I had an email from a client this week entitled "Your phones aren't working". He'd tried to call us and found it went through to some completely random person we'd never heard of.
Turns out that it was completely our fault and we'd just diverted the phones wrongly instead of to our call minding company who answer the phones for us when we can't.
But it got me thinking about how easy it is to make silly mistakes. And while the above mistake wasn't serious and it was corrected easily, it does have an impact on how people perceive us.
Now I know mistakes will happen in the future and I think that's just one of those things we'll have to accept, there are procedures and systems we can put in place to minimise mistakes happening. For instance, I can put the number to our call minding company on the wall next to my desk so that I can refer it to as I'm typing it into the phone. I can also listen to the number as the automated voice reads it back to check I've done this correctly.
If you look at any business, there are probably loads of simple systems and procedures that can be put into place that minimise mistakes from happening, but also speed things up too. I can think of several I'm going to be implementing in ET over the next few months. What simple systems could you put into place in your business?
Wednesday 30 September 2009
Wednesday 23 September 2009
The importance of backing up
You know how businesses who provide computer services are always talking about the importance of backing up your documents? Well, this week I found out why.
I was working on a marketing tender to send into an organisation that was looking for a marketing company. I'd just reached page 54 because the organisation wanted your inside leg measurement when my computer crashed and I honestly thought for a second that I'd lost the lot.
Luckily my computer restored the document for me and I didn't lose my work, but this experience really did make me realise why those computer companies stress this as crucial. Imagine if it wasn't just that document, but our whole client files and our databases that went missing!
We do back up on a regular basis, but it's weekly rather than daily - backing up more often is definitely on my to-do list now!
I was working on a marketing tender to send into an organisation that was looking for a marketing company. I'd just reached page 54 because the organisation wanted your inside leg measurement when my computer crashed and I honestly thought for a second that I'd lost the lot.
Luckily my computer restored the document for me and I didn't lose my work, but this experience really did make me realise why those computer companies stress this as crucial. Imagine if it wasn't just that document, but our whole client files and our databases that went missing!
We do back up on a regular basis, but it's weekly rather than daily - backing up more often is definitely on my to-do list now!
Thursday 17 September 2009
Does Marketing Work?
I was at a networking event the other day, explaining to someone what we did. In response, I received a smile back and the comment “well, marketing doesn’t really work anyway does it?”
Interesting question! And I can completely understand why he said that. For a lot of small business owners, that’s exactly what they find – that marketing doesn’t work. The result is that many business owners feel frustrated with marketing and give up on the process, choosing to rely instead on referrals and word of mouth.
But actually the answer to the question “Does marketing work?” is yes, absolutely. In order to make it work for you though, it’s important to understand why marketing doesn’t work.
There are three main reasons why marketing doesn’t work for small businesses:
1. Whenever you do some marketing, it’s important to understand that not everything you do will get you business. What I mean by this is that most of the marketing methods you use will be great a making people aware of what you do and will also be good for building your reputation as an expert. However, there are very few marketing activities that are just good at getting you customers. There’s something else you need to do to accomplish this which I’ll come onto in a minute.
2. The second reason is that most business owners don’t follow up with people. They do a marketing activity just once and when they don’t get the results they’re looking for, they just drop that and move onto something else. Marketing though requires persistence and once you have contacted someone, you must follow-up in order to properly see results.
3. The final reason is just not doing marketing. Marketing can be very frustrating especially if you’re not seeing results. As a result, after a while, most small business owners just give up and rely on word of mouth and referrals so not doing marketing is another big reason why marketing doesn’t work.
So what do you do about these three reasons? Well, here’s how to make marketing work for you.
The first thing we need to do is turn marketing activities into customers. To do this, whatever marketing activity you choose, you MUST find a way to capture the contact details of people. The easiest way to do this is to offer them something that’s free and of value to them. If people give you their contact details, what they’re telling you is that they’re interested in what you do. It’s now up to you to find out how interested they are.
How we do this is to follow up with people. I’m not talking about hassling people here. I’m talking about building a relationship with them so that they feel comfortable buying from you. As they say, we do business with people that we know, like and trust, so the more people know you, the easier they will find it to work with you.
