Problems of the SMEs and Startups

Last week I was talking to an acquaintance, who is running a small business from home. He has been trying to acquire new customers, but is facing many problems like any other SME or start up business.

1. Don’t know how to acquire the new customers

2. Don’t have technical knowledge or skills

3. Don’t have big budgets for website / marketing / advertisement

4. Don’t have much time to spend for planning and running any campaign

5. Don’t know how to bring more traffic to their website

These are the common issues with any small business or new start up company. The following are the very basic solutions to such problems and require less resource:

1. Online Presence: To acquire new customers, you have to reach them, show them your product. And for that a website is a must. A simple, clean, user friendly website can be designed with very limited budget. There are plenty of platforms available where any simple informative or e-commerce website can be started. Remember to have mobile friendly version of the website or Responsive website as it is called in technical term.

2. Social Media Business Profiles: Everyone is using social media and mobile apps to communicate with friends, family and colleagues these days like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Snapchat etc. To reach new customers, the quickest and easiest way is to create a business profile on these social media platforms. This is all FREE of cost. You can engage with your prospective customers, know their requirements, show your products, offer any sales or promotions, and ask your family and friends for the recommendations or references. You can create groups on mobile apps to communicate with your customers, sending them new offers, receiving their feedbacks.

3. Social Media Management Tools: There are several tools like HootSuite available where you don’t need to spend too many hours updating social media business pages separately. Many of these tools are free of cost for basic services. Similarly there are many website available to design and run the email marketing campaign.

4. Blogs and online publications: Writing blog posts on your website and independent platforms like bloggers, WordPress can help you in bringing more traffic to your website. There are several online publication sites available where you can publish information about your products free of cost. Basic knowledge of the SEO can also help you in optimising your website on search engines.

5. Videos and Picture Gallery: A picture or video is more worth than thousands of words. Simple and straight forward videos about your products uploaded on YouTube can also help you in acquiring new customers. As you shoot your family videos from your mobiles or iPads, similarly you can do it for your business. Keep it as simple as possible with clear message. Similarly sites like Pinterest and Instagram offer you the facility to upload the pictures of your products online.

You don’t need any coding or technical skills for doing any of the above. You just need to manage your time, do some research on your products or services online, and create innovative strategies and plans for your online presence. If you still have any issues, please contact us for more detailed discussion on your individual projects.