It’s Your Business: 183 Essential Tips that Will Transform Your Small Business
JJ Ramberg with Lisa Everson and Frank Silverstein
This book had tips that were divided into 11 sections, beginning with Finding Your Funding and closing with Running the Office. In the introduction, Ramberg said that reading the book in order wasn’t necessary and I took that advice. Sections that weren’t particularly useful to what Spotless Spaces is doing right now I just briefly skimmed over to see if there was anything I could pull from the section and use, but for the most part I made a mental note to look at those tips again in the future if we ever got to that point. This book was one of my favorites to read and I feel like because the tips were divided up so that each one was simple, it was the most helpful out of all the books I read. I continually refer to my notes on this one and did a lot of the worksheets and activities for our business with Jean.
Chapter 1: Finding Your Funding
I think at this point, trying to get investors for our company is unnecessary and would also be too much for us to take on. We are still trying to figure out the most effective way to run and manage our company, and I think trying to pursue investors would be adding too many new things all at once. Once we have a stable company and have a system for how we operate, we could possibly look into getting investors but I honestly don’t think we would ever want or need to do that. However, there were still some good tips in this section that I think can be applied to managing our company as a whole.
Tip #1: Have an “Elevator Pitch” ready at all times. A successful one will follow the acronyms of PATS: passion for your idea, ask for a number, show traction and make sense. This can usually be summed up into a paragraph using the following “worksheet”.
Explanation: One line stating what your company does.
Traction: Statistics that show the upward success of your idea.
Size: How big your company can become.
Ask: What are you asking for
While we are not necessarily looking for funding at this point, I think that having a summary of our company that we can pitch is a useful tool for us to have.
Tip #3: Make sure you are selling your company, not just the product. I think this is a good tip because many companies have similar products, so if you only sell the product an investor—or customer—may go with the product, but from a different company.
Tip #9: Ask your customers for payment up front; offer a discount to people who pay in advance. We have sort of implemented this tip already; we have had one customer so far who asked about paying in advance. No one had ever asked us that before, but we told the client that she could have a certain percent discount if she paid for a certain number of months of service upfront. I think that we should find a way to advertise this, either on our website or when we send out bids to clients to look over.
Chapter 2: Getting it Off the Ground
Tip #13: Focus on the “why”. While it is important to explain what your company does, it is almost more important to focus on the why, because it will showcase your passion for what you do and inspire people more than simply saying what you do will.
I want to use this tip on our website and redo the “About Us” section that we have on there to make it more about the why and less about the what to engage prospective clients more.
Tip #14: Get fresh ideas from your team’s brainstorming meeting.
This tip was more for brainstorming ideas at meetings, but I think I can still apply it to our company and use it in our meetings as well, just for a little different purpose.
Tip #20: Clear your brand before launching it. While we aren’t marketing a big brand or coming up with any new products, I did want to check the website that this tip listed (www.uspto.gov - United States Patent and Trademark Office) to see if Spotless Spaces was trademarked.
Tip #23: Internally crowdsource new designs. This tip had a step by step case study of how a company in New York bounces ideas for logos, websites, etc. that I thought was a good way to handle it. First he sends out his idea, design, etc. to their staff and asks everyone to send back a minimum of two comments, which are then gone over and used to revise the idea. Then the newest version of the idea/etc. is sent out and the staff is asked for a maximum of three comments; after these comments are implemented a final version and asks for the most important comment. An open forum is then held for final revisions and ideas before things are finalized. For us, I think this system may have many steps for us at this point but I like the idea. I think whenever we redesign our website or come up with a new marketing product (flyers, etc.) we should send it out to our staff and ask for a couple comments, then send out a revised version and ask for final comments before finalizing and distributing or using the item.
Chapter 3: Being the Leader
Tip #33: Mystery shop your store. While we don’t have a store, I think we can still make use of this tip. I think that by putting our employees houses on the schedule to be cleaned every once in a while, we will be able to evaluate the job we are doing in our clients houses. Because members of our staff will be living in the area we just cleaned, we will be able to see more details that we wouldn’t normally catch during a final walkthrough, and also be able to see how things hold up over time.
Tip #34: Be your business’s best customer. This kind of goes along with the tip above, in that we should have our employees and other staff members use our services. If we don’t use our service, why would other people feel the need to?
Tip #36: Keep track of your competitors. Over the years, we have run into some other cleaning services working in our same area, but have never really investigated any of them. I think even simply looking at other companies’ websites would be beneficial, because we could see how our site compares to theirs, the information they are putting out there, what they are doing to draw new customers, etc. I don’t think we need to go as far as to use other companies’ services, but if we ever come across another business owner we could ask questions about how their business is doing. Some of Ramberg’s suggestions for keeping track of competitors is to set up a google alert for other companies (and your own as well), subscribe to competitor newsletters, follow them on Facebook and Twitter, and use their products/services every once in a while (although I don’t think this last one is necessary for us at this point).
After reading this tip, I did some research and found the following small companies (I did not include chain companies in my search) around our area that also provide cleaning services: Diamond Quality Clean (cleaningservicescincinnati.net), House Calls LLC (housecallsllc.com), VesCo Residential Cleaning (http://www.vescocleaning.com), The Pristine Company (http://pristine-company.com/), A-Plus Maid Service (http://a-plusmaids.com/), Smith Cleaning Solutions, Inc. (http://www.smithcleaningsolutions.com/index.php), Page’s Personal Cleaning (http://www.pagespersonalcleaning.net/), Benson Cleaning Service, Inc. (http://www.bensoncleaning.com/), McCarthy’s Home Services (http://www.mccarthyshomeservices.com/), Mrs. Green Clean (http://www.mrsgreenclean.com/home.html), The Maids (http://www.maids.com/105/). As per the book’s advice, I set up Google alerts for them (and us!), looked at their Facebook pages, and checked out their websites.
Tip #41: Do not share your bad mood with your staff. I think this is a simple rule that should be common sense, but may be forgotten occasionally. If my mom or I show that we are in a bad mood or are being negative, the mood of the staff overall will reflect that. As leaders we have to set an example for our staff and set the mood for the workplace.
Tip #42: Knock off unpleasant tasks first thing in the morning. This is another simple, but effective tip to keep in mind as I do all of our office work. If I get difficult or unpleasant tasks done early in the morning, I will be able to focus on other things more because I won’t be anticipating the unpleasant tasks all day.
Tip #43: Ask for your own review. If we review employees to try to improve the work we do, then we should also have the ones in charge of the employees reviewed to more effectively run the business as well. Since employees may be hesitant to critique their boss, Ramberg gives a few steps to make the process easier. First, she suggests making a list of who you would like to get feedback from, then meet with those people one on one and ask them to give you advice on a couple things they feel you could improve on. It is important to make sure that employees feel comfortable and understand they are being encouraged to speak freely, and also that you are working on what you discussed.
Chapter 4: Creating Your Team
Tip #47: Fire quickly. This tip is pretty straightforward. If someone you hired turns out not to be a good fit with the company or is not performing at the level they are expected to, it is necessary to fire them.
Tip #48: Don’t give raises during a performance review. A performance review should be a place where employers should be able to applaud an employee’s good work, as well as give constructive criticism about things they are not doing as well or expectations that are not being met. However, performance reviews are not the place to give raises because if you talk about problems that an employee is having, but then give them a raise, they will be less likely to work on what you discussed. Conversely, if you praise an employee but don’t give them as big of a raise as they were expecting, they may think their work is less valued than it really is. On average, performance reviews should be done once a year, with periodic check-ins, and discussions about raises should be done at least two months after reviews take place.
Tip #51: Interview multiple candidates for each job. Yet another tip that seems like it should be common sense, but may be forgotten. You should set up interviews with 3-5 people for each position before you start any of the interviews; that way, if you already have the interviews lined up, you won’t be tempted to hire the first person that you meet with. It’s okay if you decide that no one you have interviewed up to that point is a perfect match, and choose to keep interviewing people. As an added tip, Ramberg says that she always interviews a potential candidate in at least three different places—such as the office, a coffee shop, and walking down the street—to learn more about them and see how they act in different surroundings. This tip may not pertain to us because we generally hire people we already know, since we are working in people’s homes and we already know the individual’s personality and work ethic, but if we ever do decide to list that we have a job opening in may come in handy.
