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How Much Are Negative Business Reviews Costing Your Business?

What happens if people don’t love you on Yelp? Online peer reviews have become the go to resource for consumers who want to find specific information about a company they might do business with. If you want to find out if a restaurant is affordable, makes good food and has excellent service, you can go to a number of online guides to see how high their ranking is, which is usually done by stars or a number system. The higher your business is in the rankings, the better your chances of a possible customer finding your business. These sites have become make it or break it vehicles for many restaurants, retailers and more. Businesses are quickly having to reshape their practices to increase their ratings online. Moreover, an abundance of negative public commentary can be even more scathing. One slip up that wasn’t to the customers liking and it can test the survival of your business. But how much are negative business reviews really costing your business?

A whopping 83% of consumers say that reviews influence their buying decisions. Also, travelers are up to 3 times more likely to book a hotel room that has 5 stars. Online reviews can cost your business more than you think. In today’s cutthroat, competitive market place, unfavorable online peer reviews can actually kill your business. Most of these poor reviews are prompted by people who are unhappy with the functionality or price of a certain product and also the quality of food at a particular restaurant. More and more, businesses have to do better quality control and restrict their hiring process. One nasty comment by a waiter and a customer might go home to complain about it on the multitude of review websites that will be read by thousands of people online. Another statistic says that 69 percent of people have just as much confidence in trusting an online review as they do a personal recommendation.

February 22, 2013

Business

Inexpensive Marketing Techniques For Start Ups

Getting a business off the ground is no easy task. Start-ups everywhere are struggling in a rough economic climate that is forcing them to make the most of limited funds. Marketing is especially important in the early stages of a business’s life, but a lack of funding makes it very difficult for startups to promote their names. Fortunately, there are some great ways to market your start-up without spending over your limit.

A Business Website
Every company in business today should have a website. More business is done online than ever before, and your company’s website will be an extremely important asset to you in the coming years. Your website is the center of your online presence, and it will lend you both exposure and credibility. Best of all, websites are inexpensive to build and maintain. The business website should be a cornerstone of any start-up’s marketing strategy.

Local Canvassing
Never forget the importance of marketing to your local community. People in your immediate geographic area will be your primary customers in the early development of your start-up, so be sure to market to them directly. Canvass neighborhoods with flyers and promotional posters to advertise your new business. This can be done with practically no funding at all, so don’t be afraid to get out to the streets and market your business the old fashioned way. You may be surprised at how well this old technique works.

February 16, 2013

Business

5 Of The Biggest Expenses For Small Businesses

Running your own small business can definitely be a pretty complicated thing. You might have dreamed of owning a certain type of shop, store, or company all your life, but when this dream gets realized you’re likely to learn that there’s a lot more to think about than what you’re selling when it comes to actually owning and operating your very own business. There are a lot of things for which you’ve got to be responsible and a lot of costs that you’ve got to cover when you’re in charge of a business, whether large or small. Of course, you’re always responsible for your own livelihood, but when you run a business you wind up being responsible for the livelihoods of your employees, as well. For this reason, it’s smart to make sure that you’re running your small business as efficiently as possible. Costs have a lot to do with this; it can be pretty expensive to run a company. We’ll talk about five of the biggest costs that you might face if you’re thinking about starting your own small business.

1. Health Insurance. Most employers want to be able to offer things like health insurance to their employees. These types of programs, when properly put in place and executed, make it so that your employees definitely won’t think about going to work anywhere else, and feel like you, as their employer, are interested in taking great care of them. These programs are also incredibly expensive, however, and wind up being some of the biggest costs that can affect a small business. Be prepared to shop around and look at different insurance providers so you can find one that has a plan that suits you best.

February 8, 2013

Business

How Much Do Negative Online Reviews Cost Your Business?

Business has changed considerably over the past several years, and this has been largely because of growing technology. Lightning fast communications and far-reaching networks have helped companies everywhere advance and streamline their services, but technology has also had important implications for the customer. Customers everywhere have a voice that they’ve never had before, and that voice is growing louder every day. Online reviews are the modern customer’s way to express their opinions, good or bad, about every business they patronize. What you may not know is that those reviews can cost your business quite a bit.

Many business owners are quick to dismiss a negative review on a website like Yelp. They understand that you can’t please all the people all the time, and some customers may not be satisfied with even the highest quality service. If this sounds like your attitude regarding online reviews, you’re underestimating the power of this platform. Review networks are not just places for disgruntled customers to air their frustrations and play the role of critic. In fact, those reviews are a significant factor in determining whether or not a new customer will ever try your business. Studies indicate that as much as 83% of customers are influenced by online reviews.

February 6, 2013

Business

How To Trim Costs For Your Small Business

Running a small business is a constant balancing act. You may not have the same overhead as major corporations, but you also don’t have the massive budgets that allow them to operate from month to month without having to worry about whether or not they can pay their lease, their employees, and all of their other costs. In short, you need to plan carefully in order to make sure that you don’t overextend yourself. But since you can’t always count on your business to earn enough to cover costs, and your expenses can vary from one month to the next, you might be on the lookout for other ways you can hedge your bets. Trimming costs whenever possible is one good way to address your issue, and here are just a few tips to help you along the way.

Your knee-jerk reaction may be to move to a less expensive location or cut your headcount, but if your location is bringing in new business and you have enough work to necessitate your current level of staff, such decisions could end up being major mistakes for your business. Luckily, there are other ways you can cut your costs that won’t be so detrimental to your operations. For one thing, you might consider paid internships as a way to supplement your staff rather than hiring on full-time employees to attend to simple tasks like filing, data entry, and so on. This could help to reduce expenses while maximizing efficiency, and hence, profitability.

January 31, 2013

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