Managing an online business can be very stressful regardless of its size. Selling items online can allow you to build a base of loyal customers around the world. Growing a business can be a challenge as processes can break and need to be updated. The importance of customer retention cannot be stressed enough. Growing any business becomes far less of a challenge with nearly perfect customer retention numbers. The following are tips to manage your online business to set it up for success.
Nail Down Accounting Processes
Accounting can be a nightmare for a founder to take on without any accounting background. Outsourcing this part of the business might be the best course of action. You do not want the IRS fining the business due to making a few mistakes during tax season. Small business accounting can be very different from corporate accounting. You can hire these services for a reasonable fee and ensure you are safe from any IRS audits.
Digital Marketing Should Be A Priority
Digital marketing is the lifeblood of so many businesses especially when they do not have brick and mortar locations. Ranking products/services at the top of search results can help a company grow organically in a consistent fashion. The product descriptions and education on the website for the business are very important. The last thing you want is to lose a sale due to an unclear product description.
The website design is going to play a huge role in search engine rankings. The loading speed of pages impacts rankings as it directly impacts the experience of a visitor. Overloading a homepage with media can drive down the speed of the page while causing it to lose rankings. There can be media on pages but they should be at a reasonable level rather than all media being located on one page.
Utilize Freelancers To Help Scale Processes For Growth
Freelancers can help any business regardless of the products or services that are being provided. A copywriter can help the website rank higher with writing your proposal. Digital marketing can be outsourced to freelancers for a fraction of the cost that it would take to hire an in-house marketing team. Even handling things like data entry can be done by freelancers. You can build a team around the world that can be very talented at the projects they are assigned.
Diversify Revenue Streams
The revenue streams of a business being diversified is very important. You do not want one stream of revenue to be stopped and have this lead to the ruin of the company. Selling different types of products or services should not be at the expense of current products/services. You can always white label another company’s services if you do not want to build out a completely new department. The Ecosystem Economy, in which partnering across company boundaries, is increasingly important and WorkSpan offers many resources to get started.
Customer Interfacing is Everything
Anything you can do to modernize and help your business succeed could be necessary, though costs and advantages must be weighed. When in doubt, it can be good to itemize changes to your pipeline specifically with the intent to improve how your customers can interact with your business, whether service or product. Many times, businesses focus on the deliverable only, but a good track record of positive interactions goes a long way, comparable to advertising dollars. Service businesses, especially for local providers have seen modernization change the way people interact. They might want digital availability, while others prefer old-school methods of communication. This double layer necessitates attention and possibly cannot be ignored. Whether interviewing potential business for things like roofing, plumbing, or maid service, power washing, or carpet work, they will most likely say they have at least some focus on the all-digital aspects of communication, such as text messaging, website chat boxes, and some even use some sort of online contact or booking form.
The growth of a business will have to be monitored closely so the business does not alienate its current customer base. Take your online business to the next level by using these tips.
