Keeping Up With Your Brand: A Reality Lesson from the Kardashians
September 19, 2011
By Nerida Gill, Admin Bandit
© Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com
I’m not normally a fan of reality TV, but Keeping Up with the Kardashians intrigues me — this family embodies the luxury Californian dream… A-list parties, private jets and shoes worth the average monthly mortgage repayment.
The show seems ridiculous… these people seem to spend their days doing nothing but pouting for photo shoots, shopping on Rodeo Drive, lounging by the pool and squabbling over dinner.
That, however, is just a surface appearance — the reality is that the Kardashians are a brand, cleverly designed by “momager” Kris Jenner, and their show is simply “a 30-minute commercial,” as daughter Khloé Kardashian Odom told the Hollywood Reporter.
Four years of “commercials” and three spin-offs earned the family $65 million last year, endorsing everything from perfume and incontinence pads to cupcakes and diet pills. Kim Kardashian, the most famous of the “klan” even earns up to $25,000 to mention a product or business in a tweet!
What is a brand?
Branding may be powerful, but it’s also one of the most confused “buzzwords” around. This is because brands are intangible — they’re not objects you can pick up — instead, they’re perceptions, reputations, personalities… and good ones are so pervasive that many people aren’t consciously aware they exist, let alone that they’ve been devised in a boardroom.
Think of Coca-Cola or denim jeans, for instance, which have represented “cool” for decades or Glad Wrap, which is so all-pervading that most of us use the name to refer to any type of plastic cling product.
A brand is simply how people perceive you (whether a business, product or service)… the characteristics or values that spring to mind when they think of you. It’s not to be confused with marketing or advertising, but it is one of the tools in the marketing toolbox and it is something you can compellingly influence.
Now that we know what a brand is, how do you create one? Three steps: research, define and build.
Research your brand?
Before you can create a brand, you need to know not just who you are, but also who your customers (current and ideal) are.
To work out who you are, ask yourself:
- What are the qualities of my company, product or service?
- What are my core values?
- What is my company’s mission?
- How do I want to be seen?
You find the answers in your business plan… this is a good time to put the kettle on, sit down for a couple of hours and read/revise this document.
Next, analyse your target market:
- Who is your target market?
- Where do they live?
- How do they currently perceive you?
- How can you attract them?
- Who else is competing for their attention?
Knowing your target market takes more than guesstimation… as the most successful businesses demonstrate, it’s often a matter of careful, formal research. Magazines are sticklers for surveying their readers and Vogue Australia is no exception. As you can see in their advertising specs here and here, the magazine has sourced externally audited circulation and readership statistics and has categorised their readers by the classic demographic indicators of income, education, occupation, age and sex.
A tip: give customers an incentive to do your survey… a “thank you” gift or entry into a prize draw.
Define your brand
Use your research to write two paragraphs, each a biography, as if you were creating a character for a TV show. Start with the easy one, the one about yourself.
Then write one for your target market, picturing the ideal person who buys your product or service. You may need to ask yourself a few more questions:
- What does this person need and want?
- How does he or she want to be seen?
- What drives them?
- What do they aspire to?
Getting back to Vogue Australia, I’d describe the magazine’s ideal reader as a professional female, aged 20-49, who loves fashion and appearance, is savvy and discerning, wants to keep up-to-date and has a high, disposable income.
You may find you actually end up with four biographies, two reflecting reality and two that outline your future ideals.
Build your brand
Aligning your “personality” with your customer’s is the cornerstone of a successful brand and that “personality” must be reflected in everything you do, own or produce.
Appearance, or visual identity, is the most obvious way to communicate your brand to your target market. This includes:
- Logo
- Stationery
- Product packaging
- Website and email
- Marketing materials
- Dress code
- Signage
- Sound and smell (not visual, I know, but still part of appearance)
Actions, or customer service, are another way… this is the “human” part of your business and includes how you:
- Answer the phone
- Respond to queries
- Deal with stress and conflict
- Meet deadlines
- Run meetings
- Treat your staff
And finally, you need to engage with your target market and the community as a whole to get your brand “out there.” This includes:
- Using social media (including leaving comments)
- Blogging
- Writing press releases
- Search engine optimisation
- Networking
- Speaking at events
- Taking on roles with industry associations
- Giving back through philanthropy, sponsorship and volunteering
In all these things, if you want to gain loyalty and trust, you need to communicate your brand to your target market in a way that is honest and believable.
