Business building – Finding People – Part 1

/in , , , , /by

Even if you are not looking to hire people, you are always looking to attract customers and build a team of referrers and collaborators around you.  When you are in business, regardless of what you do, you should always be looking out for good business and good people.

Start by building your business into a ‘magnet’ that will attract good people – customers, staff, suppliers, referrers, and collaborators.  People need to know you exist and you need to create some excitement about your business.  This is unlikely to happen all by itself.  You will need to become assertive and develop strategies to make the magnet big enough to create perpetual motion.

Get a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Get set up and organised from the start if you intend to attract a lot of people.  There are many CRM programs around.  Read online articles and reviews to find something that suits you.  If you don’t want to spend any money, then keep your contact details on an Excel spreadsheet.

Be available and follow up

If you are going to attract people, then you must make yourself available and follow up and interact with them.  Don’t hide away.  This is the important part of networking and business building.  If you ignore new contacts they will lose interest and go elsewhere.  You need people.  It’s only a matter of who and when!

Use online social networking sites

For example, follow people on Twitter and check to see if they follow you back.  Also start sending out daily messages from your own Twitter site.  People who are interested in what you have to say will follow you. Use a service like MutualTweeps.com to see who you know in common.  I have also found that it is essential to have a Facebook site so people can find you easily.  It is slower than Twitter but it is much more personal.  I find that many people find me by Google-ing my name.  They are presented with a choice of web and blog sites or Facebook.

Until next time!

Gary

Building business – Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

/in , , , , /by

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an umbrella term for methodologies, computer technology, software, and internet capabilities that enable a business to manage their customer interactions in an organized way.  CRM is a great tool to have when customers grow in numbers to be more than a few.

Such systems usually integrate a database that describes customer attributes and relationships in sufficient detail so enable management, salespeople, and service providers to retrieve specific customer and information to suit their own needs. It is a way of organising customer data and using it in a variety of ways that better focus business resources where they need to be.

CRM systems help match customer needs with products services and special offerings.  They usually have integrated calendar systems that enable the storage of customer purchase history.  It reminds staff and customers alike of future service time-lines and prompts follow up action.

It can be used as a business building tool that helps a business to identify and target ‘potential’ customers and various sections of ‘existing’ customers.  It can also help to manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads for the sales process.

CRM systems help businesses to develop and keep track of numerous individual customer relationships simultaneously.  Any information can be stored in the computer based system.  For example, sales calls are made easy when the system has some notes about the customer involved – e.g. favourite pastime, spouse and children’s names.

The CRM system becomes the corporate memory and valuable personal information (freely given) aids relationship development.  The aim is to improve customer satisfaction and maximise profits.  The system can categorise customers, and the most profitable customers can be identified and marked for the highest level of service.

Many businesses use CRM software to help them manage their customer relationships more effectively. The technology is well developed.  It can be an office based system installation or it can be accessed as a SaaS (Software as a Service) via the internet.  CRM has recently become mobile enabled and some systems are available as open source software.  Open source code means that the source code is included with the compiled version and modification or customization is allowed and encouraged.

Until next time!

Gary

Business building – Social Proof marketing – Part 2

/in , , , , /by

So how do you pull together a social proof marketing campaign?  OK here are some common strategies:

  • Convince potential buyers that there are hundreds of people lined up to buy your product.  This influences them to make a choice to purchase your product because everybody around them seems to like it too.
  • Build trust by letting your potential customer know of what others think of your product.  Testimonials, comments and feedback from happy customers are commonly used.  However, people have become used to them and tend to skip past them on sales pages, not quite knowing whether they are real or fake.
  • Independent reviews, case studies and endorsements by non-related experts, independent opinion makers.  It is important to have a credible source for any of these strategies.  It is common to give free samples in return for a favourable case study or review, which is then posted with the product.
  • Leaking information about an upcoming product.  Politicians have been ‘accidentally on purpose’ doing this since politics began.  Leaking favourable news builds the anticipation and excitement, whereas leaking unfavourable news early helps make it more palatable and easier to accept.
  • Creating a sense of urgency for a product before and after the launch.  Product run-outs, end of year sales, limited time offers and many other strategies create urgency in the mind of the target audience.
  • Customers want what they can’t have (even more), so by limiting the supply of a product and promoting messages of value and scarcity, the effect is to increase demand and price.

The more people who are engaged to believe in a particular product then the more acceptable the product becomes.  Of course the downside is that sooner or later, but probably sooner, the target audience will move onto something else.  So unless you are the supplier of the ‘something else’, you could be become cold and poor.

Until next time!

Gary

Business building – Social Proof marketing – Part 1

/in , , , , /by

‘Social proof’ can be the basis of powerful marketing.  Social proof means justify your buying behaviour by observing and exhibiting similar behaviour of those around you.  In simple terms – everybody else is doing it, so I can do it too.

