(This is a guest post from Michelle Van Slyke, VP of Marketing and Small Business Solutions, The UPS Store)
It’s likely not news to you that small business owners wear many hats. You’re not only the franchise owner, but you’re often the boss, the front-end help, and maybe even the cleaning crew. It’s just second nature for you to roll your sleeves up, jump right in, and be a part of the action. And that’s what makes being a business owner so exciting – but also, sometimes, pretty daunting. At The UPS Store, we understand this. In fact, we don’t just serve small business customers, but we’re also a network of franchise-owned businesses ourselves. And we want to make sure we fully understand what our small business owners want and need – so that we can lend a hand.
We’ve long served small businesses, but recently set our sights on providing even stronger service to our small business customers. And we wanted to make sure we did it in a way that was smart. We talked with a number of small business owners and small business experts and found that many entrepreneurs don’t get the support they need to cope with the relentless and often unpredictable challenges of running a business. They expressed that their days were taken over by tedious tasks like bookkeeping and accounting rather than things like marketing, and helping customers – the things that business owners often find the most fun.
And that’s where we knew we could help. In response to these findings, we launched a new effort to emphasize our franchisees’ “do-whatever-it-takes” attitude, and the range of services we offer to meet the needs of small business owners. From packing and shipping to printing and faxing, and even direct mail and mailbox services- we can help small business owners with day-to-day business needs, especially when they feel like they’re being stretched in too many directions.
We also just launched a website – the Small Business Solutions portal, to make sure small business owners have access to wealth of information in one easy, convenient location, whenever they need it. The site offers a small business-focused blog, tips and resources from small business experts, such as SCORE and The Franchise King® himself, and exclusive offers from companies like DotComGuy, Kabbage, and ReceptionHQ.
I hope you visit the new Small Business Solutions portal and find some useful resources for running your franchise. After all—we’re here for you.
(Check out The UPS Store’s Small Business Solutions for your small business.)
