by Kevin on January 16, 2012
Given the condition of today’s economy, establishing and maintaining clientele has never been more important. Doing so successfully will not only guarantee consistent revenues for your business but also ensure that satisfied customers pass your name along to their friends, a.k.a. potential clients.
Three reasons why you need long-term clientele
Sure, the idea of establishing a base of long-term clients sounds appealing, but how exactly will your business benefit from the effort?
1) Long term clients provide you with a steady cash flow. Many commercial professions call for repeat business deals as opposed to one-time purchases, meaning additional transactions are needed later on. Convincing customers to work with you again means multiple transactions, which, over time, translates to a stable business.
2) You’ll be in touch with clients’ needs. Working with long-term clients keeps you in touch with what your customers expect from you. In other words, you’ll be better suited to serve your customers in the best way possible. For example, when an insurance company‘s returning customers need to renew their policies, the agency should automatically shops around to find them the cheapest rates available.
3) Long-term clients promote you business for free. Word-of-mouth advertising might be an old marketing strategy, but it’s still crucial to the success of today’s emerging small businesses. When existing clients know others who need the services or products you provide, they’ll recommend you first and foremost.
Three ways to keep your clients during this economic slump
Once you’ve established a solid client base, how do you keep your customers around?
1) Always meet your clients’ needs. This means you need to be flexible, whether the situation concerns product prices, service hours or project completion. You don’t want to disappoint any client, but the possibility of losing a long-term client could be even more costly to your business.
2) Pay attention to detail, and offer great customer service. When clients work with you, they’re choosing to invest in your business. Make sure they’re happy to spend their money on your company. When a client needs something fixed, do your best to resolve the problem. Always treat their problems as if they are your very own, as they very well could be if you don’t handle situations appropriately.
3) Get to know your clients as actual people. Talk to them about their interests, such as their family or career. If it’s appropriate for the line of work you’re in, get together for lunch every so often, or go play a round of golf. Getting to know your clients allows you to develop stronger professional relationships.
Whether you’re starting a new business or looking to rejuvenate an existing one, gaining and maintaining long-term clients is extraordinarily valuable to its financial success. To do so, be sure you treat them with respect at every opportunity. These small efforts encourage your clients to continue working with you.
by Kevin on December 2, 2011
So you just graduated college, and the pure joy you felt after being freed from the chains of your undergraduate institution has quickly metamorphosed into shear terror — you don’t have a job. To top it off, you just realized how utterly unmarketable your major really is.
There is hope; you just need to think creatively. First off, recognize the idea that you’re going to land your dream job straight out of college isn’t very realistic at this point. If you really are in a panic, you’re going to need to consider what your limits are when it comes to pay, hours and location. Hopefully this isn’t the case, but you should be prepared to compromise at some point.
How your (possibly worthless) degree can help you get other jobs in other fields
English/Journalism
Ideally, you’d like to earn a living by writing books or articles that will be consumed by the masses. However, you still have to support yourself in the meantime. Market your writing skills to a new platform. Some believe that the Internet has made the need for good writing obsolete, but nothing could be further from the truth. With so much poor quality content being pushed online these days, big name companies are hiring professional writers to work with their marketing teams. Although online marketing might seem like a far cry from writing fiction novels or investigative journalism, the skill set is the same. There’s no shortage of companies looking to hire full-time writers to help them produce great content.
History
Having experience in researching past events and paying attention to details can come in handy in a variety of different ways. Since history majors often study the progression of American government, a job working for a government agency is extremely viable. History majors know how to find specific information and then use it to support theses, which is similar to the work by those who work for government agencies (i.e. lobbyists and those who write bills at the state level). State legislators always need assistants to help them research precedents and write bills related to policies such as insurance, surety bonds or taxation.
Philosophy
It’s generally assumed that the ultimate goal of philosophy majors is to either teach or write lengthy, existentialist bodies of work. However, this might not be feasible for, nor desired by, many graduates. If you’ve completed undergraduate studies in philosophy, you’ve been exposed to a wide variety of viewpoints. You have the ability to keep an open mind and consider logical solutions. Community service programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters offer paid positions to open minded, humanistic individuals who can see the bigger picture and promote the program’s goals.
Film
Film majors often consider one of two possible career paths as they undergo their undergraduate studies.
- Finding a job that allows them to create innovative and influential platforms on which they can showcase unique fiction works or social commentaries.
- Finding a job in Hollywood that values the technical skills they’ve acquired so they can start raking in the big bucks.
No matter which category you fit into, you probably need to earn a steady paycheck in the meantime. Film techniques are highly valued by a number of companies these days, especially those that developing interactive platforms. Countless news publications are developing apps for products such as the iPad, so they’re on the lookout for professionals who are proficient in both shooting and editing videos. Anytime you’re developing digital film content, you have the opportunity to make a decent paycheck.
Of course you should never give up on your dream job, but there are plenty of viable alternatives that can help you along your way in the meantime. It’s better to get experience in a field that’s at least related what you want to do than to work a random job as a clerk (unless you’re in sales or marketing, of course). Accessing a job that can help you cultivate your skill set takes a little effort and compromise, but in the end you’ll be happy you had the opportunity to gain the experience.
