Help 4 You and your small business

Help 4 You podcast h4u020 061208 - Reviewing the podcast so far; Growing your company incrementally

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 04:57:19 -0600

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How do you grow your company incrementally?

A review of this podcast

My goal is to give you insight into how to grow your small business.

The two-part process I follow gives you
a) an idea that other SMEs have used to grow their business
b) an interview with an entrepreneur to hear who they are, where they have come from, what they are doing with their business and their growth intentions.

I also ran through the topics I have covered and the people I have spoken to

How do you grow your company incrementally?

I work as a business coach, helping small businesses to grow so I enjoy meeting entrepreneurs who want to increase their company size. When I met Michael recently, I was happy to tell him that there are only three ways in which he can build his business:

Increase the number of clients.

Increase the average sale value to each client.

Increase the number of times clients return and buy again.

Of course, there is a gap between knowing this fact and actually achieving it. That is where the business coach comes in.

Knowing your numbers

The first step was for Michael to calculate his baseline figures:

1. Calculate the number of clients that bought his services in the past 12 months.
2. Work out the average amount these clients spent on each transaction.
3. Determine how often these clients made a purchase in the year.

Michael runs a photocopy and art ware shop. So his electronic till system told him he had 3,400 receipts in the past 12 months, with an average £10 for each till receipt.

He also has a customer loyalty scheme so he was able to break down his client list to show that the 3,400 receipts represented 2,100 customers, ranging from one to nine purchases in the year, with an average of about three purchases in a year.

So 2100 Customers x £10 each receipt x 3 times a year = £63,000

Incrementing your numbers

The next step was to help Michael to recognise the power of incrementing his numbers:

If he can get a 10% increase any factor, his revenue will grow by 10%.

If he can increase two factors by 10% each, that is 21% revenue growth.

If he can increase all the factors by 10%, his revenue growth will be 33%.

So we are looking at the costs of making these increases.

Getting more customers

Michael drew up a list of ways to increase his customer base:

putting more advertising in local papers;

leafleting the homes and businesses in his town;

turning his delivery van into a mobile advert;

putting an A board outside his shop; and

updating his shop window display.

When he has costed each of these actions, we will rate what response we think each will produce and decide what actions he wants to take.

Increasing transaction sizes

Michael was stuck for ideas to increase the average size of each sale. So I started to coach him on what each sale comprises. Well he knew the basic component is the item that the customer has come to the shop for – predominantly photocopying.

So we examined the till record to see what patterns there were in the multiple purchases, then we developed a list of more than 20 popular ‘shopping baskets’. We brain stormed why his customers would have bought those particular combinations and then we hypothesised the customer’s needs that lay behind each ‘shopping basket’.

Suddenly Michael could see some meaning in his data. So the next step of knowing how to increase his receipts became easy – he had to find out which pattern each customer falls into and then encourage them to buy the combinations of goods and services that they are interested in. Knowing what his customers want to buy, he can easily to cross sell and add value to their basket before they check it out.

So he is optimistic that a 20% growth is possible though I have encouraged him to start with a more realistic 10%.

Boosting resale frequency

In some ways, Michael has already made a good progress with repeat sales. His customer loyalty scheme is quite effective with 25% of his customers being enrolled, with customers getting a progressive discount on offers according to their spending levels.

So we spend a couple of hours thinking around this factor and came up with some more ideas: by collecting his customers’ email addresses, he could start to entice them to shop more often:

he might send out a quarterly statement of their purchases, showing their current discount level on the offers for each month;

he might put out a regular newsletter to educate and interest customers;

he might link customers to offers that affiliated shops and web sites have; and

he might put out an annual questionnaire to find out what goods and services his customers would like to buy.

Michael has the email addresses for 25% of his clients who are enrolled in his loyalty scheme so they will be easy to contact and start to work with. He now needs to build his database by asking each customer to opt in to having offers sent to their email address.

We are not sure what percentage these actions will yield but the implementation costs are low so Michael will probably start them all fairly soon.

Letting small actions multiply

This gives you a good overview of where Michael and I have got to. He has a goal, we are working on his achievable action plan and I am coaching him to improve his performance as a retailer. And it is fun.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping company owners and directors figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133, email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk or through www.help4you.ltd.uk.

This podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

Please can you add your pin to our Frappr map at www.frappr.com/help4you

Help 4 You podcast h4u019 061124 - Employment Law Essentials; Your company value chain; CDN fifth annual conference

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:05:18 -0600

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How does your value chain look?

Information about the fifth annual Consultancy Development Network conference on 11th and 12th December 2006 at Paramount Daventry Hotel, Northamptonshire

An interview with Jaci Godman Irvine, of Employment Law Essentials - putting businesses in control of their employee issues

Jaci is a Certified Partner in Employment Law Essentials. The company helps businesses to put in place robust employee systems so that employee contracts meet current UK legal requirements and employee issues are easy to manage.

You can contact Jaci by email at jgi@eleonline.com, by telephone on 01303 773178, by mobile on 07919 471335 or through the company web site www.eleonline.com

How does your value chain look?

Last week, I was called into a company that has outgrown its start-up team. The directors told me that they no longer understood how the company worked and they wanted me to help them re-organise it.

When they started, everyone in the company had direct access to the three decision makers, Tim, David and Magi. As the staff size grew to 10 people, people moved to working in twos, threes and fours, and decision-taking has become chaotic.

