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Ten Tiny Things Every Small Business Owner Should Do in 2009

Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the WorldGuy Kawasaki of How to Change the World | December 31st, 2008 - 02:45 AM
(175) found this useful. Do you? Yes

On this, the last day of 2008, I provide a list of ten tiny things that every small business owner should do in 2009—hopefully in early 2009. Don’t consider it a New Year’s resolution because there’s a whole psychology behind such things. Just do it.

  1. Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you.

  2. See if your website has a “Contact Us” section. If it doesn’t, add one. Ensure that it has a street address.

  3. Send your company an email asking for customer support and see if someone responds to it.

  4. Answer customer support calls or emails (not the one you sent in) for a day.

  5. Go out on a sales call with your salespeople and a service call with your service people.

  6. Read the documentation or manual that your company provides. Extra credit: See if you can do this without reading glasses.

  7. Pretend that you lost the documentation or manual that came with your product or service and try to find it on your website.

  8. Register your product or service including finding and reading the serial number of your product. Extra credit: See if you can read your serial number without reading glasses. Extra extra credit: If you use a Captcha system for registration, see how many times it takes to get the word right.

  9. Add a signature to your email. A “signature” is a block of text at the end of your emails that contain all your contact information. It saves your recipients the hassle of asking for your address and phone number or searching for them on your website.

  10. Join Twitter and then search for your company name, your product, your competition’s name or product name, or market sector terms from your business. For example, let’s say you’re in the web design business. Extra credit: Use Twitter as a twool.

If these tasks are helpful, you would probably enjoy “The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption” and CustomerService.alltop. Kick butt in 2009!

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Posted:

2:45 AM on Dec 31, 2008
By: Guy Kawasaki

 

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Comments

  1. AV Flox | December 31st, 2008 at 2:53 am

    Good advice, Guy.

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  2. Steve Averill | December 31st, 2008 at 3:00 am

    Smart. Get out of your head and into the customer’s.

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  3. Michael Sitarzewski | December 31st, 2008 at 3:03 am

    Hey Guy, I have one to add. How about creating a manual and some documentation to begin with?

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  4. Jugal Makwana | December 31st, 2008 at 3:04 am

    Thanks for this blog Guy. In current scenario i think this equally applies to large business/products as well. A business model which is more ‘Agile’ and customer friendly only stands a chance to sail through tough times.

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  5. Lucretia Pruitt | December 31st, 2008 at 3:09 am

    As always, Guy’s advice is golden. Heck, these are tips that those running “medium” and “huge” companies could use effectively.
    Great tips!

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  6. Mamdy | December 31st, 2008 at 3:11 am

    Concise and helpful. Thank you Guy!

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  7. Firas Steitiyeh | December 31st, 2008 at 3:21 am

    Thanks Guy, Amazing points although their tiny but they’re so true and effective, specially the customer care ones, since the beginning of my career was at a customer care call center and i do appreciate and know the value of an excellent customer care experience.

    Thanks again Guy.

    Regards,
    Firas

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  8. KyNam Doan | December 31st, 2008 at 3:40 am

    Not the tips I was expecting. These are great! I have a huge problem with number 10 - Twitter is not a ‘tiny’ thing ;P

    @kynamdoan

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  9. Susie Blackmon | December 31st, 2008 at 3:45 am

    Great list but I didn’t earn any extra credits!

    Guy’s new book, Reality Check, is a must-read for anyone in business… or thinking of going into business. Do your research on Alltop.com!

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  10. Rui de Sousa | December 31st, 2008 at 3:51 am

    I followed the “The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption.” link at found some mistakes we’re doing in our website http://gestix.com - missing feeds, no bookmarking options, no search, no newsletter subscription… Thanks, Guy Kawasaki.

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  11. Pieter | December 31st, 2008 at 4:44 am

    Great tips, but I don’t see why they only should apply to small businesses. I would almost say they’re even more important checks to perform when you’re running a large company!
    Great tips though!

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  12. Hjortur Smarason | December 31st, 2008 at 4:54 am

    Good tips. Regarding nr. 2, I tell my clients to drop Contact us, unless they have multiple offices or shops. The contact info should be on every single page on your web site so that people never have to look for it when they decide to contact you.

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  13. Ray | December 31st, 2008 at 6:54 am

    #4 is huge. But before you start answering calls, call one of the other credit card companies you use and ask for a reduction in your interest rate or something simple like adding an additional card. After all that run around you will find yourself very accommodating to your own customer. You might even find yourself questioning phone trees.

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  14. Shinil Payamal | December 31st, 2008 at 7:40 am

    Thanks Guy for the awesome tips. They all look so simple but there are not many who actually follow them. Happy New Year!

    Best Wishes,
    Shinil.
    @shinils on Twitter - http://twitter.com/shinils

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  15. Marvin Corea | December 31st, 2008 at 9:25 am

    11. Assuming you’re not a 1-person show, buy an item from your shop online and see how long it takes to get to the person who ordered it and how its packaged.