Tip #53: Speed up your hiring. If you put out an ad for a position and are inundated with responses, there are easy ways to pare down the résumés and see who is really interested in and passionate about the job. First, before even reading through the résumés, respond to each candidate with a list of detailed questions about their schedule, availability, skills, etc. along with work habits and preferences for the company. If the candidate doesn’t respond, there is no need to bring them in for an interview because they weren’t that interested in the first place. Then you are able to look through the responses and see who might be a good fit. You could also put questions like these on your website where individuals can submit their résumé. If a candidate doesn’t notice the request to answer these questions, you can usually weed them out because their lack of attention to detail is highlighted, as well as their lack of commitment to the application process.
Tip #59: Roll out the welcome mat for new employees. There are simple and cheap ways to make new employees feel welcome. Part of making a good impression on a new employee is beneficial to you too—if you are organized and present them with all important information such as an employee handbook, company policies and procedures, contact numbers, a mission statement, and other similar items, you will make a good impression while also making sure you and your new employee are on the same page. To make it a bit more personal, you could also add the best place to get coffee or lunch along with a gift card to a local hangout. If you are in an office space, you could also add some simple office supplies and a flower in a vase on their desk. While we don’t have an office where we can put a “welcome” package or note on someone’s desk, I still really like this idea. We don’t make new hires often, this tip made me think of what I want to give to new employees from now on. Our “welcome to the company basket” will include: a copy of the employee handbook, employee contact information (essentially our sub list), a company t-shirt, and other documents we have given to our employees such as our walk through checklist, client travel time sheet, etc.
Tip #60: Create a disagreement protocol. This tip can basically be summed up quite simply: No gossip. If an employee is having problems with someone else on the team, they should address that person and the problem directly. If they come to the manager or boss with a complaint about another employee, the first question should be if they addressed the employee they are having problems with first. Then, if needed, the boss or manager can step in and help mediate the situation.
Tip #61: Have “expectations meetings” with your employees. Once a year, it is a good idea to have some one on one time with each employee and talk about expectations (at a separate time from the individual employee reviews). This meeting should be able to be referenced by either the employer or the employee if problems arise, and should be a place for both to address expectations for each other. Examples would be to set expectations for the employee’s work hours, or for the employer’s communication to the staff. Everything discussed should be written down so it can be referred to in the future if necessary. With such a small staff and no clear problems at this point in time, I think we would be able to have an expectations meeting with the entire staff and just go over some simple points, such as availability, communication, etc.; basically referring back to the employee handbook and going over what is stated in there again. This may change in the future, but for now I feel like we could accomplish the same thing by having a group meeting as having individual meetings with each employee.
Tip #62: Keep employee files with detailed records. This is something that we already do, but I think it is really important. It gives us specific instances to reference if we are discussing problems with an employee (especially ongoing ones), and also will be a good place to look for positives that each employee has done over the year for us to include in our reviews, which I hope to implement within the next couple months. Something that we should include in this file is some kind of paperwork stating that they have read and agree to follow the employee handbook (this is not on file at this time because we don’t have an official employee handbook yet—we do have employee contracts that we have a signed copy on file of, though). Notes from reviews and expectations meetings should also be kept in here.
Tip #63: Don’t keep track of employee time off. This is another tip that we already kind of use, but I thought it was unique and wanted to make note of it so we continue to do it. Since we are a small business with just a few employees, instead of tracking sick and vacation days, we should just let employees take time off as they need it. Part of Ramberg’s reasoning is that if you assign a specific number of sick days, it encourages employees to use up all of those days, even if they don’t really need them. In addition, employees appreciate it and will likely be more loyal to the company because of it. Obviously, if this was getting excessive the policy would have to change. We use this tip to an extent; Ramberg is talking about giving employees paid vacation days, while we do not. At this point, our revenue is not high enough to enable us to do that; however, we don’t actively penalize employees for taking time off.
Tip #64: Cash in the credit card points. Get a business credit card with a rewards or point system. Cash in the rewards or use the points at the end of the year for employee bonuses or for gift cards to give.
Chapter 5: Managing People
Tip #70: Share your company’s accomplishments at the end of every year. It’s a good idea to keep a list of all your company’s accomplishments throughout the year and read it at your holiday party, or any big meeting towards the end of the year. It’s a good way to wrap up the previous year and gets your staff excited to accomplish even more in the upcoming year. It also doubles as a history of your company and how it has grown.
Tip #72: Create a help guide for your employees. Ramberg provided a long explanation for this tip, but I think the most important part is the very last. Basically, make a “bible” for your company, and it can also double as a training manual for new employees. Have every employee that has regular tasks write a “how to do my job” sheet that other employees can refer to if that person is on vacation or can’t come into work. I want to have all of our employees write down 1-3 “unusual” tasks they do at each of our client’s houses; really, things they do extra or pay close attention to. That way, if one employee isn’t on a particular job one day, we know what to pay extra attention to, and I am also hoping that it will bring some details up that we can then pay attention to in all of our jobs and utilize every day.
Chapter 6: Closing the Sale
Tip #82: Never give a price over the phone. Customers constantly price shop, so don’t lose a potential customer by giving them a price that is not in the range they were looking for. If necessary, give interested customers a wide range of available prices. Explain to them what services they are getting for their money, and try to set up a meeting to do so. We pretty much already use this tip; when we get a call from an interested customer asking about prices, my mom says that she can come out to do a free estimate and discuss their needs and budget with them, since every house is different. While these aren’t formal “office” meetings, we are able to meet with the customer in person and answer any and all questions they may have.
Tip #83: Don’t agree to lower your price without changing the terms. This is another tip I think is common sense, but don’t want to be forgotten. If a customer says our bid is not in the price range they expected, one thing we do to lower the price is put some items on rotation. If they have a bathroom that isn’t used much or a spare bedroom, we will say we can lower the price and do one of those every time (so each gets done every other time), instead of both every clean.
Tip #84: Don’t decrease price, increase value. Many people’s first reaction to a slump in sales is to discount their prices, which can be a dangerous move. Instead, add bonuses or “value-added” items to an already existing product, but keep your price the same.
Tip #85: Find out your customer’s budget. I don’t think this tip needs an explanation and it is something we already do, but again a useful tip I don’t want us to forget about.
Tip #90: Call your leads within fifteen minutes. If possible, call all interested customers within fifteen minutes of them contacting you. This may not always be possible, but do your best to contact people as soon as you possibly can. There have also been studies that show Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to contact someone, and between four and 6 PM is the best time—however, calling back within fifteen minutes is even more effective. Another study showed that your odds of reaching a lead drops one hundred times if you wait thirty minutes, compared to five. This is because when someone contacts you, they are likely going to be in the same spot five minutes later (making it easier to get ahold of them), you are contacting them right when they are interested in/need your services (so you still have their interest), and they will be really impressed with the quickness in which you responded. Recently, I e-mailed a client a reminder and she responded back within less than a minute. Even though she was the one contacting me, I was still really impressed! Sometimes I put off answering e-mails right away because I think they will only take a few minutes later. However, many times e-mails take me less than a minute to write and proofread—I should get them done right when I get them (which is right away 50% of the time) because it doesn’t take long at all and it will leave a good impression.
Tip #98: Market your service as “solving a problem”. Most people tend to focus only on the benefits of their company when they market; however, people are more likely to buy painkillers than vitamins, because they are a solution to a “problem”. One example Ramberg gave was a company whose product was light-up menus for dark restaurants. When explaining the product, the woman talked about the benefits of diners being able to see their choices—but what she should have been focusing on was how her product solved a “pain” the restaurant was having, such as complaints from the waiters that they were wasting too much time explaining the menu choices because customers couldn’t see it, or complaints from customers that they can’t read the menu.
