Media Bytes – Issue 5

Sac City Tech Media Bytes
April 22, 2019

Exclusive Hints, Tips, Special Offers and More!
Sent out no more than once per week

To see back issues of Media Bytes as well as other content that may not be found here, visit our blog: https://blog.saccitytech.com

General Business Tips

Much of this should be common sense, however as business owners we tend to get bogged down with various tasks both in our business and personal lives and it’s easy to overlook the obvious. It’s always good to go back, look at what we are doing and determine where our time, money and resources should be going adjust as necessary. As you review the following, do so with a positive attitude, it will pay many dividends.

• Run your business with integrity and honesty. It will pay off down the road.
• Under promise and over deliver! Basically, go above and beyond to keep your clients happy.
• Communication is extremely important when dealing with clients, customers, vendors. Do everything possible to make sure everyone is on the same page. This makes it much easier to have a happy customer.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals. Maybe even offer a bonus back to the person that referred a client.
• When you do have a happy client or customer, ask for a review and make it easy for them to give the review. Link to wherever you want to have your reviews posted or just let them email it to you. You can then post on your website or elsewhere so others can see that people are happy with you. And if someone gives you a not so good review, talk to them and find out why they aren’t happy and see what you can do to make it right. If and when you get the habitual complainer that is never happy, learn from it, forget it and move on. You’ll never make 100% of people happy no matter what you do.
• When planing where to put your time, ask yourself, “Should I really be doing this?”. Adding on to that, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Sure there are some tasks you can handle yourself, but as your business grows, your time really should be focused on building your business as well as doing the work your clients and customers have hired you to do. When possible, hire out tasks that you hate or aren’t good at so you can focus on what you are great at and love doing!
• Finances – Track everything, keep receipts, and stay organized. Don’t be afraid to hire a Bookkeeper, CPA. These professionals know what they are doing and help you do it right to make sure you aren’t wasting money and are doing things properly. If you were a busy contractor, the last thing you should be doing is doing your own taxes. A good CPA can help you take advantage of all of your eligible tax breaks as well as keep you out of trouble. And if you calculate your hourly worth, you’ll likely find out that you could have been making money working your business instead of doing something a pro can probably do for you in a few hours.
• If you aren’t doing so now, use a calendar. Most people have smart phones, so use whatever comes with it. It’s Free! Just put all appointments both personal and business in the calendar, set alerts and live by your calendar. The last thing you want to do is miss a meeting with an important client or vendor because you forgot when and where it was.
• To Do Lists are very useful as they keep us focused on what we need to be doing. Use them daily. not everything needs to be done the same day, so just do what you can on a given day and move unfinished tasks to the next day and keep doing so until the tasks are complete. If things change, you can always simply change or delete unnecessary tasks from the list.
• Promote your business at every opportunity. Hand out business cards, attend networking events, promote on social media and of course on your own website. Make sure people know what you do!
• Seek opportunities to partner with other businesses in ways that can be beneficial to each. Win Win!
• Protect your time! There are times when you need drop unproductive tasks. And sometimes you might need to drop a client. This is client that has a zillion questions and never seems to want to buy or commit. Find ways to streamline your processes and workflow. Screen out those that are taking your time but not moving forward.

There are many more things you can to make your business more productive and successful. Stay tuned for future hints and tips from Media Bytes!

If you have questions about the “Media Bytes” content, please feel free to send an email on our Contact Page