Business owners reckon with costly stop and starts as states close them down again!

Governors in Texas, Michigan, Florida, California, Colorado and Arizona are closing thousands of bars, again!

This is causing confusion and anger from bar owners, who say that all bars should not be punished for those who have not enforced social distancing. 

Some bar owners criticized the decision to treat bars and restaurants differently, even though many restaurants also serve alcohol to customers.

Key Marketing Trend and How to Adapt

Your products should be available everywhere.

*Think “mobile first”: This includes having a mobile-friendly website as well as creating more mobile assets to better serve customers. 

*These include mobile apps, in-game mobile marketing, location-based mobile ads, SMS marketing, mobile-focused CTAs, etc. 

*Have your products listed in Google’s shopping actions, Google’s platform bringing your products in front of shoppers across multiple platforms, including smartphones, voice-activated devices, Google search and more. 

 

Another all time high

The MetLife & U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index rose 0.4 points from 71.3 last quarter to 71.7 this quarter. 

This marks the third consecutive quarter that the Index has set a new record.

Now is not the time to be sleeping!

       BusinessRefund.com

Improve your customer success process.

 

Realize is that customer success is rooted in the speed and efficiency of the underlying processes and systems in a business.

Customers need to be happy and satisfied continually.

Business owners need to stay in touch and involved with the customers – and not just if they had a problem.

Sometimes it can be a real problem creating a better customer experience, especially given the fact that you’re probably also dealing with many relentless competitors on the market.

But no matter how ruthless they might be in their approach or methods, always remember not to use the same tactics and dirty tricks they’re using – think of the holiday spirit of kindness, it needs to continue to live on throughout the rest of the year.

On using the 80/ rule

 

Yes, it may sound counter-intuitive, but you should only be self-promoting on social media about 20% of the time.

People use social media to be social, they don't want to be subjected to your online sales pitch.

Posting about things that are valuable and relevant to your customers 80% of the time will not only encourage conversation, it will lighten your marketing load because you'll be curating content rather than having to constantly create it.

Many business owners (even smaller firms) are not aware that restrictions to qualifying for R&D are decreasing year after year.

There are a growing number of US businesses that now qualify for research and development tax credits, but not many are taking advantage of it.

What makes your business eligible for these deductions? Any firm with QRE or Qualified Research Expenditures. 

Below is a list of some tasks that can be performed within an organization that would qualify for the R&D Tax Credit:

Manufacturing

Fabrication

Engineering

Software Development or Improvement

New Product & Process Development

Developing New Concepts or Technologies

Design - Layout, Schematics, AutoCAD

Prototyping or Modeling

Testing / Quality Assurance: ISA 900X, UL, Sigma Six, etc.

Integration of new machinery(CNC, SLA, SLE, etc) into existing process

Automating /Streamlining Internal Processes

Developing Tools, Molds, Dies

Developing or Applying for Patents

Don't read this unless you have a business in the US, or know an owner and are going to actually use this info.

Does your US business use the internet, computers or tablets? If so, then you probably qualify for a R&D tax credit!

Find out now at:  BusinessRefund.com

What gets your customers to share their experiences at your store with others?

A survey found that three factors lead to people sharing their great shopping experience with their friends and followers:

• Convenience
• Simplicity
• Streamlined experience

It revealed shoppers prefer traditional retailers over digitally native brands when it comes to relationship building and loyalty programs.