Tip #99: Upsell your customers. Examples of upselling are free shipping if you spend ten dollars more, or buy one, get one half off. Strauss, author of The Small Business Bible, has a few rules to follow when upselling that will result in a win-win situation for both you and the customer. First, wait until the sale is over, otherwise it could seem pushy and backfire. Waiting makes it seem like you are simply offering good customer service. Next, make it affordable. If you have a five-dollar addition to a one hundred-dollar purchase, you are more likely to get the customer interested than if it is a fifty-dollar addition to that same purchase. Upselling is most effective when it is a small addition to a larger purchase. Third, be casual about it. Ask in a friendly, non-pressuring way and it will be easier to sell. Next, point out the benefits of the addition; the customer already wants what they are buying, so make the addition make sense with the purchase. An example Strauss gives is if a customer is buying charcoal, they will likely need lighter fluid as well. If your suggestion makes sense, the customer will be grateful you made it and more likely to buy whatever the addition is. Last, consider bundling products, such as printers with photo paper and toner cartridges, as opposed to just the printer. If you offer a bundle at a lower price than the items separate, you will likely get a larger sale than you would have originally and your customer will leave feeling like they got a good deal. We don’t utilize this as much as we should; there are certain cleaning products (such as the special brand of stainless steel cleaner we buy) that we should offer clients at their first clean, if they have stainless appliances. We recently bought some of this cleaner in bulk and offered it to clients where we had been using our own bottle of it on their stainless steel, but I think it will be more effective in the future to offer with a small increase in the price of a client’s first clean. I will have to think about this tip some more and try to come up with other ways that we could utilize the technique of upselling.
Tip #100: Use an odd number—it’s more memorable. Something is more likely to be noticed and catch a potential customer’s attention if you use an odd number as opposed to an even number. This is really simple but can come in handy for marketing. When we offer tips in our brochures, or make a list of our favorite products, we can just make it an odd number. Research shows that 11 and 103 are really great attention grabbers—and 13, since many people shy away from using it.
Chapter 7: Cultivating Customers
Tip #103: When negotiating, keep something in your back pocket. The best way to impress a new customer is to over-deliver. If you “under promise” in your initial negotiations, they will be impressed once you discuss everything afterwards. This doesn’t mean to sell your skills or company short, but just keep a little something to yourself throughout the discussion that you can add in for free once you have made the sale. You can also use this throughout the time you work with the client to keep them happy. One thing that we do is offer each client $10 off a clean when they refer a new client to us and we have completed a clean and gotten paid. Most clients don’t know about this until they have already referred someone to us. Like with a couple of the other tips, I will need to keep thinking on this one about how we can incorporate it into our marketing and sales.
Tip #105: Never put down competitors. Potential customers can be put off when you talk badly about your competitors. If you are positive about them, but make it clear that your services or products are better, a customer is much more likely to take your advice. This is an excerpt from Ramberg’s book of a possible answer for a potential client about competitors.
Potential client: “I am looking at working with you, or company A or company B.”
Company owner: “I have not heard of company B, but I am very familiar with company A. Company A is an excellent company with a good reputation; but here is why I believe we could provide you the best service. [Here you list your qualifications; don’t put down company A, but simply build your own company up]. As you continue this process, if you learn of something that another company does that you believe we do not offer, please check back with me. Chances are it’s a part of what we already do or what we can do for you as well.”
By saying that you are not familiar with company B, but providing positive feedback for company A, the interested customer is likely to discredit company B and listen to your opinion on company A since you are being honest. This also gives you the opportunity to rebut anything your competitor may present about why their company is better than yours.
Tip #117: Segment your customers into three categories. By categorizing your clients into A, B and C list clients—and ignoring the old saying of “treat every customer as though they were your only customer”, which is just impractical, you will be better able to maximize and tailor your services to fit each clients’ needs. A-list customers should take up the most time, but pay the most bills; B-list customers are those who don’t create any problems, don’t use a lot of resources and always pay on time, but who you don’t hear from often and don’t generate a ton of revenue. C-list customers are your least profitable customers who have the lowest margins, smallest revenue and require a lot of attention—in a nutshell, high maintenance clients. Separating clients into these categories can help when you are considering price increasing and other similar decisions. With a price increase, you may choose to leave the A’s alone, slightly raise the B’s, and significantly raise the C’s so either the profits you make from them are worth it, or they just go away. A more mathematical way to split your clients into categories is by tracking the time you spend on each customer and comparing it to the revenue they generate for your company.
Tip #120: Tap into social media. Make sure your business has a presence on social media sites, and use them to your advantage. If you can see people’s birthdays, offer a promotion on their birthday.
Tip #121: Make your customer surveys count. There are many tools online that allow customers to take surveys for free. CEO of SurveyMonkey listed some tips on how to ask questions that will get you the most useful and meaningful answers. First, avoid using questions with simple agree/disagree answers. Research has shown that answers are more reliable when five- or seven-point “scales” are used (an example of five would be extremely interesting, very interesting, moderately interesting, a little interesting, not at all interesting; seven would be strongly support, moderately support, slightly support, neither support nor oppose, slightly oppose, moderately oppose, strongly oppose). Make sure you are asking the right questions; “what did you think about the training session” is far too open-ended and will likely not give you the answer to the question you are really looking for. “How engaging was the training session” with a scale option for answers will be much more useful. Use words that have the same meaning for both you and all of your clients/customers taking the survey, and avoid leading questions (“What did you like least about the event?” is better versus “What was awful about the event?”).
Tip #127: Reduce your no-shows. Ask customers to give their credit card information when they make reservations and tell them there is a cancellation fee for no-shows. Even if you don’t intend to enforce the cancellation charge, just the idea of it will likely reduce the amount of no-shows significantly.
Tip #128: Fire your customers. Once a year, you should “fire” 20 percent of your customers in order to help your company grow. Most companies follow the 80-20 rule, that 80% of their business comes from 20% of their clients, which means that companies are spending a lot of time and resources on a portion of customers who aren’t bringing in a significant amount of revenue. At the end of each year, you should “inventory” your clients to find out who the bottom 20% are, then give them a call and let them know you’ve enjoyed working with them and are happy for the business they gave you, but don’t feel like you are the best resource for them moving forward. Then give them a referral to another person or company who you feel would work better with them, which will likely lead to them being grateful you didn’t leave them in a lurch and eliminate any bad feelings. By doing this, you are allowing yourself more time to work with the clients who earn you more revenue, and also opening up your schedule for potential new clients who will also generate more revenue than the ones you “fired”.
Chapter 8: Getting Your Message Out There
Tip #130: When it comes to social media, be strategically social. Whenever possible, you should try to match up your status updates with your overall marketing goals in order to build a rapport, establish a relationship and learn what your customers want. It’s easier to fill a need when you know exactly what that need is. Some ideas for Facebook statuses are giving a tip, then asking fans to share theirs as well (and following up with a response whenever possible), or inviting fans to ask questions and get answers from someone on your team. The point of social media should be making it clear that you are an expert on something, and then getting involved in the conversation. If all you do is talk about what you have to sell, people will likely begin to filter you out.
Tip #131: Getting a Handle on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search engine marketing is important because you want people to end up at your site when they search for your product or service. One way to ensure this happens is to pay for advertising on specific search terms, but you can also accomplish this by creating your site in a way so that search engines will list you first. SEO is an evolving marketing technique that requires the same time and commitment as any other ongoing project; you won’t be able to master it in an hour, but it is something you can easily learn over time if you are willing to put in the effort. Searching for SEO tips is a great way to learn different ways and tricks for this method. If you don’t have the time or just simply don’t want to put in the effort to learning how to use SEO, you can hire a consultant to do it for you. Ramberg gives some tips on hiring a consultant for this type of project, but I know we are not going to hire anyone to do this for us so the tips don’t apply to our company at this time. The Zen of Social Media Marketing has a whole section on SEO with some really useful tips.
Tip #134: Have your photo taken. Have a series of professional-looking photos of your staff members, products, and office space, just in case you would ever need them for an article, promotion, or any other reason—even if they aren’t actually professional photographs, make sure they look nice.
Tip #136: Create a personal story to connect with customers. A real, personal connection or shared values will many times turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer. By sharing your authentic story with customers, you will start to make a connection with them that will bring them back. In order for your story to be most effective, it should explain what inspired you to start your company and what difference you hope to make in other people’s lives. Keep the story relatively short so its not overwhelming, and feel free to test it out on friends or potential customers before you make it part of your official business campaign.
