Finding Hidden Opportunities in Your Existing Business

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ll rack up a lot of assets. Some assets are hardware and some are software. Some assets are probably not being used to their fullest extent.

These are the hidden opportunities in your existing business and you can receive HUGE rewards for tapping into them.

Let’s talk about three hidden gems that you can start using today.

Gem #1 – Your Accounting Software

I’m not talking about making sure all your receipts are correctly logged. Instead, think of all those customers that have bought from you over the years – your customer list.

Many of those people may no longer be a good fit or may be out of business, but you really won’t know until you ask. And besides, it is easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to find new ones. So it’s time to reach out and touch base with them.

To do this, dig into your accounting software customer database and export it into a spreadsheet like Excel (for PC users) or Numbers (for Mac users).

Gem #2 – Your Newly Acquired List

Once you’ve got your list from your database, you can then import it into other media like LinkedIn, for example. You’re going to reach out and contact this list.

The key to this gem is to reach out personally and invite them to your group. If you have hundreds of names, you may want the help of a Virtual Assistant (VA), but send individual messages. Not everyone will want to join, but you’ll get more with a personal message than you will if you blast it out there.

There are different ways you can do this.

• Open up a business page or group on LinkedIn and invite your list to like or join the page or group. LinkedIn will be able to tell if an email is associated with a person on LinkedIn. It gives you a way to reconnect with old customers.
• Import the list into Facebook and create a look-alike list. Then send them an ad that says something to the effect of “I’d love to reconnect with you. Like my business page or join my closed Facebook group.”
• Import this contact list into an email program. There are a variety out there AWeber, MailChimp, Drip, Get Response – too many to list. After you import the list, send out an email to say “hi”, and “it’s been awhile”. Let them know you’d like to reconnect. Offer them a phone call. Let them know you will be sending them some great content and ask them if they’d like to stay on this list.

A word of warning, not everyone will want to join your new LinkedIn group, Facebook group, or stay on your list. That’s okay. You only want to keep those who will be interested in what you have to offer. Let go of those who are not interested. Give them the opportunity to choose.

Gem #3 – All that Old Content

Remember all that old content you’ve created over the years? It could be videos, audios, courses, Ebooks or blog posts. I bet you have loads and it is all sitting there waiting for you to repurpose it.

Oh, and it’s okay to reuse old content as it will be new to some people. Now is a perfect time to peruse through it and determine what you can send to your list.

Take some of it and create a new giveaway to reconnect with your audience.  Or invite them to a webinar or presentation to educate them on what has changed over the years.

And don’t forget to use all your channels including social media and email when you send out your content.

Final Thoughts

Using these three gems is a great way to reconnect and catch up with old customers saving you time and energy, as well as, providing all your customers with valuable content. Put your accounting software to a new good use, ask your list if you can share what’s going on in your business and repurpose some old content with the new.

Ready to learn more about social networking? Check out the resources here.