For example, if you see ten other people around you make the decision to buy the latest gizmo, then by doing as they do and ignoring your own information, you deem it to be socially acceptable for you to rush out and buy a gizmo as well.

Even though your own research and private information may have led you to a different buying decision, such widespread social acceptance will effectively remove any lingering thoughts of buyer remorse.

This is the type of behaviour that starts and finishes product fads and produces information cascades in financial markets (e.g. speculative mass buying or selling behaviours that result in a sudden share market movement regardless of underlying asset value).

People seek social proof because everyone likes to feel as though they have made the right decision when it comes to spending money or making a big commitment. There is comfort and social acceptance in believing that so many other people can’t all be wrong.

Improved web access and communication mobility, together with a variety of social networking media, email and text messaging make a social proof campaign so much easier to execute.

Until next time!

Gary

Create ‘instant calm’ buttons for yourself

/in , , , , /by

Your most important priority in business is you.  You may have a thousand customers but without you, there is no business.

“Put yourself first, pay yourself first and take care of yourself first, physically and emotionally!”

An instant calm button is an immediate fix when you upset, frustrated or flustered, and you need to calm your mind.  Four of the best calming buttons I have found are:

a)   Deep slow breathing and eyes shut visualization.  There are many options for visualization – imagine a serene place, your favourite activity or imagine that with every breath you are inhaling and exhaling the entire Universe.  That’s my favourite.  It is so empowering.

b)   Exercise! This also results in deeper breathing.  It doesn’t need to be highly aerobic though.  A 30-minute walk will do it.  Make sure you keep your head up and say hello to everyone as you walk past.

c)   Water – drink plenty of it.  I find water calming as opposed to coffee which stimulates but may not necessarily calm me.

d)   Chocolate, which does nothing for my breathing but I focus on its antioxidant health benefits (yeah right!).  Be careful of the amount you eat.  Eat too much and you will replace one problem with a more serious health problem.

It is always the case that when I feel at my worst, doing any of the things I have listed above are the very last things I want to do, except eat chocolate of course.  But a little elbowing myself usually brings the need for a calming button into conscious focus.

Exercise is not always possible but deep slow breathing (we call it KI breathing in Aikido) and plenty of water always does the trick for me.  In our busy lives, air and water are the two ingredients that we don’t intake enough.

Until next time!

Gary

Starting business – Early Market Traction

/in , , , , /by

Market traction is a measure of demonstrated profit, revenue, customers, pilot customers, or users, and their rates of change.  In other words, it is cold hard proof that the market for your product is real.  This measure of reality gives you the business owner, the bank and other investors, considerable assurance that you know your market and that your financial projections are sound.

Starting up a business is a risky investment, just like any other.  However, it is not a passive investment.  Therefore as the owner, you are likely to have your entire life and livelihood locked into your business for many years.  So you want your live-in investment to pay off handsomely.

It follows that you should be seeking a premium return on your investment of time, money and expertise. If you have any second round investors involved (after first round family and friends), they will certainly be seeking a high return on investment (ROI).

Without market traction, the decision to invest requires one hell of a leap of faith by any experienced investor.  Put your self in their shoes.  All they have is your Business Plan underpinned only by an unproven set of assumptions.  This sends the investment risk through the roof.

Without a statement of proof from the marketplace in the form of traction, investors will then focus sharply on your product and your team of people.  Doubt will exist in their minds because investors know that good teams always have good traction and good products.  So if your team hasn’t, it begs the question – why not?

By securing customers early, you and any potential investors are reassured that there is demand for your technology, product or service offering in the market.  This substantially reduces the investment risk because you have already provided evidence that your product is in demand and that you and your team is up to the job.

So the conclusion is that a high projected ROI will not of itself produce market traction.  However, the reverse is true.  Early market traction is very likely to produce a high ROI for you and your investors.

Until next time

Gary

Starting business – It’s a wide knowledge area

/in , , , , /by

At its most basic level, being in business requires only a few customers and an ability to sell at a higher price than you buy.  Even if you have nothing more than these fundamental money making skills, there is still a wealth of other skills required to build a business.

Starting out, it helps to know your industry well and the rules and regulations that govern it.  In many industries, failure to comply with the myriad of government rules could get you banned from the industry, heavily fined or serving a prison sentence.

Even before you make your first sale, the Australian Government also imposes a compulsory administrative and taxation reporting regime on all businesses, large and small.  This makes bookkeepers and accountants very valuable resources from the outset.

Although bookkeeping and accounting concepts are tricky to grasp, a rudimentary knowledge makes a conversation with your financial advisers a lot easier.