Tip #140: Five-mile rule. Focus on a five-mile radius when you are marketing your local business (roughly any area within a ten minute drive of your business). Your staff can be some of your best marketers. Give them coupons or promotions to share with their family and friends, but make sure they fully understand the selling points of your company. Happy employees are likely to spread the word about your business.
Tip #142: Compete with the big-box stores. Underprice them, and charge less fro the same products than competitors do; this will benefit your company if you don’t do it all the time. You can have “flash sales” and charge less for a couple things for a few hours on one day of the week. Make your offer splashy enough and it will draw people to your company, and get them to return again if you provide outstanding customer service. While this tip was made more for companies with stores, I think we will still be able to utilize it. We can offer deeply discounted cleans when they are booked within a certain time frame, and other similar deals.
Tip #145: Make all your marketing materials do triple duty. In order to make your marketing money go further, make sure that if you buy something you can use it for three different purposes. For example, you can make postcards work as a business card, a promotional card to be handed out, or a piece of direct mail. You just have to pay close attention to the wording and design to make sure it will work in different situations. One way to do this is to keep your wording somewhat general. If you are going to use a brochure when presenting to both schools and charities, instead of printing two separate brochures (one with school, the other with charity) just make one that says “school or charity”.
Chapter 9: Building Relationships
Tip #153: Meet new people every week. Try to set up meeting or phone calls with 2-3 people a week. They can be people you know through friends, family or colleagues, or people you have found through mutual connections on LinkedIn or other similar sites. Another strategy is the “one-hour or two-contacts”: spend an hour a day making calls and developing new leads, but if you get two new leads before the hour is up, you can be done for the day then as well.
Tip #157: Leave the perfect voice mail message—incoming and outgoing. Some tips for leaving an effective voice mail message are: always leave your phone number at the beginning of the message, and again at the end; leave a suggestion of a good time to call you back, to avoid phone tag; let them know the best way to reach you, whether it is a work number, cell phone, e-mail or through texting; and be sure to slow down when you leave your phone number or e-mail address. When you record your outgoing message, stand up and release the pressure on your lungs so you speak with more resonance and a smile, which will make your message sound nicer and more welcoming. If you don’t usually check your voicemail, let callers know and suggest a better way to reach me, such as you e-mail.
Tip #158: Write the perfect cold e-mail. There are four key rules for sending a cold e-mail that will result in a higher chance the person will read it, instead of just deleting it from their inbox. Focus on the subject line: make sure your e-mail won’t be mistaken as spam. If you have a friend or other contact in common who gave you their information, put their name in the subject line (referred by [name], friend of [name], etc.). Keep the e-mail short, roughly five to six sentences. Do not attach any files—if you have something to include, request permission to send it in a second e-mail or embed a link to it in the body of the e-mail. Ask for something easy, concrete and quick, which will give the person a reason to e-mail you back.
Chapter 10: Controlling Costs
Tip #165: Negotiate flat rates for legal and accounting fees. Negotiate a flat rate instead of paying by the hour, so you can better anticipate your cost and keep your budget in check. Explain your needs thoroughly and talk about an up-front price for all of the work you would like performed. You need to make sure you are very clear about what is and is not included in the fee you discussed, because you would hate to get less than you bargained for.
Tip #168: Make sure you’re invoicing clients correctly. Make sure you send the invoice to the attention of the correct person and that all back up information or purchase-order numbers are present. A small mistake or leaving something out could result in the paperwork getting held up and you not being paid for your services. We generally deal with single clients in residential homes, but do a couple office buildings as well. I think the most important thing is to make sure you are sending the invoice to the right person. This could also be important as we start to pursue more move out cleans through realty companies.
Chapter 11: Running the Office
Tip #172: Document your processes. Make a “What if someone gets hit by a bus” plan: make sure you have the systems in place to continue work if someone can’t come in (similar to tip #72). You should know where everyone’s work is kept and how it’s organized, so in the event that someone can’t come in the company is still able to fully run and accomplish what it needs to.
Tip #173: Back up your hard drive. Ramberg suggests that you back up your files in the cloud; ideally, you should have your documents in three places-your hard drive, an external hard drive, and the cloud. I have all of our information backed up on an external hard drive, as well as on my normal hard drive. The other benefits of storing files in the cloud are you are able to access the files anywhere, never lose anything when moving from one device to another, you are able to send/share/collaborate with customers and other staff members if necessary, and it simplifies the awkwardness of working between different operating systems. You can also e-mail documents and files to yourself if necessary.
Tip #174: Start your day with a top-five list. As soon as you start your day, or even the evening before, you should make a list of the five most important things you need to get done for the day (in order of importance). You should try to get through at least number three before you check your e-mail inbox and get distracted by other tasks. Another tip is to highlight the tasks that only you can do, and delegate the rest to other members of your team.
Tip #176: Manage your time with a task log. This is a log that breaks down your day into fifteen-minute time intervals. Take a week or so and fill out the log with the tasks you performed and how much satisfaction you got out of completing them. You can then look for the least-enjoyable and least-important tasks to see how many can be delegated, freeing up your time.
Tip #177: Calendar everything. Put everything that you need to do, whether it is large or small, into your digital calendar. The more you get into the habit of calendaring things, the better you will get at managing the multiple roles you play as a business owner. It’s easy to get distracted with other tasks and forget to follow up with a lead, interview a new candidate, or other similar tasks.
Tip #178: Clear out your inbox. If you haven’t read, responded to, or acted upon a business e-mail within one day, it should get deleted. You should try to end each day with your inbox at zero, or as close to it as you possibly can. Immediately mark a message as “read” if it is irrelevant, give quick responses throughout the day to new e-mails that come in, spend the last fifteen minutes of each day dealing with any unanswered messages, put any e-mails you need to save into a folder, and keep e-mails marked as “unread” that you need to act upon but didn’t have time to do when they came in so they stand out. By using these tips, you will be better able to manage your inbox.
Tip #182: Plan an office organization day. Once a year, you should block off an entire day just to organize the office. This will make everyone who has a desk organize their workstation, computer files, and the office in general. By organizing and reducing the clutter, things will run more smoothly. Assign a leader who will be able to get everyone excited about the clean up and also watch to make sure everything that needs to happen does. Order any supplies that you need such as large garbage bags, storage boxes, etc. in advance so you have everything on hand and are able to focus on getting the office cleaned up rather than running down supplies. Also make a general “keep” and “toss” guideline for any office items that may be shared between staff members.
Tip #183: Protect your account from scammers. Much of the advice in this section is common sense, but some weren’t as obvious so I decided to make a list to keep on hand. If you get an e-mail from your bank, PayPal, eBay, etc. asking you to click on a link to read a message or update information, don’t click through. Instead, go directly to the website’s URL in order to log in, and update anything you need to that way. Be wary of links and shared content on social media sites, especially if they seem out of character by the person posting it. If you get a request from an app or video player to grant Facebook permission for something, you should almost always not grant it. “Phishing” e-mails are usually easy to spot because the graphics are a little off and the text is full of awkward phrasing and other grammar errors. Use multiple passwords for different sites, and make sure to change internal passwords when an employee leaves your company, no matter what the reason was.
I’m really glad that I got around to reading this book because I feel that it was the most helpful out of all the ones I read. It was simple and straight to the point, and had easy ways to make a big impact for a business. In addition to the tips I listed, there were also many that I thought were really useful and something that people wouldn’t normally think of that I marked to read over again and remember. I would like to buy a copy of this book to keep on hand for myself and would highly recommend it to everyone, whether they have started their own business or are simply a part of one; I think it is will produce a lot of good ideas and results either way. This book was by far the most helpful, and enjoyable to read no matter what the reason. Because of a lot of the tips in this book, I want to set aside a whole day for me and my mom to “workshop” and read over the tips and implement them. This book was by far the most helpful, which is why I spent so much time documenting the tips from it—and writing down so many of them in the first place.