Back to the Kardashians
Some people scorn reality stars because they’re famous for doing nothing, but that’s actually not the case at all — the top echelon of reality stars, like the Kardashian family, are famous because they have water-tight branding strategies, which, as you know from the above, requires considerable effort.
So next time you’re caught watching a reality show, don’t feel guilty… these “personalities” and the people behind them have worked hard to gain your attention. Besides, you’re not watching trashy TV; you’re undertaking important branding research!
MORE GREAT POSTS BY NERIDA GILL
- Are You Responsible? How Small Business Can Give Back
- How to Dress to Communicate Skill and Success in Business
- Business Insurance: How to Prepare for the “What Ifs”
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Nerida Gill – Admin BanditNerida Gill is the creator of Admin Bandit, a web-based accounting package designed specifically to make keeping the books easy for volunteer treasurers in community groups. After winning numerous business awards, Admin Bandit is in a growth phase after recently attracting external investment.
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Boardroom to Bedroom – Three cornerstones for success
September 4, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network
So, you’ve decided to leave the boardroom (or cubicle) so that you can run your own show, set your own rules, achieve a long-time dream of being your own boss. Good for you.
Almost 50% of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network’s 20,000-strong community is women who are women working full or part-time for others, while operating, or planning to establish, their own businesses.
I started my first business (and my transition from boardroom), in my spare bedroom. That makes me kind-of normal as far as many small business startups.
While one blog post is certainly not enough to tell you what to do to get started in your own business what I can do in this post is share the three guiding principles that have helped me to start and grow businesses.
I bring it down to three key areas: education, inspiration and networking.
A younger, less experienced me
EDUCATION
Like many, I entered the world of business ownership with just a few of the skills that I would ultimately need. My skills were marketing and events which I’d gained in roles with small and large companies since the age of 18. I didn’t have business training nor did I have a nice big bank balance to fund my startup.
The skills to run a business, manage a team, communicate, write, collaborate, negotiate, sell, etc. are all skills that I’ve learned through study and trial and error.
17 years since I started my first business, I continue to study every day (including taking myself overseas every year to attend workshops with experts in the areas that I want to master).
- What skills/education do you have?
- What skills/education do you need to acquire?
INSPIRATION
I remember walking into our accountant’s office with our business plan – which we’d taken every effort to make pretty. He looked at it and smiled and congratulated us on the impressive document and then asked: “But, how are you going to make money?”.
He was telling us that we need to
- find a market and customers
- develop a product that was needed and wanted and
- start selling (nothing happens until you sell something!)
And we did. He remains one of our most important advisors and mentors. Many more mentors, role models and teachers have provided inspiration over the years. I find inspiration through not only creating a big vision and a game for what I want to do in business, but also through the people who share my journey. Mentors and role models are a key part of being successful in any business.
One of the things I’m passionate about doing with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network is to demonstrate role models through our speaker and guests, articles and mentoring programs. Success has so many faces and I think it’s important to show a variety of ways and means to get to the end goal of business success.
- Who inspires you and why?
- Would a mentor be a good option for you to get guidance and support?
NETWORKING
While sometimes a reluctant networker (I’m much better at dinner parties than networking events) I value relationships and contacts and have spent a lot of time building long-term relationships with business colleagues and contacts.
And, networking for me is not about shuffling business cards at events, it’s about maintaining contact with people I like. I find that by offering support and being generous with helping others my network seems to grow and become more powerful.
I don’t try too hard. Quality is definitely the winner over quantity for me.
- Who would you like to connect with or reconnect with?
- What can you do each week to make your relationships stronger?
THE INSPIRATION TO GET STARTED
I didn’t have a big dream to grow a business (or many, as it turns out). I simply wanted to be my own boss. And, I didn’t take the leap voluntarily.
Here’s how it worked for me. Made redundant from a job and unsure what to do next I started offering my marketing skills as a consultant through my network. This worked out okay (though hardly bought in riches) for a number of months before my partner and I decided we’d have a go at starting an events business. His background was in radio and sales, mine in marketing and both of us had about three years experience in events.
I’ve spoken on many occasions about the ups and downs of our first three years working from our spare room (a very small room in a Sydney apartment) and losing $40k – or was it $60K – on our first major deal and having to crawl out of that debt over two years.
