guest post | 4 Time-Tested (but Trendy) Business Ideas

today we have a guest post from Anita Campbell of BizSugar, which is a fantastic place to find and share small business news and tips. whether you are just getting started with your little biz, or you want to find ways to stand out in your niche, these time-tested ideas will definitely help you out!

Ever wonder why some businesses stand the test of time while others fizzle away in the night? If you’ve ever started your own business or even pondered it, I’m guessing the answer is yes.  As always-aspiring entrepreneurs, we want to be in the habit of creating business that are going to last. We want to build brands that will resonate, be relatable, and that are just trendy enough to garner attention without being written off as a fad.

But how do you do that? How do you build something that’s time-tested, but audience-approved?

Below are four trustworthy techniques to consider when marketing your next business idea.  They’re four small things that have proven to work time after time after time.

Idea 1: The Time Saver

We’re all busy. And you know what? That’s not changing. With more things grabbing at our attention, we have even less time today than we did a year ago.  Focusing your business idea around being a “time saver” for your customers is going to help you stand out from the masses.  We all want more time – time that we can spend with our families, having a life, etc.

How can you take advantage of this customer want?

If you’re a local market, maybe it means you begin offering a delivery service so that busy moms and dads can have their groceries delivered to their door. If you’re a local florist, maybe you can promise a faster turnaround time than your competitors. Or you allow customers to schedule a year’s worth of flower deliveries in one shot online. “Never miss a holiday again!”

Figuring out how your product can save someone time is a great way to ensure your name is one they never forget.

Idea 2: The Easy Button

There’s a reason Staples clings so tightly so it’s “that was easy” slogan.  Because we’re so busy and pressed for time, we’re looking for more streamlined, more efficient ways of accomplishing our everyday tasks. Sure, fancy features may be nice to look at, but they’re not what we’re really after. What we want is more things done quicker and with less effort. 

Life is hectic enough, base your product around solving an everyday frustration that your customers face.

The good news is as a small business owner, this is where you have a huge leg up over your larger competition because they don’t understand this concept. They’re always trying to be bigger, badder and more confusing.  How many times has your favorite Web site been “redesigned” to be more complicated than ever before?  How many times have you switched away from your once-favorite product because it became harder to use? Too many.

For your product to win fans for the long term, look for ways to streamline an existing process or to simplify an everyday task that your audience faces.  They’ll love you for it.

Idea 3: The Do It Yourselfer

We live in a world of consultants and do-it-yourself enthusiasts. Spend a few minutes searching the Web and you’ll find yourself running across communities passionate about finance, trendy business ideas, getting married or virtually anything else you’d dare to search for.  

And they’re not looking to hire someone to help them with these areas; they want to learn how to do it for themselves. Embrace it.

You may not want to base your entire business on helping others learn what you do for themselves, but find ways to incorporate it into your business model.  Maybe you offer a training class. Or you start a blog. Or you participate in webinars where you talk to people and help solve their issues. 

However it is that you decide to help people learn, you’re giving them added value to keep coming back to your business and your Web site.  We like organizations that help us to accomplish our goals and to allow us to feel smarter while doing it.  It’s not something we forget.

Idea 4: The Do-Gooder

Make it easy for your customers to feel good about doing business with you by doing good for others. 

If you’re a local screen printing shop, let people know that you only use recycled inks and paper.  If you own a retail outlet, maybe you donate 10 percent of your yearly earnings to a charity that is important to your customers.  If you’re a local animal hospital, maybe you volunteer your services at different animal shelters throughout the year.

These are things your customers are looking for. They want to know that you care about things outside of yourself and that you’re a good citizen.  Doing so makes them feel good about doing business with you and it makes them feel better about themselves, simply by supporting you.

Making people feel good about giving you money? What’s a better way to stand the test of time than that?

Above are just four ways to help aspiring small businesses create time-tested, but also trendy, business ideas using proven themes. By incorporating these elements into the products you offer, your mission statements, your ad campaigns and even the technologies that you use, you can position your company in new and more-lasting ways.