I hope that our business eventually grows enough to the point where we are able to rent an office space for employees to report in the morning, as well as keep all of our paper work, supplies, etc. and have a separate office line for clients or interested individuals to call. I know one of Jean’s goals is to have a company car as well.
Ramberg, J. J., Lisa Everson, and Frank Silverstein. It's Your Business: 183 Essential Tips That Will Transform Your Small Business. New York: Business Plus, 2012. Print.
Chapter 1: Finding Your Funding
I think at this point, trying to get investors for our company is unnecessary and would also be too much for us to take on. We are still trying to figure out the most effective way to run and manage our company, and I think trying to pursue investors would be adding too many new things all at once. Once we have a stable company and have a system for how we operate, we could possibly look into getting investors but I honestly don’t think we would ever want or need to do that. However, there were still some good tips in this section that I think can be applied to managing our company as a whole.
Tip #1: Have an “Elevator Pitch” ready at all times. A successful one will follow the acronyms of PATS: passion for your idea, ask for a number, show traction and make sense. This can usually be summed up into a paragraph using the following “worksheet”.
Explanation: One line stating what your company does.
Traction: Statistics that show the upward success of your idea.
Size: How big your company can become.
Ask: What are you asking for
While we are not necessarily looking for funding at this point, I think that having a summary of our company that we can pitch is a useful tool for us to have.
Tip #3: Make sure you are selling your company, not just the product. I think this is a good tip because many companies have similar products, so if you only sell the product an investor—or customer—may go with the product, but from a different company.
Tip #9: Ask your customers for payment up front; offer a discount to people who pay in advance. We have sort of implemented this tip already; we have had one customer so far who asked about paying in advance. No one had ever asked us that before, but we told the client that she could have a certain percent discount if she paid for a certain number of months of service upfront. I think that we should find a way to advertise this, either on our website or when we send out bids to clients to look over.
Chapter 2: Getting it Off the Ground
Tip #13: Focus on the “why”. While it is important to explain what your company does, it is almost more important to focus on the why, because it will showcase your passion for what you do and inspire people more than simply saying what you do will.
I want to use this tip on our website and redo the “About Us” section that we have on there to make it more about the why and less about the what to engage prospective clients more.
Tip #14: Get fresh ideas from your team’s brainstorming meeting.
This tip was more for brainstorming ideas at meetings, but I think I can still apply it to our company and use it in our meetings as well, just for a little different purpose.
Tip #20: Clear your brand before launching it. While we aren’t marketing a big brand or coming up with any new products, I did want to check the website that this tip listed (www.uspto.gov - United States Patent and Trademark Office) to see if Spotless Spaces was trademarked.
Tip #23: Internally crowdsource new designs. This tip had a step by step case study of how a company in New York bounces ideas for logos, websites, etc. that I thought was a good way to handle it. First he sends out his idea, design, etc. to their staff and asks everyone to send back a minimum of two comments, which are then gone over and used to revise the idea. Then the newest version of the idea/etc. is sent out and the staff is asked for a maximum of three comments; after these comments are implemented a final version and asks for the most important comment. An open forum is then held for final revisions and ideas before things are finalized. For us, I think this system may have many steps for us at this point but I like the idea. I think whenever we redesign our website or come up with a new marketing product (flyers, etc.) we should send it out to our staff and ask for a couple comments, then send out a revised version and ask for final comments before finalizing and distributing or using the item.
Chapter 3: Being the Leader
Tip #33: Mystery shop your store. While we don’t have a store, I think we can still make use of this tip. I think that by putting our employees houses on the schedule to be cleaned every once in a while, we will be able to evaluate the job we are doing in our clients houses. Because members of our staff will be living in the area we just cleaned, we will be able to see more details that we wouldn’t normally catch during a final walkthrough, and also be able to see how things hold up over time.
Tip #34: Be your business’s best customer. This kind of goes along with the tip above, in that we should have our employees and other staff members use our services. If we don’t use our service, why would other people feel the need to?
Tip #36: Keep track of your competitors. Over the years, we have run into some other cleaning services working in our same area, but have never really investigated any of them. I think even simply looking at other companies’ websites would be beneficial, because we could see how our site compares to theirs, the information they are putting out there, what they are doing to draw new customers, etc. I don’t think we need to go as far as to use other companies’ services, but if we ever come across another business owner we could ask questions about how their business is doing. Some of Ramberg’s suggestions for keeping track of competitors is to set up a google alert for other companies (and your own as well), subscribe to competitor newsletters, follow them on Facebook and Twitter, and use their products/services every once in a while (although I don’t think this last one is necessary for us at this point).
After reading this tip, I did some research and found the following small companies (I did not include chain companies in my search) around our area that also provide cleaning services: Diamond Quality Clean (cleaningservicescincinnati.net), House Calls LLC (housecallsllc.com), VesCo Residential Cleaning (http://www.vescocleaning.com), The Pristine Company (http://pristine-company.com/), A-Plus Maid Service (http://a-plusmaids.com/), Smith Cleaning Solutions, Inc. (http://www.smithcleaningsolutions.com/index.php), Page’s Personal Cleaning (http://www.pagespersonalcleaning.net/), Benson Cleaning Service, Inc. (http://www.bensoncleaning.com/), McCarthy’s Home Services (http://www.mccarthyshomeservices.com/), Mrs. Green Clean (http://www.mrsgreenclean.com/home.html), The Maids (http://www.maids.com/105/). As per the book’s advice, I set up Google alerts for them (and us!), looked at their Facebook pages, and checked out their websites.
Tip #41: Do not share your bad mood with your staff. I think this is a simple rule that should be common sense, but may be forgotten occasionally. If my mom or I show that we are in a bad mood or are being negative, the mood of the staff overall will reflect that. As leaders we have to set an example for our staff and set the mood for the workplace.
Tip #42: Knock off unpleasant tasks first thing in the morning. This is another simple, but effective tip to keep in mind as I do all of our office work. If I get difficult or unpleasant tasks done early in the morning, I will be able to focus on other things more because I won’t be anticipating the unpleasant tasks all day.
Tip #43: Ask for your own review. If we review employees to try to improve the work we do, then we should also have the ones in charge of the employees reviewed to more effectively run the business as well. Since employees may be hesitant to critique their boss, Ramberg gives a few steps to make the process easier. First, she suggests making a list of who you would like to get feedback from, then meet with those people one on one and ask them to give you advice on a couple things they feel you could improve on. It is important to make sure that employees feel comfortable and understand they are being encouraged to speak freely, and also that you are working on what you discussed.
Chapter 4: Creating Your Team
Tip #47: Fire quickly. This tip is pretty straightforward. If someone you hired turns out not to be a good fit with the company or is not performing at the level they are expected to, it is necessary to fire them.
Tip #48: Don’t give raises during a performance review. A performance review should be a place where employers should be able to applaud an employee’s good work, as well as give constructive criticism about things they are not doing as well or expectations that are not being met. However, performance reviews are not the place to give raises because if you talk about problems that an employee is having, but then give them a raise, they will be less likely to work on what you discussed. Conversely, if you praise an employee but don’t give them as big of a raise as they were expecting, they may think their work is less valued than it really is. On average, performance reviews should be done once a year, with periodic check-ins, and discussions about raises should be done at least two months after reviews take place.
Tip #51: Interview multiple candidates for each job. Yet another tip that seems like it should be common sense, but may be forgotten. You should set up interviews with 3-5 people for each position before you start any of the interviews; that way, if you already have the interviews lined up, you won’t be tempted to hire the first person that you meet with. It’s okay if you decide that no one you have interviewed up to that point is a perfect match, and choose to keep interviewing people. As an added tip, Ramberg says that she always interviews a potential candidate in at least three different places—such as the office, a coffee shop, and walking down the street—to learn more about them and see how they act in different surroundings. This tip may not pertain to us because we generally hire people we already know, since we are working in people’s homes and we already know the individual’s personality and work ethic, but if we ever do decide to list that we have a job opening in may come in handy.