I hesitate to retell the story when it’s documented well in other articles.
Here’s a link to one article in Grow Your Business Magazine.
The beginning days, months and years were really tough. I don’t look back at them with any sort of reminiscence. (When I speak to our StartUp members I can totally appreciate the love/hate relationship that they often have with their business. The picture they had hasnt quite manifested and they are stuck, stressed and sometimes desperate to make it work but need support.)
We didn’t have enough clients, money, skills, confidence. But, we did have guts and determination to keep going for the goal. I learned to love was the excitement that comes with entrepreneurship and creating your own future in a the unique way that being your own boss allows.
Entrepreneurship is my love and that’s why I do the work that I do. Helping people transition from employee to self-employed is very close to my heart. But, it’s only right if it works to give you the goals you ultimately have.
(In future blog posts and through articles and webinars give you tips on how to make the leap from boardroom to bedroom.)
Check back tomorrow for the next blog post in 30 Days to a Great Career! 1-30 September 2011
MOST RECENT 30 DAYS TO A GREAT CAREER POSTS
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Suzi Dafnis – Australian Businesswomen’s NetworkSuzi Dafnis is the Australian Businesswomen’s Network’s Community Director and Chairperson of the Advisory Board. Suzi has been involved with the network since 1995. In 1998, she took over the network from its founder and has since managed and grown the network. She remains its media spokesperson and a champion of women in business. She is also the editor of the ABN’s newsletters, author of the herBusiness blog and presents the In Her Shoes video series and herBusiness podcast.
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The Big Book of Small Business Webinar
July 20, 2011
Tips to help your small business reach its full potential
Packed with inspirational and practical advice, The Big Book of Small Business is a new book designed to help every business owner build the business of their dreams.
Andrew Griffiths welcomes the ‘age of the entrepreneur,’ the most exciting time for business owners – ever. In his down to earth, street smart style, he identifies new opportunities for smaller business operators to grow their business fast. He also shows how an entrepreneurial attitude can improve every aspect of a business, from customer relations to promotion to backroom accounts.
Join us on 17 August when Andrew Griffiths, Author of The Big Book of Small Business provides you with tips to help your small business reach its full potential.
Event Details:
The Big Book of Small Business – National Webinar
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Wednesday, 17 August 2011 10.15am for 10.30am – 11.30pm AEST (Check your timezone. |
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Webinar – Your home or office. StartUp Members: FREE Growth Members: FREE Community Members: $39 Non-Members: $39 Members – Login to get your discount. Not a member? Join today and save over $390 in webinars each year! Not able to attend? Complete your registration and a recording of the webinar will be sent to you after the live event. Note: You will need internet access to participate in this Webinar. Call costs may apply if you do not use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). |
Guest Speaker:
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Andrew GriffithsAndrew Griffiths is a professional marketing consultant. His company, Andrew |
About the Book
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The Big Book of Small Business:The #1 Guide to Growing, Prospering and Succeeding TodayA compendium of smart, realistic and powerful advice on all aspects of business operations to help any small business reach its full potential! Andrew Griffiths has been writing books of practical business advice for over ten years now and has become one of Australia’s best known small business authors and a sought-after speaker and trainer. Now, he is welcoming the ‘age of the entrepreneur’ right when we are seeing the most exciting time for business owners ever. In his down to earth, street smart style, he identifies new opportunities for smaller business operators to grow their business fast. He also shows how an entrepreneurial attitude can improve every aspect of a business, from customer relations to promotion to backroom accounts. This compendium will be helpful to business operators because it will:
With more people than ever before starting new businesses, competition is increasing at unprecedented rates. Everyone is looking for a silver bullet to give them a competitive edge – this book is it.
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What is a webinar?
A webinar is a web-based seminar. To participate you will need high-speed internet and a USB headset (with microphone). Instructions will be sent to you on receipt of your registration.
Not a member?
Join today and you save hundreds of dollars each year on workshops designed to help you be more successful as a businesswoman. Membership is less than $1 a day! Learn More about Membership Now.
Is this event right for you?
This event is suitable for women in all stages of business.
The StartUp Success Webinar Series
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This event is part of the StartUp Success series of webinars which are free to all members of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. For details on the benefits of Membership take a look at our Membership Comparison Chart. For details on other webinars – see the Events section on our website. |
What’s Next?
