As someone who takes negoiating for our clients very seriously it comes as second nature now NOT to pay full price for anything! Oh ok it could just be that I’m a Yorkshire woman, born of a Scot that I’m so very tightfisted, but I’m not about to apologise and let me tell you why…

Whenever we set up a new supplier I put them through a rigourous interview process. I usually have them come to my office, I’ll tell them quite openly what I’m doing, in that they will be one of at least 3-5 other companies who are all looking to win the business. I then get them to tell me why I should choose their company over and above the others. I allow them to tell me and then I get down to the heavy negoiating… I then tell them what their competition is offering. So it could be a discount, it could be favourable terms, it could be access to their clients (through them). Whatever it is I always ask for more than I think I can get away with, and I use my golden rule of negoiating…try to get at least 10% off the the price or the equivalent value. If I’m not asking for that at least, then to me I’m not negoiating!

Now this sounds harsh,but to be honest, I run with the maxim - if you don’t ask you simply don’t get!

Don’t stutter or trip delicately around the process of negoiating. Tell them what you want to achieve and tell them what you can get elsewhere, but tell they why you want to use them - and I always flatter them here at this point and suprisingly it always works!

Recently we had 18% off the price of each of two cars we were buying. We have nearly doubled the package that we had in the sponsourship of a rugby team to include the ability to place promo girls outside the stand, tickets for all the matches, extra banners at the ground, extra pages of advertising in the programme brochure as well as various other bits and bobs. This however has now had a knock on effect for our franchisees who sponsor other teams, who have gone back and renegoiated other deals too! So the overall effect with the leverage we have created is significant in terms of savings across the board.

So where can you make savings? I’d always firstly look to negoiate the longest terms possible for the company. I always look for savings to be made on supplies, both in terms of cost and payment terms. I also look to never give a discount off from our end. Harsh? Hmmm probably but that’s business isn’t it? And let’s be honest, whilst ever the money’s in my pocket I’d quite like it to stay that way, thanks!

So, is it a too tight fisted way to make small savings? Ummm yes probably, but then every penny should count and I’ll probably have a million pennys before you do!! So start thinking about negoiationg and saving to make your cash flow improve. Be bold or the savings you make will be minimal!

More and more often I hear and see companies, especially in their early days NOT doing a SWOT analysis on their marketing spend when in reality this is exactly the time they should be doing one. With little extra money in the pot, every penny being spent should be analyised and accounted for and if it’s not working then it should be cut from the budget - immediately. (After all why throw good money after bad?)

So what does a good SWOT analysis entail? Well firstly let me just explain what SWOT is, it stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. So whenever you do or are considering a marketing campaign it’s always well worth doing one of these analysis. Sounds hard? Nah! Not really, not when you know what you are doing. So to help you along I found a very interesting article that shows the SWOT analysis for Telstra’s marketing spend with the Alan Jones Radio show in Sydney back in 2002.

You can find it here

Interestingly they went ahead with the significant spend knowing that one of the major weaknesses was that the audience they wanted to reach wasn’t the key demographic for the show. They went ahead knowing that they were selling to an already “loyal” sector of their market audience…to my mind quite a significant splash of money to only reinforce (and run the risk as they also acknowledge of “message wear out”) their current marketing message.

However it comes down to the old saying that it’s easier to turn an exisiting customer into a further customer that to engage an entirely fresh customer altogether. What Telstra are quite rightly looking to do is take their already loyal customer base and switch them onto new services within their range that they have to offer. They are also quite smartly looking to do that in a friendly “Hey, I’d recommend you guys look at this service too it could be of interest,” type of way. A more softly recommended way of selling. Which is likely to be more successful than a more “in your face” campaign.

So yes it was expensive, and yes they were selling to their current audience BUT I think they did do the right thing with the campaign (even if for one month of the 12 month contract Alan Jones was “off Air”!!!)

What do you think? And is selling to you current audience something you already do? Perhaps not, but then again maybe it could be your New Years Resolution to get further aquainted with your past clients to turn them into your future clients!

Happy New Year everyone!

Experts. So you’ve set up in business and your probably producing a widget or providing a great service and that’s the thing you will be an expert in your given area. That does not necessarily mean you will be an expert in all areas of business, especially if you are just starting out by yourself for the first time. Still not sure what I’m talking about…? Ok when you set up a business it will be something like this - you have a business idea, maybe it’ll be to sell art work that you produce…but that means you need premises, you need to buy in art supplies to produce your work, you have to sell and market your work, you have to bill your customers, and then if you’re really smart you’ll follow those customers up and start to build up a database of clients - probably using a computer system. Ok so let’s look at it closely.

You will have be good at the following:

So…that little gallery that you wanted to run, it suddenly turns into a major task to make it a viable business! But don’t panic! You can still run a company and be good at what you do, the key is to become an expert in finding good experts to fill the roles you can’t or don’t want to do. In the world of commerce it’s called “out sourcing” and it’s frankly a God send!

Here’s what we at Homefinder UK out source, our invoicing, all of our accountancy work such as book keeping and money payments for the franchisees, our IT work, and up until recently all of our copy and design work as well as the marketing. But as we’ve grown we’ve found that whilst we are excellent at the actual job of homefinding we’re also actually pretty good at marketing ourselves…so we’ve started to bring that in house too…but don’t forget we’ve been going for 5 years now and we only did this in our 4th year. Up until now we concentrated on our core business - homefinding - as we are the experts in that! So my advice when you start out…get the experts in and that’ll leave you free to get on with what you are good at! Yes it’ll cost you, but trust me…you’ll make more moeny concentrating on what you are good at rather than trying to do everything and ending up doing it all poorly!

Franchising. Is it for you and your company? There’s definately two heads to this coin. Franchising your company out and buying a franchise system off someone else. So lets start with dispelling a small myth here.

