Archive for March, 2011

Your Own Business: Marketing and Advertising Plans

March 27th, 2011

You already know that you want your own business. You have carefully analyzed your options and chosen the business that is the right one for you. You have completed the first basic steps and are ready to really get started. If you want to be successful from the very start, you’ll need at least a basic marketing plan.

You’ll notice that I said “basic marketing plan” and not “full blown business plan.” This is because I am not of the belief that a micro business needs to spend the time on a lengthy business plan right at the start. You do need to commit some concepts to paper so you have an initial plan to start, but a detailed business plan is quite simply out of most people’s reach at this point of the game.

Unless you are investing and borrowing large sums of money, I say keep it simple and invest your time doing activities that get you closer to making money. Creating a detailed business plan will eat up the time that is better used doing such money-making activities. Plus, creating a detailed business plan now may misguide you down the road unless you already have intimate knowledge of you business.

If you’re starting on a shoestring, I say build the business plan as you go along and learn. You can start with a basic marketing plan, which will become part of the business plan in the future. When you grow more, know more and maybe need borrowed capital, then finish your business plan. If you still feel you need one now then do it.

The marketing plan that I use is a simple seven points. It is short but powerful. It is your roadmap at launch and beyond. The budget and specific details may change as you grow, but the basic principals will most likely remain the same.

As always, run your marketing plan and business ideas by your trusted support group. This includes friends, family and experts such as your accountant and lawyer.

Creating Your Marketing Plan

As I mentioned before, your marketing plan is your roadmap to success for launching your business and beyond. And although I don’t think you absolutely must have a formal written business plan in place before launching your micro business, do not attempt a go at it without a written marketing plan. Your marketing plan can be as lengthy as you wish to make it, if that fits your specific needs, but basic seven point marketing plan should be enough with which to start. You probably will expand it with more details later, but the only one you are impressing with a 15-page plan to start with is yourself.

Here are the seven points I suggest for your marketing plan:

Point One – The first point explores and explains the reasons for your overall marketing strategy. By “reasons” I mean the purpose you are doing marketing and what you wish to achieve in general.

As an example, a reason for your marketing may be to attract customers to your shop to fix their tires. Another reason may be to get interested traffic to your website to browse and consider your products or services. Yet another is you may want to let the decision makers at many corporations know about you and your new company. These are the basic reasons for your marketing campaign. Obviously, you will never reach every single possible person for your business, but you will continue to reach out to as many as you can.

These reasons are not the same as goals. Goals are specific and measurable, while reasons are general and not measurable. The goals become the measuring sticks for the reasons you are in business. Some goals based on the above reasons might be informing 25 car owners about your tire shop or getting 30 new visitors to your website.

Point Two – If Point One is your broad marketing strategy, then Point Two are your tactics. The second Point offers an explanation about how you will achieve the reasons you laid out in Point One.

For example, for your attracting customers to your tire shop, you may choose to use ads in the phone book and newspaper, you may mail out coupons or have them placed on care windshields, or you may place billboards. For a new website, you might list that you will purchase keywords on Yahoo and Google, place banner ads on similar websites, or issue a press releases about happenings at your business and on your website.

This point will basically be those that you plan to use at launch and soon after. You’ll develop a longer list in Point Four that will be your guidelines for the future during your growth phase.

Point Three – The third Point is to whom you will be targeting your marketing. Not surprisingly, this is called your target market. These should be the people who have the desire, need, or potential to purchase your product or service. Make sure this is who you are after; it makes no sense to market to 50,000 people if only 10 are possible customers.

Your target for the tire shop example might be all car owners within 15 miles of your shop. If you are offering custom-made promotional products for companies, then your target market might be heads of marketing. If your website sells items featuring university football teams, then you probably want to reach university alumni and fans of the team.

By knowing to whom you will target your marketing, you will be able to better create an effective marketing message and spend your money more effectively by utilizing methods that get right to the people that are most likely to become your customers.

Point Four – This is basically a list of every marketing and advertising avenue that you think you will employ in the future. This is not necessarily at the early stages of your business because some may be cost prohibitive or you may not have grown to the point to where you can actually fulfill the demands of the numerous customers that may respond.

Basically, this can serve as a guideline for the future and as a wish list of methods you’d like to utilize at some point. But try to be realistic about costs, needs and even your willingness. TV may either be too costly or just wasteful for your particular business. Or perhaps you’re shy, so you won’t be speaking at the Chamber of Commerce nor doing newspaper interviews.

This list can be as long or as short as you desire. Try to think as broadly as you can about what might work for your business. Look at what other successful companies do. Think about all of marketing, which can include advertising, publicity, promotions and publicity. Take your time at this Point and really give it some thought and research

Some examples that you may not consider at first include things like using your circle of acquaintances to help with word-of-mouth, classified ads, fliers that can be placed around town or on doors, flea markets, joining community and business organizations for networking, trade shows, bumper stickers, and direct mail.

Point Five – This Point explains what makes you special, or what your niche in the marketplace is going to be. You will have to decide on this because you will have to communicate it to your customers. Your focus should be on what differentiates you and your business from all of your competition.

In marketing terms, this is known as your unique selling proposition, or USP. Your USP/niche can be based on speed, customer service, prices, quality, selection, or whatever you determine you can offer better than anyone else. Do focus on reality and be reasonable in your own expectations. Make sure your USP/niche is valid, within your capabilities, what you will really do to make your business unique and also what will actually matter to your target market.

Point Six – The sixth Point focuses attention on what you wish the overall public perception or identity of your business to be. This most likely will be an extension of Point Five and you USP/niche. Once again, make it real and make it what you can attain and deliver.

