5 things you can be doing during "Slow season"

5 things you can be doing during "Slow season"

We all have a time of the year when business is slower than other times of the year. But what can we do with all that time on our hands? This blog post is going to go over 5 things you can be doing with your time during the slow time of the year. I hope you find this blog post informative and helpful. I hope you get 5 ideas as to what you can be doing during the slow season.

Every business is different. Every industry has different times of the year when it is slower for business to come in. For the printing and Graphic design business, the slow time of the year is the summer time!! OMG! Dry dessert. During the fall, some winter, and spring business is great. But something happens in the summer. I guess it's too hot for people to go out and market, so things slow up a bit.

Lets get into it.. what can you do during your slow season? Share your ideas in the comments. What do you do during the slow season.

#1 - Prepare for Tax Time

Hey, this is the most time consuming thing ever if you are not organized. So why not use this time to get ready for tax time. Get all your receipts, documents, and spreadsheets together (or accounting software if you are more advanced) and get ready. Analyze your revenue so far and the expenses you have had so far this year. What about those receipts? Do you scan them in or do you have loose receipts hanging around? Get those together and scan them in the computer or enter the data into a spreadsheet. Get organized! Reach out to your accountant and see if there is anything you need to do to make things easier for tax season.

#2 - Market and Advertise

So first thing that should be common sense is use the slow time of slow business to bring in more business. Market and advertise your business to pick things back up during this time. Use social media, email marketing, send out packets or postcards, and even call a few customers to see if they need anything else. Engage with your customers to stay fresh on their minds.

#3 - Revamp your brand for the busy season!

You can use this time to revamp your brand for the time of year when things are busier. You can get a fresh new website design, maybe a logo if you don't have one, and some print marketing items. That way you can have all your marketing stuff ready to go in time for the busy season. It takes time to build a website, plan it out and then get it to a website design professional.

We design websites for a very affordable price. Check out our website www.dttgraphics.com to find out more information. We also have great turnaround time with design time as well. Give us a try! We have already designed many websites for businesses.

#4 - Pick up another business / product / service 

Hey, why not? You have the time so find another business, product, or service that you can offer during your slow time. For example: Landscaping companies generally make the bulk of their money during the summer and spring... it slows up around fall and certainly during the winter. So what can they do during this slow time? Snow plowing! Of course! Many businesses offer snow plowing during this season.

Think of a service or business you can do when things get slow. That way the revenue continues to flow in and you stay busy.

#5 - Clean your office / retail location

Get rid of excess papers. Clean those windows. Organize those files. Clean your emails and computer out of unnecessary files. Get things clean and organize. Always be productive when you have down time. Make things easy to find and easy to navigate. This will make "making money" easy to do when you are on point and organized.

I hope this gave you some ideas of what to do when things get slow with your business. Be sure to check out our website and follow us on all your social networks.

Visit www.dttgraphics.com
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3 ways to Deal with unhappy customers

3 ways deal with unhappy customers

We all will encounter an unhappy customer from time to time. The longer you are in business, the more you may encounter. Why? Because we simply cannot please everyone. You can literally dot all your "I's" and cross all your "T's" and you will still find at least one customer that is difficult to please.

So how do you deal with unhappy customers? How do you control the situation so that they don't write a nasty online review about your company even though you did all you possibly can to please them? Well I can tell you right now, you cannot stop a customer from writing a nasty review about you... however you can reply to it. That way any readers can see that you did try your best. Most of the time you can identify reviews that are simply out of anger or malice. So readers will have common sense to identify if it's true or not (hopefully speaking). Also, if there are 99% good reviews and 1% bad reviews - I think you are doing a great job!

So lets get to the point. How do you deal with unhappy customers?! Be sure to post your ideas in the comments as well.

#1 - Let them Vent!

