How to Build Your Customer List and Get Your Business Off the Ground

Business success is one topic that has attracted many people, both those who want to go into business immediately or others who are hoping to have their own business in the future.

When talking about building your customer list and getting your business off the ground, there are many factors that come into play. These factors will be discussed in this article, and they include:

• Tips on Getting Your Business Off the Ground
• How to attract new Customer
• How to make your Customers happy

The list above already makes it clear that getting your business started and growing your customer base is not a child’s play, you will need to put on a lot of effort whether you have enough capital or not. We will not discuss these points one after the other.

Read Also: 10 Strategies to Improve Your Customer Service Experience

Tips on Getting Your Business Off the Ground

Every business starts with a kernel…a nub…a gem of an idea. It could be something simple or complex. Perhaps it is a new drug, or an invention, or a new service that you want to be the start of a business. With your idea in hand, get ready for the real work to begin. The point below will help you get started.

1. Getting Started

After the initial ideas phase, what follows is the brainstorming phase. Before you start forming a business model, you need answers to some very basic questions. All of these questions and more need to be answered.

• Why are you starting a business? To get out of a 9-to-5 rut…to be your own boss…to quit your day job?
• Do you need to earn money right away or do you have a cushion to grow your business slowly?
• What type of business?
• One location or many?
• One-man-band or many of employees?
• Your chosen field of expertise may not be business. But, do you know the basic business skills needed to run a successful business? Seek advice from colleagues or hire a business manager.

Sincere answers to this question should give you an idea of how to get your business started. After you have answered them, now is the right time for the next step.

2. Market Analysis

You may know your product inside and out, but do you know who will buy it? Think about your target audience…do you understand their needs? Are you ready to learn about them?

Once you have a customer base established, you can send a survey to your customers via email or add a survey to the company website. Until you have specific data on your customer you will need to do research on who you are selling to. Read trade publications. Attend trade shows. Join local business groups and groups in your niche market.

Even though you may not have a fully formed profile of your customer, you must decide how you will market your product. Traditional advertising on store signs, billboards, magazine and newspaper ads, and television ads should be part of the marketing budget. Online resources for promoting your business should include a website, listing the business on online business sites, and possibly a social media presence on Twitter and Facebook.

3. Logistics

Once you know what you will sell and who you are selling to, you need to decide where you will locate the business. To help you make a better decision in this regard, consider the following points:

• Where will you locate the business? In your home? In rented space? Buy land and build? Convert an office building or factory for your needs?
• With an existing local customer base, you may not want to stray too far from your home base.
• Does your business need to be near a major city? If your business will rely entirely on online sales, can you locate the manufacturing part of your business out-of-town, -state, or -country?
• Size of the facility. Number of parking spaces. Layout of offices. Location of offices/cubicles based on the layout.
• Are there stores and restaurants near the location? Your employees will need to be close to places to eat, or shop, while you will need stores and restaurants for entertaining clients at nearby.

4. Finances and Protection

Buy insurance to protect your business from fire, theft, vandalism, accident liability, etc.

Research health insurance plans for you and/or your employees. Will you offer insurance to employees? Or wait until the business is a year or two old?

Start a bank account for your business. Checking and savings. Look into retirement plans.

Plan your financial future. Find investors. Apply for grants. Seek funding from local business groups dedicated to helping businesses get off the ground. Set aside money to pay for rent, salaries, research and development, utilities, and more. A typical month of expenses for your business may look similar to this:

• living costs for you and your family
• employee wages
• rent/mortgage
• advertising/promotion
• office supplies
• utilities
• taxes
• maintenance and repair of facility
• delivery, shipping, and transportation costs
• miscellaneous expenses

With a product idea and a business plan, you are ready to embark on the process of setting up your new business. Your next area of concern should how to attract new customers.

How to attract new Customer

What is a business without customers right? As a business owner, you’re no doubt keenly aware that your client base is the lifeblood of your company. A steady stream of new customers allows you to grow your business and fulfill your company vision. Let’s look at 5 ways you can attract new customers.

1. Identify your Ideal Customer

Do not make the mistake of trying to attract everybody, It’s easier to look for customers if you know the type of consumers you seek. Without a composite of your ideal customer, you probably wouldn’t know where to start looking.

“Have a crystal clear picture in your head of exactly who you’re targeting,” says former OPEN Forum community member Nicole Beckett, president of Premier Content Source. “Think about what makes those types of people happy, sad, scared, relieved, and then think about how you can make their lives a little easier.”

