You are in a unique position when it comes to really engaging with customers. As an Independent Operator, You are in a much better position than the “corporates” to engage and connect on a far more personal level. You still want to give them rewards and incentives, but there is so much more that goes into creating a successful loyalty program.

Want more new customers? The secret lies in knowing who your best EXISTING customers are. Then you can find more like them. Understanding your target audience is critical for any business, especially a local, independent one - so it's important to make informed decisions based on data, not assumptions.

Staffing has been a significant challenge for the last few years. You got through and scraped together a team in this unprecedented time of staff shortages. Hopefully most of who you hired were winners and you’ll want to find ways to keep them around. Some may even be superstars. But, maybe, you are left with a few too many. OR a few that aren’t up to snuff. We're sharing some tips we discovered about how to evaluate employees and when it's time to make the tough decision on letting them go.

Many people go into business thinking that they’ll market the same way the big chain’s market. After all, if it worked for them, it’ll work for your small independent business too, won’t it? Marketing for a large corporate brand doesn’t work the same as marketing a smaller, local independent business. Instead,create marketing that takes advantage of what you have that they don’t.