Register below through our secure online shopping system. Upon registration you’ll receive confirmation of your attendance. If you have any questions you can send us an email or, call 1300 720 120. If you are a member, remember to login to get free entry.
First Things First
July 19, 2011
By Cat Matson, Alito
Most business owners I meet know the things they need to do first… marketing, planning, coaching their staff, focussing on strategic matters.
But those same business owners struggle with getting to most… if not all… of those important, business-building activities. Why? Because they’re busy in the day-to-day ‘stuff’ of running their business.
In Stephen Covey’s classic, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, habit number 3 is First Things First (habits 1 and 2 are Be Proactive and Start with the End in Mind). And by First Things First, he means making sure those important, strategic matters get addressed FIRST… not ‘waiting’ until you have time to do them.
He has a great analogy of filling a jar with sand, small rocks and big rocks. If you start with the sand and the small rocks and then try to jam your big rocks in ‘on top’, they’ll never fit.
Instead, if you put the big rocks in first, then the small rocks and the sand… everything will fit – as the small stuff will fill in the spaces (visit my Facebook page to watch a video demonstration).
Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? But ask yourself, what do you fill your days, weeks and months with? Big rocks? Or the little stuff?
Don’t get me wrong… the ‘little stuff’, like phone calls, emails, customer emergencies might be ‘little’ in the rocks analogy… and they’re still important. But the problem is, if we don’t put the ‘big’ things in our lives first… well, honestly, it’s just way too easy for our time to be filled with the small rocks and sand of our lives.
So here’s my tip: At the start of each week (maybe even on a Sunday night), spend 30 minutes scheduling the ‘big rocks’ into your week. Make appointments with yourself and block those times out in your diary. And then keep the appointments. The other stuff will still get done – it will fit into the spaces around your big rocks.
So before you rush off to the next task on your to-do list… take a moment and check your diary… have you scheduled time for the ‘big rocks’?
Over to you: What other tips do you have for ensuring the ‘big rocks’ get done first?
MORE GREAT POSTS BY CAT MATSON
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Cat Matson - AlitoCat is a Business CATalyst, sparking ideas for peak business performance. With a keen interest in strategy, marketing, social media and personal effectiveness, Cat works with clients to have their business firing on all cylinders. Appalled by the notion of ‘silver-bullet’, ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches to business success, Cat works with savvy business owners to connect the RIGHT resources with the RIGHT strategy to produce the desired business outcomes. When not working, Cat enjoys time with her 2 young boys, her husband and exploring the ever-evolving possibilities of social media. She is a connection junkie – getting a buzz out of connections both on- and off-line and is often seen with iPhone to ear and iPad at fingertips.
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Starting a Business – What Do You Want to Know?
June 16, 2011
By Yvette Vignando, www.happychild.com.au
It has been a few years now since I wrote my first business plan for the happychild website, registered trademarks and started to publish the happychild newsletter. It’s almost one year since the site launched on 1 July 2010. When I started to write these posts for the ABN, I wanted to share my “entrepreneur’s journey”; that phrase sounded like a cliché, but it has been an accurate description of several years of travelling towards many destinations, with some unexpected stops along the way. I’ve always known the direction I’m travelling in, but I have rarely predicted the detours and roadblocks; I’ve always had a plan but I have rarely anticipated the best parts of the journey.
Perhaps you’re at the start of your entrepreneur’s journey – writing the plan, saving the money and dreaming big. What do you want to know? Reflecting on what I wish I had known, I decided to share some things I have learned, before you pack your bags for your first business trip! Although these five tips are cautionary, my intention is to encourage and support your success.
Perfect is Too Late
You will never have your business plan, finances, technology, office layout or logo absolutely perfect – if you wait for perfection, someone else may take your seat on the journey. Once you have the basics in place, make a start and work hard to listen to feedback from your customers – that’s often where you’ll get the most valuable feedback. Strive for perfection after you launch your business.
Protect Your Idea
If you plan to build a sustainable, profitable and even saleable business, take steps to protect your intellectual property. Depending on your business, this could include patenting a design or registering trade marks for a business name. Information about this is available on the Australian government’s IP Australia website, but you should also seek legal advice in this area.
