What's Your Business Reputation Online?

As Benjamin Franklin once said, "it takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it".

Today, maintaining a good reputation is more important to small business than ever. Small businesses owners need to be aware of what their customers are saying, and especially what prospective customers, clients, and even employees may be reading about them online. According to Nielsenover 80% of purchase decisions start with an online search, good news and reviews spread fast, but bad news and reviews spread faster, so what is your Online reputation? And how do you find out what people are saying about your business?

Do Your Customers Trust You?

Some people still think that going into business and winning customers is easy. Many come unstuck because they do not understand that one of the keys to success is winning their customers' trust and getting credibility rankings in the marketplace.

What does this mean? Simply that the customers trust and believe in you, and will stay loyal to you. As I have found in setting up my business Platinum Matrix, your business success is directly proportional to how well you can establish credibility and trust with your direct customers, the people in the same industry, as well as the community generally.

Business Ethics

Today business ethic has become a consumer choice issue and we have seen this in companies like Nestle who announced selling fair-trade coffee brand. Social conscience is important to running a successful business! Many small businesses set themselves financial goals, sales targets and yet say nothing about corporate responsibility, but there is no reason for this to be the case. If you elect to adopt an ethical approach then you might as well market this as a key feature to your business culture and success. There are a number of ways you can demonstrate your ethical choices. The starting point is to assess your own actions and those of your company generally. Discovering how you actually stack up against a self-audit can provide you with a foundation to work with and to uncover the ethical issues/social benefits you might provide to some of your customers and business partners.

Are Business Values Important?

Good business leadership will deliver long-term business success built upon clarity of purpose, principles and values. There are many examples of 'great companies' where their purpose extended simply beyond making a short-term profit and delivering shareholder value. What distinguishes these companies from other businesses? A longer term vision to make a contribution and / or improve the quality of life for their community.