Diff'rent Strokes 4 Diff'rent Folks - Why Small Business Must Stand Up

INTRODUCTION:

I have talked in the past why it is so important to be different and stand out from the crowd. The reality is that whether you are a small business accountant, plumber, bus company, hotel, retailer, wholesaler or almost any other type of business, if you don't do anything different from your competition, you will be open to a fierce pricing war and usually the one with the deepest pockets wins.

Today I would like to talk about some key points of Seth Godin's "The Purple Cow". Having an understanding of how you can be different and get your products out into the market place will go a long way to having higher profit margins and better cash flow. Not only that but a business valuer will give you a much higher small business valuation if you can demonstrate these traits.

Figure 1: "What you talkin' about Willis?"

1. Sell What People Are Buying

This may seem obvious but you need to have a product that many people want to buy. It might be similar to what is out there in the marketplace and if it is, then you will need to do something different through:

• service;
• delivery;
• loyalty;
• bundling.

Having a different product in a niche market though will give you an enormous advantage. With Apple it was 'touch'. With Google it was 'find'.

Look at your product or service and see if it is for example:

• multi-functional (e.g. Swiss Army knife);
• creates shortcuts (cut out middle man or allow to do things more quickly);
• add experience (Dubbo's Western Plains Zoo "Zoofari" - it's awesome).

Figure 2: The Western Plains Zoofari in Dubbo is an amazing customer experience and very popular seller.

2. Choose Your Crowd - Movers And Shakers Are Key

Particularly if you have a different product or service that is innovative, you need to find the early adopters when considering your marketing plan. The life cycle of new new product shows that 16% of your customers are innovative or early adopters. Typically you will find these on social media or at expos. You may have friends within your community who are influential and are known for being early adopters or who have different business models themselves. Make sure you rub shoulders with these people and show them what you've got.

Your small business accountants Sydney and Dubbo will know doubt have some ideas on who you can talk to.

3. Get Your Product To Go Viral

This is where you need to get very creative with your marketing. Seth Godin when he was selling his book "The Purple Cow", he actually packaged it in a purple milk carton - very clever!

Social media can be an inexpensive and great way to get your product to go viral. Here are some of the best ever viral campaign examples but remember they don't have to be expensive.

4. Use "Sneezers"

The small business advisors' concept of a "sneezer" is a user who loves your new product or service who then sneeze to send it viral. They effectively get an experience that gets them to tell others about your story. The best way to do this is to first of all get permission from them to do this (testimonials etc.) and better still, if they are influential people, your product or service will spread much more quickly.

This is why prominent sporting people are good examples of why they get paid so much to promote a product or service.

CONCLUSION:

Sit down with your small business accountant Sydney or Dubbo, and discuss what you can do to review your point of difference.

Being different might not always be popular, but once people understand why you and your product or service are different, they will take notice and give you an opportunity that will increase your profit and cash flow.

And that's the bottom line!