Invest in Quality
Whether your business is online, offline or both, make sure that the infrastructure of your business is the highest quality you can afford from the beginning. This means: choose a website developer that has plenty of experience in building what you need, take time to find a great location for your physical business and have a clear vision of the values that your business will stand for. This is not about being perfect (see above); it’s about having clarity about the essential elements of a successful business. Clarity and quality will help you make good decisions when you reach your first detour or roadblock.
Tomorrow Really is Another Day
Sometimes you’ll feel exhausted, worried about the direction you are going in, feel upset about a colleague; at other times you’ll doubt you have the vision and strength to execute your business plan. Believe me on this one – these are normal feelings and these inevitable times on your journey are when you’ll reflect on your itinerary and perhaps even make some small changes. But the next day or the next week, you will feel different again and as long as you have a great business idea and plan, tomorrow is another day when something great may happen.
Trust is Earned
One of the best books I have read on trust is by Maister, Green and Galford – The Trusted Advisor. There is an equation in that book that makes perfect sense to me:
T = (C + R + I) /S
T = trust
C = credibility (real expertise and experience)
R = reliability (established dependability and reputation)
I = intimacy (honesty and disclosure)
S = self-orientation (only in it for the money, the benefit to themselves or their own agenda)
Along your journey, you’ll meet competitors, engage consultants and network with colleagues. As a general rule, you should extend a degree of trust to everyone you meet, but when it comes to making decisions to spend money on a consultant or divulge confidential business information, you need to be more astute than you might be in social settings. In my experience, most people can be trusted, but in business, you need to spend more time getting to know your advisor, mentor, network and consultant before you place your business or business information in their hands. Use the formula above and it may help you make the right decisions.
Making this journey was the right decision for me – I’m loving it. Thank you for reading these posts along the way.
Can you share another tip with me here on the blog? Or do you have a question?
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY YVETTE VIGNANDO
- Overwhelmed by Your Own Deadlines? Think Again.
- Blogging for Startups – Do You Blog?
- Begin it Now – a Entrepreneur’s Quick Guide to Procrastination
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Yvette Vignando - www.happychild.com.auYvette is pursuing her passion – to take action that helps children develop great social and emotional skills as a foundation for a happy and successful life. Formerly a lawyer and then successful executive coach specialising in Emotional Intelligence, Yvette was encouraged by her experience of MentorNet to launch her business – a website for parents that publishes practical and engaging information about raising children with emotional intelligence. Yvette looks forward to sharing the challenges and successes of her experience as she navigates her way through the adventures of launching a website, and tackles online sales and marketing, an evolving business plan, and the growing universe of social media. Yvette hopes that by following her personal and professional development as an entrepreneur you will also be inspired to follow your passions.
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Your Business Plan: The Best Road to Success
May 30, 2011
By Nerida Gill, Admin Bandit
Do you have time to fail?
Twenty one percent of small business owners obviously do, claiming they don’t have time to write a business plan, yet one third of small businesses fail because they lack one, according to an NAB survey.
Overall, the survey continues, 40% of small businesses don’t have a plan, which means about 800,000 Australian enterprises are flying by the seat of their pants.
So what exactly is this elusive plan statistics and experts alike say we need? Many liken it to a road map, but I’d like to suggest it’s more than that: a business plan doesn’t just tell you how to get somewhere; it also helps you decide exactly where it is you want to go.
Put simply, your business plan is a written document that defines your goals and sets out procedures to help you achieve them.
It’s not just about preventing failure
Of course, despite what the shocking statistics above may suggest, a business plan is not just a tool to reduce your chances of failure. It’s far more exciting — it actually maximises performance, so much so that independent studies in the US suggest businesses with a good one enjoy a whopping 63% higher sales growth and 58% higher profit growth than those without.
Photo credit: Justin Wasserman
Need more incentives? How about:
- Reduced costs
- Better cash flow
- Higher moral
- Less uncertainty
- Faster decision
- Improved competitiveness
- More efficient use of resources
A word of warning
Are business plans a “subgenre of contemporary fiction” as writer and television presenter Alain de Botton accuses in his book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work? As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right to some degree.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to look good on paper, but too much “creative license” or even just going through the motions because you know you need a business plan doesn’t fool anyone, especially banks and investors. What’s more, it won’t make an ounce of difference to your success or failure.
The key is to keep it real and to do that you:
- Research, research, research… verifiable statistics from agencies like the Australian Bureau of Statistics are your best friend.
- Back up everything you say about your business and industry with evidence and examples (see above).