    12. Hire someone (including your kids) to do 1-10 for you in case you are unable to remain unbiased.

    13. Check your web site visitor stats to see how people are finding you (and if they are finding). Don’t have web stats? What are you waiting for, get statcounter or the like!

    14. After doing 5, you get extra credit if you implement changes to improve efficiency as a result of the sales and service calls.

    Much Success in the new year!
    Marvin
    http://www.esenai.com
    internet marketing

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  16. Mark Witzling | December 31st, 2008 at 10:01 am

    Great comments for understanding how your customer perceives your business. More tips and marketing suggestions on http://www.sbtv.com - Small Business Television.

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  17. melanie | December 31st, 2008 at 10:59 am

    How about remember why you opened your business in the first place! There was a need/want/desire for your product and your service! The consumer grows in needs/wants/desires a small business should grow along with the consumer. All of the above are great, but should be done all of the time. Want to stay in business, be unique!

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  18. Jared Lyda | December 31st, 2008 at 11:42 am

    The email signature is a big plus. Thanks for including it on your list! A posted an article, “Short emails get read”, on my blog that compliments this point.
    You can find it here:
    http://www.fireandmotionblog.com/2008/11/04/short-emails-get-read/

    Jared Lyda

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  19. Bloghology Social Network - Exclusive to the Bloghosphere | December 31st, 2008 at 11:48 am

    Excellent article/advice for small and Big companies.

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  20. Ed | December 31st, 2008 at 12:03 pm

    Advice 11) If you don’t know 7 of the 10 and don’t have at least 10 more then you probably should not be in business!

    You get three for free
    1) put a google alert on your company, your industry, your competitors, and your suppliers
    2) call/email/contact random customers ask them for their experience
    3) stop reading crap and get back to work!

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  21. Steve Chapman | December 31st, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    I especially liked the extra credit for #6; being able to read the documentation without glasses. Fantastic!

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  22. 'Chelle Parmele | December 31st, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    I have to agree, the email signature is such a huge thing. I don’t understand why it’s not mandatory for everyone with an email address.

    Thanks for the great tips, Guy!

    @cparmele

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  23. Sloan Bowman | December 31st, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    Great tips for us small business owners. Thank you for the insight.

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  24. Jeffrey Vocell | December 31st, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Great tips!

    I would add:

    11: Think about how social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, Etc can help you get your business name and products (if applicable) in front of your audience.

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  25. Zo | January 4th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    Great! Guy, you definitely are my favorite mystery shopper guy!

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  26. Marco Ayuso | January 7th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Great article and very useful! I’d put everything in two words: BE EXCELLENT

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  27. Gokhan | January 8th, 2009 at 7:25 am

    Well, if you don’t know about these how would you have such a business where you have receptionists, customer support and sales people ? I like Guy but the tips were no-brainer to be honest.

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  28. Gerard McLean | January 9th, 2009 at 8:17 am

    #11: Read through all your company documentation and fix the typos. Also, read the emails, blog posts and Twitter tweets going out to customers for a day and fix the people making the typos.

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  29. David Rich | January 11th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    Great advice Guy! Especially number 10 and 4. Twitter is a great way to get in touch with your customers and for free. Interesting to see if Sprint’s closings on customer call centers will hurt their responsiveness in customer service for 2009.

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  30. Indrek | January 12th, 2009 at 2:47 am

    Great tips. Will get on with them right now.

    http://www.yutiti.com - online resource planner

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  31. Scott Magoon | January 20th, 2009 at 8:40 pm

    Good advice, Guy. And as a startup business owner I agree with the importance of being on the front lines. That’s why I answer email, give out my phone number, and use Twitter to interact with my potential customers.

    Melanie makes a good point. Remember why you started a business in the first place. Didn’t you want to get close to your customers? I sure did. That’s how I know we’ll treat them right.

    http://www.ambitiousgreen.com/

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  32. amarjeet hans | January 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 am

    great advice never thought of it before, will check everything point by point

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  33. Alex | February 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    Customer service is king these days, I actually got a reply from verizon wireless today regarding a problem I was having with my blackberry, with an actual person’s name at the end of the e-mail. I hope the trend continues. I would also add lowering your overhead. Rent for office space was a big one for me, I decided to be innovative and signed up for a virtual office. I live in NY and having a broadway address and a conference room I can use and a receptionist for $99 a month vs. $3500 a month is really awesome. The one I used was called NY Virtual office http://www.nyvirtualoffices.com if anyone is interested, great customer service! Thanks Guy for giving us hope!

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  34. Ignacio G del Valle | April 26th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

    Thank you for these great advices!
    I still recall when I get my iPod, I was amazed by the whole experience of packaging and instructions, and then deceived for 2 silly details regarding point #8:
    1)The serial number was too small to read without extra effort
    2)The serial number is asked twice (once during iPod installation, another during iTunes registration)
    So even allmighty Apple could improve by reviewing this list and adopting it

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