Tip #53: Speed up your hiring. If you put out an ad for a position and are inundated with responses, there are easy ways to pare down the résumés and see who is really interested in and passionate about the job. First, before even reading through the résumés, respond to each candidate with a list of detailed questions about their schedule, availability, skills, etc. along with work habits and preferences for the company. If the candidate doesn’t respond, there is no need to bring them in for an interview because they weren’t that interested in the first place. Then you are able to look through the responses and see who might be a good fit. You could also put questions like these on your website where individuals can submit their résumé. If a candidate doesn’t notice the request to answer these questions, you can usually weed them out because their lack of attention to detail is highlighted, as well as their lack of commitment to the application process.
Tip #59: Roll out the welcome mat for new employees. There are simple and cheap ways to make new employees feel welcome. Part of making a good impression on a new employee is beneficial to you too—if you are organized and present them with all important information such as an employee handbook, company policies and procedures, contact numbers, a mission statement, and other similar items, you will make a good impression while also making sure you and your new employee are on the same page. To make it a bit more personal, you could also add the best place to get coffee or lunch along with a gift card to a local hangout. If you are in an office space, you could also add some simple office supplies and a flower in a vase on their desk. While we don’t have an office where we can put a “welcome” package or note on someone’s desk, I still really like this idea. We don’t make new hires often, this tip made me think of what I want to give to new employees from now on. Our “welcome to the company basket” will include: a copy of the employee handbook, employee contact information (essentially our sub list), a company t-shirt, and other documents we have given to our employees such as our walk through checklist, client travel time sheet, etc.
Tip #60: Create a disagreement protocol. This tip can basically be summed up quite simply: No gossip. If an employee is having problems with someone else on the team, they should address that person and the problem directly. If they come to the manager or boss with a complaint about another employee, the first question should be if they addressed the employee they are having problems with first. Then, if needed, the boss or manager can step in and help mediate the situation.
Tip #61: Have “expectations meetings” with your employees. Once a year, it is a good idea to have some one on one time with each employee and talk about expectations (at a separate time from the individual employee reviews). This meeting should be able to be referenced by either the employer or the employee if problems arise, and should be a place for both to address expectations for each other. Examples would be to set expectations for the employee’s work hours, or for the employer’s communication to the staff. Everything discussed should be written down so it can be referred to in the future if necessary. With such a small staff and no clear problems at this point in time, I think we would be able to have an expectations meeting with the entire staff and just go over some simple points, such as availability, communication, etc.; basically referring back to the employee handbook and going over what is stated in there again. This may change in the future, but for now I feel like we could accomplish the same thing by having a group meeting as having individual meetings with each employee.
Tip #62: Keep employee files with detailed records. This is something that we already do, but I think it is really important. It gives us specific instances to reference if we are discussing problems with an employee (especially ongoing ones), and also will be a good place to look for positives that each employee has done over the year for us to include in our reviews, which I hope to implement within the next couple months. Something that we should include in this file is some kind of paperwork stating that they have read and agree to follow the employee handbook (this is not on file at this time because we don’t have an official employee handbook yet—we do have employee contracts that we have a signed copy on file of, though). Notes from reviews and expectations meetings should also be kept in here.
Tip #63: Don’t keep track of employee time off. This is another tip that we already kind of use, but I thought it was unique and wanted to make note of it so we continue to do it. Since we are a small business with just a few employees, instead of tracking sick and vacation days, we should just let employees take time off as they need it. Part of Ramberg’s reasoning is that if you assign a specific number of sick days, it encourages employees to use up all of those days, even if they don’t really need them. In addition, employees appreciate it and will likely be more loyal to the company because of it. Obviously, if this was getting excessive the policy would have to change. We use this tip to an extent; Ramberg is talking about giving employees paid vacation days, while we do not. At this point, our revenue is not high enough to enable us to do that; however, we don’t actively penalize employees for taking time off.
Tip #64: Cash in the credit card points. Get a business credit card with a rewards or point system. Cash in the rewards or use the points at the end of the year for employee bonuses or for gift cards to give.
Chapter 5: Managing People
Tip #70: Share your company’s accomplishments at the end of every year. It’s a good idea to keep a list of all your company’s accomplishments throughout the year and read it at your holiday party, or any big meeting towards the end of the year. It’s a good way to wrap up the previous year and gets your staff excited to accomplish even more in the upcoming year. It also doubles as a history of your company and how it has grown.
Tip #72: Create a help guide for your employees. Ramberg provided a long explanation for this tip, but I think the most important part is the very last. Basically, make a “bible” for your company, and it can also double as a training manual for new employees. Have every employee that has regular tasks write a “how to do my job” sheet that other employees can refer to if that person is on vacation or can’t come into work. I want to have all of our employees write down 1-3 “unusual” tasks they do at each of our client’s houses; really, things they do extra or pay close attention to. That way, if one employee isn’t on a particular job one day, we know what to pay extra attention to, and I am also hoping that it will bring some details up that we can then pay attention to in all of our jobs and utilize every day.
Chapter 6: Closing the Sale
Tip #82: Never give a price over the phone. Customers constantly price shop, so don’t lose a potential customer by giving them a price that is not in the range they were looking for. If necessary, give interested customers a wide range of available prices. Explain to them what services they are getting for their money, and try to set up a meeting to do so. We pretty much already use this tip; when we get a call from an interested customer asking about prices, my mom says that she can come out to do a free estimate and discuss their needs and budget with them, since every house is different. While these aren’t formal “office” meetings, we are able to meet with the customer in person and answer any and all questions they may have.
Tip #83: Don’t agree to lower your price without changing the terms. This is another tip I think is common sense, but don’t want to be forgotten. If a customer says our bid is not in the price range they expected, one thing we do to lower the price is put some items on rotation. If they have a bathroom that isn’t used much or a spare bedroom, we will say we can lower the price and do one of those every time (so each gets done every other time), instead of both every clean.
Tip #84: Don’t decrease price, increase value. Many people’s first reaction to a slump in sales is to discount their prices, which can be a dangerous move. Instead, add bonuses or “value-added” items to an already existing product, but keep your price the same.
Tip #85: Find out your customer’s budget. I don’t think this tip needs an explanation and it is something we already do, but again a useful tip I don’t want us to forget about.
Tip #90: Call your leads within fifteen minutes. If possible, call all interested customers within fifteen minutes of them contacting you. This may not always be possible, but do your best to contact people as soon as you possibly can. There have also been studies that show Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to contact someone, and between four and 6 PM is the best time—however, calling back within fifteen minutes is even more effective. Another study showed that your odds of reaching a lead drops one hundred times if you wait thirty minutes, compared to five. This is because when someone contacts you, they are likely going to be in the same spot five minutes later (making it easier to get ahold of them), you are contacting them right when they are interested in/need your services (so you still have their interest), and they will be really impressed with the quickness in which you responded. Recently, I e-mailed a client a reminder and she responded back within less than a minute. Even though she was the one contacting me, I was still really impressed! Sometimes I put off answering e-mails right away because I think they will only take a few minutes later. However, many times e-mails take me less than a minute to write and proofread—I should get them done right when I get them (which is right away 50% of the time) because it doesn’t take long at all and it will leave a good impression.
Tip #98: Market your service as “solving a problem”. Most people tend to focus only on the benefits of their company when they market; however, people are more likely to buy painkillers than vitamins, because they are a solution to a “problem”. One example Ramberg gave was a company whose product was light-up menus for dark restaurants. When explaining the product, the woman talked about the benefits of diners being able to see their choices—but what she should have been focusing on was how her product solved a “pain” the restaurant was having, such as complaints from the waiters that they were wasting too much time explaining the menu choices because customers couldn’t see it, or complaints from customers that they can’t read the menu.
