How to Improve Your Business Model in 5 Actionable Steps

Whether your business has been running for three weeks or 15 years, you’re always going to want to nurture it in the best way possible.

Over time, you may have looked up ways you can improve your overall business model, finding nothing but suggestions about “hitting the right audience” or “developing a strong value proposition.”

Odds are, you’ve already done that. The large lift is done, and now you’re looking for tactile, modern ways to scale your company and keep up with the times. That’s where we come in.

If you’d like to skip the steps and take our word for it, get started now.

We’ve done our research and have spoken with various small business owners in industries ranging from construction to home care. We’ll detail the steps they took with GoSite’s products and how these tools have positively impacted their companies.

Follow in their lead, and take charge of your business model with these five actionable steps.

1. Improve Your Online Presence

Time and time again, business owners tell us the same thing about their companies: “I want to be number one on Google.”

To make this desire a reality, an actionable step you can take is investing in a digital Placement tool. This tool will help you control your business listings across all major online directories (including Google).

While ranking on search engines is a very involved process, a tool like Placement makes it easy by automating the search engine optimization (SEO) process. All you have to do is log in. With the platform, you can:

• Promote special offers.
• Control how your business appears when searched online.
• Manage your photos.
• Post your address and hours of operation.
• Explain your products or services.

Placement acts as a hub to control all of your business’s digital content and takes the difficulty out of developing positive search engine results.

“I went from not having a website at all to… if you search decks, carpentry, or construction in my area, I was the number one hit on Google.”

-Anthony Bedard
AJ Construction

Success Story

AJ Construction is located in Southern New Hampshire and struggled to gain an online presence in the region. After taking steps to improve their online presence with GoSite’s Placement tool, AJ Construction began to see new business roll in.

Owner Anthony Bedard explained how the pay-per-lead systems he was using before were expensive and not gaining any traction or providing the results he needed.

In switching to GoSite, Anthony raved in excitement about ranking number one on Google in only nine days. His results highlight how GoSite directly lowered AJ Construction's costs, increased its customer base, and simplified the overall business process from start to finish.

2. Invest in Digital Payments

It’s 2021, and time to accept more than just cash for your services. Investing in a tool such as Payments, is another actionable step to take towards improving your company’s overall business model.

Not only is it vital to accept credit cards as a form of payment, but customers today expect an easy and fast transaction process too.

With Payments, you get both. Customers can pay you online, through their smartphones, by text message, or face-to-face. It’s a win-win because you get compensated faster, and customers don’t have to struggle their way through paper invoices or receipts.

In fact, 83% of businesses that accept online payments saw an increase in sales and revenue. Regardless of your industry, Payments allows you to get paid from anywhere, at any time, and without any hardware. Now that’s a business model improvement.

Instant Invoices

In addition to upgrading to a speedy and safe payment process, you’ll also benefit from Instant Invoices. Quickly send a payment request or invoice from your phone or desktop for easy tracking and billing.

You and your business deserve a user-friendly and modern way to view, send, receive, and track transactions.

“It's so easy. You can perform the service at a customer’s location, send them a request while you're sitting in the parking lot, while you're sitting in their driveway, and have them actually send it back to you before you leave the driveway. It's awesome.”

-Geoff Smith
Best Lawn Care, Anywhere

Success Story

Geoff Smith is the owner of Best Lawn Care, Anywhere in Anniston, Alabama. Over a year ago, his business was struggling to accept and consolidate payments.

At the time, he was dedicating hours before and after work to mailing out paper invoices, all while fumbling between different digital platforms and cash apps.

Geoff took action towards improving his business model and decided to give the GoSite Payments tool a whirl. Since doing so, he noted a 50% decrease in the dollar amount of his outstanding payments.

He even mentioned that he loves the ability to send customers “a quick, little friendly reminder to take care of [their payment.]” Geoff’s customers are happy and he has more time on his hands to focus on his core business needs.

3. Send Review Requests Often

Did you know that 95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase decision? This is why the third step in significantly improving your business model is to send review requests often to build up your positive online reputation.

To make it easy, you can rely on the Reviews tool to help you manage how your business is perceived online. After all, reviews are often the first impression your customers get when researching your company. Rather than going to different websites to view and respond to what customers are saying about you, Reviews lets you manage them all from one place.

