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Casual Articles - Small Business Secret #6: No Customer Database - No Goodwill
Do you have all the business you could possibly want or need? If you're like me, you're still growing your business. Marketing is an ongoing item on my agenda, and I'm always looking for new ways to market my services. Where do you begin the process of attracting more business? How do you get the ball rolling in the direction you want your business to be heading? Well, it's really simple. Start planting seeds! If you can start your garden growing this spring, why not start your business growing too?You can start by telling everyone what you do, including those people in your life you see every day. Talk to your hairdresser, dentist, financial advisor, or babysitter. You just never know who they might know who may want or
Over the last few years my team and I have built a number of industry specific databases for industries like the car cleaning business, the sewing machine sales and repair industry, the carpet cleaning industry, the recruitment industry, the manufacturing industry and so forth. In each and every case, their requirements for their customer management system were very different.
In the case of the Sewing Machine industry, there value in their business was being able to track and manage the actual sewing machine not the
Business process management (BPM) has become highly popular due to its capacity of making businesses achieve new operating capabilities and positive results. Now business enterprises seriously consider factors such as the value of BPM to the business, where to start BPM, the overall time taken for the end result after applying BPM, how other companies use this technology to make them more competitive in the market and so on.Business process management is helpful for business analysts, managers, programmers as well as employees. The capabilities of BPM include deployment, execution, discovery, control, interaction, optimization, and analysis of processes. The main advantages of business process management is that it restr
Let me explain … why the customer database is so important?
The role of the customer database is to tell the history and the story of your customers over a period of time. Many accountants will tell you that your customer database is your accounting package like MYOB and QUICKEN. In fact, I will tell you now that if you only use these applications you are seriously restricting the success of your business as accounting packages do not tell you the full history of the relationship between you and your customers.
The customer database is the most important tool in your whole business. It contains every bit of information about your customers where as the accounting system only contains basic contact information and what they have purchased. The sort of information that you want to store in your customer database does varies depending on the type of business you actually have.
The sort of information I would generally expect in the customer database are things like, their contact information, products they are interested in, information about what they are expecting from you, when you have contacted them and what they discussed, what marketing material you sent to them and whether they bought off that marketing material, what adverts brought them to you, what their average dollar sale is, what their predicted long term value is, any special deals you have done with them and much much more.
What I recommend to every small business owner is to try and locate an industry specific customer database. Pretty much every industry has its own customized system which focuses on the issues related to your business. If your industry does not have one, then it is really important that you invest the money into building one that addresses the issues of customer management for your industry.
Over the last few years my team and I have built a number of industry specific databases for industries like the car cleaning business, the sewing machine sales and repair industry, the carpet cleaning industry, the recruitment industry, the manufacturing industry and so forth. In each and every case, their requirements for their customer management system were very different.
In the case of the Sewing Machine industry, there value in their business was being able to track and manage the actual sewing machine not the c
Yearling bulls should be well grown but not too fat. The energy content of a ration should be reduced if bulls are getting too fat. Fat bulls may fatigue rapidly, contributing to fewer cows conceiving.For a yearling bull to be used successfully, he should have reached puberty 3 to 4 months before breeding time. The age of a bull at puberty depends on several interrelated factors, but size or weight and breed are probably the controlling factors.The production of semen by a young bull largely depends on his overall growth as well as the development of his testicles and other reproductive organs. The size of testicles and volume of semen produced are positively correlated.Research at Kansas State Universi
The customer database is the most important tool in your whole business. It contains every bit of information about your customers where as the accounting system only contains basic contact information and what they have purchased. The sort of information that you want to store in your customer database does varies depending on the type of business you actually have.
The sort of information I would generally expect in the customer database are things like, their contact information, products they are interested in, information about what they are expecting from you, when you have contacted them and what they discussed, what marketing material you sent to them and whether they bought off that marketing material, what adverts brought them to you, what their average dollar sale is, what their predicted long term value is, any special deals you have done with them and much much more.
What I recommend to every small business owner is to try and locate an industry specific customer database. Pretty much every industry has its own customized system which focuses on the issues related to your business. If your industry does not have one, then it is really important that you invest the money into building one that addresses the issues of customer management for your industry.
Over the last few years my team and I have built a number of industry specific databases for industries like the car cleaning business, the sewing machine sales and repair industry, the carpet cleaning industry, the recruitment industry, the manufacturing industry and so forth. In each and every case, their requirements for their customer management system were very different.
