Impulse Purchases

     If I am shopping alone I feel like I do pretty good about avoiding impulse buys at the checkout counter. I have been guilty of it though, on occasion. Who doesn't want a candy bar and a soda from time to time? My oldest son, however, can not wait to start asking for everything he sees while we're checking out. By the time I have shopped all over a store with two young children my resistance is usually pretty low and I tell him to grab something and throw it up there. I think that our kids make us spend more money all over a store that we usually intend to when we get started. 

     Retailers hire people to design the layout of their stores to help make you want to buy more. The checkout counter is that last stop on the way out and they usually try to make it count. Most of the items you see at the checkout are lower priced items, so we do not feel like it's a big deal to tack them on to that already full belt of items. The racks are full of magazines with interesting stories and big pictures of celebrities to catch your attention. I'm sure the internet has hurt magazine sales since there is so much information at our fingertips, so impulse buys are a good strategy. Retailers also like to put things at the checkout that someone may have forgotten while shopping. Unfortunately, I will forget the stuff that is at the very back of a department store and have to go all the way back to get it. Which only gives me more opportunities to come across something that I may add to my cart. You would like to think that if we were aware of these strategies it would make us resolve to not fall prey, but I do not think it will. We are just aware that they got us to spend again.

Customers Want Value

Value

Value is defined as fair return in goods or services for something exchanged such as money.

When a customer uses your services or buys your products they are giving you their time and their money. It has taken them time to earn the money that they are spending with you. They are spending their time purchasing your product or using your service instead of someone else's. Are you giving them a fair return. Customers want to feel like you value their business.

People want to feel liked and listened to. Calling someone by name is a simple way to make them feel important. Asking questions about them and showing genuine empathy shows them you care. We all have bad days but as a professional we have to control our attitude. If I feel like someone does not have a good attitude with me I will spend my time and money somewhere else. Even if it costs me a little more time or money.

Can your customer trust you? If you are unreachable then you will be seen as unreliable. If I need to make an appointment with someone and I get no response then I do not feel like my business is valuable and I will move on to someone that has time to work with me. Being knowledgeable is also important if you want to be trusted in business. The more you know the more valuable you are and the better return your customers will be getting from you.

Doesn't the golden rule state that we should treat others as we would like to be treated? Value your customer's business like you would like yours to be valued. Go that extra step to make others feel important.

Examples of When a Customer is Not Always Right

The Customers Is Not Always Right

We should strive to make our customers happy. This is usually necessary to have a successful business. However, you as a professional will sometimes come across situations where the customer asks for you to do something that is not the best thing for you to do. Then we face the dilemma of whether we do what they asked or suggest a better way. 

As a cosmetologist you have strict safety and sanitation rules to follow. In the salon a customer will ask me all the time to scratch their scalp with my fingernails during a shampoo. This is a big no no. They tell me all the time that people who have shampooed them in the past will do it. That tells me that a lot of stylists have either not learned the health risks or that they are willing to break this rule to satisfy their customer. I will not. I have to explain to them that scratching the scalp with the fingernails is not safe. Not only can it encourage the scalp to produce excess oil, it can also irritate the scalp. This can even lead to infection. Especially for clients that have health issues such as diabetes. Fingernails can harbor a lot of bacteria underneath them and when you scratch a clients scalp you are creating little tears and can be introducing this bacteria directly in. If this does not sound bad enough think about the fact that you have someone else's skin cells underneath your fingernails. 

The point is you have a responsibility to protect you clients and yourself. Sometimes the client honestly is simply unaware of the risks. If you do make them unhappy at least you know that you did the right thing and you will reduce the risk of complications and complaints in the future. 

Evaluating a Business Idea -

Part of evaluating a business idea is deciding if the business is something that you truly want to do. Do you have a passion for it? There are many important factors to consider when you evaluate a business idea but if you can say that you may not really enjoy the work long term it may affect your motivation as time goes by. Running a business can take up a huge amount of your time and if you are enjoying your job it will be more than just a source of income. Just be careful not to let your passion make you too optimistic. It is still very important to have a strong plan before you jump in because someone else may not love your ideas as much as you do.
My biggest concern as a mother is how what I do will affect my children and my time with my family. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I chose to work at home so that I can be close to my children and have them with me most of the time. This is what works for me but may not work for everyone and every business. When we work in any area we have to be aware of what is important to others. We look at what other people need and want when we are deciding if a venture will work. Will this be important to the customer and will it be competitive with others offering similar products or services? Do not forget to ask yourself in all this what matters to you and what is important and functional for your family.

Marketing Changes and Technology
     The goal of marketing has always been to promote and sell products and services, but our ways of doing so has changed with the times. Imagine going back to a time of no social media and internet where there was simply word of mouth to sell your business. Technology has changed our world in every way imaginable. You can see technology in marketing as far back as the 1700s after the invention of the printing press. Radio ads started in the 1920s and the world's first television advertisement was seen on American screens in 1941. By the 1950s television advertising had topped the advertising sales. The much hated telemarketing tactic started in the 1970s and regulations started to come about for the advertising industry. The first mobile phones came along in 1973. In the 1980s the first commercially available personal computer was launched and it opened an entirely new world of possibilities. This advancement lead to an increase in print advertising as well. The 1980s gave us the start of the home shopping networks and infomercials. The 1990s brought us the world wide web in '91, email and our first instance of spam in 1994. Throughout the '90s mobile phones became more popular and the internet became a big tool for marketing. Search engines started in '95 with Google launching in 1998. The search algorithms becoming more advanced has lead to new ways of communicating and selling. Blogging started in 1999 and by the year 2006 there were already 50 million blogs existing and it is becoming more and more popular everyday. Blogging is a great way for people to market their business and promote themselves. Social media began in 2003 and Facebook came along in 2004. Social media gives the consumer more voice than ever before and marketers and advertisers the opportunity to reach a huge audience. With all of our avenues of communicating, email still seems to be the most popular avenue of marketing and technology with all of our mobile devices on hand at any given time. Technology is how we see what consumers are viewing and what they are buying. It allows us so many channels to reach our target market and allows us to do our marketing, public relations, and advertising for ourselves. To sum it up technology is unescapable and it is very important to keep up so that we do not lose opportunities to reach customers and even save ourselves money by reducing business costs.