Simple Ways to Differentiate Your Business From the Rest
If two firms are selling similar products, how can you differentiate yourself so that customers purchase from you and not your competitor?
If you’re opening a business that’s selling the same thing as everyone else, then there’s no reason for your business to exist. Coming up with a unique concept with some stunning product innovation and development is the key to success. So, it’s essential to provide at least some products as part of your mix that customers can’t get anywhere else.
That being said, it’s not possible for a small business just making its way into the market to compete with big business on volume. However, it can compete with them on relationships. Relationships with customers, employees, and vendors. Here’s how:
Change your views
According to Andrew Carnegie, making money becomes an easy proposition after the other guy’s basket is filled to the brim. It means that a business does not have to be a zero-sum game. Nobody needs to lose for someone else to win. Instead, try developing mutually-beneficial relationships with your vendors to assist them in producing, while offering the kind of high-quality, well-designed, fun, and useful products that will delight your customers.
How do you do this? Honestly, these relationships take time to develop. Still, initially, you should spend a significant amount of time familiarizing yourself with your vendors, learning about their business and the issues they face. You should then be looking for ways to assist them, make them more profitable, more productive, and of course, happier. And in turn, allow them to get to know you, your business, and what you stand for.
When you develop relationships like this, you’ll be shocked at how many of your vendors aren’t willing, but happy to provide you great pricing, high quality, fast delivery, and exclusive, custom-made products. While it’s difficult to beat the mass merchants on a lot of things, you can sure defeat them on relationships.
Train your employees to sell solutions, not just products
There are many instances of firms where training is perceived as an afterthought or a burden. However, comprehensive training for new hires on every aspect of the products you sell enables them to truly serve as the experts, and offer valuable service to your customers. Thus, you’re not doing, “items-based selling,” but “solutions-based selling.”
When a customer approaches one of your employees and asks about a product, the representative must start asking questions to understand their needs – maybe even finding needs said customer didn’t know they had when they first came in. It’s after assessing their needs that the employee can recommend the best possible solution for them – whether it’s the product they originally came in for, or not. That is truly one of the biggest differentiators out there – and excellent customer service, to boot.
Create an environment where customers want to shop
Don’t underestimate the significance of developing an environment where people want to shop. This applies whether your business is online or brick and mortar. It’s having that, “air of enthusiasm,” or something you can feel in the bright visual displays of useful, clever, elegant products. The customer can feel genuine interest in the their needs, and employees’ smiling faces. Customers can sense when employees are enjoying their jobs and having fun – it’s a contagious attitude, which hopefully causes customers to spend more time shopping. This differentiates you from others irrespective of what you’re selling.
In search of a business for sale in Houston? Call TruView Business Advisors: we’ll have several options from which you can choose.
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Distressed Business Investments amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc globally on a big scale. The COVID-19 threatens lives while the measures required to stop its spread threaten livelihoods. The combination has forced numerous businesses into financial distress and will continue to impact businesses for months to come.
Due to this pandemic, there are three categories of firms available for transactions: firms that have advantaged from the crisis (value likely to be up), those that were healthy before the pandemic and are now distressed, stressed, or shot down (value likely to be down), and firms that were distressed or teetering per-pandemic and are now even worse off (value going down even further).
Since the coronavirus crisis and the resulting distress aren’t size-specific, industry-specific, or geographically restricted, private equity investor of every type on the buy/sell-side of M&A transactions need to come up with a high-pressure, high-risk period in an economy so distinct that it is not possible to predict precisely based on previous recessions or historical models. Even as the market has flipped from fierce competition for fewer deals and seller’s market of high valuations to a buyer’s market of more deals at fewer valuations, a large number of deals will be distressed. For deal makers who are accustomed to healthy company transactions, the idea of distressed investment offers big opportunity, but also a big challenge.
Distressed investment is to healthy company investment as sprinting is to marathoning. While both of them are running races, they have very non-transferable and unique characteristics and requirements to compete effectively. Just like a marathoner isn’t likely to do well in a sprint without substantial support and preparation, a healthy company investor diving head-first into the distressed M&A market is likely to find themselves struggling to keep up and without sufficient risk mitigation. But those that have the power to adapt to this new normal will have opportunities for substantial returns.
Can the Business Adapt Quickly to Survive?
As the business emerges from its immediate crisis, distress creates the chance for an investor to get it right. After developing a deep understanding of how the business got to the condition it is in, you’re in a position to pinpoint what can be changed to improve performance going forward. The immediate to-do list should comprise an analysis of the company’s days payable outstanding (or DPO), vendor contracts, historical liabilities, capital structure, workforce, days sales outstanding (or DSO), pricing, customer base, structure, along with shedding of non-money-making/non-core locations, units, and assets. While forecasts are challenging today, business fundamentals remain. More money has to come in than goes out; it’s typical that 20% of the revenue generates 80% of the profit, and bet on good management every time.
When it comes to predicting the capability of a distressed business to survive and eventually thrive in the long-term, investors usually look backward by challenging every line on the income statement and the balance sheet and look forward based on consumer-trend and economic forecasts. No one has a clear picture of how consumers will behave once a reliable forecast is available, and mandates are lifted, thanks to the uncertainty that the coronavirus pandemic has injected into today’s market. It has become important for the long-term viability assessment to challenge every assumption about the behaviors of the consumer in the same way that the historical analysis has always challenged all the line items within the financials. Will customers return to restaurants and stores, or will the coronavirus pandemic-driven migration to online sales change the retail landscape irreversibly? Will people return to hotels, airplanes, and face-to-face interactions, or have they become so accustomed to digital interactions that those sections will never return to the pre-2020 levels?
