Starting a new establishment is never an easy task. It takes time, money and a lot of effort. Sustaining a new business is even harder. There are many factors that could decide if your new business would stand the test of time and flourish into a well know name in your community and country.
Take Maximum Use of Free Marketing Platforms
The community notice boards in your area would be the easiest point to start your marketing campaign from. These boards have been put up by the community in order to be used by those in the community. Therefore, the fee for advertising on these boards would be either completely waived off or it will be a very small amount. If you run a start-up with very limited financial resources, such platforms will be very beneficial to you.
The internet is another great way to advertise your establishment without paying any money for it. Even though certain forms of online marketing would require some funds, it is going to be considerably less expensive than any other form of advertising. You could make a few posters on your own and circulate it through the web. Using the same posters or marketing material on the notice boards as well as the internet will help build a brand for the shop that you are running.
Be of Service to Your Community
Any establishment needs to be embraced by its local community before it becomes a brand recognized by the entire nation or the world. Due to this reason, your most important clients are going to be the people that you see and interact with on a daily basis. Even though the ultimate objective of your shop is to reap as much profits as possible, your first step should be to make it a brand that is loved by its people. The best way to do this is by letting the people in your community explore your shop and experience its offerings without having to pay too much for it. This may seem like a bad move from a financial perspective, but would help your establishment in great extents on the long run.
Offer Only the Best
Your business could be anything, a restaurant, bakery, retail store, grocery shop or mall. No matter what sort of establishment you run, you have to make it a point to maintain the highest standard of quality at all times. People would be initially attracted to your establishment due to very good marketing. However, people will only continue to be loyal customers of your business if they are impressed by what you offer them. Therefore, never compromise on quality. You may not have the ability to serve a great quantity of customers due to several restrictions; however, this shouldn’t push you to compromise on your quality at any point.
Improve the Value of Your Location
The ideal scenario would be to have the ability to choose a location that is already favourable to your business. A highly populated area surrounded by establishments that attract a lot of consumers would be a perfect location for a new business to thrive. However, if you have already chosen a place and if it isn’t as great as you want it to be, it doesn’t mean that you should give up yet.
You could work on making this location favourable to your business in a few ways. For instance, you could join hands with the other establishments around the area and try to improve the location as a community. You can work on making the vicinity look better so that it will attract any potential consumer that passes its way. You could host some sort of community event in the area which will get people to familiarize themselves with the establishments around it. You can offer them goodies from your business during the event and use this as an opportunity to promote your product as well as mingle with your future client base.
Remember that it is very hard to grow as an individual business if your location doesn’t encourage it. Growing as an entire community of businesses will give you a better chance at survival in such a situation. Therefore, work with your neighbouring establishments and create a positive environment that facilitates growth for all of you as new businesses. Once you’ve established this environment, you can use your unique service offering to get ahead of the others.
