Having a local business usually means you need foot traffic, ie, people walking into your business and being able to find you. Local businesses, or brick and mortar businesses, are unique in how they get and retain business. Many local businesses start because someone had a passion and they wanted to offer their service or skill to the community. But how can you take your skill and have it become a successful, money-making business? Ramon Ray spoke with Stacy Tuschi to talk about that exact question.
Benefits of Delegation
Stacy Tuschl is a best selling author, business coach, and 7-figure business owner. Her business started when she was in college and taught dance classes in her parents’ backyard. As her classes grew in size and interest, she was able to rent a business space and make it more “official”. Now, she has two locations, employs 40 people, and her business brings in 7 figures a year. She describes her business as a well oiled machine. She has the right people on her team, and her focus is working on the business, not in it. For many business owners, their passion around the service or skill that they provide can take up most of their time, therefore shifting focus away from working on the business. Running a business is very different than doing the thing you love within the business, and that’s when Stacy says it’s time to delegate.
Finding the Right Balance
Entrepreneurs tend to have all the ideas, but it’s important to let other people help you unwrap and unravel the vision. When you have the right people on your team who can also see your vision, a streamlined process can begin and you start to appreciate the benefits of delegation. While delegating is not easy for many people, it is a skill that can be mastered over time. Stacy talks about the idea of “getting out of your own way” — basically, don’t let you own lack of knowledge in a subject stop you from having it done well, another one of the benefits of delegation.
Stacy says that if you want someone to run a department in your organization, let them run it. Give them the space to be a leader and allow them to flourish, (or even fail!), and then step in and help when needed. By doing that, you are helping your employees increase their skill level and also learning how to better delegate yourself. And don’t worry about them failing — it’s part of the learning process for everyone.
Foot Traffic
Getting foot traffic into a local brick-and-mortar business is similar to getting people to sign up for an online webinar, but the tactics might be a little different. Stacy describes the three T’s that all local businesses should be considering and thinking about:
- Touch – where are people seeing you? Are they walking by the storefront? Are you advertising locally?
- Traffic – get people into your space. Once they are in, you have a good chance of closing them and having them purchase our products or services.
- Transaction – get them to commit today. There has to be a sense of urgency. Stacy likes to utilize promotions that include phrases like “today only…”, because it creates a sense of urgency and allows the transaction to happen immediately vs. giving the prospect a reason to wait.
And then once the transaction is complete, businesses need to keep people coming back in.
“Don’t just follow up when people don’t buy, follow up when they do buy.”
And that probably hits home for a lot of business owners and marketers who send follow up emails and reminders to prospects who have shown interest in their business but haven’t purchased yet. Stacy’s comments can be a game changer — follow up with everyone! Get the people who spend money with you to continue spending money.
Manage Your Time and Resources
Don’t feel bad if you’re not interested in doing all of business/marketing/accounting/operational work, but make sure to outsource it to someone who can, and ideally will enjoy doing it. Know your strengths and weaknesses. It’s ok to work within the business, and be an expert at the “thing” you offer, but bring on people who can help in other business areas as well. Continue to educate yourself: take classes, read books, or work with a coach so that you have an understanding of how the business works and you can intelligently oversee your team. Know one will care as much about your business as you, so having just enough knowledge to oversee all departments is important.
You can learn more tips from Stacy by checking out her podcast, Foot Traffic. Her knowledge spans across business verticals and hits home where it matters most — growth. And since all businesses want to have successful growth, we highly suggest you take a listen!
Republished by permission. Original here.
Image: Depositphotos.com
This article, "Delegation: How it Can Help Your Business Succeed" was first published on Small Business Trends
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Smart Hustle Magazine, Khareem Sudlow
