Running Your Own Business
Our Director and Co-founder, Tania Differding has listed her top tips with regard to managing your own business. This is invaluable advice for anyone starting out, or in the thick of it!
Be your own customer.
Use your product often, and use it properly. This is double as important when introducing something new…no you should NEVER be getting initial product feedback from a customer…
Be passionate, or don’t bother.
People will buy what you are selling, but WHY…if you truly believe your product is the best in the business, so will everyone else. Passion will also keep you going another day when your longest serving employee tells you they’re leaving to have a baby, you get locked out of Xero, your landlord tells you they won’t be renewing the lease…
You can’t sell a secret.
It doesn’t matter how great your product, if no one knows it exists, it ain’t gonna sell. Have a healthy marketing budget from the start, and try multiple channels to see what works. A career in advertising has shown me one thing, that when times get tough, advertising and marketing spend is the first to go. When times are tough, clients might be hard to come by, but if you’re the only one advertising, you’re all they’re gonna see.
Find your niche, the more specific, the better.
Never enter a flooded market. The less competitors, the higher your likelihood of success. Similarly, focus on your USP (Unique Selling Proposition/the thing that makes your product different and better to ALL the other products out there) in your marketing and advertising messaging.
The extra mile is never crowded.
Go above and beyond for your customers, word of mouth is worth gold, some things money can’t buy. Treat your customers like friends, be honest, and tell them if you don’t think the product will work for them.
The customer is NEVER wrong, even when they are.
Because like Bluey’s mum tells Bluey when she’s fighting with her sister, “you can be right, or you can be friends”. A happy customer is worth more than being right. Every. Single. Time.
The old adage of Grow or Die is true
In business, you can’t rest on your laurels, or at all for that matter, there are newer, smarter, better businesses opening all the time, and the only way to keep up with them, is to continue to grow yourself.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Be nice to your competitors. Don’t slag them off to anyone. Remember you’re both in this industry together, and kindness always wins in the end.
Do what you do best, and nothing else.
You can’t be an expert at accounting, HR, marketing, social media, financial planning and sales. You once had a profession, and probably a tertiary education. Stick to using your time wisely and get the best in the business to do the rest.
Following on from above, always do as Beyonce does
“Only hire people who are smarter than myself.”
There you have it, invaluable advice from Tania who is talking the talk and walking the walk in business.
For more tips and suggestions, follow Achtung Camper on LinkedIn where Tania will posting regular articles.
