I recently sat down with a small business owner who builds and sells custom furniture pieces. To find out how he keeps his highly specialized business profitable, he offered me some tips on gaining trusted clients.
1. Weight of Word of Mouth - Never underestimate the power of word of mouth. Make sure your customers have a pleasant experience and if you have any contact with them (social media, email, etc) ask them occasionally if any of their friends or family are in the market for whatever your business sells. If you're on social media sites, tag them in your finished product's pictures to help spread your name to their contacts.
2. Network - This is key. There's no excuse for not having a website in this day and age. If you can't afford a professional, hire an intern for college credit. Get on facebook, twitter, and social media sites relevant to what you're doing. Since I build furniture, pinterest is a huge blessing for building site traffic.
3. Get Involved - Community programs can really help expand your business options. Volunteer to teach a class on your craft or to talk to potential future business owners. Someone in the crowd could be your next customer.
4. Don't Limit Yourself - I used to just build furniture, now I'm working on construction and expansion projects. I teamed up with local designers and builders to make these opportunities happen. Partner up with like businesses and see what creative ideas you can come up with.
5. Mailers - It may seem old fashioned, but mailers do work. Invest in a decent mailer advertising your brand and make sure there is some sort of web presence on the mailer that they can find you at.
