Making the Right Promise

Treating your customers in the right way is one of the most important factors for a business. Sadly, not every business understands this fact although it seems obvious enough. Sometimes, due to possessing a great product or service, a business can become arrogant and treat their customers with a “take it as is or leave it” attitude. The problem with this is that at some point someone else will come along with a better product and at that point customers will jump ship and never come back. Therefore, keeping customers happy is very important. There are many ways to do this and one of those ways is to make the right promise.

Whatever product you have, the golden rule is deliver what you promise. Never overpromise and under deliver. Customers can do a lot of damage to your reputation if you leave a bad taste in their mouths. For example, let’s say a customer bought a “Potato skin remover with precision control” and received a simple knife in the package; to say that they would be angry would be putting it mildly. The business selling that product should have simply stated that it was a cheap knife that was ideally suited for peeling potatoes. This kind of honesty could have built up the reputation of the business but instead, the false promise will only lead to its downfall.

A crucial factor in making a promise is giving a reason why the customer should buy the product. For example, “The best chocolate chip cookies in the state! (We donate 25 cents from every box to the War Veterans charity)” This will guarantee you sales from every person who has a connection with anyone in the armed forces. This is just one example of how your promise coupled with a reason can help you get and retain customers. Explore the idea further and see how you can deal more honestly with your customers.

The Pros and Cons of B2B and B2C

Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) online shopping is the process of making a transaction over the web, and entering into an agreement to buy a product or service, either from another business or to an individual seller. Today, e-commerce is highly preferred by a very considerable number of businesses and individuals because of the advantages. But like any other transaction, there are also some drawbacks when it comes to buying products and services online.

Some of the advantages of buying online include the advantage of convenience. Because a lot of individuals and businesses do not have the luxury of time to travel great distances in order for them to buy something, they just browse over the web to buy all of the things they need. Aside from the extensive selection of products and services available over the web, another advantage of buying online is that you can get all the information you need about a certain product, service from the online store you are planning to buy from.

This information can be accessed through testimonials from the website of the seller, and product reviews. On the other hand, the drawback of transacting online includes fraud. It is a known fact that a lot of people are taking advantage of the Internet, which means you have to be careful with the person you are going to transact with. Transacting online would leave your personal information vulnerable to hacks and unwanted charges. Another disadvantage of online shopping is the inclusion of hidden costs. This is where online retailers make a lot of money because a lot of people do not fully understand the terms of the negotiation like shipping charges, etc.

Figure Out Your Partnership

Running a business as a sole proprietor can be hugely rewarding, but at the same time it is very stressful. Finding other avenues through which the stress can be shared is something you should look at if you are in this situation. However, turning your business into a company with directors and such may not be an option for you. In this situation, you can possibly look at a business partnership.

However, partnerships are always fragile and have a great potential to go belly up somewhere down the line. To avoid this you can put some safeguards in place. The best time to do that is at the very beginning when the partnership is being formed. Putting in a partnership agreement or contract at this stage is the prudent thing to do. Here are some factors that should be included in the contract.

1. How this partnership will function
2. Who takes care of what and what each person’s responsibilities are
3. What role will each partner play in the business
4. How will the profits be shared amongst you
5. What are the targets or goals of this partnership
6. Why are you coming together for this partnership

By answering or not answering all these questions, you will get a better picture of whether this partnership will succeed or not. After all, it is better to have disputes before anything begins rather than have problems some time down the line.

Finally, you should always seek legal help when putting contracts together. That way you can discover all the pitfalls and liabilities that await you, in the event that something does go wrong.