Your identity is basically how the public perceives your business and the way that they will feel about it. It doesn’t have to be one single point. For example, you may want to be considered the fastest and friendliest in town. Or maybe you wish to be considered the least expensive with the widest selection. On the other hand, you may want to be the most exclusive with the highest prices and best quality.

Point Seven – You’ve been waiting for this one, your marketing budget. This is especially hard at the beginning because you may literally have no idea. But it is generally true that you have to spend some money to make money. If you can’t get enough people to know about you, you’ll have a hard time getting the paying customers you need to survive and flourish.

In the beginning, it is probably what you can afford. But you need to establish some guidelines now for the expectation of your marketing budget. The best way I know of is to base your marketing budget on projections of your overall revenues for the first year. A general guideline to start with could be 5%, but you may determine it should be 2%, 7% or more than 10%. It’s up to you and your knowledge of the market and your estimations of how much you can afford to invest in the first year.

In the first few months of your new business, you can expect to alter this number based on how things go. You can also expect to change it from year to year based on overall revenue growth and profits. But you have to start somewhere and have an idea of what your limits will be.

Creating an Advertising Plan

Now that you have a marketing plan to serve as your general roadmap, you’ll also want to create a brief advertising plan as well. The advertising plan is a natural extension of the marketing plan, but serves as a more specific guide for you advertising campaign and the messages you wish to get across.

You should create a new advertising plan for each campaign or even for each advertising method you use. Every advertising method is unique and the way you get your messages across may vary. I typically use Five Points when I sit down to determine what to do in any particular advertising situation.

Point One – The reason or purpose for the advertising. You will determine this much like Point One in your marketing plan, but make it more specific based on the particular time and place of the ad.

Point Two – Explain the number one USP/benefit you will offer in the advertising message in order to meet what you wrote in Point One.

For example, if your purpose is to attract new paying customers, you may tout one hour service on their tires. Or you may offer guaranteed satisfaction with a no-hassle exchange or refund policy to help people feel better about trying your product or service for the first time. Remember, you know your business is special, but they don’t know it yet!

Point Three – What are additional USPs/benefits that you offer, but are not the main USP/benefit? If they are interested in your number one USP/benefit, any additional ones may help “close the deal.”

For example, if you offer one hour service on tires, you may also offer a clean comfortable waiting room with free coffee and snacks. If you offer guaranteed satisfaction, you may also wish to point out your wide selection of trusted brands and free consultations to help the customer determine what brand is best for them.

Point Four – Define your target audience for this advertising campaign. Depending on the actual time and place of the ad, it may be your broad target as explained in Point Three of your marketing plan or it may be a more specific subset of the target.

For example, your overall target may be all women over 18, but your specific message for a particular ad campaign may be more effective if it only addresses college educated women older than 45. Or your tire shop may target all car owners within a 15 mile radius, but your windshield leaflet will be for car owners within 1 mile.

Point Five – Here you’ll explain just what it is you want your customer to do.

You may simply wish for them to call you or visit your website for more information. Or possibly you want them to come into your office for a consultation. Maybe you just want them to make a purchase immediately. Whatever you want them to do, you need to explain it first so you can develop a campaign based on the desired outcome. In come cases, you just have to tell the customer what you want them to do.

A Few Pointers

I cannot stress how important it is to write your marketing plan down and consult it (and update it) often.

You should also develop and write down a separate advertising plan for each new campaign. This helps you create a more effective message and get the desired results for less money.

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Start a Business the CHEAP Way!

March 25th, 2011

So you want to start a business and enjoy the glamour and stardom of being self-employed (ha-ha)? Great, but you have no money. Even better! Starting a business with little or no money is a huge advantage in several ways. It will:

  • Cause you to learn every aspect of being self employed – knowledge is power
  • Cause you to become very creative and resourceful push you outside of your box
  • Cause you to really know if this is what you want to do
  • Give you great stories to tell when you do get successful
  • Teach you to trust your gut and strengthen your faith in yourself

Today, I work for myself as a self-promotion consultant and speaker, but when I first went into business on my own thirteen years ago, I started with nothing (and I still have most of it left!). But seriously, it was the most amazing learning experience. I put myself in a position of having to figure out how to make an income very quickly. About two months’ time was all I had to make it work. Knowing that, the pressure was on and that’s just what I needed to succeed.

In the beginning, if this is really what you are meant to do, you will find yourself working twice as hard for half as much and feeling ten times more alive!

Here are five tips that can help you begin to look outside of the box and get you moving forward CHEAP.

C) Care about what you are doing. You must really care about not only making your business successful, but about the products and services that you are selling. And you must care about the client.

Value each and every client or prospective client. You can do this by sending thank-you cards, remembering their birthdays, anniversaries, accomplishments and acknowledging all these things. Your very first clients are valuable. Treat them like gold – then ask for referrals.

H) Help out when you can. Volunteer your services in your community or donate products or gift certificates to charities or silent auctions. This will give you exposure. Give informational talks to help educate people about your industry. You can make great connections this way and start to build your email list.

You can also help yourself and other entrepreneurs by trading services. If you need a life coach or an accountant, find one that needs your services or products and trade. You can also trade gift certificates,mailing lists, and website links with your contacts. This helps you build referral partners – other business people who will refer clients to you if you will refer yours to them.

Speaking of help, there’s a lot of free help out there if you do your research. One of the best resources for free help to entrepreneurs and business owners is SCORE (www.score.org). SCORE is a non-profit association that is dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and small businesses. The amount of information and resources that this organization offers is immense and invaluable. In fact, go directly to the site now (I mean,as soon as you finish reading this of course!).