The BFA say if you are a potential franchisee looking to buy a franchise off someone then you must insist on being given access to ANY one of their current franchisees to speak to. (see Step 5 on this page of their website.) All very admirable, but let’s look at it realisitically! You cannot really expect to be able to go charging into a business of any sort and demand to be able to interupt someone’s working day and discuss at length their business! It’s just not acceptable, you wouldn’t expect to do it in a non franchised business so why you’d expect this be acceptable with a franchise is beyond me! I can see how the BFA may be thinking that you don’t want to be fobbed off with a “droid” of a franchisee who’s been feed all the answers by the franchisor, but realisitically different franchisees are at different stages of their business and lets face it…they are there to do a job, which in our case is Homefinding, not selling Homefinder UK franchises to all and sundry who decide to call out of the blue! It’s not fair to exepect that our franchisees will field these sorts of enquiries! So that’s the story from the franchisors point of view…basically please don’t interupt and distract my franchisees from their daily business for which they are paying for the privialge of being able to do!

But as a potential franchisee, know that as your franchisor I would extend the same protection to you as a franchisee if you were to join us…you too would be allowed to get on with your business free from “FAQ” phonecalls/visits…they should afterall and despite what the BFA think be fielded by the Head Office sales staff. We do allow potential franchisees that we have placed into our selection process the opportunity to “shadow” a current franchisee should they wish to find out more about the franchise…but yes we choose the franchisee that they will be shadowing…again because some of our franchisees are still getting started on their franchise journey, so wouldn’t make for very interesting franchises to shadow quite frankly! But at the end of the day we are running a business as are our franchisees…so I don’t think we are out of line in wanting to protect our business and that of the franchisees from random folk wanting a “guided tour of the factory”!!

There has to be a balance…whilst we are open and honest about our business, that’s exactly what we’re doing here… running a business…please allow us to get on with the job in hand! Besides which…let’s face it…you might be the sort of person that we’d say we’d NEVER in a million years have as a franchisee…so why would we not want to vet your suitability for our network first too before allowing to free access to our franchisees? It works both ways and that is the crux of a franchise system…it’s a definate two way street!

It seems that women want to do business with women, and that more and more often they either hold the purse strings to the family income or are very independent and are earning their own increasingly higher and higher incomes too. So with all his girl power on the prowl, is there any truth in the new “pink pound”?

Well I think there could be. After all we’ve known for a long time at Homefinder UK that when we have a new client on board for whom we are looking for a new home, it will 9 times out of 10 be the lady of the house who is the driving force behind the purchase. Often times she will make the decision to use us and will tell her significant other after they have signed the contract, they will be ones who tell us what to look for (with most men the brief is - “Can I get to work easy?”, and “Is there a pub nearby?”) With women it’s all about the home, the kitchen, the garden, the schools. It’s always so much more for a woman.

We also usually find it’s always the woman who will be watching the purse strings. Occasionally you’ll get a husband who’s strict on the budget, but usually if a woman falls in love with a house just outside their price bracket, then she’ll be the one to pursuade her husband that they should buy it.

There also seems to a lot of “girl power” when it comes to financial decisons within the house hold too. As my friends who are IFAs will confirm, more and more women are planning for their own future stability seperately from their husbands or partners. They are also more likely to buy from a “women’s only” insurance company such as Sheilas Wheels or Diamond Car insurance. Now these are smaller niche companies backed by much larger firms. So if they’ve seen a trend and have acted on it by creating a new business/company to satisfy that demand then it must be there and growing as a new market.

So Is the Girl Power becoming more prevalent in the market place? You bet your pink dollar it is!

Well a simple way to find out is to ask yourself have you got the ABCD to do business?

A is for astute. Are you savy enough to know a good business deal from a bad one? Have you brokered deals in the past in someone else’s company? Were they good or bad deals? Are you astute enough to be able to run a company…I mean not everyone will have the skills to be able to do everything from Marketing to Accounts to Sales but that’s what you have to do when you first set out as an SME - so whilst you may be lacking in some of those skills would you be canny enough to know what to do and who to seek out out in order to plug those skills gaps?

B is for Balls. And I’m not talking footballs here guys! Sometimes in business you are going to have to have the front to make tough decisions. You’ll have to take the bull by the horns and when push comes to shove can you really do that? Can you make the tough decisions - sometimes on your own with no one to support you. Do you trust your own instinct that you are doing the right thing for you and the company you are building? Have you got what it takes to lead your company from the front…to be the person who says we are doing this and it’s definately the right way forward for the company?

C is for co-ordination. I’m not talking dancing and John Travolta here either! No…are you able to multi task whilst keeping your eye on the bigger picture? Can you do more than one thing at once and still get things right? It’s a skill set that not everyone has I can tell you. Can you plan everything so the timings are just right on everything and the company moves forward at the right speed? Can you get Press Releases out in time for the exhibition that you may be planning - whilst still arranging all the printing for that same exhibition along with getting your promo staff on to the stand on time, along with balancing all the books for that event? Oh and can you do all that with a cheery smile on your face and without loosing your temper with anyone or ending up a nevous wreck in a ball of tears in a back room somewhere! If you can, then you probably can co-ordinate!

Even better is if you have the knack that comes with experience to expect the unexpected. So for example the printer said it would be a 3 day lead time but you know the chances are you’ll need that print desperately and they won’t do it in less than 5 days…so you book the print run on the Monday when you need it for the Friday…now that’s just getting into the relms of super co-ordination (or obsessive control freaking!!)

D is for determination. Without which you WILL fall at the first hurdle I promise you. I remember when I first started being turned down for a loan by the bank…but I went away and begged and borrowed the money from family members - but I grew the company without the bank’s help. I’ve also heard on so many occassions “experts” (mainly acountants it has to be said!) who have said the venture is too risky, no one would back it, we’d never find an investor who would risk an investment in such a new area, in something that has no benchmarks. In something that is outside the traditional mould…and do you know what? I ignored them!

