Your business can change over time; you might have new goals you want to achieve, or you may face new challenges. SCORE is available to you no matter where you are in your business lifecycle. Take advantage of mentors and tools to run and grow your business.
Sometimes, a new market opportunity creates rapid business growth. Other times, growth comes more gradually. Just ask Matt Zorn, president of Zorn Compressor & Equipment, a family-owned company based in the Midwest.
“We’ve been growing steadily for more than 60 years, but it hasn’t always happened at the same pace,” says Zorn. “While our fundamentals have remained the same, we’ve had to adapt and innovate as our customer needs change.”
Is your business primed for growth? Before you explore new opportunities, Zorn offers five important things to consider.
- Understand the numbers. It's not enough to
If you run a small business, you know how hard it is to keep up with your customers’ needs, especially when dealing with chargebacks. Despite your best efforts, customers can dispute a legitimately authorized transaction in less time than it took to complete the original purchase. This can create additional work for you and jeopardize the health and reputation of your business – all while the customer is committing “friendly fraud” along the way.
What Is Friendly Fraud, and How Does It Happen?
Friendly fraud, also known as first-party misuse, occurs when customers abuse the chargeback system by
In the dynamic landscape of today's digital economy, small businesses must constantly innovate and adapt to maintain their competitive edge. One critical yet frequently overlooked area is payment optimization. Efficiently managing incoming and outgoing payments streamlines operations and is pivotal in driving growth. By adopting modern payment technologies, small businesses can minimize manual processes, enhance security and provide customers with a seamless payment experience—ultimately unlocking greater sales potential and long-term success.
The Rise of Digital Payments
Digital payments have
Identifying your target market is one of the most crucial steps to achieving success in any business. By doing so, you can appropriately focus on the customer’s wants and needs, and tailor your offering to match. This process helps to ensure that you only invest in the best activities and approaches to marketing yourself to maximize returns. Furthermore, it helps to prioritize efforts efficiently, saving time and money in the long run.
Once you have a firm knowledge of your target market, you’ll know how to best communicate with them, what communication and marketing channels to use, and how
When people are looking for products or services from local businesses, 97% of them turn to the internet. So if you own a small business, will people find YOUR products and services when they search online? Can they quickly and easily make a purchase or learn more about you from a website?
Take our Getting Started with E-commerce course to learn everything you need to know about selling online.
You've started your business, now get support in generating revenue, hiring employees, securing funding for growth and navigating business challenges. SCORE mentors are here to help, for free, for the life of your business. Enter your zip code in the field below and complete the mentoring request form to be paired with a local expert.
