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What are you really good at?

Written by: Liz Walker

Article Overview: It's a simple idea: find what you are good at, and spend your hard-earned marketing money on finding customers who want just what you do best.

What are you really good at?

What are you really good at?

We recently helped one our our clients, a college training centre, do research with small business owners. We discovered that the three top issues were how to find new customers; stay ahead of their competition; and spend marketing money more effectively. A good first step in getting to the next step in your business is to discover what your company is really good at. In business lingo, this is called "defining your core competency."

Another way of asking the question is, "If you were forced to divest your company of everything it does every day except one set of activities, what would you keep?" What really generates your profit and makes your customers keep coming back? And what could you ditch with no real danger to your business?

Once you know what is core to the survival and prosperity of your business, it gets easier to see who you appeal to, and therefore where to find them, and how to spend your sales and marketing dollars.

Here are some ideas to start your thinking.

Are you better than your competition at the nuts and bolts of getting raw materials and components, turning them into products and setting up a great distribution and sales network? This is probably the only time we will recommend you look at your pricing; if you can drive cost our of your processes and guarantee delivery times, you can pass savings on to customers and create long-term business relationships.

If research, and designing great products is what you are good at, you can go to market saying you really have developed the equivalent of the better mousetrap! Unique products is where you'll compete.

If you are known for creating fantastic ads and marketing systems that drive customer relationships, you'll be able to say that you are easier to do business with than your competition, and be able to prove it. If your team excels at creating happy customers who can't wait to refer you, you'll want to focus on the results you offer.

It's a simple idea: find what you are good at, and spend your hard-earned marketing money on finding customers who want just what you do best.

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Article Tags: better mousetrap, business lingo, core competency, customer relationships, ditch, great distribution, guarantee delivery times, marketing systems, money, nuts and bolts, prosperity, raw materials, sales and marketing, small business owners, survival, term business relationships, unique products
Referred by: http://www.makingprofitspour.com



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Re: Entrepreneur Advice From The Masters - Well, this look like a good idea, I will drop by and get the tips, it is always good to have someplace, one get advice on business, and good sources comes in handy.
Update: Jigsaw - I like to do a lot of email marketing and have found Jigsaw to be pretty good. It's a little expensive compared to some other systems but they are very targeted. If you're looking to find the Vice President in charge of ______ at a certain company, it's a good place to look. good luck!
Women Entrepreneur - Hehe. The CEO of HP is a woman and I belive she really opened up the market for woman and made a good impression. She seems like she is doing good, because HP is doing really good. I have a few HP products and they are all great.
Re: Great start, but no finish - Hi Keven, By good idea or niche I mean the area where you have good knowledge. Here is how. I want to start my online business. And I must find the good topic for my business. WHat can it be? I 'm lawyer and have enough knowledge about it. THen why not to start a blog giving legal advice to people? Or if you are weight loss expert, then weight loss i a good idea or niche for your online business. Also the monetization potential of the niche is important too. If there is good mon. potential and I have special knowledge about my niche then I can have advantage in the competition and it can be a good idea for my future business. This is what I mean by" good niche" After finding my pofitable niche, it will be easy to build business on it. Orxan
Stumble Upon - Thank you for the ongoing updates. I've looked at Stumble Upon and have an account, but haven't really taken time to use it. A friend had people recommend her site and its generated about 100 hits in a month. So, its driving traffic which is always good. Might be good to take a look at the program you mentioned. I was concerned about the categories they offer - so that would be a good thing to check first. Thanks again for sharing your experience. Chris


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