- Speaking of examples, read other business plans… take the time to go through the links at Business Victoria and you’ll uncover gold.
- Get credible, independent advice when developing those parts of your plan that are subject to speculation or “guestimates,” such budgets and sales forecasts… head straight to your nearest Business Enterprise Centre or state government small business website.
What to include
While there’s no set presentation and contents for a business plan, you need to cover six basic sections:
- Executive Summary: a one or two page synopsis of your plan, which you write last
- Business Goals:
- Vision
- Mission
- Goals
- Milestones/benchmarks
- Management Plan:
- Operations
- People
- Products/services
- Suppliers
- SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
- Marketing Plan:
- Industry overview
- Target market/customer profiles
- Competition and competitive advantage
- Distribution/sales channels
- Pricing policy
- Sales and advertising strategies
- Financial Plan:
- Start-up costs
- Profit or loss forecast
- Cash flow forecast
- Sales forecast
- Assets
- Sources of finance
- Supporting Information:
- Resumes
- Statistics in graph format
- Logo
- Floor plans
Phew… what a ginormous list! The bad news is that it’s just the beginning, but the good news is that there are a tonne of resources to help you flesh out your business plan. Check out business.gov.au for a comprehensive array of guidelines and templates that walk you through every step of the process.
Put it into action
This is where the rubber hits the road, where your business plan gets dog-eared and covered in coffee cup rings! You need to USE it every day as you manage operations, measure performance and plan ahead… and, most important, remember that your business plan is a “living” document that needs to be reviewed and updated as you reach your goals and your business grows or changes.
Admin Bandit won the Business Plan category at the 2008 Canberra BusinessPoint Gala Awards.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY NERIDA GILL
- How to Be an Inspiring Speaker (and Promote Your Business for Free)
- Put Down Your Gloves: How to Resolve Conflict the Right Way
- Show Me the Money: How to Get Your Debtors to Pay
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Nerida Gill - Admin BanditNerida Gill is the creator of Admin Bandit, a web-based accounting package designed specifically to make keeping the books easy for volunteer treasurers in community groups. After winning numerous business awards, Admin Bandit is in a growth phase after recently attracting external investment.
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Startup Savvy – Leveraging Your Budget
May 16, 2011
By Lisa Murray, Revive Business Coaching
When a startup business owner has never run a business before, one of the biggest challenges is knowing where to use your startup funds for maximum results. The risk is you’ll spend the budget on things that aren’t necessary for business success, often due to friendly service providers you meet who tell you they should be first and their service is the most important to the success of your business… just remember they have a vested interest! So how do you move forward?
1.
Create a budget based on the essentials (e.g., product to sell), the legal requirements (e.g., registering your business name) and your marketing plan. Ensure you have enough start-up capital in place. Yes, you can start an internet business for $100 – but in most cases, you’ll need quite a bit more than that to build a sustainable business. Be realistic – triple your startup budget!
2.
Identify what is required in order for you to make your first sales. Unless you are primarily an online business, it won’t be a website. Business premises? Visibility and profile? A database? A product prototyped and tested?
3.
Focus on the next ‘one thing’ that is going to make the biggest difference to making your first sales. Temporarily forget the ‘nice to have’ ideas and prioritise the purchases that will deliver profit – without profit, you won’t need the ‘nice to haves’!
4.
For anything you outsource or purchase, be as specific as possible about what you require and ask for recommendations in your networks. There are plenty of people who spot newbies at 1000 paces and fill your pretty brain with unnecessary complexity in relation to what’s required. Stick to your core goal – to sell something as soon as possible! Fill the basic requirements quickly– you can always upgrade later.
5.
For most businesses, there is a natural order of priorities. If you are a retailer, premises and stock are pretty important. If you are an online business, your web presence is critical. If you are a service provider, developing relationships will be a priority. Until you know your product sells, hold onto your money, unless you are convinced you can’t make a sale without it!
If you are unclear about your first steps, talk to other business owners, a mentor or coach. I talk to too many startups that have spent months on business planning and branding, without ever selling anything. Finally it is all ‘perfect’ and they launch, only to find that demand is not what they expected, the audience they were aiming at is uninterested and they’ve invested their budget in the wrong areas, so there’s nothing left in the kitty for marketing or making changes to the business over the longer term.
