Running a Small Business in Papua New Guinea - Article Example

Running a Small Business in Papua New Guinea Introduction Running a small business in Papua New Guinea is often expected to be broke because of the revenue and instability of cash that are usually redirected to the native non- market economy of the country. A lot of businesses are built in order to supervise exchanging gifts and developing the social status of the investors and business owners. Hence, this will be apparent to the motivation of the subordinates to get through the objectives of the business. Indeed this is one technique seen in most of businesses today is building public relations in order to acquire brand loyalty and to position the business in the market. In a narrower sense, developing strategies on how to market or launch a small business in Papua New Guinea requires a detailed data in order to come up with a productive plan. Primarily, Papua New Guinea is a country that is rich in natural resources. However, the exploitations have been weighed down by the high cost of industrialization and the system of land title has been vague in which land owners are hard to identify. The basic livelihood of the people in Papua New Guinea is said to be agriculture. Through this, people could take advantage of what available resources are at hand and use it to develop a productive business. Thus, providing a technique and ways on how to market a small business in the country is a good point. Small businesses like an eatery or a small restaurant, a food shop, and the like will then be evaluated on how to effectively market with the consideration of the global financial crisis. As an example, since the country is rich with agricultural products, a small restaurant business will be used in order to show some techniques on how to effectively manage and market its products and services. But generally, the strategies in order to market small businesses can cover almost all the business type and it just depends on how it will be managed. Discussion Managing your Small Business As a small business owner, you should engage to the areas of marketing, customer service, human resource management and of course managing the whole business effectively. Small business financing and strategies on how to expand the business should be considered in order to market your small business in the midst of the global financial crisis. Like how to expand the business through the customers, explaining the importance of the target market, and knowing the grounds for establishing a small business. Marketing goes with how the business owners understand the needs and wants of the customers before developing a plan that effectively catches the target market’s loyalty. People should have in mind that expanding a business is one of the most important considerations for objectives. But, in times of global economic recession, business growth is somehow hard to achieve because economic crisis affects the demand and supply. Thus, it is important to create and think of strategies on how to effectively market a small business in the midst of economic crisis. Expanding your Business through Customer Retention There have been a lot of techniques on how to expand the business but the most effective way is to centre the ideas on the natural growth of the business. This particularly means sticking to the natural way of how it can grow such as having more customers, convincing the customers to buy more products, up selling and suggesting the products that are profitable enough to the business and to the customers as well. Although financial crisis exists, many people still have the willingness to buy and spend for the products and services that they think will be profitable enough for them. The first strategy which is acquiring more customers can increase the revenue of the business. However, businesses should make sure that they maintain their original customers. Brand loyalty is an important factor in getting more profits and sales because they already know the product well and this may be apparent to customer recommendations or referrals. Original customers play a significant role in encouraging other people to buy the product through their personal testimonials and experiences. Retaining the original customers can lessen the hassle of searching for new comers. But of course, searching for new customers should not be dissent because it may open a new channel for the business. With the use of marketing, getting more customers can fall under the ways of creating a marketing plan for the target market, developing the product in a more competitive way like considering the price and its quality, and also developing a more effective unique selling proposition to catch the attention of your prospects. Thus, in the period of global financial crisis, business expansion is still through retaining the original customers and developing a more efficient way on how to get new prospects. Product planning and development should also be considered as it serves as the main source of business. Citing an example like in small restaurants, advertising could be too expensive to be able to promote its products and services especially in the critical stage of the economy. Customers can serve as the promoters and advertisers of the restaurant as how they tell other people the restaurant’s products and services. Why pay for an expensive advertisement if your own customers can promote the business for free? Basically, this depicts how the business performs as well so business owners should be responsible enough on handling and developing the quality of the products and services of the restaurant. Target Marketing Target market or your customers are the reason why a business still operates. But, not the hundred percent of the population is willing and able to buy the products and services so it is vital to define your target market in a more specific sense. It is said earlier that customers play a significant role in expanding the business and acquiring more customers. But factors like market segmentation or target marketing should be put on a highlight because it saves the budget and effort of the business in marketing. Market segmentation is like how marketers select the portion of the market which has the more tendencies of buying the product (Ward, 2009). This may facilitate more profits and save the effort of marketing in a larger scope. Keep in mind that small businesses only have limited budget so it should be saved on the target market which will bring more profit. As an example, a restaurant business can probably choose a target market of the people who loves to eat within the teenage group or the moms. A restaurant business can be placed in a mall, near school where students can take their break and near workplaces where food is in demand. By concentrating on a specific area, this makes sure that the business will grow and will be profitable enough. Marketing Tactics and Sales activities Small business owners should develop a strategy where sales activities are related with the marketing strategies. Sales activities can develop a good rapport with the customers together with saving the cost of advertising. Bonding with the customers can serve as your marketing research for free because you will be able to know and understand consumer behaviour in a more simple way plus your creativity will be the major factor on developing such. Tactics like asking other business owners to build a co-op advertising, giving some incentives to your loyal customers, developing public relations which is a non- paid communication for promoting the business, and joining some public events in order to gain publicity as well. Publicity may be like volunteering your restaurant to be the ticket vendor for an upcoming concert and the like. Through this strategy, the business could gain publicity for free and hence, people will start to notice the restaurant and try out its products and services. Conclusion Money is dealt with marketing a business in a global financial crisis economy but there are a lot of ways on how to effectively manage and market small businesses like retaining the original customers, target marketing and consideration of marketing tactics and sales activities. In addition to, it should always be remembered that great things will come if it is worth. More strategies like spending some time to send cards with the customers can add the value of customer relations, be more innovative and creative for the marketing tactics and sales activities, be able to get the feedback of the customers about the products and services of the business, develop rapport with other businesses as well not only with the customers and conduct seminars. Developing rapport with other businesses is a good idea although competition among the businesses is present in the market. But through this, strategies like sending cards to your customers together with the cards of other businesses can expand your businesses considering that the other business will do the same. Marketing a small business is not easy though and it needs a more practical way of growing in order to develop into a larger and profitable business. References Ward, Susan. (2009). “Target Marketing”, About.com from accessed on the 6th of May, 2009. Read More