Small Business – How Not to Look Like a Small Fish in a Big Pond

It’s not easy to get customers but it’s easy to lose them. If you’re a big business, you have the resources to impress them, but if you’re a small business how do you convince customers that you have everything it takes to earn their business? Consumers spend their money where they think they will get the most satisfaction. As a small business, you may not have the marketing budget to develop your brand as a trustworthy business. Ironically, you may be able to provide your customers with better service than a big company. After all, a large company may not have the dedicated expertise to provide each customer with satisfaction. They may not be able to give each customer the attention they need to solve their pressing problem.

Fortunately, in a virtual environment, you don’t need a large building, a huge glass-paneled lobby, and impressive offices. You now have a greater opportunity to win customers over and keep them happy because you don’t need face-to-face interactions to get their business. In fact, all you need are two things to impress your customers in a virtual world. You need a good front-end and a good back-end to your business. The front-end is how you interact with your customers. The back-end is how you deliver on your promises.

Front End – Video Conferencing

Video conferencing will improve the quality of your customer relationship far better than using the telephone, email, or instant messengers. You can develop wonderful relationships with your customers, literally looking them in the eye as you speak, even though you might be in another state or even on another continent. You can also share slides with them to develop a complete sales presentation.

Back End – Cloud Services

You can operate your entire business on the cloud. This will save you the cost of owning and maintaining an extensive infrastructure. You can also rent out the best software in your industry and provide the same performance level as a big company.

Let’s look at the advantages of both these ideas

Advantages of Video-Conferencing

The advantages of video conferencing can help you successfully compete with bigger players in your marketing space. Here are 10 primary advantages:

1. You can talk to anyone anywhere in the world without requiring a budget for travel and accommodation.
2. You can talk to several parties spread out over different geographical locations at the same time. This is referred to as “real time collaboration.”
3. You can build rapport because you will be visible to each other, almost as if you were interacting in the same room. As a result, you are much more likely to close many more contracts or rapidly solve customer problems in person.
4. Your overall business costs will go down. You will slash travel expenses and your key people can stay in your home office to work on their other projects
5. You can conduct company-wide training sessions with remote employees, including working with outsourcers in different parts of the world.
6. You can create, brainstorm and strategize with partners across the world.
7. You can provide live product demonstrations. You can show customers exactly how your product or service can help them.
8. You can organize briefs and update your remote staff and partners on the progress of a project.
9. You can provide in-person consultations. If clients need expert help, they can discuss their issues with a consultant and get immediate advice on their best options.
10. You can run virtual workshops, teaching a large number of people at the same time.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

While video conferencing will impress clients with your live interactions, how do you deliver on the promises you make, especially if you land large clients who expect optimum work for the high fees they are paying. One elegant solution is using cloud computing rather than developing your own IT department. Here are 7 advantages of using the cloud.

1. Few people can do a large volume of work because the cloud will allow you to automate many processes. The cost of running your business will actually decrease the more projects you take on or products you sell because you will achieve an economy of scale.
2. The cloud provider will give you all the software you need, all the hardware capabilities you desire, and all the expertise you need to keep your business running reliably. You will also pay as you go, rather than have to come up with a huge down payment. This means you only pay for what you use.
3. Your productivity will soar because you will accomplish much more with less time.
4. You don’t need to have a large office for staff because your entire team can be outsourced from across the world.
5. You can measure everything to see that your projects are running on time and within budget.
6. You can change your business model with minimal disruption. Since you are running a virtual business, it is easy to either move away from a dying market or to be an early adopter of a new opportunity.

Technology Levels the Playing Field

In the past, small businesses were forced to work with only a few, low-paying clients. Now with video conferencing and cloud computing, they can recruit many well paying clients and offer premium services.