The image you portray to the public either as a store front or a web page should give your potential customers the feeling that you are doing well in business. When I see a business that does not look like it is doing well I think if they keep doing the same old thing again and again it will produce the same results. 

How many times have you driven down the road and seen a sign that says going out of business sale?

A local business near where I live has hand painted signs on their windows that say “Going Out of Business Sale 70% Off”. Those signs have been up now for almost 3 years. I figured I would pop in to see why they still have the signs up and these amazing discounts. I was not surprised to find out that in fact that they are not closing and that all of the products that are 70% off are out of stock.

How would you feel as a potential customer at this point?

So the only purpose of the signs was to draw people in to the store. Once you get in there though there is nothing to buy at a discount. I asked him how sales have been and the owner said that they have been horrible.

What advice would you give to this store owner?

When the most successful business owners are asked what is the most important reason for their success a vast majority of them say it comes down to passion. It is passion that helps them work through the dip of the slow growth to success. There will be good days, there will be bad days but in the end it will be their passion that will keep them in the game.

The classic example of being passionate about their business is Colonel Sanders and KFC. The story goes that Sanders had the idea that a fried chicken franchise restaurant would work. With nothing more then the idea of KFC he went forth and knocked on 1000′s and 1000′s of investors doors. Many of them laughed him right out of the office. Instead of giving up after the first 1000, Sanders passion drove him to keep going. Eventually he found the right investor and today as I’m sure everyone knows KFC is the leader in fast food fried chicken.

Are you passionate at what you do right now?

If you are not then perhaps you should look into yourself and find something you are passionate about. Then start to think of how you can form a future business around it.

Unless you are in a commodity business never compete on price. You are doomed to fail if you compete on price. Instead of competing on price work on your business to make it better then everyone else. The hosting and domain industry in the last 4 years has companies who are building their business solely on competing on price.

For example would you be surprised if I told you that GoDaddy has never made a profit since they have been open? Yes they make millions of dollars of revenue but at the end of the day they are always short from making profit. What do you think happens to a business that runs year after year in the red?

Several other hosts in the US who compete sole on price have resorted to unethical business practices to keep afloat. These hosts have been stealing customers 404 pages and inserting high paying pay-per-click or affiliate searches. What happens is if someone goes to your site where a page does not exist they usually get a 404 error. On one of these hosts instead of getting an error page you get an affiliate page. How scary is that?

We do not compete on price and will not compete on price. We will instead work on building a stronger service.

If you are just starting out then it is a key to your success to not choose a generic name for your business. Avoid a name like Langley Mortgages or Vancouver Meat Packers. These names are a recipe for disaster for your business. I know your thinking that these business names tell you exactly what our business does and that makes my marketing easier.

The problem with these generic company names are that they are very hard to brand. The other problem is that although you would think they are easier to remember, where in fact they are easier to forget. The human brain will skip over generic company names and seek to remember company names that stand out. Do any of the following business names sound generic to you?

• Ford
• Coke
• Microsoft

Okay so your not a large company with a large budget to do branding. Well believe it or not creating a unique business name is not really that hard. It just takes a bit of time and research. If for example you were to find out that Langley is known for horses you could maybe name a Mortgage business as ‘The Mortgage Whisper’. Can you think of any unique names that would work for a mortgage business?

When choosing our own name Blue Fur we went through many business names that could have worked. For example we considered; Tiny Hosting, Totem Hosting, Ocean Side Hosting. All of these names seemed very generic and were again hard to brand. Also looking at the top competitors globally none of the top 10 had the word hosting in their business name.

If you already have a generic business name then I would suggest you consider finding a new name and start your rebranding today. Need help choosing a unique business name? Post your current business name and maybe our community can help.

If you are starting a business or have been in business for 100′s of years one of the keys to your success will be to perform a regular SWOT analysis on your business.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

To get started take out a clean sheet of paper and divide it into 4 boxes using a pen or pencil. Right in each box one of the above titles into it. Now focus on each box and determine the individual Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats to your business. If you have a large group of employees then pull out a whiteboard instead and get them all involved. The more input and honest you are with yourself the better.

Just to be clear what the various SWOT topics mean. Strengths are what make your company stronger then your competitors. Weaknesses are things that you could improve on in  your business. Opportunities is where you can make changes in your company to become stronger. Threats are what can possible hurt your business.

Now that you have taken a bit of time to think about your SWOT flip the page over and determine what needs to be done to fix your weaknesses, eliminate your threats and grow your opportunities. Assign a date even if it is far off in the future and who is responsible for doing it.

Doing a SWOT Analysis once every quarter, half year or year will help your business tremendously. If your not doing it already then I suggest you do it today.

A few months ago I was in bad need of a hair cut. I had found a hair cutting place which I thought would be perfect called “Just for Men”. I had envisioned getting my hair cut in a manly environment while watching sports on a big screen TV. The name brought all these great ideas of what could be in store. I was also very happy after many bad haircuts to see that there was a company that niche for men only.

My first visit to “Just for Men” was a real surprise. Upon entering I was surprised to see the walls covered with pictures of meterosexual men with perfectly sculpted faces and bodies. It did not make me feel very comfortable at all. I waited at the front desk for a few minutes waiting to be served when someone walked up and asked me if I had an appointment. Thinking she was joking I asked if I needed one which she rudely replied yes of course. I quickly left very disappointed not feeling that this place was niched for men at all. As a man I have never made a hair appointment. When I need a hair cut I go and find a place to get one. I have polled other men that I know and they also say they very rarely make an appointment to get their haircuts.

So this brings me to the key to success. If you are going to niche to a particular group or industry be sure you understand that industry. Just saying you niche in that industry is not enough. I would research the industry by doing interview’s and simple polls with companies or people in my local area. Once you feel you understand what that niche wants then and only then would I enter into that niche.

What do you think?