One of the things that I believe in as a business owner is that the customer is always right.  You might not always see that at first, but they do know what they want, and if you listen, your business will prosper.  It doesn’t mean that you let them take advantage of you, but if you want your business to grow, engage in a conversation with them, find out what they need, and offer it to them.

Recently, we decided that it was time to increase our bottom line and offer new products in our store.  Instead of just randomly picking something, we decided to ask our customers to participate in a short survey to let us know their needs in exchange for an entry in a contest for a plasma television.

It took us about three weeks to organize the results of the survey and we learned the one thing that our customers wanted: a place where they could sell gold jewelry.

It did make sense, since there were no pawn shops or a gold buyer in town.  But it didn’t really fit our business model, so we decided to find a partner that would be interested in servicing the needs of our customers.

Now, just four months since we lined up a partner, our revenues have increased and our customers are happier than ever.  We will run another survey in a couple of months and repeat the same process to grow our business.  All I can say is that it is sure easy to make money when you know what your customers want – all you have to do is ask.

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