I was on the phone yesterday with my client, Dave. He’s a marketing consultant and he asked me to take a look at the shopping cart on his web site and the credit card processing account that runs behind it.
Dave wasn’t having a problem; he just thought that, after a few years of running on autopilot, it was time to give it a fresh look.
Smart man, that Dave! Technology changes on a near daily basis, bringing with it lower costs (quite often) and new opportunities for the small business owner. Sure enough, when Dave and I dug in, we found that he could save about $55 per month on service fees by making a few adjustments.
The truth is, there are very few places in the world of small business where you can solve a problem once and walk away forever. Whether it’s people, processes or automation, things change; anything that runs without your hands on the wheel needs to be reviewed on a regular basis.
For starters, make sure to review these two areas at least once a year:
1. Subscribe to your own newsletter. Just the other night, for example, I added a free download as part of my newsletter process (click here to send me an e-mail and I’ll send you the download).
Once I made the changes on my site, I subscribed to my newsletter and went through the process to make sure that it was working as it should be.
What happened next surprised me. In order to subscribe, my new readers had to fill in a “CAPTCHA form” (where they ask you to retype a bizarre string of numbers/letters). I thought, “Hmm…I don’t remember setting that up, and I hate those things.”
After a few minutes of research, I discovered that Constant Contact had changed the default in their system. I then had to update my account in order to turn CAPTCHA off. If I hadn’t made a change to my site and run a test, I never would have known.
2. Review Your Service Subscriptions. I have to confess, I continued paying for one of my daughter Emily’s online games for years after she stopped using it, simply because it was such a hassle to cancel. She couldn’t remember the password or even the e-mail address that she used to sign up and I couldn’t figure out who to call.
And after all, it was only costing us $4.95 a month, so I let it slide…and slide. One day I sat down and told myself that I wasn’t getting up until the account was cancelled. It took an hour, but I did it!
I recommend that you do the same. Not only do these things add up financially, but, every time you see them on your credit card statement, they trigger a little nagging voice in the back of your head that can bump you off track.
And remember, pricing structures change (as in Dave’s case, above). Maybe that $10.99 a month package that you signed up for three years ago can now be had for $1.99 a month. The only way to know is to give it a look!
While running your business with automation and systems is essential, you don’t want these things to run you! Pay attention to what you’re doing and where your money is going, and make time periodically to check in on those solutions that you put in place a long time ago.
Fantastic advice, Belinda. Your points about technology costs going down over time is so true — and sometimes the same company will offer a plan with more functionality if a user just makes the effort to contact the company.
I recommend adding reminders for items like these to your calendar (as a repeating occurrence) so they don’t get pushed aside when more urgent items claim your attention.
Great idea Nancy – otherwise the time slips by… BTW, I read The Pumpkin Plan and LOVED it. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve told lots of others about it and they like it too!
Great advice on both counts. Especially agree that trying to experience anything that touches the subscriber / client from their perspective is very valuable.
Exactly! Thanks Steve for bringing the point even further home. Always love your comments.
Great newsletter. Really hit home. Going home to shut off Netflix and Hulu –they never have the classic oldies I want anyhow!
Thanks Diane. Good for you! Check out Amazon Prime. Good selection of movies free and paid. AND when you sign up you get free 2-day shipping on most purchases. I LOVE IT.