Starting up your own business – get up close and personal

Lunchtime up close and personal at Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto Japan

If you are starting up your own business, it is not enough to simply open the doors and assume that customers will somehow find out about it and start buying.  Although you may have the best top small business idea, it just doesn’t work that way.

Those who do realize that you exist will often have some concerns about your newness.  They may not take you seriously.  Will you survive?  Will you be around for a long time?  Do you know what you’re doing?  Will you do the job properly?  Are you trustworthy?

Time in the market may speak volumes about your tenacity and long term intentions however you can’t afford to wait months or years before people are happy to give you a go.  You need to short cut that process so that customers develop faith within your time frame and start buying early.

So it is not a time for you to wait for people to come you.  Your business strategy implementation must include ‘customer attracting’ strategies need to be active rather than passive and personal rather than impersonal.

The assumption that all internet marketing strategies are impersonal while all bricks and mortar businesses are personal is a fallacy.  Everyone knows of at least one bricks and mortar business that has less personality and customer interest than the bricks that houses it, just as there are plenty of online businesses with personality that focus on building quality relationships with their customers.

With the incredible growth of online social networking, the internet is fast changing its impersonal image.  So if you want to get up close and personal on the internet, think about sending out your messages in multimedia – words, pictures, video and audio.  For example:

Consider an interactive blog platform instead of the traditional static billboard in cyber space

  • Become an authority site by writing and posting original articles on your site and then distributing them to other relevant sites and article sites that may pick them up
  • Reach out to the vast YouTube audience by making and uploading your own video content.  All you need is a camcorder.
  • Think about imaginative pre-sale promotion, consistent post-sale follow up and account maintenance activity.  It works just as well online.

If you are starting up your own business and you are looking for more top small business ideas then stay tuned.

If you seek startup advice or a powerful online business presence when starting up your own business visit http://garyweigh.com/business-startup

Until next time!

Gary