Small Business 101: Understand that if you can’t be reached, you will quickly lose your customers and go out of business.
This is especially true in this over-communicated, digital world. It is double true when you face the prospect that the large competitors in your area have an army of people at the ready to respond to any and all requests. We all know this, but it can difficult to effectively implement.
So, how does a small business compete?
In this article we cover:
- How to Compete as a Small Business
- How to Add Another Business Line to Your Small Business<
- Tools to help Your Small Business<
Competing As A Small Business In A Big Company World
The statistics for failed small businesses are staggering. According to Fundera:
“20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 30% of small business fail in their second year, and 50% of small businesses fail after five years in business. Finally, 70% of small business owners fail in their 10th year in business.”
An Entrepreneur article by Pius Boachie titled “4 Ways Small Businesses Can Compete Against the Major Competitors” names four key criteria that a small business can do to successfully compete against their big competitors:
1. Niche down: Being laser focused in your category allows you to specialize specific skills and show “best of breed” over your larger competitors.
2. Pick your angle and flaunt it: Your best competitive angle will be your story. Turn the “how” and “why” you started your business into your marketing strategy.
3. Jaw dropping products and services: Develop and offer something revolutionary but more importantly, deemed valuable by your target customers.
4. Customer service and relationship should be your sidekick: Your ability to professionally and personally respond in a very timely fashion to calls, inquiries, requests and complaints will result in amazing customer testimonials, word-of-mouth marketing, online reviews and social media buzz.
Of these, the most important characteristic described is also one of the easiest to address and can mean the difference between success and failure of your small business. Specifically, “4. Customer service and relationship should be your sidekick.”
People like to do business with people they like first and foremost.
How To Add Another Business Line To Your Small Business
One of the best ways to extend your small business reach and level the playing field with your large competitors is to have local phone numbers. Specifically, a phone number with the local area code so that your customers have the sense that you are a local business, especially if you are in a large metropolitan with multiple area codes.
You should also consider creating a vanity number to make it easier for your customers to call you. Choose an easily remembered sequence of numbers or phonewords like 1-800-FBCOACH for your business phone line to stand out from your competitors.
Small businesses and tech-savvy consumers looking to start a home-based business rely on their mobile phones daily to mix work and pleasure like never before. However, robocalls have reached epidemic proportions causing billions of dollars in lost small business productivity, as well as frustrated consumers.
You deserve multiple business numbers to make it easier for your customers to find and contact you and you shouldn’t have to pay for services like blocking robocalls. You also shouldn’t be stuck with the limitations your phone carrier imposes on you.
Tools to Help Your Business
We saw these needs and designed a product for small business owners that would help them attract customers, manage their business, and handle robocalls.
YouMail lets you choose your own vanity number for your second phone line. You can even select a different local area code for your second line tailored to your targeted audience.
With YouMail, you’ll be able to assign custom greetings for your important clients, send professional auto-reply texts to missed callers, forward voicemails to partners, and access all your voicemails from any device. And because business lines can get hit with spam calls too, YouMail blocks robocalls for you as well. All of these features and more are included in the Professional Plan ($10.99/month).
Other options for a business phone line include Phone.com ($49-99 per number), Avoxi ($15/month for a toll free number), and Grasshopper ($29-$89/month for plans).
Bottom line, your small business deserves multiple phone lines that you can customize, and it is easier than you think to get started. In fact, it’s risk-free and you can get started in less than 5 minutes.
Find out How to Stop Robocalls
How to Get a Second Business Line
I am interested in a different phone number for my small business
Thank you for reaching out to us, Raymond!
We’ll have somebody reach out to you via email to provide more information and see if there are any questions we can answer for you about acquiring another phone number.
Go to my understanding there is no way for an additional number a business number leave a text either combined with my regular number or separately on my phone… I would need that feature as well
Hey Michael! If you Live Chat us at https://support.youmail.com/hc/en-us we can answer your question about the Extra Line capabilities and take any ideas you have as well. Hope to hear from you there!