Anita Campbell is the Founder of the Small Business Trends website and CEO of BizSugar, an online community of small business owners.

what are you REALLY selling?

it is much easier to sell something to someone who wants it. the problem is that often times we are ‘selling’ the wrong thing. we are selling the actual item we have on offer, when what we need to be selling are the benefits of that thing, the ways in which is solves a problem or fills a need. and if we really want to be successful with selling our thing, we need to get to the emotions behind why our people want it.

figure out the emotional benefit of your thing. figure out who really wants that. sell that benefit to them.

i make it sound so easy, but i know it isn’t. so here is a little story to help you get to the emotional benefit of your thing…

my mom had breast cancer. we are talking 18 years ago (i was only 18 when she found the lump) but as anyone who has had cancer touch their lives, we still always support the cancer council and breast cancer research whenever we have the opportunity.

one day i was shopping in a department store and came across these pewter heart pendants that were on sale as part of a fundraiser for breast cancer research. they were pretty and for a good cause so i probably would have bought one anyways, and the saleslady probably could have just told me the price and the fact the profits were for cancer and the sale would have been done.

but she didn’t. instead she asked me if i knew anyone with cancer and i told her about my mom. she showed me that the pewter heart was shaped so that your thumb fit perfectly into the groove on the front. she told me that every time you rubbed your thumb on the heart you could send a good thought to someone who was suffering from the effects of cancer in their life. you could hold on to that heart and make a wish for someone who needed it.

i immediately bought 10 hearts: one for me, my mom, her sisters, her mom, my best friend and her mom and her best friend. every woman that i knew who was affected by breast cancer got a heart that day.

that lady was not selling me a heart pendant. she was selling a way for me to do something, and not feel helpless. she was selling me comfort in a difficult situation. she was selling me hope.

what are you selling? what are you really selling?

find out what it is your people really need, what it is they are searching for. sell them that.

don’t sell the characteristics of your product – anyone can see those for themselves. sell the benefits. get to the emotions. the emotions are what drive people to buy 10 of your thing and to rave about it still 18 years later. just sayin’

guest post | what do you really sell?

today we have a guest post by Natalie Gowen of Moxie Tonic : marketing and business savvy for creative entrepreneurs

Making a purchase is an emotional decision. If it were a rational one, we’d squirrel away our hard-earned money and never buy anything beyond basic survival needs.

But we like things, lots and lots of nice things. We like things that express our personality. We like things that make us comfortable. We like things that are fun. We like things that make us feel important.

And while different people buy things for different reasons – if you tap into the emotional need your product fills and tell your customers about it – that is striking marketing gold.

Telling your story

The true power of your marketing lies in the story that drives your business. People love stories. They especially love stories that are compelling, engage their imagination and tap into powerful emotions. The massive lines to see a midnight showing of Harry Potter proves people will do crazy things for stories they love.

Your business isn’t going to attract star-struck fans, but you can develop a cult following of your own – people who will stick by your side, buy everything you offer and refer all their friends to you. To do this, you have to tell the story of why you do what you do.

The why behind your business

Discovering the story you want to tell your customers takes a little soul searching. It isn’t a cobbled together tagline or even a mission statement. You have to dig down and really explore the passion that drives you and your business forward.

After you understand your true motivation, turn the story around and focus on your customer. Start to think in terms of: How does your business improve their lives?

If you’re an accountant – your services may be balanced books and accounts paid. But that’s not actually what you sell. You sell your client a good night’s sleep and peace of mind that all the financial i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.

Your story then becomes telling people about the luxury of going home at the end of the day, setting aside business and focusing on family and personal time.

If you’re a graphic-artist selling your eclectic designs on t-shirts – that’s your product. But what you sell is self-expression for people who refuse to blend in. You give them a voice and an identity.

Your story is the process of your inspiration, the unique journey to the final design and the statement it makes.

Discovering the story

The thread for your story is out there. You can find it by looking in your Twitter-feed or Facebook wall. You target market is out there complaining about something wrong in their life. When you discover their problems, figure out how you can tell your marketing story, one that shows you are tuned in to their problems and are passionately providing the solution.

Natalie Gowen is passionate about helping creative business owners thrive in their home and business. Follow her on Twitter @MoxieTonic or visit MoxieTonic.com where you can get her free ecourse for Etsy sellers: 7 Keys to Unlocking Etsy Success.

why would someone buy your thing?

do you ever have a day or a week when you keep seeing the same message over and over? like the universe is trying to tell you something? 

that keeps happening to me. one day i kept reading things and seeing messages that made me think of one thing: why would someone buy my thing when everyone else seems to be selling the same thing?

naomi at itty biz wrote a killer post about finding a niche. in it she said:

When I was in England, everybody and their mother was starting a children’s clothing business. They called themselves mumpreneurs and they set up shops in their garden shed offices and put a shiny new website on their credit card and Voila! They were in the children’s clothing business.

