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Six ways to diversify your rural business

By Samantha Garner | January 21, 2012

According to Statistics Canada, 28% of Canada’s 1.4 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are rural-based. Running a small business can be challenging at the best of times, but rural entrepreneurs and  communities face a number of additional hurdles: Outdated industries, technology replacing human labour, and a steady trend of out-migration by youth. Rural-based entrepreneurs, particularly those in remote areas, can be challenged even more by access to education and training, increased distance to markets and business services. You may also be be affected more by the level of taxation, insurance rates, low profitability and government regulations than urban-based businesses.

Diversifying your rural business can help. Reducing your business’ dependence on one industry or income stream can help you weather the storm if things get rough. Here are six ways to help you diversify your rural business.

  1. Engage existing customers. Know what they are buying from you and what they’re not.  Keep track of the products and services you sell every day.  Find out what customers love about your products and services, and what they wished you would offer.  According to MIT professor Eric Von Hippel, seventy percent of new product ideas come from customers.  If you don’t ask, how will you know what your customers want?
  2. Engage new customers. Take a close look at your product or service offerings.  Are there customer segments who are not currently buying your products that could with a little product tweaking?  EZGO did just that.  They modified their successful golf cart product line and started selling them to shopping malls and airports and have recently launched their first street legal vehicle.
  3. Take stock of your company’s strengths or core competencies.  Can those strengths be leveraged into a new product and new market combination?  Caterpillar leveraged their brand awareness as a global leader in the heavy equipment industry with the launch of Caterpillar Apparel.
  4. Challenge your competitors.  Conduct a competitive benchmark – that’s a fancy term for snooping your competition.  Visit your competitors if you can – become a customer. This works best for retailers businesses obviously but your goal is to find out what they are offering, how and how well.  Can you do better?
  5. Think ahead. Where is your market going?  What are they doing?  What are their likes and dislikes?  Conduct an environmental analysis of trends that may impact you, your business or your customers in the future and position your business accordingly.  Look for emerging trends in society, technology, the economy and in politics.
  6. Investigate partnerships. Is there a business in your area that isn’t direct competition and could work well with your business? For example, a carpenter could partner with a local craftmaker and double their selling power at markets. A group of such businesses working together could mean a boost in local tourism, as well.

Diversification can reduce your business risk and maximize your opportunities to grow business operations while leveraging your company’s resources, materials, talent and success so far. You’ve heard the expression, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!” That’s the best reason of all to pursue a diversified strategy.

Topics: Small Business Tips and Advice | No Comments »

How to manage and enhance small business productivity

By Samantha Garner | January 14, 2012

Small businesses have an advantage over larger businesses – they’re small! They’re efficient, flexible and adaptive – responding quickly to changing customer tastes and needs. Another area where small business can outdo bigger businesses is in productivity.

How to measure – and then increase – productivity in your small business

Productivity is naturally easier to measure in manufacturing businesses. In a service business, productivity can be measured by the number of services provided in a certain period of time. However, failed services aren’t always easy to find and measure. Service companies rely instead on measures of customer satisfaction, and the number of complaints received. Improving productivity in labour-intensive service businesses is challenging because these businesses can’t rely on increased automation to improve efficiency the way manufacturing firms can. Nonetheless, small service firms are still finding ways to improve productivity. Some doctor’s offices, for example, combine booked and walk-in appointment times in their medical practices which makes the most efficient use of a doctor’s time, and provides more access to the doctor for their patients.

Many product and service businesses are making use of internet technology, web-based stores and e-commerce to streamline customer transactions – customers can see if a particular product is available in inventory before they get in the car. The speed at which business transactions are occurring is increasing, and customers have more access to information about the products and services they plan to purchase. This makes them better educated and more knowledgeable.

