BE CONSISTENT

This tip is very closely related to last week's tip: Follow Through. Your customers, vendors & employees should know what to expect from you at all times.

This concept should work it's way through every part of your business. You should always have the same tone & wording in your emails. You should always ship out packages on the same days. You should always deliver the same level of quality.

This idea was outlined in my favorite entrepreneur book of all time, The E-Myth. (by the way, if you haven't read it, please do so) In The E-Myth, the author makes this point by asking why people go to McDonald's. It surely isn't their superior food, so what is it? He contends that it is because people know what to expect. You always get the same thing when you walk into any McDonald's across the country (or world). Now, what you get may not be the best hamburger ever, but that isn't the point here. The point is that you want your customers to feel the same way about you & your product, hopefully with warm fuzzy feelings. You want them to think "I always get a carefully packaged, well-designed, high-quality product when I order from Avie Designs. I always receive a confirmation email the day I place the order with a proof and the order always ships within 3 days."

This is why you must stay consistent across all aspects of your business. This helps you build your brand and identity. The easiest way to this is to set up systems. This is also from The E-Myth and is a topic I will expand on next week. When you have systems in place, it makes it a no-brainer to stay consistent.

Now, this does not mean that you cannot make changes, grow or evolve your company. You must do this to survive. But growing and changing cannot take place every time a customer places an order. You have to carefully decide on changes and implement them for a certain amount of time before moving on to the next improvement. You must also make sure that the change is consistent with your brand & identity. Making sure it is still in line with your core values and ideals is important so that the customer still feels like it's you.

Stay tuned for next week's Smart Biz Tips when I will explore a systems based company.
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*If you have a tip or a business question that you think I should feature in this section, please contact me at avie.designs@gmail.com with the subject: blog.smart biz