6 Tips For Small Business Saturday

There is a lot of excitement surrounding the upcoming Small Business Saturday on November 30. No doubt there are different strategies and tactics for smaller businesses versus Fortune 500 size businesses, but in the end, all businesses, regardless of size, want to be successful. Some of the strategies that work for small businesses won’t work for big—and vice-versa. I scoured the earth (by which I mean I talked to some friends) to find some great tips to help celebrate Small Business Saturday—that may also work for large businesses as well.

1. Invest in an e-signature program to create an easier customer experience.

Using e-signatures is fast and convenient for your customers. According to Croft, “With existing Forrester research suggesting that each document signed manually costs 1.3 hours and $11 in time spent, small businesses can save significant time and money by implementing an electronic signature solution. In addition to reducing costs, e-signatures are a value-add for vendors and they provide a streamlined customer experience, which drives customer loyalty. For many of the 30 million small businesses in the U.S. alone, paperwork is still grinding productivity to a halt, so implementing an e-signature solution will propel you down the paperless path to success.”

2. Tell your story with eye-pleasing graphic design using a simple program that will help you create budget-friendly promotional materials.

Sometimes simple is easy and even inexpensive. This subscription model program includes hundreds of templates and editing tools to make graphic design easy and affordable. Habermann says, “Although small businesses may not have the generous budget of big-time companies, small businesses can leverage photo editing and graphic design applications like PicMonkey to design low-cost, professional-grade promotional materials that can be published online, printed or posted on social media.”

3. Have a reliable and technically innovative phone system.

Good phone systems don’t have to be expensive. Even less expensive options will have many, if not all, of the options you need. There are plenty of good ones out there, but I like what Narita has to say. “Even in today’s world, the phone is still the lifeline of the small business. You must never miss an important call, whether in or out of the office. Today, our customers have an on-demand mindset, so if they call a company to gather information or make a purchase and their call is not answered, they’re quick to reach out to competitors. Having a reliable and innovative phone system that can be accessed from anywhere at any time can guarantee that you never miss an important phone call or potential sale.” ….[Read More]