Meanwhile, the dashboard significantly simplifies review requests so that your happy customers can do your marketing for you. You can also send surveys to help improve your business’s overall rating.

“GoSite has really legitimized us. We’ve got almost 600 “A” reviews and my nearest competitor has about 30.”

-James Clark
Sparkle Buggy Detail

Success Story

Sparkle Buggy Detail is an auto detailing service in Carmel, Indiana, that prides itself on low prices and excellent customer reviews.

Owner James Clark admitted to having a low volume of reviews before using GoSite. Since switching, he now averages eight to 11 reviews a month and actively steers his customers towards GoSite to leave their comments and ratings.

James is appreciative that his company “is more foundational now” because “when [they] started, [their reputation] was about an inch thick.” Having a simple tool to request and manage reviews has made a significant, positive impact on Sparkle Buggy Detail’s online success.

4. Build a Website Your Customers Will Love

Your website is considered a reflection of your company and its quality, so taking steps towards improving it will be valuable to your overall business model.

It’s crucial to have an attractive and easy-to-use website because 75% of users admit to making immediate judgments about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design.

Pro-Tip: Check out some of the best 2021 website trends for small businesses for insight on the best website design and content strategies.

Investing in a tool like Sites from GoSite is an efficient and surefire way to attract new customers. Sites provides a digital storefront to guide your clients through the entire consumer process.

With modern themes and an easy-to-use editor, it’s incredibly easy to manage, update, and promote your business website. You can even integrate other features, such as Messenger, Booking, Reviews, and Payments.

“I’ve gained about ten more clients with GoSite. Now that you guys have helped me have more presence online, I’m getting calls from a lot of people now.”

-Gladys Acevedo
Ranch & Coast Management Company

Success Story

Ranch & Coast Management Company is a home care referral agency located in San Diego, California. The company’s owner, Gladys Acevedo, explains how their biggest struggle before switching to GoSite was simply not having a proper website.

Because of this, she struggled to gain traction online and gain new business.

Upon switching to Sites by GoSite, Gladys received ten new clients in less than a month. Beyond new customer acquisition, she explains that her “favorite part about [her] website is that [she] can interact with [her] clients” by sending messages or even invoices.

She truly believes that “GoSite is a great platform to integrate into your business” and we do too.

5. Integrate an Easy Communication Platform

You’ve heard it before, but we’ll say it again. Communication is key, and that’s especially true when it comes to your customers.

One actionable way to improve your business model is to invest in a Messenger tool. Why? So you can receive and respond to messages anywhere at any time.

Not to mention, customers are 134% more likely to respond to a text than an email—so it’s a no-brainer why Messenger is a necessity to your business model.

Messenger by GoSite consolidates all of your business messaging into one platform, so you’ll no longer have an influx of a la carte messages coming in across multiple different apps. Send personalized texts, or set auto-responses so you never miss a beat with existing or prospective clients.

Bonus! Messenger even integrates with Contact Hub. Just like we said—all in one place.

“If you really want to build those one-on-one customer relationships, GoSite lets you start that process. Not only does it give you a way to let your customers contact the stores, but it gives you a better handle on all of your graphical information.”

-Ashley Wagner
Meek’s Lumber & Hardware

Success Story

Ashley Wagner is the marketing manager of Meek’s Lumber & Hardware—a multi-location hardware and home improvement store.

Before relying on GoSite to help facilitate customer communications, Ashley and her colleagues found it immensely difficult to respond to clients quickly enough to keep up with demand. There were too many funnels for customers to travel through before landing with the right point of contact for quotes, questions, and requests.

After switching to GoSite, Ashley and her team have peace of mind knowing that Messenger allows for immediate customer communications. She describes it as “a tool to make your customers feel like you care about them” and to help you get back to them a lot quicker.

Through and through, Messenger has been vital to boosting Meek’s Lumber and Hardware’s business model.

Where to Start With Your Business Model Improvement

It’s time to take charge of your business model and that involves relying on modern technology and tools.

What seems like an intimidating process really doesn’t have to be. In fact, GoSite does it all for you. It’s all about taking that first step to learn more.

You can even start for free today to see how the platform will work for you and your small business.