When a customer is upset... there is no stopping them! They are pissed and want to get some things off their chest. Anything you say will upset them even further. So the best thing to do is let them vent. Pause - Let them vent - when they are quiet .. come back and close out the call. If it is in person, it's another story. Take them to the side away from others or in an office. You don't want them making a scene. If necessary, get security or police involved. People will go as far as you let them. It's too dangerous these days to chance anything. Try to calm them down by listening to them. Take their information and get back to them so that you don't make any quick decisions. Call them later with your decision.

#2 - Accommodate

If they are upset about something you can fix.. hear them out and see if there is any kind of middle ground. No sense in being aggravated over something small. We all know everyone doesn't have the best intentions and some people just want to flat out get away with things. Even though it may boil your blood to bend your policies, see if it is reasonable.. and make it happen.  Take note, and never do business with the client again if you see this happening again in the future. Or let them know you will only do it this time, but next time it's not happening - but of course say it professional and nice -but firm.

We have heard the expression "The customer is always right!"... I'm sorry but this is far from true. Some customers are right, some are wrong. That's true. Some customers understand your policies and some just want to get away with things. Everyone in this world is not honest. Let's speak the truth. Therefore you have to keep fine tuning your policies and procedures to be a step ahead of slick people that try to get over on you. You also have to be a step ahead to avoid issues in the future from anyone.

#3 - If it's your fault - make it up to them!

If your business or employee in your business is the reason the customer is upset or unhappy... then it is in your best interest to make it up to them. If it was a failed product - give them another one. If it is unsatisfactory service or customer experience, ask them how it could be better next time... and in the meantime give them a discount on the next service so they can possibly return. You have to take responsibility for issues you know are your fault and make it right.

At the end of the day, you are in business to make money. If your services are bad... how do you expect to make money?

I hope this short helpful blog post helped you figure out 3 ways to deal with unhappy customers or at least gave you a better understanding as to why you should handle it these ways.

We at dttgraphics.com strive to provide the best quality service we possibly can. We partner with vendors that have a great reputation and have not been problematic with us. We work hard to make sure you have a clear understanding of our processes and policies. We provide affordable prices and have many convenient ways to place an order.

Visit www.dttgraphics.com for more information!

Post your ideas and comments about this topic.

3 Ways to know how to Trust an Online Business

What is it that you look for in a business or online business to know if you can trust that business? Do you look for Seals, referrals, or big name clients? Do you look for business registration, business cards, or a website? What says to you that you can trust an online business or business?

Online businesses are becoming more and more familiar in this day and age. Anyone can create a e-commerce website so easily and start selling online. So how do you know you can trust them. In this blog we are going to discuss 3 ways to know how to trust an online business. Reply or comment to let us know if you have other trust factors that you look for in an online business.Share your knowledge. We can share together.

So lets get a little background going before we dive into the 3 ways to know how to trust an Online business. We started our business back in 2009. One of the top things we had to break through was getting new customers to trust us to know if they are comfortable doing business with us. I can remember people not interested in doing business with any "work from home" type businesses because they felt if you do not have a store or office "I cannot trust you". They would literally hang up the phone. That was not good. So pushed us into getting and office and then later a storefront.

Now even though the caller(s) would not even step foot in the door, but they knew you had a store location, they would then trust you. To me that was ironic. It was like we were paying monthly operating costs and rent just for trust in order to get sales. So you mean to tell me that after you hear my address you are good and will then order online and never come in my store? Well, why do I have a store again? Oh yeah - for trust. OK, got it.

But what about companies like Vista print or other online printing companies? How did they get trust from customers that would literally just go online and buy from them without second guessing where their location was. How could this be? Is this fair game? Is it because they thought in their minds that they were a larger company - so they must trust larger companies? Perhaps. Makes sense, larger companies "have more money and insurance" to be able to back any orders. Understandable. But is that enough? It doesn't guarantee anything. It's just a thought - right?

We went through so many measures to gain the trust of customers so that we can make sales. It wasn't easy. We got listed on the Better Business Bureau, we got listed on many directories including the Yellow Pages, and we even had our business listed in the yellow pages phone book itself. We actually had a customer tell us one day, I can't find you in the phone book... how do I know you are in business?