Plus, demand is not the only uncertainty. It is important to question the assumptions around supply too since you aren’t dealing with just a single faltering business, but with whole faltering industries. Look at the whole supply chain, from distribution to facilities to parts, and factor in where supplies are coming from – are they being produced somewhere abroad, where production could be closed even as the US opens again?
Business managers and investors who get the answers to questions like these right will be the ones who are positioned to succeed in the upcoming years.
Interested in certified business valuation or selling a distressed business in Houston? Let TruView Business know.
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Do you really need a business valuation?
Owners of small businesses most valuable asset is usually their business. The number one question business owners have when contemplating selling their business is what is their business worth. However, where such individuals wish to know the worth of their business, being able to determine value is a little complicated. The first step is obtaining a TruView Business Broker’s Business Valuation. In certain cases, such as divorce or partnership dispute, there is a need for a certified business valuation to occur.
An asset-based approach
The use of this technique causes the lowest value and is made use of to set up the foundation to be able to place value on a business. Analysts making use of this technique can figure out the actual and fair value of such assets without any liability attached. It may view the assets as parts of the firm that will carry on as an ongoing concern, or it may assume a value of liquidation as if the assets would be sold at a fire sale.
An approach based on income
This technique is dependent upon the income made by the business as the name of the technique dictates. Historical data is adjusted to generate a stream of income, which is hypothetical, which an owner who is a successor would get. This cash flow is discounted to current value subsequently. In order to understand cash flows in the future, historical income is normalized to show only expenses the successors would incur to ensure the firm keeps operating. Items that are non-cash in nature are removed, with the owner’s compensation being used as a normalizing adjustment. The reason for this is because owners can control what they make, and this may reflect or may not reflect rates of the market.
Projections of income of the future in certain situations may be made use of where they are more accurate in mirroring the future performance of the business. This is true, in particular, for start-up businesses.
A market-based technique
Analysts look at new sales of businesses that may be compared within databases reported by brokers within the same sector. Analysts may need to make adjustments to the prices of actual sales to exhibit the differences between valued businesses and sold businesses. This is useful when many businesses may be compared. This method has problems in operating where the business is unusual in nature. Although the certified business valuation of a business can be expensive, it is vital, especially in relation to the future of the client’s finances. It is crucial to seek advice from an experienced professional who possesses insight in such matters to avoid any undue problems in the future.
If you’re looking for certified business brokers in Houston, trust what TruView has to offer. Call us now to know more!
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Why hiring a licensed real estate advisor is your best bet?
Are you looking for real estate advisors in Houston? Wait. Read this blog first to understand why hiring a licensed real estate advisor will benefit you a lot.
Expert advice from a professional
A vital reason for bringing in an advisor in real estate is because of their vast knowledge and experiences within the industry itself. It will allow for a seasoned eye to provide you with amazing suggestions on what home may be the best fit for you. After explaining what kind of home you want along with what you expect, the advisor will provide you with a list of potential homes that may suit your needs. Having a personal real estate advisor makes more sense in this regard as opposed to being online on a website as they allow for needs to be understood and allow for a home to be found in a place that you find comfortable and perfect.
The advisor will truly understand the area in which they are operating for a particular client. They will know where emergency services are located, schools, markets, and more. They will also possess knowledge concerning where there may be problems in the area, such as a problem in the water supply or security problems. Such advisors further possess knowledge in terms of prices and trends in the market of the area where the clients wish to live, allowing them to understand whether sellers are selling at the right price or not. Thus, only real estate advisors who are licensed can provide this form of experience.
Proven trustworthy individuals
More than usually, two questions are in the mind of individuals concerning real estate advisors. Those are that how do they land business, and how do they get paid? The answer to that is by being a very good agent. Thus, any sort of conflict or bad reputation will seriously affect their reputation. Real estate agents depend upon word of mouth endorsements and referrals, and therefore consumers will only refer to the greatest in their ranks. So being extremely trustworthy is a necessity in their line of work in order to achieve new milestones.
Furthermore, mentioning real estate agents who are licensed is because there are good agents as well as bad agents. The best way to differentiate is by asking for referrals and their license as well.
Inconveniences are cut out by making use of a licensed real estate agent
Convenience is a factor offered by the best of real estate agents. Although the internet possesses various mediums upon which an individual can view listings, individuals will have to visit an abundance of homes in person and then may be able to shortlist a handful of homes. This may be avoided where a licensed estate agent is hired as these problems are major inconveniences for customers, such as working professionals.
This is why the idea of hiring an agent like TruView Business Advisors is beneficial. Why? Because it is experienced and well versed in what its customer wants, thereby allowing a list to be formulated and given to the customer. Additionally, due to the information it possesses within the industry and through other realtors in its network, allowing for solutions to problems to be found immediately. Once certain properties have been shortlisted, individual customers must only view the properties, which will be few in number and up to their specifications and wants. There is just less hassle, and more time is saved.
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