Not the best of advice for all occassions I’ll admit, however taking the view that I knew there was a market for what we were doing, that it was a growing market due to dissatisfaction with the current options in the market place (ie estate agents) Knowing that if I had a six figure sum to invest, I’d probably have made that money myself and would understand and appreciate the calcuated risks that all entrepenuers take on a daily basis much better than any account who’s never taken a risk in their life ever ever would!! And you know what- with determination we found our investors and we continue to do so everyday with our franchisees. And with determination, a lot of good luck and a strong wind at our back I know undoubtably that our company will make it. And that determination is what will make us succeed - that and a great business idea of course!

So ask yourself, have you got the ABCD to do business?

And now I’m really going to sound like a moaning mini…but it rarely seems that new legislation is in the favour of the business owner. The government treasury seem to come out winners, employees seem to come out as winners, but the poor old chap simply trying to run his business on a day to day basis isn’t winning any ground! It sems like a constant uphill hike just keeping on top of what the new legislation actually is. I mean it’s rare that we actually get told what it is, instead it is up to us, the business owner, to find out and keep abreast of it - Just who has the time when you are already busy running a company? You’d need to employ someone full time just to keep an eye on these things - great if you are a large corporate structure, but not so workable if you are an SME!

So what’s the solution? Less red tape? Well it may be nice as some of the rule changes are silly and it does look like some governments simply produce new rules in order to create paperwork, which then needs a new pen pushing department to deal with it, which in turn means employing people to do that pen pushing…which has the sum total of bringing down the government’s unemployment figures! Hurrah!

But seriously shouldn’t small businesses be left in peace to get on with the business of running their company rather than being bound and constricted by red tape?

Do we actually need all the rules that are in place? I don’t think so. There’s certainly a few I can think of that I’d quite happily live without. What about you?

Well, here in Part 2 I’m going to let you into another dirty little secret of business that the business world will never really own up to.

So what’s the big secret?

It’s simple… Whilst you may make a bit of money in a self employed business you will never make any major money until you come to realise your investment in that business. That is not to say you will forever be stony broke if you go into business on your own but until you come to float your company or sell your shares – the chances are you will not become a millionaire from your venture and anyone who tells you otherwise is either the very, very rare exception to the rule or is simply lying!

It’s why investors always have an exit plan when they initially invest in a company. They know that they won’t realise their investment until they get out and are savvy enough to know that the day to day running of a company is never going to be enough to make them a fortune.

So many companies will not make any sort of profit for the first 18 months often stretching well into the 3rd year of trading. Are you ready for that sort of massive financial burden if you are thinking of going into business for yourself? Can you cover your expenses? Your mortgage? Put food on the table and clothes on your children’s backs? Because that will be the hardest phase of running a business, getting it going. Once it’s going the rest, by comparison, is easy! Trust me.

So how do you get over that initial dry period where you are not making any real money and how does every other business owner around you seem to be doing so much better than you? Well let me tell you the Range Rover Vogue will be leased, the plush offices will be rented (often with a longer lease period signed for with an initial rent free period of maybe 6 – 9 months!) The business owner got a loan from the bank, but what they are not telling you is that the bank put a second charge against their already heavily mortgaged home. Friends and family will have been raided for loans, inheritances will have been sunk into the venture. Even family heirlooms will be sold on to help keep a business venture afloat. They may be factoring their invoices to keep the cash flow alive, but you can almost certainly bet your bottom dollar that the money is not flowing easily through the veins of the business and no matter what that business owner tells you about how good business is, they’ll be muddling through each month, just like every other business does.

So when you look around at the other businesses that are out there and you think – wow they must be coining it in think again. I bet you they’re not…they just know the secrets of how to look like you are coining it in!!

Wrong!

Providing you know what you are doing and how to do it the journalist and the media can very much become a friendly face and not a foe to fear. So here are some very simple rules to remember when dealing with the press.