As your business grows, you need more people because you can’t do everything yourself.  People need training, supervision and guidance.  When your business evolves to something more than you only, a degree of organisation and few systems become necessary.  Employing people also introduces a new layer of administration and compliance.

At some point, you will need to exercise some leadership to imprint your own culture and do some planning from time to time.  An expanding business also needs financial control and management. There have been many examples of businesses going broke because of their inability to fund rapid expansion.

Whilst you may not do the financial tasks personally, it helps a lot to understand the basic concepts. For example, the ability to read an ‘Income Statement’ and a ‘Balance Sheet’ opens up a new world of understanding and opportunity.

Developing a basic understanding of cost control concepts like product costing, budgeting, cash flow, and break even point will also make management of your business a lot easier.

Until next time!

Gary

Business planning – You need people

/in , , , , /by

This is the most compelling case ever for preparing a Business Plan.  At some point in the evolution of your business, your success will mean that you are standing alone holding a tiger by the tail.  You need help (that is nowhere to be found) but if you let go you are screwed.  You pray for a person with a solution.

By definition, your business will become bigger than you.  It’s only a matter of when.  As much as you wanted to do your own thing, by yourself, in your own time, without annoyance from anyone, you actually kissed off that plan the day you started being good at what you do and giving some half decent service to your customers.

People tell other people and before you know it, a trickle of business becomes a torrent and suddenly you can’t cope alone with the increased demand. So much for your vision of being a business hermit!

Of course, there are two sure fire ways you can kill off your business from here.  Firstly, you can start turning good paying customers away so that you keep your business at a level you can handle.  That will quickly poison the well, because bad news always travels faster than good news, and there is no news worse than rejection.

Secondly, you can hire the wrong people to help – desperation hiring!  This accounts for a lot of business failure just when things were looking up.  Why?  You will be frantically busy and have a problem to solve.  So there is a huge temptation to hire someone who is available and can start Monday, rather than someone who fits the ‘skill’ bill and is good at what they do.

You can change this dynamic by making your business so attractive that all the good people want to work there.  Create your business plan and put the highlights on your website (newly created) ‘Careers’ page.  It is the first step in becoming a magnet for good employees.  And you thought marketing was only about attracting customers!

Until next time!

Gary

The entrepreneurial spirit – Knowledge is power

/in , , , , /by

Knowledge and people are the drivers of opportunity.  They are intertwined.  Without knowledge and a reasonable contact network, the well of opportunity simply dries up and it becomes hard to survive in business.  Starting up your own business without at least a basic level of business education is to seriously limit your effectiveness to function, operate and grow. 

The problem with a lack of knowledge is that “you don’t know what you don’t know”.  From the knowledge is power perspective, that’s a serious weakness.  In other words, you are simply unaware of the large chunk of knowledge that you don’t have personally.  Because you are unaware, you have no inkling that it exists or that it could be vital to your business.  That’s dangerous!

It also means that you must rely on other people to tell you what is important.  For a variety of reasons people push their own agendas.  Advisers tend to stay within the safety of their own areas or specialty, and teachers teach what they know best.  So it makes sense to have a basic understanding of an issue yourself, take advice and make up your own mind.

As much as people want to march to the beat of their own drum, it is hard to go it alone when starting up your own business.  Business success is easier with a team effort.  It is impossible to know everything.  You can be the smartest person on the planet but still not survive in business, but at least a business education will give you some idea of the things you need to know or be aware of.

The ideal combination is to have a flair for making money, and to have some basic business knowledge.  From there you can find the resources you need and surround yourself with smart people whose specialist knowledge you can access.  You don’t necessarily have to employ people to achieve this.  It is part of the entrepreneurial spirit and a talent in itself to know where to find required knowledge and expertise. 

For more expert tips on the entrepreneurial spirit and starting up your own business, visit http://www.garyweigh.com

 Wishing you positive Ki in business

Gary Weigh

Online Aiki Business Coach

Why do Business Planning?

/in , , , , /by

The primary job of a business owner is to manage and run a business. Managing is a lot more than telling people what to do.  It means planning, research, executing strategies, making effective use of available resources and protecting the business.

It is not always the case that a business outcome turns out exactly as planned.  Hence the concept of risk!  Put simply, a business is a risky investment like any other.

Being an entrepreneur involves risk taking.  But that doesn’t mean taking unnecessary risks (e.g. speculative risk).  Part of the business planning process should be about minimizing risk.

If you are investing your life savings, borrowing other people’s money, and putting your family’s stability at risk, it is your responsibility as a startup small business owner to not take stupid risks.

Of course there are unavoidable risks involved in a new business venture. These are calculated risks.  The business planning process may not guarantee success but it certainly decreases the chances of failure.

Your business plan also provides all of the stakeholders in your business, including partners, financiers and employees, with a succinct and unambiguous reference of your intentions and strategies.

Until next time!

Gary