This was one of the feedbacks I got from a customer yesterday when he showed up; 'you guys are doing a lot of things here yet only few know about this. You need to find ways and broaden your advertising'. I know, he is very right yet ALL these things boils down to capital. business is cabbage in cabbage out atimes. What I mean here is this, sometimes fortune can smile at you, a good location or an occurrence within your business establishment may shine excess light on you. I know what I am talking about. When you become the closest to a demanding source it can also be to your advantage.
Talking of that, our business currently is much like a warehouse. We had to shut down our first office early last year because of the issue of poor location. Adding to that, the market had really shrinked in the process. No regrets about shutting down that office if you want to ask me. I needed to really start things afresh if I am to get the needed standards I was looking for. It can be a long story but to cut it short, there was so many inexperiences when I started business and I couldn't correct it overtime because the people were already used to it. One of them was the issue of poor pricing.
We have to move on, when my co-partner suggested a renewal of rent, I was just silent about that. Adding another fact, our office bill was rumored to be increased immediately after that one expires. It was like my landlady helping to strengthen my decision to leave. Of course we did, we had a backup office (our warehouse) to still keep things running. Nevertheless, this comes with some limitations, the idea of the warehouse was to be much of our production floor where only workers operate. This was why we never bothered to rent a place close to the main road to avoid much cost.
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Not many of our customers show up in our business premises for the reason that we do home pick up and delivery. Aside from old customer, how do we NOW meet up with new ones?. We've implemented the strategy of online marketing and without doubts, a lot of work still needs to be done to feed that industry very well. I can attest to the fact that not all our customers currently know how broad our services now are. You know, people just glance at an online advert and off they go.
A customer came to our office and saw our branding machine and her feedback was; 'what's that for?'. In my mind I was, 'are you kidding me, you mean you haven't been paying attention to all those advertisements I keep pushing to your DM?. This is the more reason we are looking for ways to bring back our head office in a more strategic location. I feel many customers love seeing a business premises and interacting with real humans. Many want to get instant feedback for very fast decision making.
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Getting an outstanding head office or branch office as we may decide to call it is not a bad idea by any means. The fact remains, you don't just get it by talking, rather you get it by spending. Another focus point on our drawing board. This is something we cannot neglect, we indeed need those new eyes. The future of a business is dependent on the fact that new customers are coming in daily. You have to admit that you will in the process be losing old ones overtime. This is not due to the fact of poor service but rather because some will relocate and when their distance is too far, you have to admit what is.
There are still some debts to clear off after refurbishing our warehouse. Business without doubt has not turned out to be exactly as I predicted. There are so many loopholes I have to seal off in the process. One area is mainly in the issue of better and efficient marketing. Don't let anyone deceive you, running a business is not a child play especially at a growing phase and you are faced with so many national economic crisis.
To conclude, let me add, we have to find a way and solve this pending challenge. I see it as one of the factors that will help open up business for us even much faster than expected. Just as earlier said, it is better said than done. Business will remain a game of capital to establish. How to source it, that is entirely left for you. Even a customer is seeing the need too although I have been thinking of it. What just happened is an added encouragement to push our business to the next phase. Steadily! Steady!! Wins the race.
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