1. Always remember - because a journalist will never tell you this - they NEED you as much as you need them. Without you and countless others like you they don’t have a story/scoop/angle/comment. They often forget this, but you never must. However there is also one hundred “unwritten rules” when dealing with them and one is that you must never mention certain things…one of them being never to remind them of how much they need you! Journalists are very much a diva bunch and will flounce at the drop of a hat - or at a reminder of their precarious relationship!
2. Again…some journalists expect you to dance to their tune and will throw their toys out the pram at any one given moment if you don’t. So press releases, some of the more *ahem* shall we say “lazy” journalists expect to be able to simply lift word for word what you have written in your press release without having to alter/amend/write any copy themselves. (I know can you possibly believe it?! ) So a journalist will not want to see a “teaser” press release, giving them only a glance at the actual story. Nope it must be full and complete. This is s general bugbear of most PR companies…in that they feel that lots of journalists now subscribe to lazy journalism and expect them to do their work for them. In defence of the journalist who will get hundreds of press releases in a working week…well you imagine trawling through badly written press releases to finally find that one nugget of gold…hmm…difficult at the best of times but even worse when a print deadline is looming and you’ve got nothing for your editor! The sign that you are doing a great job with your press releases is when they start being printed word for word almost! (But more on press releases in part 2 though!)
3. Never, ever feel pressured into giving comment to a journalist. If they turn up at your premises (very unlikely unless you have just employed David Beckham as your new tea boy!) or if they phone you looking for a comment and you feel you’ve been caught on the hop, it is more than acceptable to say “you’ve caught me in the middle of doing something which I just need to finish, but I’m more than willing to give you comment on this, give me a contact number and I’ll call you back in 5 minutes.” Then give yourself five minutes peace and quite to jot down the points you really want to get across. So for example…your company has say…found the cure for cancer. You’ll probably want to briefly explain how you did it, how many hospitals have already taken the vaccination on a pre order, how many lives will be saved by the new treatment (if you can get the correct stats), and of course you may want to publicly thank members of the team for their hard work, so make the press aware of who did what in the team to bring about the treatment. You may also want to offer the journalist the opportunity to visit your Labs to see the team and the work in progress too for a photo opportunity. (Of course this is an extreme example and for something like this you are probably going to call a press conference rather than have the media door stepping you however you get the idea!)
4. Remember that what you say to the journalist will in all likelihood will be quoted. So if you are sworn enemies with someone and the journalist asks you something about them…don’t use it as an opportunity to have another pop at them. Smile sweetly and say something like “I think I’ve already made my position clear on that issue/person before so let’s talk about the all new latex coated widget that my company has come up with.” If they continue to press you about a contentious issue/person, simply say “I’m sorry but I have no comment to make on that person/issue.” and steer them back again to you and your company. Never ever get rattled, that’s what they are looking for and you will only be adding fuel to a side story that detracts from the actual message you want to get across!
5. The only bad news is when people aren’t talking about you…Well let me tell you it ain’t exactly true! Bad press can be hugely damaging and yes over the course of your business life the chances are you are likely to get some bad press. You have two options…if something is printed about you or your company and it is false and damaging, you do have redress as this is defamation and you can go to a specialist media solicitor who will defer to a media barrister (your first cost is right there!) to see if you have a case that would hold up to prosecution. If you do then you could seek to get an injunction to prevent further lies being printed and look to seek a printed apology and compensation. However this is not guaranteed and is not cheap either. Defamation cases are historically the most expensive to take to trial. So you need deep pockets. The second option is to suck it up and ignore the allegations. Black list that particular publication from your press list, black list the journalist and his editor and where ever they go next make the publication aware that you will not deal with that particular editor/journalist and why. Petty…yes but then again why make their life easier when they have previously printed lies about you? Why feed them stories if they have done you no favours in the past? But mainly remember that today’s scandal is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappings.
6. Journalists hate fluff, spin, hype and blatant advertising. So don’t do it. Even if you think you are the most incredible thing since sliced bread…you will loose all credibility with a journalist if you try to hype your company or product up! It is what it is and that’s that as far as they are concerned. Instead present yourself as a willing and available expert in your field. Make yourself available for comment at short notice to the local radio/tv stations and they will use you time and again. Build up those good relationships by not harassing journalists, constantly nagging them to see if they are using your comment…if it’s good enough they will! however the chance are that providing you aren’t too blatant you will be able to get away with a little bit of advertising…”Yes Bob, here at Homefinder UK we strong believe that the HiPs should be abolished as they present no significant advantage to the home purchaser in the UK.” See it just slipped in there and on live radio or TV once it’s said it can’t be edited…just don’t take the Mickey as you’ll not get invited back again if you do!

So get these few rules down to pat and you’re well on your way to building a working relationship with the media. Just remember though…that’s exactly what it is…it’s a relationship and that makes it a two way effort. You need to play your part and you need to make sure that you know the unwritten rules that journalists play by and that they are sticking to their side of the deal too. Remember too that they are getting from you what they need…column inches filled with articles that are of interest to their readers and you get the coverage that will bring your company to the front of people’s minds and make you more and more recognisable in your field!

Good luck in taming your media monster!

Hmm… Well lets have a look shall we?

There’s much to be said for starting a business when you are younger. You have the energy to be working 24/7 plus as well you may not yet have a family so your focus could easily be on longer working days. That said, would you have the necessary skills to set up your business? Probably not.

You may never have had to sack anyone before or hire anyone. You may not be particularly savvy as to what a bank looks for in a business proposal. The fact remains that you may have built up little personal security such as a property against which to secure a bank loan. Your network of contacts may not be very well developed.

Anyway, enough of the down cast talking! On the upside, you will have bags of enthusiasm. You will probably have that all important “can do” attitude. Your dreams will seem totally achievable. Small problems will be just that - small and you will be able to get over them. You may have more of a disposable income with little to tie you down if you need to move to a different part of the country (or even a different country!) to start up the business.

One thing is for sure too - you won’t have any of the “baggage” that comes with old age. You know the, “Well it didn’t work out for my mate Jim when he went into business for himself, so I don’t think I’ll succeed either. I’m not even going to try it!”

Of course, on the flip side, with age does come that experience. You know what you are letting yourself in for and will be prepared to go it alone. You’ll have a clearer understanding of life in general, knowing that life never works out as planned and therefore you’ll probably be more cautious in your attitude of going self employed. You will have a clearer understanding of how a business should and shouldn’t work - probably having worked in commerce for a number of years longer than your junior counterparts. Banks and other institutions are probably going to be more comfortable lending money to a more mature person, plus you will have had time to build up some savings to fund your venture.

So what’s the perfect age to go it alone in business? Well there’s certainly advantages to both being young and old when you start up, but my money would be on being young enough to have the fire in your belly to do it, but old enough to know better whilst still being prepared to do it anyway!

…you blamed someone or something else of course!

I mean why own up to your own failings when something or someone can take the fall for you?

Ooh no! There it is…the blame game. The single most useless office politics that can be played and one that for my money should be nipped in the bud from the word go.

So how do you do that and why even? I mean surely it’s just easier to blame someone else and get on with the day to day business in hand. Umm well no. I’ve seen it before and in fairness it generally stems from a lack of understanding of a subject as well as from a general culture of blame within a company rather than a culture of growth and nuturing.

Ok, so I’m not gonna go all sappy and uber liberal on you…although I am I will admit wearing sandals whilst I write this article I’m not however munching on beansprouts or chanting! No way Jose - I’m as hard nosed business/profit focused as the next capitalist, however this is an area that needs handling with kidd gloves…after all the root of the problem is likely to be their embarrasement in having a knowledge gap in some aspect of their day to day working life. So for you as their manager or director it’s highly important to find out what that gap is as quickly as possible and plug it. Train them, retrain them if needs be, but never ever make them feel like a failure.