E) Engage as many people as you can. Write a list of all the people you know. You can start with categories like: church, school, friends, family, then list all the people you know in those categories. Let everyone know what you do and ask them if they know of anyone who could use your services. Get them engaged by offering them a discount and give a discount to the friends that they refer. Engage them by asking their advice on your ads, website, business cards, etc…You can also ask a successful person whom you admire to mentor you. Most successful people love to share and help.

A) Advertise yourself always. Wherever you go, make sure you have your business cards and even a brochure available to hand out to a prospective customer. You can even get car magnets for as little as $12 each and stick them to your car.

If you join a Chamber of Commerce or other types of organizations, often times the membership will come with free advertising.

Make sure you have a small, post-card sized ad to carry with you. You want to take a stack everywhere. You can stick these in magazines at the doctor’s office, the information table at the library, the bulletin board at the coffee houses, or anywhere that there is some free space!

If you do buy advertising, make sure that you are getting the best price possible and know that all advertising is negotiable. Radio stations will sell air time cheaper at the end of their cycle because what they don’t sell will be lost forever. The same goes for print ads.

Make friends with the sales reps, let them know that you are willing to create an ad at the last minute if they have space that needs filled…if the price is right, of course. Many smaller publications as well as radio stations are willing to trade.

Learn to negotiate. Memorize and use this phrase as often as you can, “Is that the best you can do?” That one phrase has saved me hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars.

Take advantage of free ads on sites like Craig’s list and other on-line classifieds.

And of course, you want to learn on-line marketing if you are looking for clients on a national scale, but that’s a topic for another day!

P) Get Press! Get free press. Get on radio shows, local news programs and in local publications. Get writers to write about you and your business (or write articles yourself). This is not that hard to do, but will take some time and effort. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. If you hear someone on a radio show, call her and ask her how she got on there and could she help you do the same.

Look at your local newspapers and publications. Identify the writers who write about similar topics. If you are accountant, you would be the perfect person to be interviewed around tax time. Could you write an article listing several steps to make tax preparation easier? Could you comment on a national issue? I have been on the local news several times as a “local expert” on stress and was asked to comment on national issues the stations were covering.

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The Basic Start to a Small Business’ Continuity Program

March 23rd, 2011

As a small business owner you are busy making sure that your business is operating in an effective manner at all times. You can’t afford to spend dollars and resources on anything that is not absolutely essential to your business operation. That is why small business owners usually don’t plan for a disaster. It doesn’t seem to make sense to spend money to plan for something that may not happen.

However some simple steps taken now may keep you in business should a disaster event occur. You do not have to spend a lot of money, time and resources to develop and implement this plan. You do not need a Fortune 500 or ROB 1000 type plan. But you do need something on paper and tested to be truly effective.

So first, you need to understand what is critical to your business? In a large company this is accomplished by a formal Business Impact Analysis or BIA. This can be a long process and can impact your operation as many groups or individuals have to either attend the workshops or complete a detailed questionnaire to explain their work activities and areas.

You need a small version of a BIA. You need to ask your managers and senior people to provide you with the following information as a minimum:

  • What activities they do on a regular basis
  • Who do they send or receive information from to complete theses activities?
  • What software do they use?
  • Do they use any special type of equipment to complete these activities?
  • Customer names and contact information
  • Supplier information and contact names
  • Copies of financial information that can be stored off-site
  • Contact information for their staff members
  • Copies of manuals and other information that they use on a regular basis that can be taken off-site

Once you have this information, what do you do with it?

You now need to make sure copies of the software, contact information and manuals or documentation is stored off-site. Much of this can be stored electronically. You probably won’t have a large amount of material to take off-site so you won’t need an off-site storage provider.

You do need to make sure that this information is accessible 24 hours a day by you and at least 2 other people. So keeping it on the servers or your laptop isn’t really a good idea.

If it is stored on your servers, what happens if you cannot get into your building after the event? If it is on your laptop, do you take your laptop everywhere you go? This includes lunches, meetings, coffee breaks and anywhere else that takes you away from your desk during the day.

If you can burn copies of all of the data onto CDs, then make it a habit to burn multiple copies of the data and changes on a regular schedule and take a copy home and give the other 2 people copies to take home. Don’t use a bank safety deposit box. These are not accessible 24 hours a day.

Once this information has been gathered, and stored off-site, then you can start looking at the technology and work area recovery that you need to put into place to fully recover your business when an emergency or disaster event occurs.

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Using “New Event” Marketing to Promote Your Small Business

March 21st, 2011

Organizing an educational event such as a seminar or conference is a great way to get out of the office and network with prospective clients and promote your small business within your community. However, a traditional event marketing format presents some challenges to small business owners, including the costs of putting on an event, creating buzz (“Not another breakfast speaker series”), being able to offer attendees value, etc. So how can your small business take advantage of the benefits of educational event marketing while minimizing some of the risks and pressures associated with putting on a successful seminar or conference?

Two of the main challenges associated with event marketing include presenting an interesting topic/speaker and creating a format that holds the attention of attendees. To attract prospects to an educational seminar or conference and, more importantly, to make the experience memorable, your small business will need to present a format that offers the following:

  • Variety – different presenters (with different styles) make the seminar experience more interesting and adds value
  • Engagement – having attendees become part of the process is a great way to create a memorable experience
  • Value – What’s in it for your prospects? Will it be worth their time? Will they be able to learn something that can help them solve a problem?

A New Seminar Format

Instead of following a standard seminar blueprint i.e. one speaker talking “to” the audience, try mixing it up to create excitement and a lasting impression. Paul McMahon, a friend and colleague, introduced me to an excellent event marketing concept that could work for any small business. His one-day “roadshow” format blends an educational seminar with a mini trade show, creating a informative and engaging event for attendees.