Once you understand this basic principle of marketing and find that it does work for you, hopefully you’ll be more motivated to do marketing. This is absolutely vital if you want to get business from your marketing. Especially in these turbulent times, it’s not enough to sit back and wait for business to knock on your door. You have to go out there and generate it.
So, marketing does work. You just have to know how to work the system to your advantage. Have a go and see if this difference works for you.
If you want a copy of 50 ways to promote your business for free, drop me a line to helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Interesting question! And I can completely understand why he said that. For a lot of small business owners, that’s exactly what they find – that marketing doesn’t work. The result is that many business owners feel frustrated with marketing and give up on the process, choosing to rely instead on referrals and word of mouth.
But actually the answer to the question “Does marketing work?” is yes, absolutely. In order to make it work for you though, it’s important to understand why marketing doesn’t work.
There are three main reasons why marketing doesn’t work for small businesses:
1. Whenever you do some marketing, it’s important to understand that not everything you do will get you business. What I mean by this is that most of the marketing methods you use will be great a making people aware of what you do and will also be good for building your reputation as an expert. However, there are very few marketing activities that are just good at getting you customers. There’s something else you need to do to accomplish this which I’ll come onto in a minute.
2. The second reason is that most business owners don’t follow up with people. They do a marketing activity just once and when they don’t get the results they’re looking for, they just drop that and move onto something else. Marketing though requires persistence and once you have contacted someone, you must follow-up in order to properly see results.
3. The final reason is just not doing marketing. Marketing can be very frustrating especially if you’re not seeing results. As a result, after a while, most small business owners just give up and rely on word of mouth and referrals so not doing marketing is another big reason why marketing doesn’t work.
So what do you do about these three reasons? Well, here’s how to make marketing work for you.
The first thing we need to do is turn marketing activities into customers. To do this, whatever marketing activity you choose, you MUST find a way to capture the contact details of people. The easiest way to do this is to offer them something that’s free and of value to them. If people give you their contact details, what they’re telling you is that they’re interested in what you do. It’s now up to you to find out how interested they are.
How we do this is to follow up with people. I’m not talking about hassling people here. I’m talking about building a relationship with them so that they feel comfortable buying from you. As they say, we do business with people that we know, like and trust, so the more people know you, the easier they will find it to work with you.
Once you understand this basic principle of marketing and find that it does work for you, hopefully you’ll be more motivated to do marketing. This is absolutely vital if you want to get business from your marketing. Especially in these turbulent times, it’s not enough to sit back and wait for business to knock on your door. You have to go out there and generate it.
So, marketing does work. You just have to know how to work the system to your advantage. Have a go and see if this difference works for you.
If you want a copy of 50 ways to promote your business for free, drop me a line to helen.dowling@exceptionalthinking.co.uk.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing and to people starting up in business.
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Tuesday 15 September 2009
Who's stealing your time?
I reached a shocking conclusion the other day - I can't do everything! (Yes I know. I bet you're as shocked as I am).
That means that I have to prioritise what I want or need to get done and then get around to the little things that don't really matter or don't have an impact on the business as and when.
But it also does mean that I have to be a lot firmer with my time and recognise when people are trying to steal it. Have a think about all the things you're involved in right now. All the things you volunteer for or are happy to do because you're a nice person. Well, I've had to be ruthless and ask the question "Can I justify this person/this activity using up my time?"
To be honest, it's not something that I like doing - I like getting involved in things and I like being helpful. But I also do recognise that if I want to take ET to the next level, I'm going to have to cut out this "helping" behaviour and say "no".
So, my question today is who or what is stealing your time? Are you happy to continue to let people or things steal your time and if not, what are you going to do to stop it happening?
That means that I have to prioritise what I want or need to get done and then get around to the little things that don't really matter or don't have an impact on the business as and when.
But it also does mean that I have to be a lot firmer with my time and recognise when people are trying to steal it. Have a think about all the things you're involved in right now. All the things you volunteer for or are happy to do because you're a nice person. Well, I've had to be ruthless and ask the question "Can I justify this person/this activity using up my time?"
To be honest, it's not something that I like doing - I like getting involved in things and I like being helpful. But I also do recognise that if I want to take ET to the next level, I'm going to have to cut out this "helping" behaviour and say "no".