Narrow down the focus of your ideal client and avoid making broad target market statements, such as every woman, every man or all baby boomers. Few products appeal to that vast of a group of people and overstating your market will prevent you from developing viable targeted strategies for attracting clients.

Read Also: 10 Effective ways to Earn Customers Trust

2. Find out Where your Customer Live

With your targeted customers in mind, “identify those places where they are likely to be found (media, online, offline, mail, etc.), and then create messages for them,” says Jeff Motter, CEO, and chief marketing officer of East Bay Marketing Group.

Where you look for customers will depend on the nature of your business. Some good online locations include forums and social media pages, including your own and those of similar or complementary businesses. Offline, you can meet plenty of potential customers at conferences and conventions in your industry.

3. Know Your Business Inside and Out

Thoroughly understanding your industry and having a firm knowledge of your product or service is critical to being able to attract interested clients. When you know your product backward and forward, that fact comes through. The people who would be interested in your offerings can see how knowledgeable you are and will seek your assistance.

4. Try Direct Response Marketing

Your best bet for reaching out and touching customers is to use tactics to encourage them to complete a specific action, such as opt into your email list or request more information.

Create messages directed at your target market, suggests Motter. “Learn to create ads that attract your ideal clients by giving them something of value for free to get them started in your funnel. Learn all you can about direct response marketing practices because they will teach you to focus on results that matter.

Create compelling messages that tell your ideal audience why they’d have to be a fool not to work with you. Show them you understand their pain, and can make it go away faster and cheaper than they could without you.”

5. Follow Up

After your efforts to bring in business, always remember to close the loop, suggests Josh Sprague, CEO of Orange Mud. “Remember to set follow up tasks (follow up to sample sent, etc.), and execute your plan. So many leads and great conversations are wasted because you forget to follow up.”

Doing this simple step is sure to get your client base to grow. As your customer base continue to grow, you need a working strategy to help you keep your customer. As you know, you need them to keep coming so that your business can continue running.

We have put together 5 easy steps to help you make your customers happy so that they can keep coming back to you.

5 Easy ways to Make your Customers Happy

Learn About your Customers

To get your customers to love your business, you first need to know what they want. Find out what your customers really want by doing a market analysis.

During a market analysis, you research your target customers to learn about their needs, wants, interests, and demographics.

Once you know what customers want, you can give it to them. You can better position your business to attract and keep your target customers. When customers get what they desire, they’ll be happier.

Offer Specials

People love sales and deals. When people get more for their money, they’ll be more likely to come back.

You might hold holiday or other seasonal sales. You can offer free trials or buy-one-get-one-free deals. The sales encourage customers to keep coming back to your business. When people love your deals, they’ll love your business more.

Even though the sales might cause you to lose some revenue now, the repeat sales from customers should increase your company’s bottom line over time. Make sure you advertise these deals to your customers. This tactic only works if customers know about the offers.

Get Personal

You can connect with customers by being personal with them. Talk to your customers like they’re your friends.

Even if you don’t have a one-on-one connection with customers, you can still add personal touches to your business. You might use customer names in emails. You can try engaging customers through social media.

If you want to be personal with customers, don’t be a robot. Don’t give generic responses that are obviously automated. Find ways to show your business’s personality and include customers in it.

Be Patient

Customers won’t always like how you do things. They’ll have issues with your products or services.

When a customer comes to you with issues, be patient with them. It’s easy to brush them off and quickly push them out the door. But, take the time to listen to the customer. Be patient with them and hear everything they have to say. Patience is part of good customer service.

After the customer is done explaining their issue, then you can respond. Don’t be rude and treat the customer as if their thoughts don’t matter. Thoroughly address the customer’s issue.

Read Also: 10 Different Types of Clients and How To Deal With Them

Keep Your Customers Informed

Communicate and be transparent with your customers.

When your business has news, updates, and events, let your customers know. Tell them about the exciting things going on and create excitement.

Also, tell your customers about bad things, such as product shortages and delays. Be honest about what’s happening within your business.

Customers will appreciate your honesty. They will get excited when good things happen and be understanding when bad things happen.

Getting your business started and attracting customers will not be an easy task, but if you put in the efforts required, the rewards are endless.

The tips discussed above can greatly help your business if you follow them accordingly. As time goes on, you will see your business soaring.