Hello ladies, hope you have had a great week so far. Good to have you here again. Today we would be discussing how networking can be a powerful tool for the growth of your small business. The power of having a network can never be over emphasized, after all they say "show me your friend and I will tell you who you are", this also applies in the business world. The digital world has made marketing easy and affordable, but that does not mean you shouldn't get out into the world to promote your business. Even if your business is primarily online, consider adding networking to your marketing tactics. Remember, success in business is about relationships, and networking allows you to make the types of relationships that lead to sales, referrals, and other important business growth. You can achieve networking via conferences, trade shows, exhibitions , platforms like @businesswomen_hub and even within your community. So today, use the power of networking to grow your business. We are rooting for you.
Author: Business Women Hub
6 important marketing tools and materials for a start-up.
Hey ladies, good to have you back this week. Hope you had an amazing weekend. Today, we would be looking at some marketing tools and materials for a start up.
Marketing materials or Items are things that you can share online and offline as well as items that make your brand stand out.
Things like business cards are inexpensive, easy to hand out, and gives you credibility. You should always have something with you that you can give to a lead. These materials should be transferred to online resources, such as a website, as a digital presence is crucial to success.
Here is a full list of the very important items.
- Create a simple logo that tells your brand story.
- Create or update your business card.
- Make your business card stand out from the rest.
- Create or update your brochure or flyer.
- Build a website. Insert a digital version of your brochure in your website.
- Get creative with less expensive promotional items that you can give to your clients as first time buyers or for use at networking events.
Hope this read was helpful? Remember that we are always available for any assistance you may need.
Marketing plan startegies for SMEs.
Hello ladies. Glad you are back for another interesting read. A lot of you have started implementing what we share here and positive feedbacks have been coming in already. Remember that it is not just about reading but putting into practice what you learn.
Today, we would briefly list out marketing plan strategies you can use as an SME .Marketing is about finding your ideal customer and sharing your message on how you will make their lives better. To do that, you need to research and identify your target market. Decide how your business will stand out and develop a plan.
Below is a list of strategies you can apply to get you started.
- Update or create a marketing plan for your business.
- Revisit or start your market research.
- Conduct a focus group.
- Write a unique selling proposition.(USP)
- Refine your target audience and niche.
- Match benefits to your features to use for creating effective marketing messages.
Is there any one of the listed above you do not understand or need help implementing? You can always reach out to us as we are ever ready to assist.
Have an awesome weekend ahead and see you on Monday.
what to consider in choosing a brand name for your business.
Hey ladies, good to have you back here. Hope you have been doing fine and you implemented what we discussed last week. Today, the focus would be on startups and choosing a perfect brand name.
As a Start-up, choosing a business name or brand name can be a difficult task.
We will be discussing ways to choose that catchy, purpose serving brand name!!!
Make it original
Being original can be scary (and hard) to do, but it’s essential when naming your business — don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd. In a business sector where there are top brands like Tinder, Grindr, Flickr, and Tumblr, naming your Game app “Wintr” will only cause it to get lost in that sector.
As a new startup, your name needs to compel people to sit up and take notice rather than look up, look down, and forget you ever existed.
To generate a boatload of options to work with, don’t edit yourself during the brainstorming process — it is all about a free flow of ideas and imagination. These are some channels you can make use of in choosing your brand name.
Explore Keywords
Twinword has a great keyword tool that can help you find inspiration for your name. If you type a keyword related to your business into its search field, it’ll give you a graph of all of the other words related to it. Fire away!
Consult books.
Use a hard copy of a dictionary for inspiration, or even one of your favourite books. Go through the pages and write down words that inspire or connect with you, even if they’re not directly related to your business.
Play it up.
Another way to achieve originality is with some deliciously fun wordplay. Have a look at these examples of companies with clever titles and think about what you could come up with for your brand identity. It is a good idea starter! Examples: Melon Cauli (fruit and vegetable store), Sole Man (shoe repairs), Spoon Me (frozen yogurt brand), and Propertypro (a real estate platform)
Hope you learnt something today? Just in case you are finding it difficult coming up with a perfect name for your business, you can speak to us, let us help you through the process.
What do you do when you feel a customer pulling away from the sale?
Hey ladies, nice to have you here again. You know when you have been struggling hard just to make sales and then you finally get someone interested. WHOOP! The person asks questions about the product, ask for the price and she seems okay with your price and asks you to send a reminder by evening for payment. Evening comes, you send reminder, no response. You call, no answer. And gradually, it dawns on you that she is pulling away…What do you do?
Do you maintain the PUSH SALES strategy or The PULL SALES strategy?
A push marketing strategy, involves you taking (“push”) your products to customers. Here, you say a lot of BUY , BUY , BUY!!!. The set back is that you may not build your product, you may be talking to the wrong audience. This is the reason why experts suggest the “Pull Strategy”.