To illustrate how this new format might look in practice, I did some research and mocked up a 1/2 day event itinerary that could be used for my small business, Intersection Consulting:

  • 8:30am – Complimentary Continental Breakfast
  • 9:00am – How to use online marketing to grow your small business (Mark Smiciklas, Small Business Marketing Consultant)
  • 9:30am – What is search engine optimization and how does it work? (Jordan Smith, Web Developer and Designer)
  • 10:00am – Employee benefit options for small business (Rachel Jones, Small Business Benefits Consultant)
  • 10:30am – Coffee Break
  • 10:45am – Ask the Expert (Our presenters will be available to help address some of your small business challenges – feel free to drop by their table to ask questions or find out more about their services)
  • 11:30am – Closing Remarks

Enlisting 2 strategic partners (offering services/products that compliment your target market) will help you minimize costs while facilitating diversity of content. By investing your time and providing a computer/projector for event presentations, the approximate marketing cost, based on 30 attendees, would be less than $300.00 per company. I know my target market would pay $30.00 each to attend this type of educational event, would yours?

Other Event Marketing Tips

  1. Make your event inexpensive to attend in order to maximize interest. The goal should be to try to cover your costs – look at this type of event marketing as an investment/networking opportunity and a chance to position your small business as a thought leader.
  2. Select a small venue for your first event. Limited seating will help you sell out and create scarcity, assisting in the development of a good marketing message – “Only 30 spots available – this event will sell out fast!”.
  3. Start promoting 6-8 weeks before the event date – soon enough for prospects to know their schedules and far enough out to minimize possible conflicts.
  4. Send clear directions and email a Google Map link so attendees know exactly where the event is taking place.
  5. Confirm registrations and send email reminders 2 weeks, 1 week and the night before the event.
  6. Follow up with attendees after the event. If possible email an online survey to gain feedback on the speakers and topics and garner suggestions on how to improve future events.

Event marketing is an excellent way to raise the profile of your brand. Embracing new ways to put on educational seminars and conferences can help your small business create sales leads, develop a reputation as a leader in your field, build relationships with prospects and fuel new strategic alliances.

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Green Awareness For Greening Businesses

March 19th, 2011

I wish I could take about a week to give business people an introduction to Green business practices. Environmentalism has become an immense diversity of issues, and even scaling down to the parts that apply to business leaves enough information to fill a truckload of books. Even the dedicated environmental professional will need to spend a great deal of time to master the concepts that apply to business.

Add to that the challenges and demands of running a business, and it is easy to understand why taking a business Green is frankly beyond the resources of most businesses. It is a practical matter of necessity. The needful chores and obligations of business are back breaking. How can you fit an elephant of environmental challenges into a coffee cup of available time? That is why most businesses are forced into a token form of environmental contributions. The solution is not squeezing another load of duties onto an overworked staff.

The smart answer is that the Green transition of a business is best accomplished by bringing on a Green consultant as the outsourced expert that brings a carefully crafty plan to move the business to a Green operation. This professional can make sense of a very confusing subject by stepping the business through the best ideas for that company. Businesses outsource a variety of tasks rather than trying to pay for an internal staff member that will cost a great deal more in salary, benefits, and health care. For a fixed price, a Green consultant will provide an year-long process that will move the business toward a successful GCI Green Building certification.

Other programs can make the Greening process far more costly, complex, and over-reaching. Frankly, why are bike racks and proximity to public transportation part of the Green business formula. While they may be good ideas and help in the greater world issues, they do little to improve the health and operation of the business and its employees. Are Green roofs the singular “Best Idea” for each and every business? If you listened to some narrow-thinking advisers, it would seem so.

In fact, there are hundreds of ideas (small and sizable) that may be applied to a business, and we know that no two Green plans are exactly alike. The businesses differ in their practice, budget, and geography. It is also important to understand that Going Green is a progressive effort that cannot be accomplished in a once-forever approach. New innovations, new revelations, and new ideas are emerging month by month. The Green consultant is therefore the Ad Hoc expert bringing the best Green ideas to the table for consideration.

The last concern for Green business transition is the cost of the changes required. To be honest, getting some Green certification can be a $25,000 entry fee and a $250,000+ ultimate investment. There are elite and pretentious services that ask for more exorbitant fees to take your business Green. However, it is also very possible to take your company Green for a few thousand dollars. Spread the cost over a year, and the process becomes affordable and less intrusive.

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Tax Advantages For Home Based Businesses

March 17th, 2011

People start home based internet or direct sales businesses for many reasons. However, many of these same people still do not understand or realize all of the tax advantages that they qualify for.

Lets have a simple look at deductions and expenses you may be able to use to your advantage come tax time.

Business Deductions:

You are in an internet or direct sales business so therefore you are eligible for business deductions. These expenses have to be necessary and reasonable for the operation of your internet or direct sales business.

It is extremely important that you keep accurate records and books for your accountant and tax purposes. Your records need to include the types sources of income, expenses, losses, gains and cost. You need to include items like bank statements, cancelled cheques, receipts, invoices, credit card statements etc.

Please do not keep all your stuff in shoe boxes or bags, carefully organize them in a filing system. Your accountant will adore you as it will make life so much easier for them, believe it or not your life will also be much easier if you ever have to look up a particular receipt etc..

For further clarification you need to check with a professional accountant. Also remember that tax deductions vary according to the tax laws of the country in which you live.

Tax Deductions for Home Based Businesses:

No one likes tax time, but since you own your own home based internet or direct sales business you could actually save thousands of dollars a year in taxes, as it allows you to turn some personal expenses into legitimate, allowable expenses. The more tax deductions your business can legitimately take, the lower its taxable profit will be.

Lets look at some of the tax advantages to keep in mind.