The sooner you can get into your market and test it, ideally with only the business basics in place, the sooner you’ll know if you have a viable business. You can always upgrade as the business grows and if you have managed your investments carefully from the start, you can always change your focus if you need to.
Starting a business is a time when less is definitely more, unless you are talking profile that leads to sales!
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY LISA MURRAY
- 5 Strategies for Leading Consciously
- Digging Out The Gold From Your Annual (P)review
- To Achieve or Not to Achieve?
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Lisa Murray – Revive Business Coaching/Bliss TribeLisa Murray is an experienced business mentor who brings bliss back into your business. Her holistic, unconventional and creative strategies help small business owners design authentic, ease-filled and profitable businesses. Through her BlissTribe community, Lisa is a catalyst for business owners to choose a phenomenal, rich and joyful life without compromise! The sky is not the limit… there are no limits… unless you choose them! Lisa connects the dots for you… she is an idea generator, a sounding board, a skilled facilitator, a strategist, a problem solver and a contribution to the authenticity and potency of you creating the business you truly desire and deserve. What else is possible? Ask and you will receive!!
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Cat Matson interviewed at SXSW
March 20, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network
Last week I was one of over 19,000 crazies at South By South West Interactive, a five-day festival held in Austin, Texas. The five-day program is about all things media and technology. There are tribes of people – bloggers, authors, developers, professors, tech-heads, geeks, content-creators, publishers etc…
It’s also where great minds in new technology development gather to learn, network and hear about the innovations that are taking place across industries.
This year it was great to more fellow Aussies along that before. In this interview Cat Matson of Alito tells us why she made the big trek to attend this conference and what she’d learned so far!
I managed to capture the ideas and stories of some exciting folks and will share those with you over the coming weeks.
Best wishes, Suzi
Tip No. 2: Out-Step the Competition
March 16, 2011
By Cheryl Hayman, Hayman Strategy
I spent today with a young woman who is building a new Service business from scratch. It is a unique idea and while she has already successfully built the first platform for the business, she has, like all passionate and extraordinary entrepreneurs, phase two evolving for launch.
She was looking for advice about how to best hit the market hardest and fastest and get a “step up” ahead of the reliable list of competitors who will be quick in their attempts to follow.
The ensuing discussion outlined a few pointers that are worth sharing especially for those working with a service brand or business. The first part means thinking about your business from their point of view.
1. Develop a list of criteria that defines the most “valuable” objectives that your offer can meet. Think about things such as:
- Does it meet a strategic acquisition need?
- Does it effectively build loyalty of existing customers?
- Does it provide your customers a means for better reaching their end users?
- Is it merely an awareness building tool?
2. Match this criteria list to a well-thought out list of potential customers. Consider:
- What might they be looking for – their goals?
- If they are not the end user, then who they are targeting as their end users?
- What other products and services do they utilize, and how is your offer different/better in meeting their goals?
- Is there an appropriate way to hit the market geographically and tie up crucial market sectors quickly? Which customers meet this definition?
- Are you working with the “thought leaders” or “big guys”? Those that will make your proposition the most sticky? Will it entice other, smaller businesses to join your brand and reject those that enter the market 2nd or 3rd?
3. Consider age-defining characteristics as well as specific user traits and behaviours for your customers.
4. Remember to ensure you can actually deliver against any expectations these customers will have.
5. Use the best resources at your disposal to quickly blanket these customers and “sell” them on your business, illustrating to them how it meets their objectives.
6. You may need a specialized sales resource or a team of trained professionals but TRAINING is key. Knowing your service is obvious but knowing and understanding the customers’ markets and needs is crucial and this is what will set your brand apart. The relationship has to built on trust and understanding, this is key so make this step really count.
Like all good consumer marketing strategies, it comes back, yet again to the customer and defining your business through their eyes first!
If you have done all the thinking up front, and used relevant and compelling criteria to define the ‘best fit’ customers, you have the first step. When you then approach these customers with knowledge and expertise and empathy you will most likely be able to elicit their commitment to your business ahead of the pack.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY CHERYL HAYMAN
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Cheryl Hayman – Hayman StrategyCheryl Hayman owns and manages a strategic marketing and business consultancy, Hayman Strategy, providing a broad range of business and marketing solutions to corporations. Prior to establishing her own business, Cheryl had over 20 years experience as a senior marketing executive in multi-national organisations spanning Australia, NZ and the UK. Cheryl undertakes a number of non-executive Board roles and sits on several Advisory Boards including the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. Cheryl is a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute, holding a CPM.
