25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

In furtherance of this goal, the FDIC has initiated the FDIC Small Business Resource Effort to assist the small vendors that provide products, services, and solutions to the FDIC.. • The

Make your business more

productive, creative, and

efficient

25 Ways to Jump-Start

Your Business

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

– Examine your business with a focused approach on how to get to the next

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) recognizes the

important contributions made by small, veteran, and minority and owned businesses to our economy For that reason, we strive to provide

women-small businesses with opportunities to contract with the FDIC In

furtherance of this goal, the FDIC has initiated the FDIC Small Business

Resource Effort to assist the small vendors that provide products, services, and solutions to the FDIC

• The objective of the Small Business Resource Effort is to provide information and the tools small vendors need to become better positioned to compete for contracts and subcontracts at the FDIC To achieve this objective, the

Small Business Resource Effort references outside resources critical for

qualified vendors, leverages technology to provide education according to perceived needs, and offers connectivity through resourcing, accessibility, counseling, coaching, and guidance where applicable

• This product was developed by the FDIC Office of Minority and Women

Inclusion (OMWI) OMWI has responsibility for oversight of the Small

Business Resource Effort.  

About FDIC Small Business Resource Effort

3 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 These 25 strategies can make your business more productive, make your team more creative, and make your operations more efficient.

 The strategies range from thoughts on leadership, to advice on how to motivate employees, to ways of reducing Information Technology (IT)

costs

 Each of these ideas has been tested by other small businesses and yielded

a significant pay-off

Executive Summary

 There are two kinds of urgency.

– Good – Moving steadily forward by focusing on propelling your business to the next level.

– Bad – State of panic and being overly busy on unproductive tasks that deplete your energy.

 How to tell the difference

– Will the task add value to your company or client/prospect?

– What will the measurable outcome be for completing the task?

– Is the task in keeping with your business’ vision and business plan?

 Review your calendar If every minute is filled with meetings or conference calls, step back and determine what is truly urgent and what is non-

productive

 Narrow down your tasks to the three most important for the day Of the three, finish the most important thing first in the morning when you have fewer distractions

Matters

5 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Ask employees for suggestions on ways to improve business or reduce

costs Offer rewards for the top suggestions

 Hire employees with leadership skills

 Be positive and believe in your product Your attitude as a leader will be contagious

 Create a war room and invite key employees to participate in decision

making

 Praise your employees openly for a job well done When employees feel important, they are more productive

 Invite employees to lunch and ask for their input on specific projects

 Update your website frequently Websites updated frequently are more dynamic, moving, ever-changing, and interesting They offer potential

visitors the most current information Search engines find sites more

easily when they are updated regularly, and updating your site with new products can give your business an edge over the competition

 Measure the number of website visitors vs visitors that buy your product

or service Pages that are visited less should be reworked

 Check if visitors are putting items in online shopping carts and then leaving the site If so, simplify your checkout process

 Hold a focus group to gather feedback on the ease of using your website

 Follow up with an e-mail if a profile/account was created Ask if they had technical difficulties Include “unsubscribe” option in e-mail

3 Tweak the Language on Your Website

7 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Survey current customers’ interest level in buying new products.

 Create a blog about your new product

 Post product videos on sites, such as, YouTube or MetaCafe

 Place classified ads on free classified websites

 Submit articles to online trade publications

 Get affiliates to advertise your products

 Test launch new products online before conducting extensive research

– Create new pages with pricing.

– Change search engine keywords.

– Create campaigns on sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

– Send an e-mail to contacts in customer database.

– Leverage other serial media.

4 Measure Demand for New

 Test interest before developing a product.

– Works best for products with short development timeframe.

– Long wait times will aggravate customers and do more harm than good.

– Make it clear that this product will be developed only with sufficient customer interest Misleading messaging could lead to claims of false advertisement or even fraud.

– Contact customers that showed interest if product is not created to let them know what happened

4 Measure Demand for New

9 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Accuracy is critical as forecasts drive manufacturing line production, which

in turn drive inventory, supply, costs, and ultimately revenues Most supply problems result from poor forecasting

 Answer these questions:

– What are you currently measuring, e.g., sales, products, demand?

– What products are selling and what are not?

– What is in your sales pipeline?

– How are you determining deal closure probability?

 Develop a list of objective criteria that any potential sale must satisfy

before it can be forecast

 Have more frequent conversations with your customers Why did they

order less? Their business (cash flow) directly affects your business

 Create new forecasts monthly This can be time consuming, but worth it to identify new trends or unexplained changes

5 Improve the Accuracy of Your Sales Forecasts

 Define your ideal customer and market to those customers.

 Are you catering to any one customer? Why? What is the cost? Is it a

reproducible service that will grow revenue? If costly and not

reproducible, is that your ideal customer?

 Use forecasting and communication to identify inefficiencies, e.g.,

combine orders to reduce shipping costs

 Help transition customers that are no longer ideal to larger suppliers of your product/service They will remember your efforts and recommend you to others

 Require late-paying customers to pay by credit card

 Contact disgruntled customers directly, but do not tolerate verbal abuse

Customers

11 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Use key words in your HTML title tags and use only one tag per page.

 Increase inbound links to your site from other websites

 Build search engine traffic based on inbound links, as well as, word meta tags

 Offer something for free for customers to download, such as an application

or a book

 Interview an expert or local charity and post it to your website

 Link to blog sites that are relevant to your business

 Get mentioned in the press and include a link to your website

 Create search phrases instead of single words and use in the titles

 Use Google Keyword Tool to find other phrases

 Ask the customer how they found you

 Make sure pages can be easily updated Refreshing content regularly is

beneficial to search engines

 Remove under used pages

7 Turn Freebies into a Search Engine Optimization Play

 Have an open forum for employees to submit ideas.

