SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The customer is always right. Except when they’re not. Trust your gut. Go with your instinct. That’s just some of the conflicting—and sometimes humorous—advice shared by small business owners in a new nationwide online survey from Index by Pinger.
“May is Small Business Month, and everyone seems to be handing out advice. So instead of giving more of the same, we asked small business owners on the frontline about the advice they’ve received,” said Greg Woock, co-founder and CEO of Pinger. “And what they reported ranged from the good to the strange and amusing.”
The Index survey gathered responses from 1,032 adults aged 25 to 60 living in the U.S. Of those, 60% identified as having a small business, a side hustle, or being a freelancer. And of those respondents, 76% said they were also employed by another organization.
Opinions Differ—Sometimes Wildly
Respondents also received a fair amount of business advice: some of it helpful, some of it not, and some of it downright amusing.
Responses included expected adages like “The customer is always right” and the less clear and contradictory “Customers are always right, except when they are wrong.”
Other conflicting advice included where to place your trust. Respondents were advised to “Trust your first instinct,” “Trust us,” “Trust your gut” and “Trust no one.”
From the Practical…
Some of the more practical advice addressed facing the fear of failure, “Fake it ’til you make it,” and “Expect to make mistakes. Successful people make mistakes and still succeed.” One respondent was advised, “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear.”
…To the Amusing
On a lighter note, some respondents were told, “Picture everyone as animals,” “Just wing it,” and “If you don’t say anything, people think you’re smart.” One respondent reported being offered this sage advice: “Always bring donuts.”
Better Advice: Seek the Real Experts
“Small business owners have people coming at them from all directions offering advice. The trick is to know where to go to get it. One of the best places is SCORE.org, where you can get free, confidential business counseling on almost any subject. And their counselors are experts in their fields,” said Steve Strauss, USA Today Small Business Columnist and best-selling author. You can also check out tips on running and growing your business at www.getindex.com/resources.
About the Survey
The survey was conducted April 25-27, 2023. The margin of error for the overall sample is +/- 3 percentage points, with a confidence interval of 95%.
About Index by Pinger
Index by Pinger is an all-in-one solution for managing customer communication with text messaging. Index helps small business owners communicate with their customers from the first touch to collecting reviews and booking follow-up business. With Index, all the communication tools needed to run and grow a business are accessible from a phone, tablet or desktop computer. For more small business advice, visit www.getindex.com.
Pinger started the communication app revolution in 2005 by enabling the first smartphones to send free texts. Today, Pinger apps power billions of conversations that keep consumers, solopreneurs, and small businesses connected. Pinger's products—Index, TextFree and Sideline—have been downloaded over 160 million times and have sent and received more than 200 billion texts.
Pinger was named one of Fortune Magazine’s Best Workplaces in the Bay Area in 2022. It is headquartered in San Jose, California, with remote staff throughout the United States and Europe.
Learn more about Pinger and its apps at www.pinger.com.