So, my question today is who or what is stealing your time? Are you happy to continue to let people or things steal your time and if not, what are you going to do to stop it happening?
Monday 14 September 2009
Tuesday 8 September 2009
Monday 7 September 2009
Why I don't neccessarily agree with networking groups
Last week, I went to a well known networking group as a visitor. While I was there, the Chair of the group gave a speech about the fact that some people go to networking events purely as hunters. These are the people who email everyone afterwards, he said, just pushing their own services.
He then went onto explain why the networking group wasn't like that and then spent the next hour trying to sell the group.
Here's where I disagree. I'm a great believer in that if you just go to a networking event once and don't contact anyone afterwards, then very little business will come out of this as a result. You do need to follow up with people.
That's why these networking groups work - because you're seeing people every time the groups meet, you're effectively following up with everyone there on a continuous basis. However, you're not selling - you're just building a relationship with them. I'm not knocking this approach - it does work!
But, if the event you attend isn't a membership group or for some reason you don't want to join it, you also need to follow up with people, albeit in a different way. This though shouldn't be purely emailing people selling your own services. My approach is to follow up with people after the event to see whether they would like to have a 15 minute chat on the phone.
The aim of this is NOT to sell. The aim of this (like the networking events) is to build a RELATIONSHIP with people. My approach has worked for me and my clients for years and as far as I'm concerned there's nothing wrong with this.
So, yes if after a networking event all you do is contact people with the aim of SELLING your products and services, I completely agree with this Chairman that you're a hunter. However, if you contact people with the aim of building a RELATIONSHIP, perhaps the networking approach and my approach are exactly the same.
He then went onto explain why the networking group wasn't like that and then spent the next hour trying to sell the group.
Here's where I disagree. I'm a great believer in that if you just go to a networking event once and don't contact anyone afterwards, then very little business will come out of this as a result. You do need to follow up with people.
That's why these networking groups work - because you're seeing people every time the groups meet, you're effectively following up with everyone there on a continuous basis. However, you're not selling - you're just building a relationship with them. I'm not knocking this approach - it does work!
But, if the event you attend isn't a membership group or for some reason you don't want to join it, you also need to follow up with people, albeit in a different way. This though shouldn't be purely emailing people selling your own services. My approach is to follow up with people after the event to see whether they would like to have a 15 minute chat on the phone.
The aim of this is NOT to sell. The aim of this (like the networking events) is to build a RELATIONSHIP with people. My approach has worked for me and my clients for years and as far as I'm concerned there's nothing wrong with this.
So, yes if after a networking event all you do is contact people with the aim of SELLING your products and services, I completely agree with this Chairman that you're a hunter. However, if you contact people with the aim of building a RELATIONSHIP, perhaps the networking approach and my approach are exactly the same.
Friday 4 September 2009
Thursday 3 September 2009
M is for Marketing
If you’re just starting up in business, marketing is probably the most crucial element for you. Get this wrong and you don’t have a business. Get it right and you could take off like a rocket!
So what do you need to know? At this stage, there is no point in me telling you fancy and clever ways to do marketing (you’ll have your own ideas and know what’s best for you) – we’ll concentrate on the basics.
First, do your homework. Who are your target customers? Are they male or female? What age are they? If you’re appealing to companies – what size of company? Who do you need to talk to in there? The more stereotypical you can be about your customers, the easier you will find marketing.
Put your customers into boxes. If you have more than one box of customers, that’s fine as long as you recognise that you will need to market and promote to them differently.
You also need to get everything in place so that when you start marketing, you have things already available. This includes things like sorting out your prices, creating a website (if you feel you need one), having some literature in place, getting some business cards and so on.
The third stage is to think about where your customers might go to find your products and services. The easiest way for you to find new customers is to go where they go.
The most common ways for new start-ups to get business are:
1. Advertising
2. Mail shots or leaflet drops
3. Cold Calling
4. Networking
Feel free to give these methods a go, but don’t be afraid to experiment with your marketing and try new and innovative new methods too. I have a list of 50 free ways to promote your business and if you want a copy, please email me (details in the resource box).
