When you run your own business, you can sometimes get lost in the everyday details of running it and fail to look up and see what else you could and should be doing with your time and resources. Which is where we come in today as we want to share with you 4 powerful ways to help your business.

Ask your customers for feedback

There is a real benefit in asking your customers for feedback. Your customers can help your business go from strength to strength if you are happy to communicate with them regularly.

Your business relies on your customers and your customers are in the best position to give you tips and ideas to improve. Show them that you value their opinions by asking them for their thoughts and input. Send customer surveys out, ask them for face to face feedback, ask them to take the time to review you online and ask them to share any suggestions that they have for improvement.

Customers will appreciate that you are constantly seeking to improve your service and products and will engage with you more. They are also more likely to tell their friends about you if they have influenced a part of your business, so do take on board constructive criticism and customer suggestions. Let people know that ‘xyz’ was Mr Smith’s idea and show everyone how customer friendly you are.

Call the professionals

Whilst there may well be many aspects of your business that you can handle yourself, there will come a time that you are going to be better off calling in the professionals, so do ask for their help.

You might find that you would benefit from accountancy services, visual designers or perhaps digital marketing experts. These might be needed for one-off projects and tasks, or you might seek to work with them on an ongoing basis.

Many businesses would also benefit from some level of IT and technical support. For example, Electric partners with the best tech providers to ensure that they can meet your business’ needs. They can manage your entire IT infrastructure so that that aspect of your business is completely taken care of, and it is all customised to ensure it delivers all that you need it to.

Embrace social media

Social media can be an anathema for some, but if you can utilise it for your business it can be very effective and helpful.

The great thing about social media is that it is free to use. As such, it is worth setting your business up with two to three social media channels. You can choose to run more, but bear in mind that they do take time to run as you need to share content daily and interact with people. It is better to have two thriving, chatty platforms up and running than seven with barely any content on them.

Whether you are looking to increase your Instagram engagement or give your Pins a boost, you will find that there are certain strategies that work well for each individual social media channel, and you might need to carry out some research or get some assistance with them.

The one constant thing that you can do across all of the sites is to remain friendly, upbeat and professional, whilst staying true to your brand image and values. Social media is an opportunity for you to get your brand, messages and products out there and in front of the right people. Look to build up genuine followings with real engagement through sharing all that you do there.

Trust in your team

If you can trust in your team, they can be the biggest help of all to your business.

You need to build a team around you that you can trust completely. You should be able to share your business direction and goals with them, both short and long term. This gives them the opportunity to contribute their thoughts and proposals to help you to achieve them.

Each team member should believe that they contribute meaningfully everyday to your business and this will empower them to come to you with any propositions. Make sure you track staff vacations, and plan accordingly to ensure that critical people aren't taking time off on the same day.

Along with trusting your team to share in your goals, you need to trust them to carry out their jobs to your exacting standards. You will need to master the art of delegation and pass tasks onto your team to free you up for other projects. This shows them that you trust them and it allows you to focus your efforts where they are most needed.