They’re not…they’re only human!

Just like you and me, no one knows everything…it’d be a fantastic world if we all did. But it’s not like that. The whole of life is like a learning process and I say thank God for the T’interweb and Wikipedia! I’ll readily hold my hand up and say, although I run a number of companies, I don’t know everything and frankly it’s gonna be a cold day in Hell when I do! I don’t want to know everything - how boring would that be? But I do know enough to be competent in my role as Director and I’m also savvy enough to know when to outsource or research for something when I don’t know the answers. But that’s the point…I’ll hold my hands up and say - I have no idea but I know how I can find out…then I’ll go away and do just that.

Some folk just don’t have that confidence and as their manager/director one of the key things you need to be on the look out for is the indidcators that flag this up as being a problem - then you need to steer them in the right direction. Away from the blame culture and into the “can do” culture.

Never ever stand there and accept the blame game…the “it wasn’t me…it was the XXXXX” or ” I told so and so to do this and then nothing came of it” Always make sure everyone knows that you won’t stand for the blame game, but that you’ll instead be supportive of anyone who does have a gap in knowledge and look for ways to fix it. Make sure your staff members see you encouraging others to learn and grow and in their roles - it’ll only act as possitive encouragement for them to speak up about what could otherwise be viewed as embarrasing knowledge gaps. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing everything, but there should be a serious no no when it comes to blaming others for your own short comings, afterall everyone has a tongue in their heads and they should be encouraged to use them to ask questions and be proactive, knowing that if they ask they will get an answer and not a heavy hearted *sigh* and look of disappointment!

I have a Facebook account (and yes feel free to log on and invite me to be a friend!) and I use it for two or three different purposes.

Firstly there is the social networking side of things. I got into Facebook when I had an invite via Friends Reunited to join a friend who had moved to Australia on there, then another old school friend who is currently working in Japan found me on there and so you see how the ball got rolling…they had old school friends on there listed as their friends who I hooked up with again after not seeing them for a good few years. Then I got nosey (as I do!) and started looking up old friends and new and started to add them in too. And so this is how I keep in touch with all my friends world wide and let them know simultaneously what I’m up to. It basically makes life very simple!

Then came the fun/silly/wilfing part of Facebook. I put in “Freya” into the search bit and found a couple of other Freyas on there…so I dropped them a message – said hi and how it was funny we had the same first name etc. Soon we got linked up and again, once you are linked you can see other peoples profiles, so I had a look to see what groups they were in and found a couple of “Freya” related groups…so joined them too and hooked up with more Freyas. It was at this point that a work colleague called me a saddo as she noticed that I was (in her words) “collecting” Freyas, and maybe I was but hey that’s the fun of Facebook. I now have more Friends on my profile who are called Freya than “non Freya” friends!

Then I was contacted by someone called Dan…Bletsoe! I’d never heard of him before, but out of the blue got a friends request. So replied yes and away we went merrily chatting away – only to be joined by yet more Bletsoes! And so it continues with more of the Bletsoe clan turning up across the world.

Now that I’ more comfortable with using Facebook I’ve been using it more recently for business purposes. Is it working? You better your sweet Facebook profile it is!!! We have posted up a group called…”a Homefinder in every town” as a way of finding more interested parties who may like to take our franchises across the UK – it’s been up a couple of weeks and I’ve already had 3 enquiries from interested parties! Not bad going really…so we’ve decided to ratchet things up a little by making Facebook more a part of our ongoing marketing plans. We will be including our press releases and video footage up there too and targeting specific groups on there to get our message across.

So is Facebook the future of business? …perhaps if it’s included in a “mix” of marketing, and for PR purposes – yes it really is working.

My only warning would be this: It is highly addictive once you get started you will have trouble getting off there…you have been warned!

You had to trade in your local area – usually from an expensive shop or commercial premises. You had to turn a profit doing so, you had to market yourself in the mediums available, such as in the newspaper on the local radio or via leaflets hand distributed… Then when you finally had a firm footing in your local patch, you expanded. Not far, usually into the neighbouring town, but you expanded all the same. A new shop, or new offices, more over heads to eat into the profit you were starting to make, but you did it in the knowledge that you were eventually going to make even more profit. Nothing like the “big boys” of your industry of course, who had gone before you and done as you’d done – grown their business bit by bit until they were (sometimes hundreds of years later) at the top of the tree.

Then came along the internet and shook that very tree.

It levelled the playing field and meant that even the smallest of new businesses could compete with the “big boys” in their industry. Whoohoo!

The advent of the internet bought us emails, website that have become “virtual shops windows” the ability to market in a much more time and cost effective way. Social networking sites are now morphing and being used to business ends…A good example: on my Facebook account, I was contacted by a random person I didn’t know who simply shares the same unusual surname as me…we got chatting, discussed what we each did for business and from there he’s now interested in taking one of our franchises. For me the benefits are clear…how long would it have taken for me to find this potential franchisee and how long before he would have known about us - him living in the South of the country and us working in the North? Not only is the internet levelling the playing field cost wise for SME’s to large corporates, it’s also changing the time that it is required to build a business, allowing fast paced growth to take place.

So, how’s the internet moulding your company?

There are businessmen and women out there who are earning just as much as some rock stars do if not more…remember Robbie Williams when he was signed up for his solo career to the tune of £80million? Can you remember how he was jumping up and down for the media proclaiming he was “rich beyond his wildest dreams”…hmm. Rich yes, but a long way off fulfilling his contract with the record company so the money wasn’t quite in his sweaty little mitts yet!

Take then Sir Alan Sugar – he of the show “The Apprentice” in the
UK - who has just sold Amstrad for a reputed £120 million. This is only a small part of his “empire” that he has sold off and yet he has surpassed Robbie’s rock and roll £80 million by quite some way.

