Jun 05, 2013 By Jenny Jedeikin

5 Inspirational Ideas to Grow Your Small Business

in Featured, Sales, Small Business

Trunk Club customer, Tony Pietro, Tweets a picture of the product.

Anyone who has ever taken a small business (SMB) from zero to a million can tell you that having the support of the right people is the largest determinant for success or failure.

But how do you rally the right crowd to hit a homerun for you?

Three successful entrepreneurs, including Brian Spaly, CEO of Trunk Club, Joyce Guan, Founder of Buyer’s Best Friend, and Paul Leary, President of BeSpoke Collection had this advice to offer small businesses about retaining people and inspiring loyalty in those that support your products and services.

1. Hire people who connect with your mission.

When it comes to finding the right people to work for you, make sure you’ve written a succinct, but powerful mission, and that it lights up the folks you hire. If you don’t have your team member’s buy in, you don’t have a foundation on which to build your company.

A mission statement should contain as few words as possible, but it should leave everyone feeling that they are working to do something for the collective good of others.

2. Get radical ideas from your team.

Be receptive to creative ideas and encourage them. Because Brian Spaly was open to innovation, he was able to implement a whole new delivery model in the clothing industry.

3. Acknowledge great customers.

A happy customer will share their good experience, resulting in a referral to your business. This brand loyalty will help you grow. Joyce Guan, whose wholesale business has expanded at the rate of 500% per year, has had that succes because of her determination to track and reach out to her best customers.

Build a method for tracking loyal customers whose word of mouth recommendations bring you more business. By making a point to reach out to these customers with a thank you, you can harness and build on your relationship.

4. Make employees happy.

Although the growth of profit is one way of monitoring success, your team’s satisfaction with the work they are doing is just as critical, says Paul Leary. Leary goes out of his way to recognize team members who add value to the company because of key assets, such as leadership and stability.

Make sure you value, respect and give credit to the people in the background of your organization, suggests Paul, because these people are often the very glue of your team, whose strength and commitment fosters growth.

5. Be receptive to customer feedback.

Your customer’s feelings about your product or services is going to make the difference about whether they come back for more. Do you have a way to collect customer feedback?

Each of these successful small businesses not only have mechanisms for customer feedback, but they also have algorithms to measure the strength of their customer’s loyalty based on purchasing habits and interactions. They use these numbers to determine how they can better serve their best customers.

How can you take your failures and turn them into successes by aligning with the people who are your biggest fans?

To read more stories and insights from these three successful entrepreneurs, download the Secrets to Business Growth: Advice from 3 Successful Entrepreneurs eBook.