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DQ News: 5 Tips You Wish Someone Told You Before Starting a Small Business

If you are thinking about starting a small business, clearly you have an idea that you think will sell. However, that idea will remain just a concept unless you take a few steps to ensure that you can make that idea a successful reality.

In an interview with a successful small business owner, five areas of focus were identified as critical to the achievement of small business. These tips are the result of both hindsight and experience and form the foundation of any solid business. 

1. Market Research

Understanding your potential customers, your competition and the particular niche that you are going to fill is critical to a successful start to your business. Having a narrow focus or a broad focus and appealing to a specific group or demographic is important because you are tailoring your product or service to meet the needs of that group. Carefully identifying your customer and understanding them will be central to how you decide to market your product and target your sales pitch. Is your product targeted to the upper echelon or is it more suited to the cost-conscious masses? Understanding your customer and targeting your product to an identified demographic is the key to successful marketing. 

2. Business Plan

Creating a business plan that is thorough and focused is essential to establishing your core business goals. This plan will guide you and keep you on track as you navigate the many influences and seductive new products and gadgets that you will be inundated with as you enter the market.  Having a plan that is current and accurate will keep you true to your course and your goals but will also allow you the adaptability to continually re-evaluate your position to ensure you are reaching your target customer. 

3. Focus

Determining what you are good at and focusing on it may sound obvious but the temptation to try new avenues or go in different directions is powerful. As you develop your business plan and identify both your product and your goals make sure to focus on a specific area in which you intend to excel. Trying to be all things to all customers is a fast track to failure. 

4. Patience

Do not expect instant gratification. Despite the many urban legends of overnight success, most businesses take 2 years to turn a profit, especially an internet business.  It takes time to build a customer base and to market your product and patience is central to remaining focused and to resisting the temptation to go off course to chase faster results. 

5. Maintain Relationships

The importance of maintaining a great relationship with your vendors cannot be underestimated.  Although it may be difficult at times not to share the stress and frustration that can go along with running a business, keeping your relationships positive will only serve you in the long run.  Inevitably you will need your vendor to help you out in the future, either with express shipping, negotiating pricing or giving you first access to out of stock items.  Maintaining a good relationship will put you in the best possible position to ask for these favors. 

All of these factors are central to the success of a small business but one theme stands out: know your core business principles and stick to them while providing great customer service. The advantage of being a small business instead of a huge company is that you can provide a level of support and attend to a level of detail that is impossible for bigger businesses. If you have a focused product or service that you support with outstanding customer service, you can come out ahead of your big business competition.  

About the Author:  Todd Messinger is the owner of ReplaceMyContacts.com, an ecommerce site that offers a wide variety of discount contact lenses. This site has been up and running successfully for more than four years. Todd’s background overseeing operations and marketing in a large retail chain aided in preparing him for the ongoing challenges etailers face every day.

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Photo Credit:  kirstyhall

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