Auto Expenses:

Keep track of and deduct all of your actual business related expenses. Do you lease your vehicle? Log the mileage you drive and keep your gas receipts. Don’t forget you auto insurance, license plate fees, and vehicle registration. Keep all of your maintenance receipts also.

Education/Training Expenses:

As an owner of a home based internet or direct sales business you continually need to educate yourself. You are allowed to claim for the cost of training materials, training meetings, programs, manuals, conferences, books, on line training subscriptions and internet courses etc.. Also you can claim for professional fees that you pay out to your lawyers, your accountants and tax consultants and other professionals that you consult with for your business.

Business Entertaining:

You are able to deduct a percentage of the cost of entertaining existing or prospective customers and associates. The entertainment must be either “directly related ” to your business or “associated” with business. Entertaining must be done immediately before or after your discussion. It is important that you keep a record of the people involved in your entertaining ( in a diary or write their names on the back of the receipt, both are good habits to get into). Entertaining can be elaborate or it can be as simple as a dinner or meeting for a cup of coffee.

Travel:

When you are traveling for business there are many expenses you can deduct. They include the cost of air fare, cost of operating your vehicle, car rentals, taxis, accommodations, meals, shipping business materials to and from destination, dry cleaning, laundry service, telephone calls, faxes, tips, and more. It is perfectly alright to combine business with pleasure as long as business is the main reason for the trip. However, remember that if you take your family with you, you can not deduct their expenses for the trip.

Interest:

You are allowed to deduct interest and carrying charges on your credit cards used for business and on business loans.

Computer Software:

You really need to discuss any computer software purchases with your tax consultant or accountant on how this applies to your home based internet or direct sales business. For example Star Wars games are not a deductible item while accounting software may be require for your business.

Advertising:

Advertising is a must have for any business to make money. All expenses involved with advertising and promoting your business is deductible. Classified Ads, business cards, newspaper ads, ezine ads, flyers, brochures and other forms of advertising.

Charitable Contributions:

Charitable contributions are deductible, however the rules will differ in accordance with the taxation laws of the country in which you live and as to how your business is registered. Your tax consultant or accountant can clarify the points on charitable contributions.

Household Expenses:

This deduction is one of the most valuable ones. A percentage of your home must used “exclusively and regularly” for business in order to qualify for this deduction.

Under household expenses many people overlook some of the following expenses:

Business related long distance services
Monthly internet fees
Costs related to improving your office space
A percentage of all household expenses (property taxes, mortgage interest, homeowners insurance, utilities, property maintenance, alarm systems and more)
Office Furniture and equipment (new desks, chairs, lamps file cabinets and more–your accountant or tax consultant can tell you what you can claim)

This certainly is not a complete list of deductions, for a completed list you will need to talk to your tax consultant or your accountant as they are the experts. They will review all of the legitimate deductions and business expenses that you are allowed according to the taxation laws of your country.

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Create Successful Party Plan Business Systems That Make You Money

March 15th, 2011

Years ago I read Michael Gerber’s “E-Myth” and his view on setting up a strong and successful business using business systems made so much sense I couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t be done.

A business system is simply a way of doing things. It includes the procedures and processes. Now this might sound complicated but it isn’t really, it is about making the everyday business activities quick and easy.

One example Michael gave was about a hotel that was really good at customer service. When a customer came back for a second stay they found their preferred newspaper ready for them, the right coffee, the bed turned how they liked it etc, all things that made their visit feel personal. How it was done was simply recording their preferences and using them each time they visited. When the visitor arrives at the hotel they fill out a card (form) ticking boxes for preferences such as newspapers, coffee and tea, etc and the card is kept on file and used when they return so it all looks seamless. Also recorded on the card are comments from staff about preferences so it was even stronger.

Now most of us aren’t probably running party plan hotels or B&B’s so this example may initially seem unrelated but the idea of the booking form is shared between our industries.

I’m an independent party plan consultant with my own business so have developed business systems myself but if you’re working with a direct sales party plan company they should be able to provide you with a very strong and robust party plan business system.

When I book a party I fill out a form I have created in Word capturing the hostess and party details. I have a checklist section so I have a physical reminder of what I need to take as part of my kit. I have done enough parties now that my kit is second nature for me but this section lets me quickly train others who are working with or helping me and it helps me when I have so much on my plate during the busy times that I just need a little backup.

I have a sale form so I can track sales for both my sales analysis purposes but to also show customer how easy it is to get rewards for sales. I give my hostesses a reward for having the party but the bulk is set to sales so the more sales the more free jewelry gift voucher credits they get.

I also run a competition so everyone at the party can go in and find out in the email newsletter about the results. The newsletter also lets me regularly communicate with existing and potential customers about designs, sales, parties, new launches, trade show expos and events. It is a very useful marketing tool that I think every business should have.

All these forms and ways of doing it all is part of the business system for the party plan side of my business. When I was starting this I simply figured out what was going to be involved in organizing a party. Writing instructions out once, drawing up a form (read a table in a Word document) once makes it much easier for me to get things ready for a series of ongoing parties.

I have three folders for all of this; one for filing completed parties, one in my party plan kit with the sales form and competition form in it, this also has information to give to hostesses making bookings at the parties and a third folder for all the forms and brochure at home (the business system folder). For me it is just easier to have them in folders and tidy so I can use the valuable information within them for business building.

I use Microsoft Word for my documents and forms and Publisher for the brochure. I have an inexpensive color printer/scanner/photocopier for printing (if you’re going to get a printer get an all in one setup). It is all very simple and inexpensive really. I need business systems to make me money rather than cost me a heap of money so my hardware is really a very cheap setup that does the job.

