Growing Your Business in 2014
by Steve Lampert
Happy New Y ear! Now is the perfect time to think about where you would like to take your business in 2014. I’m sure most of you would like to grow your agencies this year. I’m in touch with agencies all over the world, as well as a former nanny agency owner and small business owner, so I feel I have a good take on the industry. Below is my list of what I see energetic and creative agencies doing, but everything on this list requires time to think about and implement. None of them are expensive.
The biggest single issue I see agency owners facing is not having the time to make the improvements needed to grow your businesses. Without the time to step away from your business regularly so that you can think about it, it is very difficult to grow and improve it.
Giving ourselves that freedom to step away from the day-to-day issues that come up in our businesses gives us peace of mind and focus that we can’t have when we’re in the middle of that problem placement or nanny that didn’t show up for work. Many “crises” are not really crises, but just routine matters that you’ve dealt with many, many times before.
Here are some of the creative ways I see agencies doing, that I feel are moving their agencies forward.
- Many agencies are updating and redesigning their websites. Old agency websites are looking more and more dat ed as more good websites in their area come online (try 99designs.com for great inexpensive design work). What better way to show your audience that you are a modern thriving business.
- Social media is being used by agencies for recruitment and to establish credibility. An active, well designed Facebook page makes your business look vibrant and healthy – it also improves SEO.
- Agencies are partnering with charitable organizations in ways that are socially conscious and also bring credibility to their agency.
- Some agencies are partnering with Care.com in their backup childcare program as well as using Care.com’s lead program. Not generating a lot of jobs yet, but no doubt they’ll keep working on it until it does. Might be a good idea to get started when it’s slower and get the hang of it.
- Indeed.com and similar sites are used for candidate recruitment to good effect
- A high percentage of agencies have links to their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts on their websites. It shows prospective clients and candidates that the agency is progressive and alive, so long as they are up-to-date.
- More agencies are getting into on-call placements. This is the fastest growing area in the industry. Hotel placements are big in some markets.
- Turning to integrated agency software solutions to increase the productivity and efficiency of the agency. Allows for handling much larger amounts of placements, particularly on-call, with few employees.
I wish you all health and good business in 2014.