When you first start marketing your business, you don’t know which methods are going to work for you and which ones won’t, so it’s important to try lots of different things and keep your costs as low as possible. It’s a lot easier to keep motivated if you’ve only spent £5 as opposed to one lady who spent over £10,000 on advertising with no results!
The most important thing is to actually do some marketing. The more you do, the more it’s likely to work for you. But if you don’t do any or just rely on others referring work over to you, there’s a good chance you’ll be struggling to get customers.
So go for it! Have a plan and put it into practice. Marketing is one of those things that you learn while you’re doing it and you’ll quickly grasp what’s going to work for you and what’s not. Don’t be afraid to experiment and don’t give up if your marketing isn’t working. Just because one marketing idea doesn’t work, another one might if you give it a chance.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice on marketing your small business. They also help people start up in business too. For 50 ideas to promote your business, please email info@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
So what do you need to know? At this stage, there is no point in me telling you fancy and clever ways to do marketing (you’ll have your own ideas and know what’s best for you) – we’ll concentrate on the basics.
First, do your homework. Who are your target customers? Are they male or female? What age are they? If you’re appealing to companies – what size of company? Who do you need to talk to in there? The more stereotypical you can be about your customers, the easier you will find marketing.
Put your customers into boxes. If you have more than one box of customers, that’s fine as long as you recognise that you will need to market and promote to them differently.
You also need to get everything in place so that when you start marketing, you have things already available. This includes things like sorting out your prices, creating a website (if you feel you need one), having some literature in place, getting some business cards and so on.
The third stage is to think about where your customers might go to find your products and services. The easiest way for you to find new customers is to go where they go.
The most common ways for new start-ups to get business are:
1. Advertising
2. Mail shots or leaflet drops
3. Cold Calling
4. Networking
Feel free to give these methods a go, but don’t be afraid to experiment with your marketing and try new and innovative new methods too. I have a list of 50 free ways to promote your business and if you want a copy, please email me (details in the resource box).
When you first start marketing your business, you don’t know which methods are going to work for you and which ones won’t, so it’s important to try lots of different things and keep your costs as low as possible. It’s a lot easier to keep motivated if you’ve only spent £5 as opposed to one lady who spent over £10,000 on advertising with no results!
The most important thing is to actually do some marketing. The more you do, the more it’s likely to work for you. But if you don’t do any or just rely on others referring work over to you, there’s a good chance you’ll be struggling to get customers.
So go for it! Have a plan and put it into practice. Marketing is one of those things that you learn while you’re doing it and you’ll quickly grasp what’s going to work for you and what’s not. Don’t be afraid to experiment and don’t give up if your marketing isn’t working. Just because one marketing idea doesn’t work, another one might if you give it a chance.
Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice on marketing your small business. They also help people start up in business too. For 50 ideas to promote your business, please email info@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
Tuesday 1 September 2009
When do you go against the grain?
This week, I have the opportunity to interview two students under a scheme called Graduate Challenge. This means that I get a student for free for 4 months to complete a project. Yes, ok I'll have to buy a desk and a couple of other bits and pieces, but what a great opportunity for both ET and the student!
That's my thoughts anyway. I've always been a great believer in looking for other ways to do things based on the assumption that if plan A doesn't work, there's always another way.
But, you'd be amazed at the amount of people who disagree with me and think if you want something doing, you MUST pay for it and you MUST go down the traditional route. Talking to people with the 'you can't do that' attitude does tend to knock your confidence.
So, my question this week is when do you go against the grain? At what point do you say "I'm a bigger business now, I must go more down the traditional route?" Or, do you continue to be innovative and look for other ways to do things?
Very interested to hear your thoughts.
That's my thoughts anyway. I've always been a great believer in looking for other ways to do things based on the assumption that if plan A doesn't work, there's always another way.
But, you'd be amazed at the amount of people who disagree with me and think if you want something doing, you MUST pay for it and you MUST go down the traditional route. Talking to people with the 'you can't do that' attitude does tend to knock your confidence.
So, my question this week is when do you go against the grain? At what point do you say "I'm a bigger business now, I must go more down the traditional route?" Or, do you continue to be innovative and look for other ways to do things?
Very interested to hear your thoughts.
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