Business Performance Improvement

Running a successful business is hard. if it is not, everyone would be doing it. And, success doesn't happen overnight. It takes commitment, determination and conviction. A lot of work and experience must come first. It may take one or two years before you have a full thriving business. 

To make sure your home business is on track, conduct a regular checkup and provide solutions for your business performance improvement.

No matter how large or small your business is, you cannot gauge the effectiveness of any changes you’ve made without analyzing the benefits and bottom line.

Use these 9 questions to evaluate your online business and develop an action plan to improve your business performance.

1 - What is the level of your sales revenues compared to the last two years? Don’t be satisfied if your sales revenues stayed the same then you’ve achieved zero growth. With price increases, this flat growth line is a warning sign for more trouble down the road. So, an Analysis is needed to identify the problem areas.

2 - Are you selling or promoting the right products? You'll want to watch for great products and-or services with the potential to benefit your niche market and your customers. To build trust and income, it's best to recommend only those products that will be of specific interest to them. It's a win-win situation for everyone that way.

3 - How often do you offer new products or services to your customers? Identify and fulfill your customers' wants and needs. Let them get what they need from you. If you’re stuck for an idea, ask your customers what they need. Loyal customers like to see you changing and progressing with the times.

4 - How well you are marketing your business? Is your marketing strategy helping you earn as much as you'd like? Does your marketing plan help you generate new prospects and help you convert them to paying clients? Are you getting the results you want from your marketing? Marketing is really investing in you, your vision, and your business. The old saying that you must spend money to make money is true, but you must spend it wisely. Develop a small business marketing strategy and plan for better business performance.

5 - How do you treat your loyal customers? Do you give your regular customers discounts and not others? You should! If your customers don’t feel special when coming to you for products of services, why should they remain loyal to you? Have a customer appreciation day or a special invitation only sale for your regulars. Create a mailing list of your loyal customers. Send occasional post cards or greeting cards for special events or just to keep in touch. Learn to recognize them on sight and greet them by name when they visit you.

6 - What percentage of your business is from repeat customers? This is a fairly good indicator of either a good business growth or marketing problem. A satisfied customer is a returning customer. If it’s too low, then it needs to be improved. The cost of getting a new customer is often double or triple the cost of keeping an existing customer.

7 - How is your business doing compared to your competition? Every company, no matter what the size, has competition – even home-based businesses. Is their business growing or downsizing? Is their pricing or service better than yours? If so, what can you tell potential customers about the price difference? Think about how you can improve your service to meet or exceed your customer’s expectations.

8 - Is your website user friendly? Does your website display a professional image? Is your website search engine friendly? Is your website appealing to your visitors, do they stay, do they buy? Make sure that your website design is visually appealing, capture your visitor's attention and easy to navigate. People need to be able to work out very quickly how to find what they want.

A professional website design is key to building revenue-generating websites. If your site is confusing, or unusable, then all your effort spent on developing an Internet marketing strategy would be wasted.

9 - Do you manage your time? Or does time manage you? Do you have so many projects you want to work on and it is difficult to choose which one to work on first? Do you make a "things to do" list? Do you have a business example plan? are you prioritizing your daily tasks?

Modern time management involves everything you do. No matter how big and no matter how small, everything counts.

Sure, we cannot control time. But, we can learn to use it more efficiently and effectively. In order for you to be a success in whatever you do, you need to plan using business example plan to increase chances of success and more importantly acquire time management skill.

I can remember when I was working at my very first job out of school. It was a service business with just the owner and me at work. There was direct contact with the clients, and there was never a problem with smiling when talking face to face with them. 

I was given the best business tip of my life by that employer, when he pointed out to me that "when talking to clients on the telephone you should smile". For some unexplainable reason, when you smile as you talk on the phone, the exchange with the client becomes more pleasant and more productive. It’s as if that smile went right through the phone wires to the person to whom you’re talking.