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Cost Effective Small Business Marketing Strategies and Tips – Part 5

March 13th, 2011

In my last article on Cost Effective Marketing Strategies for small businesses I discussed how you can use Mass Media on a small budget very effectively. In this Part 5 article I will concentrate on Marketing Tactics, Customer Based Marketing and Important Marketing Elements.

GREAT MARKETING TACTICS

Free Consultations: Provide a free half hour or hour long consultation to prospects giving them advice and information. Follow up in two days and ask for the sale. This tactic establishes you as an expert and even if the prospect doesn’t use your services, you will have a fantastic referral source (make sure you ask for referrals!).

–Power your Consultation with visual aids and demonstrations.
–Turn your Free Consults into testimonials.

Writing Articles: Being published as an Expert will bring you targeted, continuous business. Be sure to submit your articles online and back link to your Website. Your web traffic will increase exponentially. Then offer Free E-books on your Website to solidify the relationship. When prospects understand your expert status, they will give you business, as well as, refer you to others.

Seminars: Depending on your business having a FREE or Paid Seminar can be a great way to mine prospects. Again, this strategy works well as the Expert strategy and piggybacks well with Free Consultations, Articles and E-books. Free Seminars can be unpredictable, but a nominal fee Seminar can be enough to guarantee success. A nominal fee ensures the attendee will show, while providing a ton of value for the information provided. Be sure to video all your seminars and sell them on your website.

–Lecture / instruct for half an hour to forty five minutes, then open it up for questions. Wrap up the seminar at the hour mark. Have an area with coffee and sweets set up so you can network before and after the seminar.
–The goal is to get as many business cards and contact information as you can from the prospects. Follow with a mailed hand written note or a personal email within 24 hours. Then call the prospect a day later. Have the Seminar on a Tuesday and follow up Thursday or Friday via phone to set appointments for the next two weeks.
–Have two Seminars a month. Make them a little different so you can attract the same prospects again! Give your previous attendees a VIP Pass. If you don’t sell them the first round you’ll have a much better chance after the second seminar.
–Write a Book and your Seminar attendance will increase three fold. The more you can foster the Expert Status, the better your results will be.

Free Demonstrations: I love Free Demonstrations! I cut my teeth in Sales in my youth selling Electrolux Cleaning Systems (ok, so they were vacuums and dry cleaners). Selling a premium product which had a ton of value built in required a Free Demonstration. If I couldn’t sell the prospect in 45 minutes then I would leave the Cleaning System with them for two days and return at a prearranged time to pick it up. With a good financing package backing me up, I closed 8 out of 10!

–A Free Demonstration can also be short in front of a crowd and take orders afterward. Depends on the product you are selling.

Note: At Seminars and Mass Demonstrations, make sure you have plenty order takers and appointment setters on hand. You can’t be signing up prospects and talking to them at the same time!

Open House Events: Opening up your business to existing customers and prospects for a day every three months is an awesome way to solidify relationships and drum up more business. Have refreshments and employees staged in different areas explaining how the business works. You, the owner, mix and mingle and mine! Make sure each employee is schooled prior, to get business cards and contact information. Be sure to teach the employee to make notes on the prospects’ biz card or contact info so you have personalized means of future contact. Make sure you have a demonstration room for the serious prospects! Make sure you are fully staffed fro an Open House. All hands on deck event!

–Send Press Releases to local / regional publications and look for creative ways to advertise your Open House. There are loads of Free Online and Offline Event Directories. Use Social Networking!
–Social Online Networks such as Linked In, Facebook and Twitter can be excellent forums to getting out information about your Open House or other Company Events and News. See my Article on Internet Marketing for more details.

Trade Shows: I am not a huge fan of Trade Shows because many shows will have absolutely no merit for the money and time you spend. However, many businesses have been successful with Trade Shows because they figure out through research which ones really have qualified buyers and know little success secrets. Some Trade Show Keys to keep in mind:

–Always attend and research a show prior to your participation.
–Determine ways shows let you contact prospects before and after the show.
–Partner with a good Strategic Partner and share a large 20 foot booth together. This attracts attention and offers prospects the best solutions.
–Have “roamers” walking the show continuously handing out circulars and flyers, which pictorially show prospects where your booth is. Offer a Freebee or discount for the prospect to come to your booth. Require the prospect to register to receive the Freebee or Discount.
–Have Brochures available at your booth for the motivated prospects.
–Be sure to mine each prospect’s information and product / service interests. Don’t rely on them to contact you after the show.
–Visually demonstrate your product or service. Let prospects see the final solution.
–Have plenty of staff on hand to sell, take information and greet prospects.
–Big Signs, Big Graphics, Large Font, Video, Audio – these are all key in helping the prospect visualize / own your solution.
–Take lots of pictures and video so you can post to the web during the show to create a viral buzz.
–Always get a prospects email address so you can send them an Opt In for your Newsletter, Company Alerts, RSS, etc.
–Make sure all of your Staff is instructed to take notes on the prospects’ business card so you can jog your memory on the prospects’ relevance and importance.
–Direct Mail response rates to Tradeshow Participants can be as high as 20%, as compared to the average 2% response rate for a first mailing.
–Trade Shows can be a good way to kick off your penetration into a new market.
–If you are going to the expense of going to a Trade Show, be sure to run some advertising prior (with an incentive to come see you).

Newsletters: I think Newsletters (both offline and online) are an excellent information and sales tool. This goes hand in hand with the Expert Role, providing interested prospects valuable information, while having information on how to contact you or a web page to visit. Newsletters should be sent once per month with an expert article as the main focus. I like to have the article in the center of the Newsletter with a narrow column to either side with supporting information and resources. These side columns are great areas to partner with other businesses to offer more expert information and help. Be sure to feature your FREE half hour or hour consultation service on the Newsletter and any seminars, webinars or such coming up. The more you get into and use your Newsletter, the more exponential the results. And, please, write your own content! You are the Expert!

