Author: admin

Too much can be bad for you. Too many hotdogs can make us fat. Too many late nights can wear us out. Too many shoes can overflow our wardrobe. Ok, too many shoes aren’t really that bad, but you get the point. In business people are often running to get more customers and more work and always strive for more more more. It is tempting to bid for ever larger orders and work hard to make sure we win them, but danger lurks.

The danger is that in our enthusiasm and ambition to be bigger and better we fall into the trap of over-trading. This could be the downfall of our business, because we focus all our efforts and our cash on servicing the juicy big order and forget to find time for all the little orders, that bring a steady stream of cash into the business and effectively keep the lights on.

We may have experienced this if we are a smaller business, or a sole trader, when we get ‘the big one’ and work night and day to prepare for it. We can be dazzled by the prospect of a big win and heavy profits – it’s human nature to be seduced by success. Be careful…we need to keep a sharp eye on our cash flow and our sales pipeline, in order to make sure our business bedrock is firmly in place and not being subtly chipped away.

A few years ago the MD of a manufacturing business won a big order and hired lots more staff. He started paying them wages and buying stock. The big order promised to transform his business and provide capital for further expansion. Time passed and his team worked hard. Then one day the money ran out and because the customer wasn’t interested in a part order he was unable to ship any goods. His business was transformed into, well into nothing. He ceased trading.

So the next time we plan a big new event, decide to buy new equipment, or get the chance to double our turnover we need to stop and think and ask –  what would our accountant say?

Next week: A Mindful Poem

It’s entirely possible that we don’t do enough marketing in our business, perhaps because we are worried that we lack expertise, or we feel that our business doesn’t really need it. The truth is that all businesses need to get their message out into the marketplace and we don’t need an MSc in marketing to be effective. Here are five of my favourite marketing tips, and my invitation this week is for us all to choose at least one and have fun putting it into practice. 

Tip 1) Tell

Tell people what makes us special, different, unique. People need to know these differences in order to make a positive choice and choose us. 

Tip 2) Brand

Be brand consistent. Does our business card and office, clothes and attitude all match up? Or do we tell people we are efficient and yet always arrive late for meetings?

Tip 3) Focus

Focus our marketing effort on one outlet. Instead of spreading our marketing budget across a range of adverts, magazine inserts and bits of social media we can back one horse! Choose one avenue into our market and focus, our efforts on that. Maybe we prefer Twitter over Facebook? We can pick one and focus our time on making it work for us.

Tip 4) Time

Do one thing consistently well over time. Once we have chosen our route to market, such as LinkedIn, we need to be consistent with it over the longer term. This means having at least a six month plan, to give people time to find us, talk to us and get to know us. Chopping and changing our strategy is going to result in a piecemeal approach that is likely to limit our marketing effectiveness.

Tip 5) Ask

Always always always ask: How did you hear of us? When we get an order, or a new enquiry, it is too tempting to celebrate and forget to find out basic marketing information. If we know which pond the fish are in, we can return there and fish again another day!

…Marketing is for all of us, whatever our business looks like. We can choose a tip that makes sense to us and put in time and energy to make it work. Then we know we are professional business people, working hard to secure our future.

Next week: Beware the big order!