 Ask for employee input in specific areas

 Organize quarterly internal employee challenges for idea submission

 Consider all ideas submitted – small or big

 Have a defined deadline and reward winner(s)

 Use technology to track and rank ideas submitted

 Allow employees to vote or comment on ideas to promote collaboration and refine ideas

 Put ideas into action Suggestions will stop if action is not visible

Submit Their Ideas

13 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Start planning your rebound during a recession.

 Conduct market research for areas to expand

 Team with training or software companies to offer internal training

programs

 Form strategic partnerships with prospective advertisers or outlets to

display your product/service, e.g., industry publications, Google

 Look for joint advertising opportunities with a complementary company

 Ask your customers to list your name and link as a preferred vendor on their website

 Team with business process vendors, such as a conferencing service

provider to minimize travel costs

9 Look for Partners in Struggling Industries

 Web-based collaboration tools allow for instant communication through a central repository of ideas, e.g., SharePoint, OfficeMedium, Basecamp, CubeTree, WiseHive, SocialText.

 Document sharing software also allows for file collaboration while

minimizing version control issues The most up-to-date file is always

available

 Fee-based online collaboration vendors have technology in place to

mitigate data loss and offer a written guarantee that the software will be accessible

 Free collaboration sites are typically less reliable and offer no guarantees

 Internal collaboration software can be costly to install and maintain

10 Share Information More Widely

15 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Consider if healthy competition is right for your company It can be a great way to increase sales.

 Ensure you reward the right outcome when choosing this method to avoid potential sabotage

 Use competitions with fun awards rather than significant sums of money Fun competitions are more likely to remain friendly and leave

relationships solid

 Consider competing against past measures instead of each other as

another way to engage without damaging relationships

 Make sure all employees know all rules, such as start and end dates

 Keep it simple Complicated games will turn off employees and can be

time consuming to monitor

Employees

 A Marketing Plan is your strategy

 It should be brief and cover key points

 Your Marketing Plan is a living document and should have some flexibility

 Be careful of rewriting too quickly

 You must give your strategy time to work

 Measuring tasks will show what is successful and what should be

modified

12 Write a New Marketing Plan (Slide 1 of 2)

17 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Start with a vision statement the long-term mission for your business that

is timeless and immediately inspiring to employees and stakeholders

 Define marketing objectives that will accomplish your business goals

Goals must be realistic

– Conduct a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of your business.

– Define the five Cs (consumer, channel, company, competition, and climate) to determine your unique position in the market and where your opportunities lie.

– Establish SMART objectives (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, bound) to drive your tangible goal, such as profitable growth or market share.

time- Conduct research and market analysis

– How are you positioned against your competition?

– What is your target market or ideal customer?

– Is your pricing competitive in your industry and against your competition?

 Define measurements against your goals and objectives

12 Write a New Marketing Plan (Slide 2 of 2)

 Turn followers into creators.

– Ask your Twitter followers for their input.

– Retweets: Offer tweeters prizes for sharing information with their

followers/friends.

 Sell products on Twitter

– Tell customers what is the sale of the day.

– Tweeting daily keeps you in front of your customers.

– Retweets: Keep message short so there is room for followers to add their own message before tweeting to their friends.

 Look for leads on Twitter

– Use Twitter’s search function to find prospects looking for your service.

– Set up Twitter free alerts for key word searches using services such as

TweetDeck or DemandSpot.

13 Turn Tweets into Cash

(Slide 1 of 2)

19 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Sell products for Twitter.

– Create a Twitter application that adds more functionality or ease in using

Twitter and tweeters will buy it.

 Find customers anywhere

– Use Twitter to let your followers know where you are when you hold special events or attend tradeshows.

– If your company is mobile and moves to a different location, tweeting can let your followers know where to find you.

13 Turn Tweets into Cash

(Slide 2 of 2)

 Reflect on lost sales to help you improve your areas of weakness.

 Prevent lost sales from the beginning of the relationship with a

prospective candidate Determine if they are a viable candidate for your business model

 Implement a sales tracking system to determine your probability of

success

 Ask for permission to perform a post-decision analysis and interview early

in the sales process

 Use a win-loss analysis template and ask clients and prospects to

complete a performance survey of three key areas: the sales team, sales tools and collateral, and product features

 Implement win-loss analysis quickly Do not initiate on the same call

where you learn of the deal loss

 Ask why the competition won Asking open-ended questions gets more comprehensive answers

14 Look to Learn More from Lost Sales (Slide 1 of 2)

21 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business

 Ask for first and last impressions How was your company viewed before initial contact? Did perceptions change during the sales process? Would they recommend your company to others?

 Interview the lost customer after you receive the returned questionnaire Interviewer should not be a member of the original sales team A neutral person will be more objective Employing a third-party for interviewing is the most objective option and usually results in more definitive

information

 Turn loss into lessons learned going forward Identify training

opportunities for a young sales force

 Track losses to uncover areas for improvement and negative patterns

 Implement any changes to sales process immediately

14 Look to Learn More from Lost Sales (Slide 2 of 2)

 You only get one chance to make a first impression – prospects are more likely to buy from someone who is able to clearly present the product or service.

 Take a course on giving effective presentations

 Practice makes perfect! Practice also makes professional!

 Practice in front of a video camera

 Know your audience, not just the company background Ask for bios of those who will be attending the presentation

 Be sure you are very comfortable with the presentation material

15 Prepare Better for Your Presentations (Slide 1 of 2)

23 FDIC OMWI Education Module: 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business