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Why Your Business Needs An Intranet

March 11th, 2011

One thing I like about running a small company is the ability to act quickly.

Decisions are not bogged down by layers of management. In fact, most moves are made with the interested parties meeting around a table.

But there can come a point when your business outgrows this arrangement. You need constant, reliable and secure communications with others in the company to ensure successful growth. You need an intranet.

An intranet is similar to a website, and it uses internet protocols, but it’s an internal network exclusive to one company. (An “extranet” also is an internal or private website, but access privileges are extended to designated customers, partners and/or others.)

Most large corporations use intranets. Information distribution is a huge task when you have 10,000 or more employees. Intranets can help cure that headache.

Your business probably has nowhere near 10,000 employees. But I can give you three major reasons why your small business should invest in an intranet:

1. Communication Suffers When Dealing With More Than One Person Even a very small company has communication issues. Most people find out what’s happening while gossiping around the coffee pot. Stories change as they spread, leading to a misinformed and disgruntled staff. If you have telecommuters, off-site workers, employees who travel a lot or a “virtual” company, communication issues become even more challenging.

In order for a company to succeed, everyone must understand its goals. Neither long- nor short-term goals should be confined to upper management meetings.

An intranet is the perfect place to post weekly reports, memos and goals. This way, everyone is up to speed.

Toby Ward, president of the intranet consulting firm Prescient Digital Media, notes that even a company with few employees benefits from an intranet. Even if you don’t have people working remotely, your sales staffers or consultants aren’t always in the office.

Building an intranet can enhance communication through message boards, instant messaging and moderated chats.

Let’s take a typical business scenario. Your three sales staff have to come up with a presentation on increasing sales in the next fiscal year.

They enter a conference room, eat pizza, drink coffee and talk for hours. The first meeting turns into a three-hour, brainstorming session. The second meeting starts with a review of the best ideas from the first. The participants hash out why they will or will not work. By the third or fourth meeting they have some definite proposals.

By using an intranet’s discussion board in the days before the meetings the process could have been improved. Ideas could be debated beforehand. Participants could have come into the sales meeting more focused.

2. Time Is Money An intranet allows you to post critical information for all employees to see. Even having human resources information posted is valuable. One of my employees said workers in his former office once spent 45 minutes trying to find out if public holidays were paid. The personnel manager was gone and no one else knew.

Posting of calendars, company policies and benefits is a great start. They reduce wasted time. But the interactivity of an intranet means it can be used for more than basic information.

You can save time (and paper) with interactive forms. Vacation requests, supply orders, changes to benefits and more can be handled quickly and efficiently.

Make sure your intranet follows good design principles. Make it as user-friendly as possible. You’re trying to save time, not frustrate people.

3. It’s Better Than E-Mail You may be thinking, “Why not just email the form?” Or, “I communicate well with my employees already”.

According to Ward, e-mailing multiple versions of the same document or presentation leads to confusion and sometimes information overload.

Let’s take that same sales group we envisioned earlier. They’ve decided on three major ways they will increase sales. They are now working on a PowerPoint presentation.

Three people collaborating on one PowerPoint file can lead to disastrous results. Confusion over who’s working on what can lead to one person’s work being overwritten by another.

By using an intranet, people can work on a shared file and have a central location for the most recent version.

Getting Started Before you set up an intranet, make sure you understand what you want it to do. Understand how employees will use it. Finally, adhere to good design principles. If it takes five or six clicks to find a particular request form, it’s too complex.

You’ll also have to decide if you want to build your own solution. A consultant can build an intranet to your specifications. It will have the look and feel you specify.

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How to Design and Layout a Coffee Shop Or Espresso Bar

March 9th, 2011

If you are planning to open an espresso bar/coffee shop, then developing an efficient store design and layout will be one of the most important factors in positioning your business for success.

Speed of service is critical to the profitability of a coffee business. An efficient ergonomic store design will allow you to maximize your sales by serving as many customers as possible during peak business periods. Even though your business may be open 12 to 16 hours a day, in reality, 80% of your sales will probably occur during 20% of those hours. Coffee is primarily a morning beverage, so your busy times of day (those times when you are most likely to have a line of waiting customers), may be from 6:30AM to 8:30AM, and then again around lunchtime. If you have a poor store layout, that does not provide a logical and efficient flow for customers and employees, then the speed of customer service and product preparation will be impaired.

Think of it like this; if someone pulls open the front door of your store, and they see 5 people are waiting in line to order, there’s a good chance they’ll come in, wait in line, and make a purchase. But, if they see that 20 people are waiting in line, there is a high probability that they may determine that the wait will be too long, and they will simply get coffee somewhere else. This is money that just escaped your cash register! And, if they come to your store multiple times, and frequently find a long line of waiting customers, they may decide you are not a viable option for coffee, and will probably never return. Poor design slows down the entire service process, resulting in a longer line of waiting customers, and lost sales. So in reality, your daily business income will be dependent upon how many customers you can serve during peak business periods, and good store design will be essential to achieving that objective!

The financial impact of a poor store design can be significant. For the sake of this example, let’s say the average customer transaction for your coffee business will be $3.75. If you have a line of waiting customers each morning between 7:00 AM and 8:30 AM, this means you have 90 minutes of crunch time, in which you must drive through as many customers as possible. If you can service a customer every 45 seconds, you will serve 120 customers during this 90 minutes. But, if it takes you 1 minute 15 seconds to service each customer, then you will only be able to serve 72 customers. 120 customers x $3.75 = $450.00 x 30 business days per month = $13,500. 72 customers x $3.75 = $270.00 x 30 business days per month = $8,100. This represents a difference of $5,400 in sales per month ($64,800 per year), coming from just 90-minutes of business activity each day!