So with more and more members of the business community selling up and making a mint…business really could be billed as the new rock and roll. With the media producers knocking on the boardroom doors looking for the next big business star of shows like “The Apprentice.” (…and lets face it why wouldn’t they when it’s been such a succesful show on both sides of the Atlantic, especially with Trump’s “Your Fired” catch phrase!) business really is switching over into the glamourous world of big show media. With business “stars” being able to afford the private jets and the lavish houses (just look at Branson’s house that he’s just sold in Holland Park – or Necker) It truly is a simple transformation from one side of the fence to the other.

Not only are “traditional” business folk being propelled into the limelight, others are being attracted and are crossing over into the medium of business from other areas…take Oprah for example, she started as a talk show host – made a lot of money from that and then turned on the business savvy. With not one but two successful magazines under her belt, as well as various other business ventures under her “Harpo” production company…even media darlings are wanting to get in on the world business stage.

Rock and Roll!!!

The fact is – business is not easy…

…It’s not a simple road to riches. You have to work and work and work even harder to build up a good business and it won’t happen by accident!

I’ll let you into a little secret…

In the world of business you and you alone make your own luck. It is in your hands is your success. You really can be the master of your own destiny.

How so? How can it possibly be so simple after all I’ve just told you about it being a long hard struggle? Well here’s the thing – it is never going to be an overnight success. Never. You will never open a business one day and then the next, have a train load of customers turn up at your door. (Unless you are opening a train station of course!) But you can seriously weigh the “luck” factor in your favor. All you need to do is become a “do-er.”

Yup, it’s that simple. Become a do-er. You want to get that shining diamond of a contract? Write the letter to the company offering that contract and tell them why your company would be best suited to getting that contract. Do you have an area of expertise? Contact your local paper/magazine/good blog and offer to write on that subject? Get your name out there and known. Start to build you business by doing. After all no-one is going to “just come to you”. You need to actively make moves so it’s easier for people to approach you back.

Remember years ago (no… further back than that…you’re not that young you know!!) Remember the school dances? Boys on one side, girls on another? Now think who were the successful ones that got all the dances with the pretty girls? That’s right, the ones who approached them and asked them to dance. It certainly wasn’t the ones sat the back of the hall in the dark and gloom. It was the ones at the front of the hall bopping away in the flashing disco lights, having all the fun, weren’t they?

Well in business you too can have all the fun. Just get up from the back of the hall and start asking for those dances! You’d be amazed at the “success” you get if you just get up and ask for it. Go on try it - You deserve it!

Well in part 1 I told you about phantom sponsorships as well as actual ones…in this part I’m going to tell you about the obvious but often over looked tool of the email.

That’s right the humble old email. It’s a lovely part of the internet as it allows you to instantly get your message across to a group of willing readers and all for the princely sum of £big fat zero!! (Or $big fat zero for those of us who don’t have the *ahem* good fortune to live on these green and pleasant shores!)

Now as you know cheap is good but free is always better and if you can stick to this maximum I promise you you’ll not go far wrong in business when it comes to spending on your marketing budget. So with this in mind how can you get the most out of your emails?

Well firstly, look at your actual email as it goes out. The first thing you must do is place your website details into the signature at the bottom of your email. You’ll be able to set this so it comes up automatically when you send out an email.

Also use this facility if you have something you want to announce. We do it to announce road shows we are doing or exhibitions we are attending. We encourage people to book or get tickets for the event from us.

Now in order to do this effectively you are going to need to have an email list and don’t worry if you don’t have a massive one – you will build it over a period of time. If you go to a networking event, swap business cards and then send an initial “nice to meet you” email – from there you can then ask if a new contact would like to receive further occasional information about you and your company via email. Once you get their permission, send them regular email communication – keep in touch and let them know what you are doing as a company. You now have their permission to talk to them and who knows how many people they have in their network? They may decide to forward your email on to their contacts if it’s interesting enough. From there you’ll find that your email list will start to grow - especially if in your emails you actively encourage people to forward on your emails.

Ok, so what else must you know about emails and using them effectively? Well there is a whole etiquette that involves spamming. Basically if you don’t know someone then generally it’s poor form to send them a cold email. I stick to the rule of thumb that if you haven’t met them or been introduced to them either on or off line, then do not add them to your active email list (That is the list that you regularly send emails to). If you have been conversing for a while then what I tend to do is ask if they’d like to join the list. If they say yes, then add them in. If it’s a no then respect that decision. Do not place them onto your list.

Finally if you are sending out a regular email communication, does it have to be an all singing all dancing designed newsletter? Nope (and don’t let any marketer tell you that you do need this - they’re probably just trying to get their hands on your budget!!) Some of the best email newsletters that I get are so simple in their lay out but it’s the content that’s really important – that and the regularity of the email. Don’t do it too often, but then again don’t make it too hit and miss. If it’s going to be once a month make sure it get’s sent once a month, if it’s bi monthly then do it on time. Weekly, however is just too often. Find your balance and then get your newsletter rolling - all the while knowing it’s for free!

Happy bootstrapping!

Why? Well a number of reasons but one of the most important factors is freshness. Our site just isn’t “fresh” anymore. It’s been up in it’s current format for about 18months now. We’ve added a few bits and bobs along the way. Some things that were added worked others haven’t – anyhow it’s time for a refresh of the site. But that’s the nature of the web beast. It’s rather like running along side a whippet. It’s always streaking ahead and you’ve just got to keep up! It’s that simple.

So, what to do when you site needs freshening up?

There are a few key areas you have to look at, and I know it’ll probably cause a major hernia in some folk, but the most important parts for me are:

Design. Get this right the rest just seems to flow. Period. The key to a good website design is simplicity. Stop with the flash and rolling headers at the top. I really have a head ache with all the constant movement. Clear, bright simple. That’s what makes an attractive site in my very humble opinion. Next is…

Features. Ok this is kind of linked to design but I’m putting it here as point number 1.5! Think about what you are going to have on there. If you are starting from scratch this is hard to do, but if you are refreshing a tired site this is simple…look at your web stats and they will show you where people go from your landing page (not always the homepage btw) how long they stay on each page.