A “pull” sales strategy is centered around you, the salesperson, asking questions to get the customer to reveal the needs they have and the outcomes they desire. By asking questions, you’re allowing the customer to drive the discussion — or so they think — and thus they will be far more likely to convince themselves.
Once they have convinced themselves, there is no stopping them and they will be adamant about buying to satisfy their need. This makes selling a lot easier for you.
So go through your sales process, add one to five questions that you think you can ask customers about your product. Get them conversing with you and see a fraction of the difficult customers coming through.
Sounds good right? This strategy has worked for most business owners and will definately work for you. Incase you need assistance on how to go about it, we are ever ready to help.
So tell us, which strategy would you prefer, the push or pull?
How to Expand your Small Business into a Big One.
Hey ladies, good to have you this new week.
Today, our Tip 3 of how to expand your small business is Keeping Your Cost in Check
Increasing your profit is very important to growing your business. If you expand your business but continue to increase your costs, you won’t actually have any money left to invest in your business or make a profit.
So while you’re looking for ways to grow, pay close attention to the costs associated with running your business and getting your products or services to customers. Lowering these costs can be an effective way to give your business the cash flow it needs to grow and stabilize. There are two main approaches to cutting costs:
Stopping the production of low-earning products or eliminating low-performing services.
Improving your revenue through new marketing and sales tactics.
Identifying gray areas in your business and introducing new business techniques that will make your business process smoother, better and more cost effective. E.g If delivery service is a huge problem for your customers , considering that they have to pay for high delivery services within the state where your business is located, you can consider owning a branded delivery bike to help ease off extra cost for your customers. This gives you extra cash flow as well.
However, remember to be careful not to cut costs in a way that impacts your customer service or employee satisfaction. Happy customers and enthusiastic employees are both key drivers of business growth. Cutting costs in these areas will ultimately harm your business’ ability to expand, even if they give you more cash flow in the short term.
We wish you a fantastic new week as we win together.
You can always reach out us for further information or support you may need for your business.
We remain your number one business-support community.
It pays to “PAK” your small business image!
Too often small business owners forget this. They’ve spent some amounts of dollars placing ads in various places and figure that’s enough. Business promotion will take care of itself. It doesn’t. If you want to improve your sales figures or get more clients or keep the customers you have coming back, you have to actively work at business promotion all the time.
But promotion isn’t just advertising, marketing attending sales events; promotion is also how you present yourself.
So how do you present yourself by being: Pleasant – to everyone.Attractive- in terms of your value , branding & offerings.Knowledgeable- Understand your brand strengths, brand sector, competitors and your weakness (to work on them).
1. Ensure Positive First Impressions – But remember, people take in new impressions about your business in terms of how it confirms what they already know about your business. To create an impression, your offerings must have been visible in some way.
2. Promote your business everywhere you go- Whether while shopping, on a phone conversation , always wear your business mantra. Do the people around you know what you do? Does your hair dresser know what you do? Be your business mascot
3. Take advantage of organizations and events to promote your business- Attending events and joining organizations like Business Women Hub gives room to network with other business people. We all know how to conduct ourselves in a roomful of others like ourselves. Do not also forget that by doing this, we could also be making valuable contact. Contacts are a real time contact. Talk to people wherever you go; show an interest in them and they’ll respond with an interest in you… and an opportunity to promote your business.
Today, determine to be Pleasant, Attractive & Knowledgeable.
We are available to support you in doing the above, let’s hear from you.
Raising funds to start your business
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Having a business idea/being enterpreneurIal is a very great idea, however the dreams can become dead with lack of funding.
You probably need a website, you need to get your business registered, you need some office space- whether shared , full or virtual, a social media/tech team, at least enough cash to start production. All this means, you need money, regardless of what you are going into, most businesses and most entrepreneurs require at least a little bit of funding to really get off the ground in their early days.
During our live session with @lindaochugbua on “The Possibilities & Challenges of Accessing Funds for Small Businesses”, the highlights in this post were stated as the sure places for help in finding funding. Thus, check through for a first-time founder’s guide to where to look for funding, and choose which type might be right for you.
@businesswomen_hub, we have an avenue for funding via THE BWH ESUSU, or connect to our partner financial institution. If you require this support, reach out to 09084441671 or email businesswomenhub@gmail.com.
How to expand your small business into a large one!
One of the ways of expanding your small business into a large one is leveraging on the referrals scheme. These customers are already your target market, which means that people in their social or work circles are likely to be your target market as well. This makes them a strong access point to new customers.
However, assuming that your customers are recommending your business isn’t going to increase your customer base. You have to actively seek referrals. Depending on the type and size of your business, you can:
• Ask satisfied customers if they know anyone else who would be interested in your products or services.
• Give out incentives for referrals- via discounts , money back etc.
• Encourage customers to share and tag your brand on social media.
This way, you are assured of continuous sales for your business.
Interested in learning more, register to join our community.
We remain your number one business support community.