3 Powerful Techniques to Run Your Small Business Skillfully
When we started AsiaBC in 2009, we are the hands-on leaders of our company, as of the thousands of owners of Hong Kong small entrepreneurs, we are doing the business for a living.
Without hefty capital in the company bank account, we were compulsory believers of the motto “No pain, no gain.” because we handled the business operational routine by ourselves. We often were bogged down and sometimes frustrated with the challenges of the markets. So we hardly spare time to do the strategic plannings for growth. As a result, we overlooked factors that hinder improvements, such as outdated pricing models, lack of capital investments, and inadequate staffing.
Then, we had a series of debates over how our business should run and where should we drive it. We suddenly realized that we have to squeeze time out of our seemingly busy schedule and think about the company more strategically. However, how can we ensure that we would make smart decisions? How can we allocate our resources effectively?
Count on accurate and timely financial data.
No one can rely on intuition or guesswork in decision-making; we should base only on hard data to remedy bottlenecks.
Maintaining well-organized, systematic-formatted, and up-to-date financial information of our business is crucial for making strategic decisions. Because we need to know how our pricing model works out, which areas of operations are taking up most expenses, which are the most cost-effective services and who are our most valuable clients.
Since we were not accountants, we hired local accountants and contracted a HK CPA as our auditor, and they worked together to produce accurate and timely results. Our accounting staff and auditor were in a better position to deliver information to us from other perspectives because they were specialized in accounting functions and focus on their core job.
In brief, the owners of a new business are always distracted by other stuff. We should let the professionals deal with professional duties so we can focus on growth.
Regularly review the pricing strategy.
Unless you are doing a business that is immune to competition, pricing strategy is critical in closing deals. In our case, AsiaBC is a company service provider in HK, and undoubtedly many providers are doing the company services, including HK company registration and company secretarial services.
After we gained some free time, we rendered the ongoing marketing duties by ourselves because we hoped we were touching with the latest changes in the market. We divided this job into two tasks. On one end, analysis of our competitors’ services and pricing system was deciding, we sourced their fee table on their website and quotations quarterly; On another end, we asked for help from our potential clients if they would tell us some details about our competitors they had contact.
We made the right moves by freeing our hands to do market research by ourselves because the outcome was more significant than expected; we saw a jump in the deal closing rate after we began to manage our pricing carefully.
To conclude, leaders should always be in touch with the market. We should not drown the outreach of pricing information in administrative works.
Gain exposure through partnerships with other business services providers.
Buying advertisements is the quickest way to get greater exposure of our services to the target customers. However, it is expensive, and it was not bearable during our budding stage.
So we looked for alternatives and we eyed on the digital space. The online social network platforms, company websites, and directories enable the possibility of reaching international communities of self-employed people, entrepreneurs, and experts of professions in various fields.
So, we started to search for the mid-tier foreign company service providers and service firms online, and we wrote emails and made online voice and video calls to contact them to initiate the co-operation between the service providers. As a provider in HK, we help our partners to promote the offshore incorporation and financial services of their countries, and in turn, they help us to promote our services. The connections between us and our partners are more than channels of sales, both parties gain publicity and bondage of their services when people in other countries are mentioning the company names and the people running the business.
As a wrap-up, we should grasp the opportunities to let others see, hear, and remember the services and products that you are offering, but people are not interested in “useless” information. We can start promoting the business of people in your network as a gesture of goodwill, we will see the opportunities for co-operation with other like-minded entrepreneurs. Seeking a “win-win” relationship is a low-cost way to send out the message of your company in the long-run.
Visit “About Us” to learn more about AsiaBC. We are offering business services in HK and Singapore, including company formation and maintenance, bank account opening, business center, taxation and accounting, and relocation.