It's funny because some people don't know that the only way are you in the phone book is if you have a landline phone number with your business or if you take out an advertisement in the yellow pages. So in effort of getting more sales we were forced to take out a quick ad in the yellow pages and be listed in the free directory of the yellow pages in the phone book.

Wow! Talk about going through loops to get business. That's what we had to do to gain the trust of our prospects years ago. Now that time has passed we realized there are literally 3 main ways to know if you can trust an online business.

So tell me, what do you do to gain trust in customers?
Is your story similar to ours?
Are you a "work from home" business?

Here are 3 things you can do as an online business to gain the trust of customers:

1 - BE REACHABLE

What does that mean? Be available to speak to your customers as often as possible. We actually provide customer service 24/7 via email and text message. So whether you are reachable via email, cell phone text messages, phone, online chat, video chat or even in person - you must be reachable. Voicemail is a bad idea if that is all a customer gets all the time.  Trust me, I know. At one point I couldn't have the phones answered fast enough and I would lose business that way - so I feel your pain. One solution is a virtual receptionist. What we use now is a phone system that directs calls. It is just too much for us now to answer every phone call, especially since most calls are for quotes or solicitations. That's why we offer emailing and text messaging and online ordering.

Think about the type of calls you will receive. Most of our calls were quotes or telemarketers/solicitation calls. So we needed to direct those calls elsewhere. We cannot spend that much time on the phone when we needed to process orders instead.

Calls from people that actually wanted to buy something didn't really happen, they just emailed and texted us or ordered online. Your needs may be different. Decide how you will be reachable as an online business.

2 - BE NOTICED ONLINE

What does that mean? The internet makes it so easy these days to quickly search up a business. Then you can go even further and be searched under reviews online. So get noticed online - and in a positive way. Have every social media account there is. Get listed on as many online directories as you can, including Google Maps, Google Places (same as Google Maps), Yellow-pages, Bing, Yahoo, and local directories. Most of these are free and easy to get listed. Customers want to be able to go online and find you.

3 - DO GOOD SERVICE

You will not gain the trust of every single person ever. But until you come close, you should be doing good work! Good work equals referrals. Referrals are golden! Some businesses have been said to survive on referrals alone! So do good service and you will grow! Nothing beats quality work and a happy customer. Once they have done work with you and love it- they will most likely buy again and again because now they can trust you. They will eventually refer your services to someone else.

I hope you find this blog post informative. I hope that you now understand or have a better understanding of 3 ways to gain customer trust for your business or online business. 

Please visit www.dttgraphics.com and find out why we offer excellent services that you can trust.

Please comment and reply with your reasons to trust an online business or local business. We would love to hear from you.

How to Manage ALL your Social Network accounts

How to Manage ALL your Social Network accounts

I felt the need to blog about the many social networking accounts that are out there and how to manage all of them. Are you like me, trying to stay current but feel there are just way too many social networking accounts out there that you cannot keep up! OMG! Who has time like that to be on all these social networks and still be able to post relevant posts that are engaging and still serve the main purpose: Drawing in traffic to your website or business to increase sales ultimately!

Sheesh! I mean really… we have:

• Google+
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• Linkedin
• Pinterest
• Tumblr

And just so many more! OMG! Talk about overwhelming. And if you did your research, in order to be effective on these social networking accounts you have to post relevant content that your audience actually is interested in and then tie that into your business’ products or services. Seems almost impossible - unless you are literally online on social networking accounts all day every day… I mean seriously.. Who has that kind of time on their hands?! You own a business! You don’t have that kind of time.

Well I wanted to give you a solution to this madness and help you to be able to manage all your social networking accounts without feeling like you eat, sleep, and breathe social media on a daily basis! :)

The solution:

There are many platforms out there now that help you to link all your social media accounts on one platform and then share the same post on all of them at one time. HootSuite is one platform. You can schedule posts, use hashtags, and even view all of your social networking accounts at once on the platform.

Want to make it even easier?!

