As a small business owner, you cannot be everything to everybody; you will spread yourself too thin. Rather target a specific group of customers that you can satisfy. However, in order to reach a specific target market, you need to know who they are and how they will help shape your products and services.

• Who are your potential clients?
• Where will they come from?
• What industry are they in?
• Are they large or small businesses?
• What do you plan to sell to whom?
• Which will be your most profitable clients?
• What are their spending habits?
• Are they single or have families?

Be the big fish in a little pond. Know your market well and aim to offer more tailored business to earn
the loyalty and the repeat business of your niche clientele.

• You go from working for pay to working to accomplish personal and professional goals
• Your business will likely be on your mind 24/7
• You notice gaps in the market because you’re always looking for opportunities to grow
• Your admiration for entrepreneurs increases exponentially
• You have to train yourself how to balance work and life as the lines will feel blurred
• Every accomplishment, every gain feels like a bigger victory because you can directly measure your efforts to achieve it
• You want to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who encourage, not distract
• You’ll forget to eat sometimes but hopefully you have surrounded yourself with a support system that will not let you burn the candle at both ends
• Perseverance will take on a whole new meaning

Books
Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
Duct Tape marketing by John Jantsch
Inbound Marketing by by Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, and David Meerman Scott
Eboot Camp by Corey Perlman
Off The Wall Marketing Ideas by Nancy Michaels and Debbi J. Karpowicz

Blogs
http://www.marketingprofs.com/
http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/

Webinars
http://www.bizlaunch.com
Webinar Hero

Websites
http://www.sba.gov

Go to college and do a few marketing courses

Building a small business takes great leadership. Making your company stand out above the competition also involves insight and taking risks. Taylor uses two great examples of what great leadership entails.

Luxottica, a global eyewear company with annual sales of $6.6 billion, took risks in creating a customer experience that some might have thought excessive and costly. This includes a touchscreen that is both a mirror and a computer and the ability to upload pictures of trying on glasses to social media channels.

Andrea Guerra, CEO of Luxottica says, “Where the world is changing and changing fast, your thoughts have to be bold.”
Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, however, has a much different take. The Kindle, will release another version that will be cheaper yet only slightly improved than the current Kindle on the market. Many were wondering why Bezos and his colleagues were not going with the trend of making an iPad competitor.

Bezos answers, “There are going to be 100 companies making LCD tablets. Why would we want to be [company] 101? I like building a purpose-built reading device. I think that is where we can make a real contribution.”

Here are two examples where being bold and being simple are not actually opposite strategies. The strategy is leading your company against the grain. Luxottica stands out by investing in a more glitzy customer experience while the Kindle wants to be the best of its kind, not the best version of an iPad.

Taylor puts it best when he asks: “How are you planning to zig while everyone else zags?” Small businesses will have many opportunities to stand out, but that is up to the leaders behind them.
Read the entire article here:

Systems help you run your business. They are designed to ensure things are done consistently and uniformly, regardless of who is doing it. Developing great systems early on will help you run your business much more efficiently and allows you to train new people quickly with less confusion. It is important to have good people on board to run your systems.
You must lead your employees in the areas of marketing, sales, administration, human resources and financial. Make sure systems are in place for the following areas of your business:
Marketing
- Letterhead
- Overall look for your company.
- A process must be in place to respond to customer requests.
Sales
- Lead tracking system
- Templates for proposals, letters contracts
- Follow-up system
- Telephone script with questions
Administration
- Mail centre
- Shipping
- Bookkeeping
- Invoicing
Human resources
- When you hire an employee
- Performance reviews
- Contractors
Financial
- Software
- Financial statements
- Ratios
- Departmental Gross Profits

They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that

they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.”

- Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks

1. Determine how many square feet you need
2. Determine what part of the city you’d like to be in
3. Some factors that may influence your decision: public transport, highways, nearby customers and suppliers, security etc.
4. Do research on the average rental rates in the area
5. Find an experienced commercial real estate agent to help you with your search
6. Get a lawyer to read your lease agreement before signing anything
7. Ensure that you read all the fine print and know exactly what your monthly rent will be with all costs in
8. Calculate your break even including the new rent expense
9. Don’t sign long leases if you’re a start up
10. If possible look for shared space to start off

7 Secrets to Building a Successful Business – A Growth Strategy (Webinar) from BizLaunch on Vimeo.