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Show Me the Money: How to Get Your Debtors to Pay
March 7, 2011
By Nerida Gill, Admin Bandit
Cash flow troubles cause 80 percent of business failures, according to Dun & Bradstreet, and are behind a recent surge in crash and burns. The company’s latest research links a 25 percent increase in business failures in 2010 with a similar increase in the number of days business customers took to pay their bills — the peak average of 53 days is almost twice as long as the standard 30 day payment terms.
That’s almost two months, which is a long time to wait for your money, especially for small, home-based and micro-businesses!
So how can you get your debtors to pay on time?
Here are some tips not just to reel in that much-needed cash, but also to prevent overdue invoices in the first place.
Only Give Credit Where it’s Due
Most bad debts come from new clients. A credit application form is a handy screening tool, and allows you to stipulate trading terms. It should include:
- The applicant’s details, such as business name, business type, ABN, postal and street address, telephone and email, and the names and contacts of all owners, partners and directors.
- Financial information, such as bank name and branch, the amount of credit required and the name of the person in charge of accounts payable.
- Names and contact details for two to four trade references.
- Terms and conditions, including how many days from the date of invoices payment is due, and additional charges for overdue accounts, such as interest and administration fees.
- Signatures and dates from all parties.
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
Photo Courtesy Alan Cleaver
Develop a process for dealing with debtors… and stick to it! You’ll be more likely to get your money and will also train clients that you’re serious about your trading terms.
First, you need to track when payments are due. As the owner of an accounting software company, any system worth its salt should show when an invoice was created and delivered at a glance.
Some experts recommend a polite email or phone call the day after payment is due, while others advocate chasing all overdue bills at once when you do your monthly bank reconciliation. Whichever you choose, a neat conversation opener is, “I’m doing my accounts and notice your account is overdue….”.
The aim is not just to remind, but get a positive, concrete outcome. When will they pay? Is there a problem? Can you arrange a payment plan? How can you help them pay on time in future?
If the account remains unpaid, escalate the pressure. Call more often or visit your client in person. If the client is a regular, decline ongoing work or withhold supplies until at least part payment is made. However, always keep your cool… resorting to bullying will achieve nothing but a close relationship with their solicitor.
Your final resort is a letter warning the client that you’ll hand the matter to your own solicitor or a debt collection agency if the account is not settled by a specific date. Make it clear that the client will be responsible for all fees incurred.
Then never work with that client again!
Prevention is the Best Cure
Now that I’ve explained all the nasty stuff, here’s some good news… you can put a dozen or so practices into place to reduce the chance of late payment. Try these simple ideas:
Allow for human error… sometimes mistakes or misunderstandings cause late payments.- Outline payment terms when you first establish a trading relationship. Be flexible… discuss client preferences and negotiate a win-win situation.
- Also make payment terms very clear on your invoices.
- Provide customers with a number of payment options and ask which they prefer.
- Ask clients to tell you if something will delay a payment… you can then adjust the due date or offer a payment plan.
- Develop client relationships, which turns you into a living, breathing person, rather than an anonymous company. This can be as simple as contacting clients to make sure they’re satisfied with their latest order, scheduling meetings near payment due dates, setting lunch dates, or sending cards for birthdays and other special events.
- Issue invoices promptly, with goods and services, if possible.
- Ask about client payment cycles. For instance, some companies pay bills on a particular day of the week, while others follow standard industry procedures. For example, 90 days is the wine industry standard, which is three times longer than the more common 30 days.
- Consider discounts for early or upfront payments.
- For large projects especially, ask for a deposit or break the work into a series of milestones, with a part payment due as each is achieved.
- Ask for a purchase order or written confirmation for every project… I know someone who lost payment for IT training because the company claimed they hadn’t ordered it and no documentation existed to prove otherwise, even though the service had been happily received.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY NERIDA GILL
- How to Run Effective Meetings
- Assess Your Competitors and Gain a Winning Edge
- How to Successfully Advertise Your Small Business
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Nerida Gill - Admin BanditNerida Gill is the creator of Admin Bandit, a web-based accounting package designed specifically to make keeping the books easy for volunteer treasurers in community groups. After winning numerous business awards, Admin Bandit is in a growth phase after recently attracting external investment.
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