Uncovering avenues to productivity and efficiency

Improving small business productivity in the operations process involves an analysis of workflow, individual jobs, equipment, technology, physical layout, working conditions and customer feedback options. This usually means that you’ll need to answer the following questions:

  • What customer experience are we after? Have we asked customers what their expectations are?
  • What does the workflow to create our product or service look like? Is it being done in the most efficient way, with the least amount of waste?
  • Is there duplication of effort in people’s jobs?
  • Do we have the right equipment? Can we afford to buy better, more efficient equipment?
  • Do we have the computing and telecommunication technology to get the job done well?
  • Can we arrange our physical layout to improve productivity or communication among employees?
  • Does our physical layout enhance employees’ productivity, or hamper it?
  • Do our employees have what they need to do their jobs well – proper lighting, office furniture, supplies, relaxation areas?
  • Do our customers have several convenient ways of communicating with us? Do we regularly communicate with our customers?

Each small business operations situation is unique and should be analyzed for ways to improve operations efficiency and productivity. An electrical contractor who works out of a service vehicle can insure that his workspace (the truck or van) is properly stocked with new and replacement parts, and appointments can be booked in a way that reduces travel time and ultimately customer costs.

Sometimes the most efficient way of doing something gets buried under years of doing something the same way. We know, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We’re not suggesting that you do – but we are asking to you to improve productivity and efficiency over the lifetime of your business. You and your customers will benefit.

Topics: Small Business Tips and Advice | No Comments »

Customer service lessons learned from CBC’s Marketplace

By Samantha Garner | January 7, 2012

Yesterday, CBC’s Marketplace aired an episode called “Canada’s Worst Customer Service: Store Edition.” The episode is geared towards large chains, but we strongly recommend that every entrepreneur brews a cup of coffee and takes some time to watch it. The episode is full of wonderful cautionary tales we can all use about how not to treat customers, and just how hard it is to get them back once they’re upset. I’ve highlighted a few of the main points I took away from the episode.  You can watch the full Marketplace customer service episode here.

  • Ensure all customers are at least acknowledged in stores. Your employees don’t have to be experts on every product you sell, but they should be willing to personally make sure the customer is taken care of – even if it is by a different employee. No customer should be told simply, “I don’t know.” They should be given options and advice.
  • Don’t fall under the misconception that no complaints = satisfied customers. In the video, we can see customers more willing to just walk out instead of complain. And you can be sure their friends would have heard all about their poor customer service experience if they’d gotten the chance to walk out.
  • If something does go awry and a customer is dissatisfied, don’t barrage them with self-promoting marketingspeak (especially if it’s about how important customer service is to your company – oh, the irony!). Just do whatever is necessary to make them feel like they’ve been heard and understood. Make it right for them.
  • Give all employees the power to take the right steps if a customer is unhappy. They may not be able to offer discounts or give gift cards, but they can certainly listen, empathize and then take the proper course of action. This could even be as simple as giving the customer contact info for a manager, or you. Simple as that!
  • Never forget that low prices aren’t the only factor that draws customers to do business with you. If your prices are great, but customers are given the runaround by employees or ignored, how often do you think they’ll return?
  • If your business does use social media, monitor it regularly. You never know who’s counting on your attention.

Did you watch the Marketplace customer service episode? What did you get out of it?

Topics: GoForth Institute Small Business Training, Small Business Tips and Advice | No Comments »

GoForth’s favourite small business blog posts of 2011

By Samantha Garner | December 31, 2011

Well, we did it! Another year of the entrepreneurial journey is coming to a close for everyone. To commemorate the end of the year, we thought we’d take a look back at some of our own small business blog posts we especially enjoyed in 2011. We hope that these posts, and others, were of some value to you this year, and we hope you join us for more fun in 2012. May you have a safe, happy and prosperous new year!

Topics: Entrepreneurial Inspiration, GoForth Institute Small Business Training, Small Business Tips and Advice | No Comments »

2011 roundups from our favourite business blogs

By Samantha Garner | December 24, 2011

It’s the end of December, which means you’ve probably seen your fair share of “end of the year” lists. We have too, and wanted to share some of our favourites from the business, social media and entrepreneurship blogospheres. Enjoy!

Do you have any business-related year in review list you’d like to share?

Topics: Entrepreneurial Inspiration, Entrepreneurship News, Small Business Tips and Advice | No Comments »

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