The Key To Success
There's no rule book for running a business—better yet, a successful one. Many a time, it is just a matter of trial and error. However, there are few tips that are guaranteed to be fruitful for your business.
From prioritizing employee happiness to creating an efficient shipping and returns system, there are are a number of key things your business should keep in mind, in order to reach its potential. In this blog, Hollywood Branded shares 10 tips for running a highly successful business.
What To Keep In Mind
Running a business is challenging during these eventful times. There’s no time to rest, as industries are constantly evolving and customer demands are continuing to grow at a scary pace. If you take your foot off the gas for even a second, you’ll risk losing your market position—and there’s no guarantee you’ll get it back.
Right now, there are a handful of different generations that businesses must try and appeal to. Of course, there are the millennials, who have helped shape the current dynamic between businesses and customers (the dynamic that sees businesses bend over backwards to keep their customers happy). On top of this, there’s Gen Z, the population born between 1996 and 2010. Interestingly, Gen Z now accounts for 40% of U.S. consumers. And by 2026, they will surpass millennials as the all-around largest consumer generation.
Essentially, if you own a business and want to be successful, there’re a lot of factors you need to consider to be successful—and everything links back to the consumer. So, whether you’re a small, medium, or large-sized corporation, here are 10 tips to follow for success!
1. Prioritize Employee Happiness
Let’s talk about employees.
How many do you have? 10? 25? 100? Or, are you the sole employee? Whatever the case, you need to prioritize your employees' happiness and contentment. In fact, your employees are just as important as your customers
A lot of employee happiness comes from the creation of a team bond. This can be done through a positive working environment and the encouragement of teamwork. Not only that, you can also socialize and have fun together (remember, you don’t need to only have work-based relationships). Whether it’s watching sports together or streaming movies, there are lots of different activities you and your team can do together. You can even bet on the NFL—here are the latest NFL odds for you to check out.
2. Market Like There's No Tomorrow!
It’s the dream of every business to have their brand become a house-hold, global name. However, you can’t expect it to magically happen overnight— that’s beyond wishful thinking.
To achieve this dream, you need to market your business like there’s no tomorrow! Social media ads, email and SMS messages, SEO, pay-per-click— there are so many ways you can digitally market your business, it’s impossible to count. Plus, traditional marketing strategies, such as print and radio advertisements, still hold some power and are also worth considering.
To truly establish your business, you need to formulate a reasonable marketing budget. Sure, it’s possible to cut corners here and there. But in the long-term, you’ll need to invest in marketing—even if it means sacrificing revenue—to ensure you can continue to grow your audience.
3. Provide A Variety Of Customer Service Options
Ah, the customer. In these present times, they’re more demanding than ever—which places a lot of pressure on businesses to deliver. Failure to do so, whether it’s through product quality or excellent customer service, can lead to damage that can be impossible to recover from.
When it comes to customer service, the modern customer wants:
- Speed
- Reliability
- Variety
Customers don’t want to wait 2-hours to get through to a customer service agent—they want immediate action. Even if it’s a 24/7 automated chatbot, it’s better than nothing. However, not all customers want digital customer service; they also want the option to speak to an employee either over the phone or in-person.
With this in mind, it’s recommended that you offer a variety of customer service options. Here are ones you should incorporate:
- Over-the-phone customer service
- Social media customer service
- Website customer service (a lot of businesses are now using the above-mentioned chatbots for their websites)
4. Build A Website That's Mobile Friendly
To be a success, your website needs to tick a lot of boxes:
- Usability
- High-quality branding
- Efficient call-to-actions
- Engaging content, from photos to videos
In addition to this, your website needs to be mobile-friendly. If it isn’t, you’re risking shutting out an entire generation of consumers who prefer to shop online than in-person. According to Statista, smartphone retail commerce sales will surpass US$345 billion in 2021, which is an insane figure. So, if you think you don’t need to have a mobile-friendly website with a built-in store, think again!
5. Save On Costs
The world is a fragile place. At any moment, a killer virus can break out, or an economic collapse can happen. When these types of events take place, it puts businesses with low financial stability at risk. That’s why it’s important to focus on saving costs in key areas as a future precaution.
There are lots of ways businesses can save costs. Here are some you can try:
- Cut down on office space
- Hire remote employees
- Create strict budgets for each outlet
- Automate certain tasks, such as marketing campaigns
- Cancel your landline subscription
- Source from cheaper suppliers
6. Focus On Long-Term Branding
In business, decisions are vital. If you make the wrong decision, it can often come back to bite you further down the road. Therefore, you need to carefully consider every decision you make—especially when it comes to branding.
Logos, marketing materials, and product designs are (for the most part) long-term investments. It’s highly unusual for businesses to chop and change their logos and other branding materials, largely because it results in instability and stalls progress (not to mention it’s costly).
So, you need to pay careful attention to your long-term branding decisions. Don’t rush anything, and work with the best designers to properly execute your vision.
7. Learn From Customer Feedback
The customer doesn’t lie. Their feedback can help you improve in all departments; from marketing to product design.
8. Create An Efficient Shipping And Returns System
Running a successful online store is largely dependent on your shipping and returns system. Poor return policies and high shipping costs will deter customers and send them packing to your competitors.
9. Keep Tabs On Emerging Trends
New industry trends are always emerging. You need to be ready, as some trends can be optimized to your advantage.
For example, many businesses are currently following the trend of tweeting memes and jokes that help to drive their ratios and engagement levels on social media.
10. Reinvest Into Research And Development
R&D is key to success. It leads to advanced industry knowledge and all-around better decision-making.
Even though it will mean reinvesting your profits into your research efforts, the long-term pay off will be more than worth it.
Want To Learn More?
Want to learn more tips on how to create a successful business? Check out a few of our blogs where we share tips on our own success.
- Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur
- Becoming An Effective Leader Of A Successful Business
- Laws Of Attraction And Its Impact On Your Business
- The Best Practices To Running A Business
- Increase Business Profitability
Think you have mastered these steps? Have you already managed to run a highly successful successful? Become a guest on our podcast and share your expertise! Click below to apply now!