In the case of the Sewing Machine industry, there value in their business was being able to track and manage the actual sewing machine not the
How important is a good resume . . . really?Well, look at it this way. Often it's the very first contact you have with a prospective employer. It could be the passport to your next job. It’s the gateway to your future. It can ramp up your job search!And it better be a Blockbuster!Why? Because you get only one chance at an employer. So you better make it your absolutely best shot!For example, we know from studies that the average employer spends about 50 seconds scanning it. If you look like an exciting candidate and your capabilities pop off the page you may get a second, more thorough reading . . . and an interview.But, if it is flat, uninteresting, too long, unfocused, or boring . .
The sort of information I would generally expect in the customer database are things like, their contact information, products they are interested in, information about what they are expecting from you, when you have contacted them and what they discussed, what marketing material you sent to them and whether they bought off that marketing material, what adverts brought them to you, what their average dollar sale is, what their predicted long term value is, any special deals you have done with them and much much more.
What I recommend to every small business owner is to try and locate an industry specific customer database. Pretty much every industry has its own customized system which focuses on the issues related to your business. If your industry does not have one, then it is really important that you invest the money into building one that addresses the issues of customer management for your industry.
Over the last few years my team and I have built a number of industry specific databases for industries like the car cleaning business, the sewing machine sales and repair industry, the carpet cleaning industry, the recruitment industry, the manufacturing industry and so forth. In each and every case, their requirements for their customer management system were very different.
In the case of the Sewing Machine industry, there value in their business was being able to track and manage the actual sewing machine not the
When you start a medical billing service you need to be prepared not to receive a payment for at least thirty to forty-five days. It would be nice if all of your clients paid you within ten days but this is just not realistic. The majority of your clients may not be able to pay you until they are paid themselves. Usually this is what happens with smaller clients. However, with larger clients if only a few of their patients pay, you will still get paid because they will have an accounts receivable account setup just for situations like these.Allow your clients at least twenty to thirty days to make payment to your invoice. As mentioned earlier some clients can not pay you until they are paid themselves. Allowing them twen
What I recommend to every small business owner is to try and locate an industry specific customer database. Pretty much every industry has its own customized system which focuses on the issues related to your business. If your industry does not have one, then it is really important that you invest the money into building one that addresses the issues of customer management for your industry.
Over the last few years my team and I have built a number of industry specific databases for industries like the car cleaning business, the sewing machine sales and repair industry, the carpet cleaning industry, the recruitment industry, the manufacturing industry and so forth. In each and every case, their requirements for their customer management system were very different.
In the case of the Sewing Machine industry, there value in their business was being able to track and manage the actual sewing machine not the
Levels of New Market DevelopmentA. PassivePassive here means broad spectrum media ads which stimulate the front runners - who are the gasoline for the engine of the movement of any new product from "new" market development until it becomes a commodity. These are the TV or newspaper ads that stimulate enough people to act. This stimulus/response takes a little selling, but, is a lot easier than direct sales, and is a little harder than merchandising commodities.B. ActiveThis is direct sales. Direct sales means that you called (or mailed to) them directly and went for a "yes" or "no" without them being predisposed in the first place. Direct sales is the most difficult to achieve, but is also
Over the last few years my team and I have built a number of industry specific databases for industries like the car cleaning business, the sewing machine sales and repair industry, the carpet cleaning industry, the recruitment industry, the manufacturing industry and so forth. In each and every case, their requirements for their customer management system were very different.
In the case of the Sewing Machine industry, there value in their business was being able to track and manage the actual sewing machine not the customer. It was more important for them to be able to know what repair work was done on the machine and how many different people had owned it. The real money in the sewing machine industry is in repairs and sales of their material etc.
Where as, in the carpet cleaning industry, the most important element to track and manage in their industry is in fact the homes that they clean not the customers. This was particularly important when you are doing housing rental carpet cleaning. In this industry, renter's can be a very deceptive group of people; one of my clients had a situation arise where the renter actually accused her carpet cleaning company of wrecking the carpet and staining the carpet and not them.
Well because my client had tracked the history of the carpet in that house, they were able to prove to the Real Estate agent, what stains were originally in the house from previous work to what was in there now. In fact, because they photograph every house once they start and when they finish, they had a full photo history of this house on file. They were able to show to the real estate agent the full history of work carried out and which stains were permanent and what were new and this meant the previous renter had to foot the full bill for the damage they had done not our client.
If my client had not invested in building this customized carpet cleaning customer database, then she could have been in a real bind. Further to this, when my client decided to sell her business, she got three times what others were getting for their carpet cleaning business, because of the value that was found in her customer database.
The company that bought her out was a National Carpet Cleaning Company and they wanted her business because of the customer history she had. This is a perfect example of how the Customer Database illustrated the true value of the Goodwill in her business to the prospective buyer. I should note, she now drives around in a white Mercedes because of the money she earned from the sale of her business.
Customer databases do not need to be expensive and they can be easily built in Microsoft Office applications like Microsoft Access. The re
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