a solution satisfactory to the client.

Being friendly and helpful to prospective clients should be understood by any business owner, but I am often amazed at how rude or disinterested some receptionists and salespeople are when I call a business or when shopping in a store. Believe me, almost nothing makes a prospective customer more disinclined to purchase your product or service than poor customer service.

Bookkeeping: Many small business owners overlook bookkeeping and try to do everything themselves. Not only can this become overwhelming as your business grows, but you could also get into trouble with the IRS and your state and local taxing agencies. Tax laws, especially for small businesses, can be a quagmire difficult to sift through even for the most educated; don?t skimp on hiring a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), tax attorney or bookkeeper. Typically, CPAs and tax attorneys must remain current on all new tax laws in order to ensure license renewal, and bookkeepers know the basics of accounting and will keep your books in order. The CPA or bookkeeper can track your business transactions daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly to generate comprehensive financial reports. You can then use this information to focus on your most profitable products or services and eliminate anything that does not make a profit.

I know it may seem that reducing your advertising and accounting budgets may save money, but in the long run you will be much worse off. Keeping the doors of your business open is vital and anything that accomplishes this should never be eliminated.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/finance/back-to-business-basics-0290703

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