Small business – Paul's Tech Talk

Now Hiring For New Universal’s Superstar Parade by stranger3113, on Flickr

It Doesn’t cost much!

You don’t have to spend money to tell people you are looking for a new employee. I’ve been told by two different people that small companies or even small businesses can’t afford to advertise that they are hiring or looking for a specific position to fill. I don’t agree with them one bit. I’m not looking to start an agument about this but I believe that no business big or small can’t advertise that they are looking for someone to hire. My brother in law, who told me that small business will use word mouth advertising isn’t always used.

It used to be the case where a business didn’t have much choice but to use word of mouth, because the internet was so young and scary that most small businesses couldn’t afford to pay to advertise that they are hiring. In todays age, that has changed and I’ll be talking about that in detail.

Social Media is One way!

Most of the time, small businesses will have one or two social media avenues that they use to tell people about their products or services. This is a great asset that can to tell people that you are looking for someone to hire. Nothing you do on your Twitter, or Facebook business account shouldn’t be just to sell your products or promote specials for your business but it can be very useful to tell people about an opening. I’m also saying this because this is one of those really overlooked ways to advertise your hiring. If your using twitter, then you can have a little Google juice on your side. Google really does try to index all those tweets and show them to people who might want to see those tweets. Even twitter has a search capability so you can search for anything being said on twitter.

Your Website!

Knowing how small businesses operate, most of them will likely have a website or two about their service or products. if you really looking for someone to fill a spot in your business then this is one avenue that should be encourage and used. You don’t know how many times I’ve seen small businesses who have a website but aren’t telling people about them hiring. I have seen them time and time again put out the Now Hiring Sign in front of their business but yet not do that for their website. It could be the most quickest way to find someone to fill a position in your company!

Your Newsletter!

I know I have a Newsletter that you can subscribe to recieve the last posts, and I’m sure most small businesses will have a newsletter or something like that to promote your product or service. In the same way you use your website, you should be utilizing your newsletter to tell people about that position. If you have a newsletter of sorts, then people are caring about your company and thus may want to be a part of the company. So not telling your most loyal customers about this great oppurtunity is not going to help your company but might hurt it. You want the person you hire to care about your business or company and thus if you can get a loyal customer to be part of the company you are going to make sure they want to your company to succeed.

Craigslist!

I am not saying this is the best option but this is a good option for those of you who are looking to hire and would like to tell people about it. This is one of those ideas that might or might not work but if your are interested in hiring someone, then you can always advertise on craigslist for free. There will be questionable applicants but then you can easily weed out those that you may not think will be the best fit. This is ofcourse just one of the many ways to advertise for free that your company is hiring. If your want to find out other ways, you can always use Google to help you find them.

In the end of the day, in order to tell people you have to sometimes think outside of the box and step out and trying new things. You may think it will cost a bundle to advertise that your are hiring but if your really are looking for someone to fill a position then you have to be open to the idea that there will always be free options to do just that. Don’t let people tell you in order to hire people that you have to pay, that is simply no true. You can accomplish what you are wanting for little or no money and still get what you are looking for!

Paul Sylvester

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Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards. Lewis Carroll

Imagine yourself wanting a certain item or service but you really don’t want to waste gas looking around. So you pull up you Ipad or your computer to Google for that particular subject. If you want to get the most value of the item or services that you are going to pay for, then keep reading. Most Small businesses aren’t thinking that way, they are expecting people to walk in and buy their stuff without first seeing what is available. I’ve come to the realization that 9 out of 10 small businesses in my local Evansville, Indiana aren’t using their business to the fullest on the internet.

It begins with Thinking outside the box!

No small or big business will ever be making their true potential by being like everyone else. I am not saying that you have to go to the extreme but there are ways you can make it more accessible to the clients that your looking for or who are looking for you. It takes 7 times for anyone to actually buy something from you or your company. If your not doing the Rules of 7 right now, you are not going to make the most out of your business. I recently found this out because I was looking for a job online trying to find business that I might be able to work for and I had a really good brain storm. Most of the local business here aren’t following the Rules of 7 and I am here to volunteer my services to anyone who might want help converting clicks into profit.

Social Media

If you haven’t hired someone to do this then you are just asking for donations sort to speak. Not having a Twitter account, a Facebook account, a Foursquared account, and a website promoting the products or services, just makes your work that much harder. Just like Glasses USA [Affiliate Link], if you look at their website you will see they have a Facebook, Twitter, Email newsletter, and a Youtube account. Each of them are making Noise and make sure people see there product to click and buy. Just because you have them, doesn’t mean you should ignore them or not use them. You might have to pay someone to blog about your product or service but if you don’t then you are loosing potential from your product or even service. The harder someone has to look to find you the less likely they will find you, this is something that I’ve always believed in and will always blog about.

Customer Reviews

Another thing to consider when having a business is what are people saying about you on the internet. If your not monitoring these things then you are not going to fully understand your customers and that might hurt you in the long run. It is essential to have customers who will proclaim your product, for example Glasses USA [Affiliate Link]. On their Customer Testimonials Page [Affiliate Link], you can see that their constantly putting up the good things people are saying about their products. Thus they are showing potential customers just how well they are doing. It is however a good indication also when it comes to employees and if customers aren’t happy with someone’s performance this is also a great way to re-enforce the idea of customer loyalty.

Customer Loyalty

This is something you must always strive for because without that you will not make any money or profit won’t increase. Customers who are loyal to you might pay a little bit more if they feel your company is working hard for them, whether it be groceries or buying a car. If they feel like the company is the best they will go out of the way to tell people and also keep coming back, this I think is the best model to strive for. Nothing sells like word of mouth advertising but that also means you have to know your customers and make an effort to show them you are one of them. If your just trying to push your product then you are just trying to make money but if your showing them you care, then you are showing your potential customers more than just wanting to make money. Your showing them you care about your product or service and that you believe in it!

Know when you’ve done wrong!

Let’s face it, no company in the history of time has ever been a 100% right. There will always be times when a company did something or said something that makes them look EVIL. If you ignore that then you are telling your customers you don’t care, but if your acknowledged it and ask for forgiveness then you are telling your customers you really do care. Most small businesses aren’t hearing what is being said about them on the internet because they are blind to the idea that it isn’t something they should worry about, but I tell you this if your not worrying about it then you are risking your business to the word of mouth customers. There will always be two sides to the coin, even if you didn’t know now. You will know sooner or later because a customer might just bring it up when they call you asking why this other customer said that. If your not prepared what people are saying then you can’t possibly have a answer to the question and might even loose a potential customer because of it.

Some Local business to mention are:

I’m going to share with you some of the local businesses that I see that could benefit from this web post and encourage them to contact me if they are looking to make even more profit then they are now. I am willing to discuss in detail what they are doing wrong and help them improve their customer experiences for a small fee!

Bucks and Jakes Outfitters — Great website and Business location just needs to improve on what they are already doing!

Baumberger’s Furniture — One of those business that had to shrink down because they were not doing some of this already!

Penske Truck Rentals — I’ve check them out and they are good but they could do better!

Paradiseink — This is a new site but seems they need a lot of different things to help promote their service and products!

Desktopdoctors — This business has some stuff already doing that but could do even more!

These are just a few that I’ve been looking at the last few hours and realized that they could be doing some stuff really differently and bringing in even more customers. I think if you have read this article you probably are asking your self how you could make your business grow. If you follow these tips you could make even more money but it is all how you do it. If you like what you read please consider re-tweeting this and also posting it on Facebook and other social media sites!<