I read about this phenomenon — although it was never called a phenomenon, and every writer treated each individual mum as if she was scandalously unique — in psychology magazines, business magazines and, repeatedly, home decorating magazines. Apparently there’s money in kids’ clothes.

When asked why they started these businesses, the answer was categorically the same. They were good at it and they really liked to sew.

i read that and thought: “gah! that is exactly how photography seems to be. everyone and their dog is doing it!” (by the way, naomi followed up with "Being good at something and liking it is not a sufficient business plan".)

then Jodi at mcp wrote a great post about competition between photography businesses. it was just what i was stressing about! (by the way, even for non-photographers i think her advice is worth reading.)

then at the virtual photography studio i read a post called how to stop justifying your low, low prices. and here was a piece of advice:

Stop being average. If you do what everyone else does, you’ll get the same results they get. The only way to be better than average is to quit striving for average. Ask yourself questions like, “What can I do to be the best photographer in my niche?” Take what someone else is doing and add more to it. That doesn’t mean give them more photographs at a cheaper price. It means give them more service to make them appreciate what you do. The problem we’re facing now is we have a whole lot of average, so we don’t even know how to find the WOW. Give a little bit more, and you’ll soon be the talk of the town.

i know i am not the only one thinking about the competition and how to stand out among the rest. the question is what are you going to do about it?

what is your unique selling position (USP)?

this is the thing that makes your thing different from all the other similar things out there. ie: why should someone buy your thing instead of someone else’s. and here is a tip: your USP should not be your price. someone else can always start selling their thing for less than yours. and if you need or want to change your price you need a reason for people to follow you. that reason is your USP. (i will pause here in my list to tell you to go sign up for naomi’s free course at itty biz.com. it rocks and you will be able to figure out your USP with her awesome advice.) 

can you create a niche for your thing?

if you really rock at doing your thing for a specific group of people, especially if you are the ONLY person who really rocks, you will become the go-to person in that niche. can you focus your efforts to one smaller portion of your market? can you branch into an area that no one else seems to be doing? can you think of an area that is outside of, but related to, your regular market that you can tap into? if you have a lot of competition because everyone and their dog is selling handmade cards to mums maybe you could start selling handmade gift tags & gift bags to someone who is selling knitted booties and wants some really cool packaging. 

can you expand your product list?

alternatively, instead of focusing on a smaller niche, maybe you need to branch out and offer some new products and expand your niche. if you have great clients who love buying your baby bibs and blankies can you start making some book bags and pencil cases for school kids? maybe some funky hats and scarves for teens? if you can find out what your clients might want next from you as their needs change (ie their kids grow, or they go back to work, or become grandparents or whatever) then start offering that to them.

who is your ideal customer?

picture your perfect customer in your head. now make your thing, market your thing and sell your thing to that person. you don’t have to win over the entire facebook universe, just your ideal customer and her friends. other people might go buy someone else’s thing and that’s okay! they might not have been right for you anyways, and aren’t going to be the ones who buy everything you sell and pass your name on to everyone they know (your ideal customer will). focus on your ideal customer every time you do anything for your biz.

make sure your brand fits

so if you decided to branch out and make hair clips for teens because no one else was doing it, and your new niche is teens who wear school uniforms, and your USP is that you make hairclips for teens that match their school uniform and aren’t butt ugly, and your ideal customer is a mom of 3 teens who wear school uniforms and are willing to pay the big bucks so their kids have funky hair accessories that don’t suck, then your brand better not look like you are selling hair accessories for 3 year olds. 

while we are at it, make sure your brand stands out

if everyone else ‘looks’ cutsey and sweet then make your biz the only one that is punk rock. if everyone else ‘looks’ traditional and timeless then you be modern and funky. if everyone else is using a cute little bird on a tree for their logo then make yours a lion with razor sharp teeth. i am just sayin' if you want people to remember you the next time they are shopping for your thing, then you better start being memorable. 

ok, go work on being being awesome and let us know how it is going. share this post with others, add your comments, ask a question... please, i would love to hear from you =)