Tip #99: Upsell your customers. Examples of upselling are free shipping if you spend ten dollars more, or buy one, get one half off. Strauss, author of The Small Business Bible, has a few rules to follow when upselling that will result in a win-win situation for both you and the customer. First, wait until the sale is over, otherwise it could seem pushy and backfire. Waiting makes it seem like you are simply offering good customer service. Next, make it affordable. If you have a five-dollar addition to a one hundred-dollar purchase, you are more likely to get the customer interested than if it is a fifty-dollar addition to that same purchase. Upselling is most effective when it is a small addition to a larger purchase. Third, be casual about it. Ask in a friendly, non-pressuring way and it will be easier to sell. Next, point out the benefits of the addition; the customer already wants what they are buying, so make the addition make sense with the purchase. An example Strauss gives is if a customer is buying charcoal, they will likely need lighter fluid as well. If your suggestion makes sense, the customer will be grateful you made it and more likely to buy whatever the addition is. Last, consider bundling products, such as printers with photo paper and toner cartridges, as opposed to just the printer. If you offer a bundle at a lower price than the items separate, you will likely get a larger sale than you would have originally and your customer will leave feeling like they got a good deal. We don’t utilize this as much as we should; there are certain cleaning products (such as the special brand of stainless steel cleaner we buy) that we should offer clients at their first clean, if they have stainless appliances. We recently bought some of this cleaner in bulk and offered it to clients where we had been using our own bottle of it on their stainless steel, but I think it will be more effective in the future to offer with a small increase in the price of a client’s first clean. I will have to think about this tip some more and try to come up with other ways that we could utilize the technique of upselling.
Tip #100: Use an odd number—it’s more memorable. Something is more likely to be noticed and catch a potential customer’s attention if you use an odd number as opposed to an even number. This is really simple but can come in handy for marketing. When we offer tips in our brochures, or make a list of our favorite products, we can just make it an odd number. Research shows that 11 and 103 are really great attention grabbers—and 13, since many people shy away from using it.
Chapter 7: Cultivating Customers
Tip #103: When negotiating, keep something in your back pocket. The best way to impress a new customer is to over-deliver. If you “under promise” in your initial negotiations, they will be impressed once you discuss everything afterwards. This doesn’t mean to sell your skills or company short, but just keep a little something to yourself throughout the discussion that you can add in for free once you have made the sale. You can also use this throughout the time you work with the client to keep them happy. One thing that we do is offer each client $10 off a clean when they refer a new client to us and we have completed a clean and gotten paid. Most clients don’t know about this until they have already referred someone to us. Like with a couple of the other tips, I will need to keep thinking on this one about how we can incorporate it into our marketing and sales.
Tip #105: Never put down competitors. Potential customers can be put off when you talk badly about your competitors. If you are positive about them, but make it clear that your services or products are better, a customer is much more likely to take your advice. This is an excerpt from Ramberg’s book of a possible answer for a potential client about competitors.
Potential client: “I am looking at working with you, or company A or company B.”
Company owner: “I have not heard of company B, but I am very familiar with company A. Company A is an excellent company with a good reputation; but here is why I believe we could provide you the best service. [Here you list your qualifications; don’t put down company A, but simply build your own company up]. As you continue this process, if you learn of something that another company does that you believe we do not offer, please check back with me. Chances are it’s a part of what we already do or what we can do for you as well.”
By saying that you are not familiar with company B, but providing positive feedback for company A, the interested customer is likely to discredit company B and listen to your opinion on company A since you are being honest. This also gives you the opportunity to rebut anything your competitor may present about why their company is better than yours.
Tip #117: Segment your customers into three categories. By categorizing your clients into A, B and C list clients—and ignoring the old saying of “treat every customer as though they were your only customer”, which is just impractical, you will be better able to maximize and tailor your services to fit each clients’ needs. A-list customers should take up the most time, but pay the most bills; B-list customers are those who don’t create any problems, don’t use a lot of resources and always pay on time, but who you don’t hear from often and don’t generate a ton of revenue. C-list customers are your least profitable customers who have the lowest margins, smallest revenue and require a lot of attention—in a nutshell, high maintenance clients. Separating clients into these categories can help when you are considering price increasing and other similar decisions. With a price increase, you may choose to leave the A’s alone, slightly raise the B’s, and significantly raise the C’s so either the profits you make from them are worth it, or they just go away. A more mathematical way to split your clients into categories is by tracking the time you spend on each customer and comparing it to the revenue they generate for your company.
Tip #120: Tap into social media. Make sure your business has a presence on social media sites, and use them to your advantage. If you can see people’s birthdays, offer a promotion on their birthday.
Tip #121: Make your customer surveys count. There are many tools online that allow customers to take surveys for free. CEO of SurveyMonkey listed some tips on how to ask questions that will get you the most useful and meaningful answers. First, avoid using questions with simple agree/disagree answers. Research has shown that answers are more reliable when five- or seven-point “scales” are used (an example of five would be extremely interesting, very interesting, moderately interesting, a little interesting, not at all interesting; seven would be strongly support, moderately support, slightly support, neither support nor oppose, slightly oppose, moderately oppose, strongly oppose). Make sure you are asking the right questions; “what did you think about the training session” is far too open-ended and will likely not give you the answer to the question you are really looking for. “How engaging was the training session” with a scale option for answers will be much more useful. Use words that have the same meaning for both you and all of your clients/customers taking the survey, and avoid leading questions (“What did you like least about the event?” is better versus “What was awful about the event?”).
Tip #127: Reduce your no-shows. Ask customers to give their credit card information when they make reservations and tell them there is a cancellation fee for no-shows. Even if you don’t intend to enforce the cancellation charge, just the idea of it will likely reduce the amount of no-shows significantly.
Tip #128: Fire your customers. Once a year, you should “fire” 20 percent of your customers in order to help your company grow. Most companies follow the 80-20 rule, that 80% of their business comes from 20% of their clients, which means that companies are spending a lot of time and resources on a portion of customers who aren’t bringing in a significant amount of revenue. At the end of each year, you should “inventory” your clients to find out who the bottom 20% are, then give them a call and let them know you’ve enjoyed working with them and are happy for the business they gave you, but don’t feel like you are the best resource for them moving forward. Then give them a referral to another person or company who you feel would work better with them, which will likely lead to them being grateful you didn’t leave them in a lurch and eliminate any bad feelings. By doing this, you are allowing yourself more time to work with the clients who earn you more revenue, and also opening up your schedule for potential new clients who will also generate more revenue than the ones you “fired”.
Chapter 8: Getting Your Message Out There
Tip #130: When it comes to social media, be strategically social. Whenever possible, you should try to match up your status updates with your overall marketing goals in order to build a rapport, establish a relationship and learn what your customers want. It’s easier to fill a need when you know exactly what that need is. Some ideas for Facebook statuses are giving a tip, then asking fans to share theirs as well (and following up with a response whenever possible), or inviting fans to ask questions and get answers from someone on your team. The point of social media should be making it clear that you are an expert on something, and then getting involved in the conversation. If all you do is talk about what you have to sell, people will likely begin to filter you out.
Tip #131: Getting a Handle on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search engine marketing is important because you want people to end up at your site when they search for your product or service. One way to ensure this happens is to pay for advertising on specific search terms, but you can also accomplish this by creating your site in a way so that search engines will list you first. SEO is an evolving marketing technique that requires the same time and commitment as any other ongoing project; you won’t be able to master it in an hour, but it is something you can easily learn over time if you are willing to put in the effort. Searching for SEO tips is a great way to learn different ways and tricks for this method. If you don’t have the time or just simply don’t want to put in the effort to learning how to use SEO, you can hire a consultant to do it for you. Ramberg gives some tips on hiring a consultant for this type of project, but I know we are not going to hire anyone to do this for us so the tips don’t apply to our company at this time. The Zen of Social Media Marketing has a whole section on SEO with some really useful tips.
Tip #134: Have your photo taken. Have a series of professional-looking photos of your staff members, products, and office space, just in case you would ever need them for an article, promotion, or any other reason—even if they aren’t actually professional photographs, make sure they look nice.
Tip #136: Create a personal story to connect with customers. A real, personal connection or shared values will many times turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer. By sharing your authentic story with customers, you will start to make a connection with them that will bring them back. In order for your story to be most effective, it should explain what inspired you to start your company and what difference you hope to make in other people’s lives. Keep the story relatively short so its not overwhelming, and feel free to test it out on friends or potential customers before you make it part of your official business campaign.
Tip #140: Five-mile rule. Focus on a five-mile radius when you are marketing your local business (roughly any area within a ten minute drive of your business). Your staff can be some of your best marketers. Give them coupons or promotions to share with their family and friends, but make sure they fully understand the selling points of your company. Happy employees are likely to spread the word about your business.