What their path is around your site. So say the pages are numbered 1-8 and the general pattern of movement on you current site is. Page, 1-2-4-6-3-5-7-8…then why are they jumping around in that order? Clearly if a pattern emerges that folk are following this footpath then go with the flow and accommodate the users desire to follow that route. They could be classed as meander paths, and if that’s the route most taken then surely common sense says to offer it. In short look at your stats and use them for future planning.

Copy. This is key. No really…it’s not just hype by clever wordsmiths trying to get you to buy their services, there really is an art to using words on the net. I promise you! Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who using Google Adsense. Changing one single word can dramatically change for better or worse, the click through rate for your ad. One single word. That’s serious stuff. For this reason I’d highly recommend that you get a skilled and knowledgeable copywriter onto the case.

Web words are usually shorter and snappier than the ones we use in brochures and off line promotions. You need to be aware of such factors as internet attention span – i.e. that it’s nearly zero. People will make their minds up about you and your site within seconds flat of landing at your door. It’s literally like someone coming to your front door and finding an appealing, fresh and zippy red door with a nice polished brass knocker and swept door step, or coming and finding broken woodwork, cracked glass in the window, a sticky handle and a great big streak of bird poo down the door knocker. Ok, which door will you go for? Not hard is it?

It’s the same with the words you use. They must match your bright clean sparkly image.

Function. Ok this is my final one, but it’s no less important than the others. Basically when I say function, I mean does it do what you set out to do? Is your site there only to inform people of something; is it a collection of information gathered by individuals on a voluntary basis? Or is it there as a sales tool for your company? Think about what you want out of the site.

If you want sales, then make it easy for the public to buy on line…don’t put barriers in the way. (Or if like us and you were looking to slow sales a bit, in order to allow the admin side of the company to grow and settle before taking on too much work, then this may be a deliberate ploy to measure your company growth!) But if you only want to use the site to inform the public, then you’ll probably need lots of sign posts from your site to others, but always before letting your readers leave it could be a good idea to remind them to bookmark you site first – so they keep coming back like the proverbial boomerang!

Now you’ve got to tell the world you are here but …the budget is limited.  Don’t get disheartened, this is where you can let your creative side really run riot…get ready to have some fun!

There’s a number of ways you can get your message across, and in this mini series of articles I’ll share a few ideas I’ve either used or come across over the years.  Starting with the “non-entity sponsorship deal”!

This one’s a great one, but it does require a little bit of creativity on your part…

Here’s the situation:

You’re already doing a bit of marketing, perhaps running a weekly ad in a local paper, or you’ve even got around to putting a bit of marketing blurb on the end of your email signature…whatever it is, if you’ve got a bit of marketing space, here’s an amusing approach that will cost you nothing and will make you stand out above your competition.

Sponsor that “something” that actually is a non-entity and is not “owned” by anyone but is relevant to your industry.

• So for us at Homefinder its:

Homefinder UK - national
UK sponsors of stress free moving.

• For a firm who sells flowers it could be:

Johnson’s Florist – National sponsors of floral scents.

• For a firm who does house cleaning it could be:

Edwards Cleaners – National sponsors of Spick and Span/ clean floors/ dust free homes…

• For a firm who makes and sells air conditioning units it could be:

Jim’s Air Conditioning Units, proudly sponsoring fresh, crisp air

That sort of thing…I’m sure you get the idea.  Make sure of course that it’s something no one else can lay claim to or make you pay for the association to, and then claim it as your own.

Sponsorship deals work…Companies will pay big bucks to be associated with something that enhances their image – so give it a positive spin, like our stress free moving angle and then start to work it to your advantage – become known as being linked with that idea, really start to work it in all your advertising and promotional literature.

All the while remembering that whilst some companies are paying millions of pounds to be the official sponsor of this or that – your sponsorship came with an added bonus – it was free!

Ok so what am I talking about? Well when I first started out I found that I had so many areas of the business that were all vying for my attention that it was really hard to focus. No I mean really hard…on top of that I had other external issues wanting my attention too, kids, housework, leisure time etc…there just never seemed to be enough time in the day for everything. I’m sure you’ve been there, done that right?

It was then that I decided to focus.

And when I say focus I mean really, intensely focus.

But only for short bursts at a time. 5 minutes was all it took. (I can tell you I’m not a person with a long attention span!)

Now those who know me know that I like to make lists. I give a list to my key staff at the start of the month outlining where we are going that month and what needs achieving. I make lists for myself, not because I can’t remember stuff – quite the opposite, but because I feel motivated when I can tick things off as being completed.

I make short hand lists in meetings instead of full notes. Lists are very much my thing.

All these lists are well documented but how do I get to the lists in the first place? Well I take blocks of 5 minutes and I focus my mind on what needs doing. I set the clock on my computer for a 5 minute countdown, open a new word document and then focus my mind on that topic for 5 minutes. The document is then literally a list of “tag words”. I rarely use sentences, but this is the system that’s best for me as I view this as simply a precursor list to a “to do list”.

The point is to take those 5 minutes and to work your mind really hard for that very short burst. Don’t let it wander, focus focus focus on what needs to be done! It’s hard to start with but once you get used to doing it for a bit, you do get swifter and your mind goes into a shift of short rapid concentration on a topic.

So, what does all this achieve? Well I tend to do this at the start of the day, each day and I’ll take 5 minutes for each topic that I need to expand on that day or that week. (I rarely expand on anything for more than a month in advance as plans always change – and the sands often shift from under your feet if you plan much further ahead than one month at a time I find!) I also find that 3 topics is good amount of work for anyone to work on in any one day – especially when you have to work around appointments and interruptions from other folk!

