October Newsletter
All business is local. How well known is yours?
All businesses start locally, and even national businesses are just local businesses in multiple locations.
Coles & Woolies started out as small local family owned general merchandise shops. Today they account for 67.8 % of all supermarket sales in the country. Yet 80% of their stores are less than 10 minutes’ drive from each other.
46 % of all Google searches are local. When you bear in mind that Google is used primarily as a reference source that is phenomenal. And 78% of local mobile searches result in an offline sale.
In fact, over 90% of all transactions involve a local buyer and a local seller.
So, as a small business owner in a local area are you maximising all the opportunity that is there?
How to grow your local brand and sales
1. Get clarity about answering one question: Why would anyone buy from you?
The fundamental question and dig deep. What makes your business special / different? Why are people buying from you? What do they really want? E.g. Books are adventure, knowledge, escapism. They are not bound pieces of paper with words in a cover.
2. Develop a promotional offer
People are creatures of habit...
There is no such thing as too much information for your broker
How one tiny omission nearly cost Sandy her business
“Jenna the Bangalow shop burnt down this morning …. I’ve lost everything….
Stock, fittings, the lot and there’s no way I will be able to re-open out of there anytime soon as I just found out the building owner is not insured”
“Sandy, relax… we’ve got your stock and fittings covered at $25,000…. and business interruption will cover your lost income until you have new premises.
“Jenna …… I had more than $50,000 of stock in there”
…. silence and a mumbled “f***”
We’re not mind readers
Sandy Matthews started with her new broker in August 2019. As part of their process the broker undertook a deep discovery process.
But in answering the questions, she missed one crucial detail.
Her retail business operated out of two separate locations 22km apart, Mullumbimby and Bangalow. At the close of business every Friday afternoon, Sandy would move $30,000 of stock into Bangalow. To take advantage of the weekend tourist trade.
However, she was only insured for static stock at each location, with fixed valuations. Not mobile stock and variable valuations...
...To read the rest, click here.