3 Tips for Gaining Your Clients’ Trust

There are various things that every business needs to do if it wants to “crack the success code” and establish itself as a significant player in its industry.

One of those things, of course, is to market effectively and make the world aware of the services or products that the business is offering. Another of those things is to actually ensure that the product or services are high-quality enough to justify the purchase in the first place.

Easily one of the most important things for any business to get right, though, is finding ways to effectively gain their prospective clients’ trust. After all, who wants to give their money to someone who they think might cheat them?

Established businesses can often get a lot of mileage out of good faith. But for new entrepreneurs, with young start-ups, that good faith still has to be developed.
Here are a few tips for gaining your clients’ trust.

1. Emphasise the ways in which you can help them resolve a problem

At its core, every business is telling their prospective clients and customers essentially the same story; “you have a problem, and we are the people who can solve it for you.”

Put slightly differently, you should always be trying to “add value” to the lives of your prospective clients, and should think about ways in which you can “address a need” that they have.

The more effectively you manage to do this, the more they will appreciate you, remember you fondly, tell friends about you, and return to you again, whether you deal with hazardous waste disposal, or sell custom-made birthday cards.

This may seem self-evident, but a lot of new businesses get caught up in big marketing schemes and number-crunching games, while somewhat losing track of the fact that their main job is to do something useful for the customer.

1. Avoid catastrophic fear-based marketing

Everyone has come across totally catastrophic, fear-based marketing before. It’s sort of like the dark twin to the idea of helping a prospective client solve the problem they might be having – just, instead of emphasising the solution and its benefits, this type of marketing emphasises the problem and its most exaggerated horrors.

This kind of marketing may be effective now and then, but it’s also the kind of thing that people generally hate, and will come to resent you for.

If your pitch seems completely over-the-top and designed to frighten your audience, there’s a high chance they will write you off as a manipulative used car salesman.

So, avoid marketing statements like “without great SEO, you’re finished, you’re done, no one will know your name or care.”

1. Remain honest, reliable and trustworthy, and share feedback from satisfied customers

The best way to develop good faith with your customer base, is first and foremost to remain honest, reliable, and trustworthy. As always in life, good character is at the root of everything, and the rewards come downstream of that.

Many businesses may get away with behaving badly in little ways, on a day-to-day basis. They may continue in this way for years, as well. But, ultimately, you can be sure that these little transgressions are being noticed somewhere down the line, and will end up creating a negative buzz.

Instead, take the ethical path, even if it’s not always the easiest path. And be sure to get testimonials, and share feedback from satisfied customers – so that you can come “pre-approved” whenever someone drops by your website.

Could You Be Simplifying Your Business? Let’s Discuss

When it comes to running a business, there is no hiding from the fact that it is not an easy thing to do. Sure you will be passionate about what you do, and you may enjoy working each day, but there will always feel like there is never enough hours to put your heart and soul into every aspect of it. Do you know where we are coming from? This is when we can be looking for ways to make running our businesses much easier, and with that, gain some time to actually focus our energy on the areas that could grow and make our businesses even better. 

It all starts with an idea. One that consumes you until you take that plunge and create your business.  But things can get a little complicated from the start. You have to spread yourself thinly as you start to manage every aspect of the business from accounts to sales. It can often get overwhelming, which is why a simplified approach could be the right option to take to help your business thrive. So here are some of the things that you could consider to help you do that. 

Having a business plan and a focus 

One of the first things to think about would be to have some sort of business plan and focus for your business. It is all well and good having the ideas and knowing what you want to do, but if you don’t take the action to make them happen and put those thoughts down in some form of plan then you are not going to be able to move your business in the direction you had aimed to take. Have some time out to focus on a business plan, you can easily create one yourself by looking online and following a template. Having a plan for one year, two and even five years can help you to make solid decisions for the future. 

Outsourcing certain aspects of your business

It can be too tempting to want to work on every aspect of your business and so now is the ideal time to start thinking about where your skills lie best and what areas other people could make a difference. For example, many entrepreneurs don’t need to concern themselves with the IT issues that they may be faced with when they have other areas to focus on and IT services they can rely on to fix issues. . You need your systems to be working at all times, and the last thing you want is to have to pull your focus away from something else. Other things include accounting and reporting, website development and event social media. Which brings me to the next suggestion. 

Making the right choices when it comes to the business approach

It may be that you think things such as the environment will have no effect on your business but actually taking this into consideration now means that you will have already simplified what could be necessary changes in the future. You may want to enlist the help of an electrical contractor to ensure that you can implement eco changes such as solar operated systems, new light bulbs etc. You could also look at things such as the way you recycle old technology, and ensure that any staff members that you do hire adopt habits where there is a focus on saving as much as energy as possible. The governments and the world are shining a light on the planet, so doing your bit now as a business for the start means you will have less complications further down the line. 

Hiring the right staff first time round

Recruitment is an important aspect of any business that is succeeding and expanding, so you may want to ensure that your decision to hire someone is the right call to make. It can start with the interview, and even the perusal of resumes to ensure that you get the right people in front of you. It might also mean that you want to take the time to think about things such as how you might conduct the interviews, and also trusting your gut with certain people. Hiring the right people means that you can save money on the whole recruitment process, and can help your business to thrive in the future. 

Protecting anyone that works for you

The truth is, as a business owner, when you hire staff you have a responsibility to ensure that they feel happy, safe and secure in the working environment. So you may want to implement things such as a health and safety policy and also perform regular risk assessments to ensure that your staff members are able to work productively in their environment. The last thing you want is issues resulting in workplace injury or people not able to perform and do their appropriately because the necessary steps haven’t been taken. 

Scheduling social media 

Do you schedule your social media posts? The chances are you try and do them in real time, and while that can be great for some posts, often you need to be able to sit down  and think about the content you are creating, the right hashtags you want to use and also ensuring that you have the right image. Scheduling means you have the time to think about all of these things, and then feel assured that you have done all that you can. It can be an important aspect of your business, and one that you will want to get right. 

Planning ahead 

Finally, planning ahead can be a great way to ensure that you get all that you can crammed into your busy schedule. This includes networking events, trade shows and also working within your local community. All of which will provide you with excellent opportunities to expand your business. Sometimes taking time out to plan can help you to make the most of the opportunities that you have. 

Let’s hope these ideas help you to make your business life easier. 

Beware What The Government Tells The Business Community

When it comes to politics, businesses like freedom and certainty. Take the UK, for instance. For years, the economy in that country has been sluggish, thanks to the Brexit issue. Companies haven’t known precisely what’s going on, and so they’ve been saving up their money until they see what’s going to happen. 

In most developed counties, governments are relatively trustworthy but not always. They will often use their position of influence and power to manipulate people to serve their ends, going against the interests of the very people who elected them. 

If you work in business, you need to be aware that what the government tells the business community isn’t always the truth. Sure, it’ll try to bamboozle you into thinking its policies are pro-businesses and pro-growth, but when you actually look at what it is doing, you regularly find that they’re not. In many cases, they’re the opposite. 

For the government, using propaganda is nothing new. As the infographic below shows, even the US government has used informational manipulation to get what it wants in the past. The same still happens today. Read on to find out more.

Infographic by Norwich University

People in the business community, therefore, need to beware of the many ways in which the authorities deploy propaganda. The government isn’t just a group of empty vassals, seeking to serve the public in whatever way they can. Just like you and me, they’re individuals with their own interests and motives. While they usually do the things that their constituents want, they also have ambition and a desire for power.