It means that I clear my mind of things that really need my full undivided attention – which of course it never gets during the working day. It means I know where I’m going with a germ of an idea…I will have taken an idea and grown it in those five minutes. It also means because I’ve only ever spent five minutes on a topic at a time I don’t feel like I’m investing loads of my precious time on any one thing at once. I can “spew” up a lot of good ideas or notes in those five minutes of focus and then if I choose to moth ball them for an hour or two or even a day or two, I can quite happily walk away from it – knowing that I’ve started that particular topic’s journey from seed to full grown working plan!

It also means that I start the day feeling that I’ve got some work under my belt already…and perhaps this is a very clear sign that I’m a workaholic!! But I hate to start the day with no clear idea of what I need to be working on and I’ve found this system eradicates that feeling in return for not very much investment in my time.

Another thing that I do with the system is I make sure that when the five minutes is up, that’s it…nothing else goes down on the list.

Harsh?

Umm yes!

And I know, I can hear you all saying “yes but…what happens if you have a brilliant flash of genius at 5.01 minutes?” Well I don’t, not any more, as I take those five minutes of focus and I logically order them with the most important aspect; as I feel it is when I first look at the topic; being at the top of the list. I try to arrange it so that it’s like a good press release. The best bit being at the very head of the focus session and the rest of the session supporting that first flash of brilliance. (This bit usually happens in the first minute btw). Ok, so that probably sounds completely restrictive and binding, but that’s the point of the exercise. It’s supposed to be contained, so it doesn’t meander in to your working day. Get the hard work out of the way and then get on with building your working day around it. This way I find my time is utilised to its best and that I’m not just wandering aimlessly through a working day wasting time.

Go on…try it.

Give yourself five minutes for each topic you need to work on then work off that focus session for rest of the day…I promise you, you’ll see how much you can actually get done in five minutes if you just focus, focus, focus. And that investment of time will pay dividends throughout your working day.

You’ll be expected to be the oracle on all things marketing. What works for this business, what doesn’t, who to contact how to do it and when? A myriad of questions…but realistically you can’t be expected to know all the answers, so how do you lead your company, making its marketing efforts work without looking like you are blagging it every day? How do you take that pressure off yourself and make your marketing efforts work without them becoming too much like hard work?

Simple…you listen.

No really. It is that simple! Remember for every one marketing trick you have employed there will be another 3 you haven’t yet tried – one of which is bound to the newest trick in the stable. So you need to keep your ear to the ground and find out what’s new and what’s working for others that you haven’t yet tried yourself and to do that you need to listen to what’s happening out there in the big old world of marketing.

This is where the value of team work comes in, and believe me it’s quite an adjustment to make from being a sole trader to being a team of people all moving a company in the same direction…sometimes it feels like you are tied together like a mass, 3 legged race which is then all lassoed together for good measure…you know where you all are heading but boy oh boy is it a job getting everyone there in an efficient manner!

So now your role is switching from “doing” to “testing” and “cajoling” and “listening and learning”…and yes it’s a hard transition to make, but rewarding if you can do it.

So where to start on the metamorphosis? Well think of it this way – one honey bee can happily make honey on it’s own, but loads of bees together are going to make a tonne more honey together and that’s the attitude you have to start taking…working together, listening, gathering all the great ideas together that are out there and implementing them to make the team work together.

Now hands up – who hates this word…synergy.

Yup that’s right that dirty old word synergy – sounds so eighties doesn’t it? You know - “Yah, right well we must pull the synergy together on this project Tarquin, Yah Yah!”

Yup, are you getting that image of the yuppie talking into the brick sized phone? Hmm me too, but in fairness that horrible word still has value today in that you need to pull the threads of your team together and get some form of synergy going between them…it’s your role to make your team listen to each other. They need to start feeding off each others energy.

Make it an “energy synergy”!

Once that feeling starts to flow with your team then, and only then will the ideas start to flow. It’s your role to make your marketing efforts “flow and grow” (it’s a day for sound bites isn’t it?) but you must not stifle any marketing efforts by anyone in your company…don’t just leave marketing ideas and suggestions down to the marketing department. Sure it’s their role to be the only guys implementing those ideas, but ideas should be flowing from all corners of the company – from the mail room to the boardroom. Make your team marketing champions and make it part of the company culture as you grow.

As the big old boss of the company it will be your place to work with your marketing team to choose which ideas to implement, but you do need to allow for the listening to take place…encourage ideas…run a competition for the best marketing idea each month to win a bottle of champagne. Have an open forum where marketing ideas can be shared – have a marketing brainstorming week one week a month where emails fly round your company – brimming with ideas to try out…but it’s all down to the listening at the end of the day – it’s no good letting your staff or franchisees present good ideas if you are going to sit there like the bratty little child with their fingers in their ears going “la la la la – I can’t hear you!” Who’s going to want to put forward any new ideas if you are going to rip them up and trample on them?

Find a way that you can test out new ideas. Fancy doing something on YouTube? – go on give it a whirl. Want to see if local newspaper advertising works? Do it locally for a head office owned franchise unit, if it works great – roll it out across the network – share the design formula. If it doesn’t then state why it doesn’t work and move on from there to the next idea. But all the time listen and make it easy for all your team to share their ideas – you never know, that geeky IT guy may know a thing or two about a “hot new marketing tool called blogging?” Or did the mailroom boy see a great marketing strategy come through the mail room the other day from an external company? What about the franchisee who spoke to another franchisee of a non-competing company who told them about a successful campaign their company had recently run? Only by listening will you learn what’s new and out there.

So go on – give it a try and see what happens when you actually listen to your staff and franchisees…if nothing else it lightens the load on you to be the all-seeing all-being oracle on everything marketing, and surely that’s one pressure all company leaders would love to be able to offload without undermining their leadership position within the company?