So how should you go about designing your coffee bar? First, understand that putting together a good design is like assembling a puzzle. You have to fit all the pieces in the proper relationship to each other to end up with the desired picture. This may require some trial and error to get things right. I’ve designed hundreds of coffee bar over the past 15 years, and I can truthfully tell you from experience, it still usually takes me a couple of attempts to produce an optimal design.

The design process begins by determining your menu and other desired store features. If you plan to do in-store baking, then obviously you’ll need to include in your plan an oven, exhaust hood, sheet pan rack, a large prep table, and perhaps a mixer. If you plan to have a private meeting room for large groups, then an extra 200 sq. ft. or more will need to be designed-in, in addition to the square footage you are already allocating for normal customer seating.

Your intended menu and other business features should also drive decisions about the size of location you select. How many square feet will be required to fit in all the necessary equipment, fixtures, and other features, along with your desired seating capacity?

Typically, just the space required for the front of the house service area, (cash register, brewing & espresso equipment, pastry case, blenders, etc.), back of the house (storage, prep, dishwashing and office areas), and 2-ADA restrooms, will consume about 800 sq. ft. If space for extensive food prep, baking, coffee roasting, or cooking will be required, this square footage may increase to 1,000 to 1,200, or more. What ever is left over within your space after that, will become your seating area.

So, a typical 1,000 sq. ft coffee bar, serving beverages and simple pastries only, will probably allow for the seating of 15 to 20 customers – max! Increase that square footage to 1,200 sq. ft., and seating should increase to 30, or 35. If you plan to prepare sandwiches, salads, and some other food items on site, 1,400 to 1,600 sq. ft. should provide enough space to seat 35 to 50, respectively.

Next, you will have to determine the tasks that will be performed by each employee position, so that the equipment and fixtures necessary to accomplish those tasks can be located in the appropriate places.

Normally, your cashier will operate the cash register, brew and serve drip coffee, and serve pastries and desserts. Your barista will make all your espresso-based beverages, tea, chai, hot chocolate, Italian sodas, as well as all the blender beverages. If you’ll be preparing sandwiches, panini, wraps, salads, snacks and appetizers, or will be baking on-site, then a person dedicated to food prep will be necessary. And, if you anticipate high volume, and will be serving in or on ceramics, a bus-person/dishwasher may be a necessity.

After you have determined what you will be serving, the space you will be leasing, and what each employee will be responsible for, you will then be ready to begin your design process. I usually start my design work from the back door of the space and work my way forward. You’ll need to design in all of the features that will be necessary to satisfy your bureaucracies and facilitate your menu, before you make plans for the customer seating area.

Your back door will most likely have to serve as an emergency fire exit, so you’ll need a hallway connecting it with your dining room. Locating your 2-ADA restrooms off of this hallway would make good sense. And, because delivery of products will also probably occur through your back door, having access to your back of the house storage area would also be convenient.

In the back of the house, at minimum, you will need to include a water heater, water purification system, dry storage area, back-up refrigerator and freezer storage, ice maker, an office, 3-compartment ware washing sink, rack for washed wares, mop bucket sink, and a hand washing sink. Do any food prep, and the addition of a food prep sink and prep table will be necessary. If doing baking, gelato making, full cooking, or coffee roasting, all the equipment necessary for those functions will also need to be added.

After all the features have been designed into the back of the house, you will then be ready to start your design work on the front of the house service and beverage preparation area. This area will probably include a pastry case, cash register(s), drip coffee brewer and grinder(s), espresso machine and grinders, a dipper well, possibly a granita machine, blenders, ice holding bin, blender rinse sink, hand washing sink, under counter refrigeration (under espresso machine and blenders), and a microwave oven.

If serving food beyond simple pastries and desserts, you may need to add a panini toaster grill, a refrigerated sandwich/salad preparation table, soup cooker/warmer, a bread toaster, etc. If you plan to serve pre made, ready to serve sandwiches, wraps, and salads, along with a selection of bottled beverages, an open-front, reach-in merchandising refrigerator should be considered. Serving ice cream or gelato? If the answer is yes, then an ice cream or gelato dipping cabinet will be necessary along with an additional dipper well.

Finally, when all the working areas of the bar have been designed, the customer seating area can be laid out. This will, of course, include your cafe tables and chairs, couches and comfortable upholstered chairs, coffee tables, and perhaps a window or stand-up bar with bar stools. Impulse-buy and retail merchandise shelves should be established, and a condiment bar should be located close to where customers will pick-up their beverages.

A quick word about couches, large upholstered chairs, and coffee tables. Living room type furniture takes up a lot of space. If you plan to be opening evenings, and will perhaps serve beer and wine, and having comfortable seating will be important for creating a relaxing ambiance, then by all means do it. But if you have limited seating space, and are not trying to encourage people to relax and stay for long periods of time, then stick with cafe tables and chairs. The more people you can seat, the greater your income potential!

Features from the front door to the condiment bar should be arranged in a logical, sequential order. As your customers enter the front door, their travel path should take them past your impulse-buy merchandise display, and the pastry case, before they arrive at the point of order (where your cashier, cash register, and menu-board will be located). Exposing customers to your impulse items and pastries, before they order, will greatly increase their sales. Then, after the order and payment has been taken, they should proceed down-line away from the cash register to pick-up their beverage, and finally, the condiment bar should be located beyond that point. Be sure to separate your point of order from the point of product pick-up by at least six feet, otherwise customers waiting for their beverage may begin to intrude into the space of those ordering.

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