YOUR ROI
ROI has become a universal term. It’s used by all facets of the professional world— government, non-profit, academia and business—from large to small, start-ups to established and from technology to Tupperware®.
On the surface, it’s simple—make a nice profit or reap some level of satisfactory gain for your resources and efforts used.
In serving the microbusiness community, it’s not that simple. It is not as easy as spending a dollar to make two. The investment in approaches, tools, products and services must fit microbusinesses and that fit is unique. What works for business will not work. What works for small business will not work—most of the time.
With at least 25 million, microbusinesses are the largest demographic, market and constituency in the American economy and the least understood.
Microbusinesses are a unique demographic, market and constituency that needs specific and dedicated attention paid to it by those who serve it. Do that effectively and the ROI will come. Take the short cut and treat microbusinesses like other businesses or customer groups and you’ll lose.
We know that good research is about asking the right questions to the right people. ROI is no different—it too is about asking the right questions. And achieving good ROI, especially in serving microbusinesses, is about understanding the ROI in a deeper sense. It is not about how much to invest; where to place the ads; how many people will they reach; how many people will respond and how much will they buy as a result. If your ROI strategy for serving microbusiness is about those things, you will fail and maybe worse. If your investment is in PR approaches, you will fail. If you invest resources the same way and in the same vehicles and strategies as are used with others, you will fail. If you don’t understand before you invest, you will fail.
Serving microbusinesses is a totally different ball game and the investments made and their return need to calculated differently. Doing that from a place of understanding and preparation will likely gain you success. A wise investment will most likely result in a good ROI.
Let us also become familiar with ROC – “Return on Customer”.
Our goal for our clients is a higher and better return at less cost.
ROI comes in many forms: profit dollars; money saved or not spent; increased efficiency, working smarter; development of new business; development of new partnerships; access gained to a market previously inaccessible or undefined; credibility gained toward a previously inaccessible or undefined source; loyalty gained from a previously inaccessible or undefined source; and “Return on Customer”.
