The ingredients of a successful business - Establish

After the pastry shop stabilized, I was able to take a step back from everything that was happening. From there, I started to visualize the things I needed to do so that the business would not only stay profitable, but that it would move forward. With this, I decided that I needed to make actions that are geared towards planting my business firmly. I wanted to establish my brand, so that it would be ready for hurdles and trials that would come.

I believe that a strong business is founded on its strong linkages, both within the industry it is in, and more importantly, with the customers. To maintain strong relationships, I make sure that I am able to communicate effectively with the important people in my business. As with any kind of relationship, clear understanding is very important. As I encountered new challenges in my business, I found RingCentral to be of great help.

I wanted to create a professional image among my business contacts.

For me to be able to maintain a professional relationship with my suppliers and other business contacts, I have to constantly communicate with them in the best way possible. I do not only think of how I can profit from their services. I want to establish an image in the industry that would create harmonious relationships with my contacts. I knew that for me to be able to expand my business later on, I had to establish my pastry shop not just as a shop itself, but one as a professional business. RingCentral Online helped me achieve this by providing me with all the communication tools I needed.

People may think that business communications are too expensive for small businesses to prioritize it. This is one of the biggest factors why startups fail. The inability to build helpful linkages in the industry puts a business at great risk. Although running a business is mainly founded on customer satisfaction, your success also greatly depends on your relationships within the industry.

My business contacts include suppliers and distributors. I have to maintain a good working relationship with them. A very big part of my success comes from them and the quality of products that I get from them. I am in constant communication with them, for updates on the deliveries and the condition of their supplies.

Such close coordination with my partners requires a powerful and reliable communications system. RingCentral Online provides me with that, so I do not have to worry that I might miss important calls from my suppliers. With advanced call forwarding features, I can stay connected to all my contacts any time of the day. I receive calls from my suppliers wherever I am and at whatever time of the day they call, so I get informed immediately and can take action on it.

I had to strengthen my brand.

Whether or not your business has strong competition, you have to aim to be the strongest around your area. I realized that although there are not a lot of competitors in my area, it was difficult to establish and strengthen the brand. I wanted to firmly plant my business as the prime pastry shop in the area. I knew that even before I would be able to expand my business, I had to first concentrate on how it was performing in my area.

Aside from recall, brand image was one of the things I needed to create. I brainstormed with my staff and asked my family and friends for suggestions for strategies to make the brand recall stronger. Aside from this, I needed to position my business. After conceptualizing and discussing different suggestions from my staff, I decided to go for a homey image, one that can easily be associated to the comfort, coziness and goodness of home. I worked around that core concept and did everything based on it, such as designing the interiors of the shop, creating the logo and creating an order and pick-up system.

Creating an image, however, is way beyond visuals. The environment inside the shop did not only depend on how it looked like. We moved around the kitchen and inside the shop carrying our goal to reach an image and reputation which customers would love.

This extends to how we communicate with our customers. I knew that it was crucial for us to be able to give the best care and attention to our customers. To me, that was the most important factor which would help us achieve our goal. With the tools from RingCentral Online, I was able to build the image I wanted to.

Through custom greetings, music and messages on-hold, and call answering rules, I was able to communicate to my target market the image and impression I wanted to make. Customers who call my RingCentral number are always greeted immediately by the auto-attendant. If they choose to be on hold until their call is answered, they would hear custom messages and music that promote our products and encourage them to buy. These features have definitely helped me market and establish my brand very well.

I had to communicate with my business contacts.

I see my suppliers as very important partners I my business. Aside from them, I relied greatly on my staff. The success of my business greatly depended on these people, and on what they contribute to the quality and performance of the business operations.

For instance, I require that all the ingredients of my pastries and breads are delivered to the shop fresh and on time. They have to be delivered on a regular basis and not by bulk, to maintain the freshness of the ingredients. I cannot afford to have delayed deliveries, as the quality of my products would surely suffer. Because of this, I see to it that I am always updated by my suppliers about their deliveries. I have to be in constant communication with my suppliers.

In case of delays in deliveries, my suppliers can easily contact me through my RingCentral number. With call forwarding, I can get calls wherever I am. This also goes for my staff in the pastry shop. They can reach me any time of the day even when I am not in the office or at home. This way, I do not have to worry about not receiving important calls. In the same way, I can dial using my RingCentral number as the caller ID, even if I am using my cell phone or my home phone.

I needed reliable means to send important files and documents.

Part of establishing a business is building a strong and reliable relationship with contacts such as business partners and employees. To be able to achieve this, I always have to look and sound professional, in all our transactions. This was beyond having professional greetings and nice-looking letters.

Being professional means being able to efficiently respond to requests, being able to supply the correct information when it is needed and being available for consultations and discussions, among many others. RingCentral lets me do all of these things and more through its powerful features.

RingCentral aids me in creating professional documents. Through RingCentral Fax, I am able to send and receive faxes online through my RingCentral number. Information is sent right on time, letting me establish a professional image that would help me gain the trust of my business contacts. More importantly, RingCentral Fax is very affordable, making it the ideal fax solution for small businesses and other mobile professionals.

Every incoming fax sent to my RingCentral number goes straight to my email inbox and my RingCentral online account. Whenever there is a new fax, I receive a text message and an email notifying me of a fax received. I can then download the fax from any computer with an Internet connection. This is way more convenient than the traditional fax machine, where I need to be in a specific location for me to be able to receive documents.

Sending fax is as easy as sending an email message. I just have to log in to my RingCentral account, attach the fax I need to send out, enter the necessary details, and then click Send. This is a very easy and convenient way for me to send out important or urgent documents. In the same way, I can access documents I need wherever I am.