Exeter Business Awards - 5 ways to succeed in business
The Exeter Business Awards are looming on the horizon, with 14 categories available for budding entrepreneurs and savvy businesspeople to go for. You can be up for as many awards as you feel you are eligible for and can enter fairly simply on their website. Awards range from Outstanding Business of the Year, Employer of the Year, and even an Excellence in Customer Service award. This means that the entire staff of a business are eligible for at least one award, and the very best have until April 18 2019 to get their nominations in for the ballot. The awards night is on June 21 and will see a host of familiar faces turn out to toast the very best in business. But what does it take to succeed in business in Exeter?
Develop a Good Reputation
People want to buy things from businesses that they like. Local independents gain repeat custom for being a friendly face, for being a staple of the community, or being an authority on a niche topic. By building up a positive reputation, you will maintain custom, despite others offering more competitive prices, and develop a word of mouth reputation. Word of mouth is critical to a successful business yet, with the dawning of digital, this means that word of mouth can be spread far and wide through social media. Being a company that people want to purchase from is key and developing a strong persona and a likeability factor can be difficult sometimes. Focusing on a brand personality is a good place to start and having a customer service team on the ground that is positive and likeable is a good next step.
Be Competitive
No business succeeds on reputation alone – and, sometimes, even the very best need to get creative with keeping offers fresh and relevant for their budding public. Even expensive designers and flashy cars run sales every now and then. Media giants such as Netflix and Spotify offer free trials before signing up for a membership, while online gaming companies offer free bets for new players to let them test out the offering before committing. Sales promotions can be as wide or as niche as possible and, as top supermarkets show us, the feeling that we are getting a deal or being helped out gives us favourable opinions of the business itself, which will increase future custom. For every business, there are likely other competitors who offer similar enough products or services, so being able to operate competitively and make money in a saturated sector shows perseverance and strength in a business and equates to business success.
Get Creative with Marketing
Marketing is the basis of bringing in sales, so having a good marketing strategy is key. The modern marketing toolkit offers plenty to work with from PR stunts to social media campaigns to just pure and simple paid ads. PR stunts can work well, such as the ones that Gregg’s does. These include launching a vegan sausage roll as though it were an iPhone, changing the letters in their sign to reflect off Fenwick’s Newcastle store window, replacing the baby Jesus in the nativity with a sausage roll, and offering an exclusive romantic Valentine’s dinner. Each stunt has been relatively cheap but has had people talking about them and what they offer, as well as working on their reputation by being humorous.
Be a Good Employer
To succeed in business is to cultivate a strong team below you. Knowing who works well in your brand and who will be a good advocate and ambassador for your brand could be the difference between succeeding in business and not. Once you eventually grow big enough, you’ll need to have a team of people around you who you trust to run things on a day to day basis as you work on the bigger picture elements of your business. Being a good employer means being fair, offering a good environment to work in and chances for training and development on a personal and professional level. Good business leaders motivate their team and get the best work out of them and the end result is apparent in their demeanour and the resulting customers and sales figures.
Don’t Reject Technology
Not all businesses are a natural fit for using technology. Some are better equipped for more traditional methods, however, and attempting to harness technological advances for your business could open up an avenue that you never even considered. Indeed, VR and AR technology can benefit businesses as far reaching as video games, property, and education. While big data and all that it affords businesses in terms of streamlining processes could end up saving you money you didn’t even realise was available. Part of being a successful businessperson is being able to adapt and evolve as your environment does and always striving to be more successful than you previously have been. Often, technology can offer a boost for this and in ways that you might not have even considered. Evaluate your options and utilise the technology most relevant to your business and customer needs.
While Exeter businesses will be busying their applications for the awards, many other businesses that don’t feel they want to enter just yet can work towards developing themselves to become a more successful business. Nobody ever has enough customers or sales and there is always room for improvement, so focusing on what you could improve on can help you develop in business.
