1. Earning a profit
You cannot call your business successful if it is not turning a profit; it will fail to continue eventually if not profitable. It is important to start making a profit as soon as possible. One way is to increase sales and maximize profits on these sales. Make sure you do not overspend on your major expenses and review your major supply costs regularly. Make reducing expenses part of your job description and company culture.
2. Offer high-quality products or services
Quality is critical to satisfying your customers and retaining their loyalty, so they continue to buy from you or make use of your services in the future. Quality products and service delivery make an important contribution to long-term revenue and profitability. They also enable you to charge and maintain higher prices. Always deliver what you promise!
3. Having loyal customers
Loyalty can stem from many things, but in general, a loyal customer will associate favorable experiences with a brand therefore increasing their likelihood to make repeat purchases with that business. Loyal customers spend 67% more on products and services than new customers. Make sure to communicate with your customers regularly, provide extra perks for loyal customers, or offer them different payment plans. Nothing beats meeting your customers face-to-face every now and again and offering friendly, exemplary service!
4. Creating brand awareness
Brand awareness is the percentage of people who are aware of your brand, products, or services, depending on what you sell. Brand awareness must be relevant to your market. Building brand awareness takes time and means being consistent in your message. Creating brand awareness can be achieved through various ways of advertising and marketing strategies. Some ways include using influencers to display your service a product or through using the power of social media to get your message across.
5.Doing your part in the community
Most successful small business owners give back to their communities. Simple acts of donating to charities or sponsoring public safety programs are examples of social contributions. 62% of those participating in a recent Ernst & Young and Charitable Gift Fund study said that “giving back makes their companies more successful in the long run,” according to the National Federation of Independent Business.
6. Having trustworthy advisors
Advisors are crucial because you need people to bounce ideas off, inspect what you’re doing, and push you to greater accomplishments, holding you accountable for what you are committing to do.
7. Having a management system in place
You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Create written systems for everything because you will reap benefits from them later on. This is how you train your employees and retain consistency. Know your numbers and check them daily and make all decisions based on what they tell you.
8. You know how to delegate and do not micromanage
A manager’s job is to delegate and then inspect progress. So, don’t be a control freak. If you delegate effectively, you will get more and better then you expect. When you micromanage, you’re telling the employee that you don’t trust them enough to work on their own and still produce good results.
9. You are building a word-of-mouth business
Wherever you operate your business, word-of-mouth is more important than ever. Most consumers turn to Google to search for reviews of businesses before deciding where to shop, so building a good reputation is vital to the success of your business. You can increase your word-of-mouth referrals by providing good, professional service, building and monitoring your local (and online) reputation, and gaining publicity by giving back to your community through your support and sponsorship of local organizations and charities.
10. You find and keep loyal employees
Attracting and retaining the right employees is one of the most important things you can do with your business. Loyalty tends to encourage your employees to do their best work and perform to their highest of standards. If you have loyal employees working for you, then you are going to have employees who work productively and efficiently.