Well, what I find simple is how some of the most used social networking accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - allows you to link your accounts. That way when you post something you have the option of posting it on your other accounts too. I actually use this feature currently.

Tip to manage it even further!

Schedule social media time if you are just way too busy to be posting throughout the day. Set up a time or day that you will do your posts. Use Hootsuite to schedule days/times that it will launch on. Now you will be managing your posts like a boss!

If you need ad designs for your social networking accounts, contact us! We offer low prices for social media design ads. Take over the world with eye catching pictures and graphics!

Visit Dttgraphics.com today!

4 Reasons you Need to Get a Website Right Now

4 Reasons you Need to Get a Website Right Now

#1 - A New Chain of Sales:

If your business is not online by now, you are missing out on potential revenue. Back in the day, the chain of sales used to go something like:

Customer has a need for a product or service > Customer goes to Yellow pages > Customer visits store to request more information, flyer, sales paper, catalog, or a brochure > Customer takes home the information to review and decide if they want to make the purchase.

Now the chain of sales is much faster with the internet! It now goes something like this:

Customer has a need for a product or service > Customer searches the internet for the business’ website > Customer reviews the products or services to make a decision to stop by to make the purchase.

#2 - Competition Stealing your Customers:

Well, as you can see it is very important for every business to have a website. If a customer doesn’t find a website for the business, they often find another business that does have a website and become sold on their products and services before yours. No business would want that to happen to them!

Having a website establishes credibility of businesses. It also shows that your business is up with the times and innovative.

#3 - Free Marketing 24/7:

Another benefit of having a website is the “Free Marketing” you get 24/7. Draw traffic to your website with search engine optimization, keywords, and social media and you will be able to market your business for free 24/7. So when you are sleeping your website is working hard to advertise your business to customers searching for the product or service you offer! So you can kind of look at it like you are saving money long term on other marketing efforts.

#4 - A New way to do Word of Mouth:

With social media in play, a simple “Share” button can be exactly what you need to make “Word of Mouth” easier to share your business or refer your business! If a customer is satisfied with your products or services, they can simply share your website address on their social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. Now all there friends and family will know your business too! Easy marketing… Easy referrals!

So as you can see it is very important to have a website. We have some really great deals at dttgraphics.com to get you up and running online. Prices starting at just $199 for design.

Tips for Getting Started with your Blog

Hi everyone,

So I have been searching online for some time now... Every time I turn around I see that one vital way to market your business online is by blogging. I said to myself, "Self (pause)... I don't know if I have the time". Lol :) But the truth is, we all have the time.

So to kick off this blog ... I want to provide some quick tips on how to manage your time so that you can blog as well. 

Are you ready?! 

I hope so.

Tip#1 - Manage your time wisely. 

You will need to schedule in some time for blogging. Not only that but you also need to schedule time for other day to day activities for your business marketing efforts. For example:  schedule your time for social media posting. There are apps for that. One app is Hootsuite. Try it.

Other things you can use your time for is maybe your YouTube videos, direct mailings, customer mailing lists (emails or postal).

Also you can even set aside a time to check all messages like emails, texts, voicemail, and social media.

Tip#2 - Draft your content when you have free time. 

For example, you are stuck in line at the dmv or maybe you are finding yourself spending way too much time on social media... Or maybe you are up all night for no reason... You can draft your blog content at that time. :)

Tip#3 - Use your mobile phone. 

Are you like me .. When you hear the term "blogger" you imagine some sophisticated individual sitting at a desk with a cup of fresh hot coffee getting ready to stick a pencil in their ear and crack their knuckles... And blog...?! :)

Well guess what, you can simply blog on the sofa from your mobile phone or device. Easy!

Don't make it too complicated!  I guess that can be tip #4 :) 

Keep it simple and blog useful content. Make your blog posts real and natural. No need to go too deep. Post what you know naturally.

Happy blogging people.

I hope I can continue to bring you more informative blog entries.

Don't forget to visit my website at www.dttgraphics.com for all your marketing and advertising needs. :)

Please feel free to comment your experience posting your first blog or how your journey is going blogging!