The Untold Secrets of A Successful Small Business Owners

Summary

The article reveals key strategies for small business success, emphasizing consistent operating hours, competitive pricing on key products, and exceptional customer service.

Abstract

The author shares insights from their father's 20+ years of running a successful small business, a building materials store. The first secret is maintaining a strict schedule to ensure customer expectations are met, as inconsistency can lead to lost business. The second strategy involves selling main products at affordable prices to create a value image, while up-selling and cross-selling other items at higher margins. Lastly, the article stresses the importance of treating customers well, suggesting that a positive attitude and simple gestures of appreciation can significantly impact customer retention.

Opinions

Consistent business hours are crucial for customer retention, as people tend to adhere to routines.
Offering key products at competitive prices can attract new customers and establish a reputation for affordability.
Upselling and cross-selling less significant items at higher prices is a profitable tactic once customers are drawn in by lower-priced main products.
Maintaining a friendly demeanor and expressing gratitude to customers, even the difficult ones, is essential for building customer loyalty.
The author believes that these seemingly trivial habits are actually fundamental to the success of a small business.

The Untold Secrets of A Successful Small Business Owners

Powerful tips are never shared because they seem too trivial.

My father has been running a small business in the town for 20+ years. When I was a child, I used to help my father in the store, we are selling building materials. Our store is just a one-door store, occupying only about 80-meter square. But that store has been supporting my family’s life until today. That store has allowed me to have a family vacation abroad at least once a year, paid for me and my sister’s university tuition fees, etc.

I have seen thousands of 80-meter square stores, but many are not doing as well as ours, so what’s the secret?

During those years when I helped my parents, there are a few unspoken habits in handling the customers. Those habits are unspoken because they seem too trivial, only taught by experiences.

1. Strict Schedule

Many people think that one of the benefits of owning your own business is flexible working time, is it true? Yes and no. Why?

Yes, because obviously, you are your boss, so you can do whatever it is, especially when something urgent comes up.

No, because when you own your business, it is very important to create a habit so that customers know when to find you. Ours is a building materials store, people buy things at a different time if you do not set a time, for instance, today you open at 8, so customers coming at 8.30 will see that you are open. The next time they might come at the same time, but you happen to open at 9, your customers will fail to reach you. What happens then? They go to another store. Because believe it or not, most people have a certain schedule in life, if they do something at 9, they will constantly do it at 9 every day. So be strict.

There is a cheat though, you can not open “later” but you can open earlier. You can close “later” but not close earlier. So you need to set like the basic schedule for your business and do additional work out of the set time.

2. Sell Some Key Products With Affordable Price

This is a trick that works well but not every business owner knows it. When a new customer buys things for the first time, it is very important to create an image that you sell things at an affordable price. How do we create this image?

Sell main products at affordable prices, then up-sell and cross-sell other seem-trivial products at a higher price. Here is an example.

Let’s say, our store sells various things such as paints, brushes, hammers, etc. If a customer wants to paint their house, naturally they will but things like paint and paintbrushes. The main product is the paint, not only is it the main product, but it is also the expensive one out of the two. So where is the attention? The paint. If people want to check the price, they will check the price of the paint. So in this case to establish your image, set the price of the paint lower than the average market. A new customer will think you sell things at an affordable price. So they buy the paint from you, and they also buy all the additional things (things whose price they do not bother checking because they think it is too trivial). This is where you earn your pennies, sell it with higher prices.

That is how you earn some pennies and a good reputation. It is a mind game.

3. Customer Is King

Believe it or not, attitude is super important. We all encounter some annoying customers along the way. But it is very crucial to be friendly with them no matter how hard it is. Smile, greet them, say thanks, those are all the template to customers’ satisfaction.

Human is a social and sentimental creature. With attitude, even if you sell things at a higher price, you will be surprised at how many customers you can retain with a single thanks.