Tip #142: Compete with the big-box stores. Underprice them, and charge less fro the same products than competitors do; this will benefit your company if you don’t do it all the time. You can have “flash sales” and charge less for a couple things for a few hours on one day of the week. Make your offer splashy enough and it will draw people to your company, and get them to return again if you provide outstanding customer service. While this tip was made more for companies with stores, I think we will still be able to utilize it. We can offer deeply discounted cleans when they are booked within a certain time frame, and other similar deals.
Tip #145: Make all your marketing materials do triple duty. In order to make your marketing money go further, make sure that if you buy something you can use it for three different purposes. For example, you can make postcards work as a business card, a promotional card to be handed out, or a piece of direct mail. You just have to pay close attention to the wording and design to make sure it will work in different situations. One way to do this is to keep your wording somewhat general. If you are going to use a brochure when presenting to both schools and charities, instead of printing two separate brochures (one with school, the other with charity) just make one that says “school or charity”.
Chapter 9: Building Relationships
Tip #153: Meet new people every week. Try to set up meeting or phone calls with 2-3 people a week. They can be people you know through friends, family or colleagues, or people you have found through mutual connections on LinkedIn or other similar sites. Another strategy is the “one-hour or two-contacts”: spend an hour a day making calls and developing new leads, but if you get two new leads before the hour is up, you can be done for the day then as well.
Tip #157: Leave the perfect voice mail message—incoming and outgoing. Some tips for leaving an effective voice mail message are: always leave your phone number at the beginning of the message, and again at the end; leave a suggestion of a good time to call you back, to avoid phone tag; let them know the best way to reach you, whether it is a work number, cell phone, e-mail or through texting; and be sure to slow down when you leave your phone number or e-mail address. When you record your outgoing message, stand up and release the pressure on your lungs so you speak with more resonance and a smile, which will make your message sound nicer and more welcoming. If you don’t usually check your voicemail, let callers know and suggest a better way to reach me, such as you e-mail.
Tip #158: Write the perfect cold e-mail. There are four key rules for sending a cold e-mail that will result in a higher chance the person will read it, instead of just deleting it from their inbox. Focus on the subject line: make sure your e-mail won’t be mistaken as spam. If you have a friend or other contact in common who gave you their information, put their name in the subject line (referred by [name], friend of [name], etc.). Keep the e-mail short, roughly five to six sentences. Do not attach any files—if you have something to include, request permission to send it in a second e-mail or embed a link to it in the body of the e-mail. Ask for something easy, concrete and quick, which will give the person a reason to e-mail you back.
Chapter 10: Controlling Costs
Tip #165: Negotiate flat rates for legal and accounting fees. Negotiate a flat rate instead of paying by the hour, so you can better anticipate your cost and keep your budget in check. Explain your needs thoroughly and talk about an up-front price for all of the work you would like performed. You need to make sure you are very clear about what is and is not included in the fee you discussed, because you would hate to get less than you bargained for.
Tip #168: Make sure you’re invoicing clients correctly. Make sure you send the invoice to the attention of the correct person and that all back up information or purchase-order numbers are present. A small mistake or leaving something out could result in the paperwork getting held up and you not being paid for your services. We generally deal with single clients in residential homes, but do a couple office buildings as well. I think the most important thing is to make sure you are sending the invoice to the right person. This could also be important as we start to pursue more move out cleans through realty companies.
Chapter 11: Running the Office
Tip #172: Document your processes. Make a “What if someone gets hit by a bus” plan: make sure you have the systems in place to continue work if someone can’t come in (similar to tip #72). You should know where everyone’s work is kept and how it’s organized, so in the event that someone can’t come in the company is still able to fully run and accomplish what it needs to.
Tip #173: Back up your hard drive. Ramberg suggests that you back up your files in the cloud; ideally, you should have your documents in three places-your hard drive, an external hard drive, and the cloud. I have all of our information backed up on an external hard drive, as well as on my normal hard drive. The other benefits of storing files in the cloud are you are able to access the files anywhere, never lose anything when moving from one device to another, you are able to send/share/collaborate with customers and other staff members if necessary, and it simplifies the awkwardness of working between different operating systems. You can also e-mail documents and files to yourself if necessary.
Tip #174: Start your day with a top-five list. As soon as you start your day, or even the evening before, you should make a list of the five most important things you need to get done for the day (in order of importance). You should try to get through at least number three before you check your e-mail inbox and get distracted by other tasks. Another tip is to highlight the tasks that only you can do, and delegate the rest to other members of your team.
Tip #176: Manage your time with a task log. This is a log that breaks down your day into fifteen-minute time intervals. Take a week or so and fill out the log with the tasks you performed and how much satisfaction you got out of completing them. You can then look for the least-enjoyable and least-important tasks to see how many can be delegated, freeing up your time.
Tip #177: Calendar everything. Put everything that you need to do, whether it is large or small, into your digital calendar. The more you get into the habit of calendaring things, the better you will get at managing the multiple roles you play as a business owner. It’s easy to get distracted with other tasks and forget to follow up with a lead, interview a new candidate, or other similar tasks.
Tip #178: Clear out your inbox. If you haven’t read, responded to, or acted upon a business e-mail within one day, it should get deleted. You should try to end each day with your inbox at zero, or as close to it as you possibly can. Immediately mark a message as “read” if it is irrelevant, give quick responses throughout the day to new e-mails that come in, spend the last fifteen minutes of each day dealing with any unanswered messages, put any e-mails you need to save into a folder, and keep e-mails marked as “unread” that you need to act upon but didn’t have time to do when they came in so they stand out. By using these tips, you will be better able to manage your inbox.
Tip #182: Plan an office organization day. Once a year, you should block off an entire day just to organize the office. This will make everyone who has a desk organize their workstation, computer files, and the office in general. By organizing and reducing the clutter, things will run more smoothly. Assign a leader who will be able to get everyone excited about the clean up and also watch to make sure everything that needs to happen does. Order any supplies that you need such as large garbage bags, storage boxes, etc. in advance so you have everything on hand and are able to focus on getting the office cleaned up rather than running down supplies. Also make a general “keep” and “toss” guideline for any office items that may be shared between staff members.
Tip #183: Protect your account from scammers. Much of the advice in this section is common sense, but some weren’t as obvious so I decided to make a list to keep on hand. If you get an e-mail from your bank, PayPal, eBay, etc. asking you to click on a link to read a message or update information, don’t click through. Instead, go directly to the website’s URL in order to log in, and update anything you need to that way. Be wary of links and shared content on social media sites, especially if they seem out of character by the person posting it. If you get a request from an app or video player to grant Facebook permission for something, you should almost always not grant it. “Phishing” e-mails are usually easy to spot because the graphics are a little off and the text is full of awkward phrasing and other grammar errors. Use multiple passwords for different sites, and make sure to change internal passwords when an employee leaves your company, no matter what the reason was.
I’m really glad that I got around to reading this book because I feel that it was the most helpful out of all the ones I read. It was simple and straight to the point, and had easy ways to make a big impact for a business. In addition to the tips I listed, there were also many that I thought were really useful and something that people wouldn’t normally think of that I marked to read over again and remember. I would like to buy a copy of this book to keep on hand for myself and would highly recommend it to everyone, whether they have started their own business or are simply a part of one; I think it is will produce a lot of good ideas and results either way. This book was by far the most helpful, and enjoyable to read no matter what the reason. Because of a lot of the tips in this book, I want to set aside a whole day for me and my mom to “workshop” and read over the tips and implement them. This book was by far the most helpful, which is why I spent so much time documenting the tips from it—and writing down so many of them in the first place.
I hope that our business eventually grows enough to the point where we are able to rent an office space for employees to report in the morning, as well as keep all of our paper work, supplies, etc. and have a separate office line for clients or interested individuals to call. I know one of Jean’s goals is to have a company car as well.
Ramberg, J. J., Lisa Everson, and Frank Silverstein. It's Your Business: 183 Essential Tips That Will Transform Your Small Business. New York: Business Plus, 2012. Print.