There
is a certain synergy about The Queen Victoria Market taking advice from The “Queen
of Shops”. Mary Portas is a retail guru from the UK. In 2011 she was
commissioned by the UK Prime Minister to report on "The Future of The High
Street" and has since followed up with a TV series entitled "Mary,
Queen of Shops".
Mary
visited Melbourne last month as part of the Victorian Support Small Business
Day and left behind her 11 top tips for small business.
1.You
have an advantage over your bigger competitors. Chances are you know your
customers personally. Ask yourself what you could be doing to help them more.
Do you provide exactly what they want or (be objective) could you do things
better from their point of view? What could you do that they’d be prepared to
pay extra for? (20 percent of your customers will be prepared to pay more).
2.Are
you and your staff happy people? Are you a pleasure to do business with? Only
ever hire happy people. You can train them in any skill, but you’ll never teach
a miserable person to welcome somebody to your business. Don’t compromise – good
enough is not enough.
3.Is
what you sell and the way you present it the best you can do? Look at what your
competitors do. Research online to see how people do it in other countries and
‘copy with pride’. Why can’t you be the best fish shop/plumber/taxi
firm/accountant in the world?
4.Get
a proper logo, DO NOT DO IT YOURSELF OR USE ‘A FRIEND’. Have your stuff designed by good people. If
you don’t have one locally then use Design Crowd online – very easy, cost
effective and great results. Take a real
pride in how your business presents itself.
5.Don’t
be afraid of the web. Used well it’ll bring you loads of business. Use social
media wisely, have a great looking website, use Google Express to cheaply get
better SEO results.
6.What
data do you have? Addresses, e-mails, birthdays? Corporations call it ‘big
data’ – for you it’s a way of keeping in touch and keeping your business in
front of them.
7.Do
your customers know everything you do?
Don’t assume that because they know you’re good at one thing, they’ll
know all the other things you do. Ask
yourself – have you told? Have you sold?
89 percent of new customers are with you because they had a bad experience with
a competitor. Would it be useful to talk to people, find out what that
experience was and make sure your business won’t make the same mistake?
8.Be
thoughtful about the people specifying your service. The Office Manager
ordering an executive lunch from your catering business would probably
appreciate an additional little bento box on the side just for them with your
compliments.
9.Be
generous with your skills. A window cleaner in London who posted two minute
videos on YouTube explaining the tips of the trade saw his business double.
Remember, chances are you have a very small share of the potential market you
could reach so of course, giving away tips might reduce the total number of
people in need of your service, but there are always more who appreciate the
advice and who’ll share it with mates and still won’t have time to clean their
own windows.
10.Make
it easy for people to recommend you. Give them some cards or something simple
like a pencil or printed post-it notes so they can pass your details on to
their friends.
11.Be
bold and take risks. The dangerous thing to do is play it safe. If they ask you
for 10, do 11.