The Smallest Thing can Make the Biggest Difference

Work is slow, there is a lack of new enquiries or sales and you're wondering when the next pound is coming in?

Something must be wrong with the business, better give it all a shake-up!

But wait, it might not be that drastic.

Yes, there are times when a complete overhaul of the business might be the best thing, but more often than not it is a small thing that can make all the difference, something you probably haven't even thought of (or maybe you have but haven't wanted to confront it).

A perfect example is our telephone answering service. We were getting the odd enquiry, but nothing really setting the world alight. So we looked at the service and what we could do to get more interest from people.

Jackie, my wife and business partner, came up with the idea of offering a free 1-week trial. We couldn't do this when we first set the service up because we were piggy-backing off another firm's telephone system and they would charge us a lot of money for anything we wanted to do. Offering the free service would have cost us £200 if someone decided, after a week, they didn't want it (or only £100 if they did continue with the service).

Since moving, however, we purchased our own telephone system and so can do what we want without extra charges attached. So we decided to give the free trail a go and see what happened.

Well, in the first month we took on seven new clients!

So, it can be a small thing that can make the biggest difference.

Also, listen to your customers, they might be trying to tell you something. For example, if you run a shop and customers are coming in on a regular basis asking if you sell a product that you don't stock, shouldn't you be looking to get that product in?

There's a wonderful story of a woman who goes into a shop and asks for something and the owner replies "No, I'm sorry, there's no call for it; and you're the fourth person I've told this week."

So, before spending a lot of time and money overhauling the business, check that there isn't something small that implemented, changed or improved (or even got rid of) that will ensure the number of enquiries and sales goes up.