Building a business model

To cut through this confusion, I talked to the directors about their value chain and how to understand their business in terms of the activities that contribute value to their customers.

This model shows the Overhead activities as a horizontal block spanning the value-building activities of Design, Purchase, Manufacturing, and Marketing, Sales and Distribution. (Many people label these Back and Front End activities.)

Mapping the activities to the model

I worked with David to map who was working for him in designing and making the goods. Magi talked me through how she leads the purchasing, training and distribution activities. Then Tim helped me to map the Marketing and Sales activities. The overhead activities seemed to have grown ‘like Topsy’: David, Magi and Tim all pointed to each other when I asked who managed them.

Much of the operational confusion has been eliminated just by mapping these activities and then annotating the names of the managers and staff.

Focusing on building value

Considering the narrow value chain within their own business, I will probably spend the next three months helping the directors to find incremental changes to improve how activities feed value forward along the value chain.

Taking a broader view, Magi may want to work with significant suppliers to review the back end efficiency. Similarly, Tim could form tighter links to key customers in the front end of the value chain. Collaboration in these two areas could enable them to add more value (and reduce waste or inefficiencies that have crept in).

Already, the three directors seem to have got a grip on their company once more. They tell me they are taking decisions more confidently, knowing that the activities in the company are interconnected and that once again value is moving forward.

The Consultancy Development Network are holding their fifth annual conference on 11th and 12th December 2006 at Paramount Daventry Hotel, Northamptonshire (www.cdnuk.com for details and bookings)

There are many important speakers: Nigel Risner, Andy Bounds, Alan Stevens, Neil Annis, Rob Brown, Simon Zutshi, Stephen Askew and Laurie Philp.

The CDN Conference gives consultants, speakers, coachers, trainers and business entrepreneurs opportunites for business growth, personal development and alliance opportunities.

Both days are packed full with a variety of practical ideas to grow your business and develop your personal skills and qualities.

For more details, call Laurie Philp on freephone 08004 589231, telephone 01227 451400, email laurie.philp@cdnuk.com or visit the website: www.cdnuk.com

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping company owners and directors figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133 or email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk.

His podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

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Help 4 You podcast h4u018 061110 - Am I Secure? and Following the buying signals

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 10:29:27 -0600

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How well do you follow the buying signals?

An interview with Michael Kemp of Am I Secure? - providing confidential security advice that is understood by all

Am I Secure? provide expert security services to a wide range of business clients throughout the UK and internationally. They provide computer security that is affordable to organisations of all budget sizes, helping them to defend against current and emerging digital threats.

They commit to providing technical delivery, customer confidentiality, and security advice that can be understood by everyone, not just technical experts.

You can contact Michael by email at mike@amisecure.co.uk or through his web site www.amisecure.co.uk

How well do you follow the buying signals?

The owner of small business, Fred approached me because he generates plenty of leads but has difficulty converting them into sales. Fred was down in the mouth, ranting about his marketing spend and complaining about wasting time chasing browsers not buyers.

How do you recognise a hot lead?

Fred was trying to weed out his hot leads from his not leads using follow-up conversations. Unfortunately, he had not figured out the buying signals that separate likely buyers from mainly browsers.

So I have been helping Fred to recognise those target people who are holding up a placard, and are already primed to buy from him.

Keyword searching generates buying signals

Every time someone enters a query into a search engine, they send out buying signals. Therefore, if you focus your online advertising on buying queries, rather than browsing queries, more of your search clicks will become customers.

For instance, if you are an electrician, the terms "electricity website" and "electricity information" are browsing signals. Whereas "hire electrician", "rewiring quote", and "electrician recommendation" are buying signals.

If somebody reaches you by typing in one of those search terms, they are waving a placard at you.

Directories give buying signals

Simply by picking up a directory, your prospect is sending out a clear buying signal: people do not browse paper or online directories for fun. Rather prospects use these directories to identify people from whom they want to buy.

If a prospect finds you from a directory, they have a clear intention to purchase.

Sales from one business feed buying signals to another

Buying a bath is a clear signal that someone will need to fit it. If you are a plumber, having a commission-based deal with a bathroom supplier will get you a steady stream of customers. So affiliate with owners of other small businesses where their sale equals your buying signal: Graphic Designers with Printers, Video Rental Shops with Cinemas, and Estate Agents with Interior Designers and Business Coaches with Accountants.

People who come to you from an affiliate want your sale to add value to their previous purchases.

What questions do you ask?

So I got Fred to ask his prospect about their search route – did they use Google, search the Yellow pages, read a newspaper advert or hear a personal recommendation.

This leads nicely into asking what criteria the prospect used to eliminate Fred’s competitors – such as distance, qualifications, something specific in the advert or brand familiarity.

I also coached Fred to hold off telling prospects about his products or services until he had found out what the prospect was looking for and what was important to them about what he was selling.

If someone comes to buy a car from you, how do you know what is important to them about the car? It could be the colour; it might be safety; possibly the CD player quality or even the fuel economy. So ask.

How do you gain rapport with your prospects?

I asked Fred how he builds rapport while he talks to the prospect. He looked completely blank. Sales experts study NLP and similar advanced skills, however I find the basic skills of rapport are sufficient for most sales: speak in the same way the prospect speaks, use the same volume and speed, listen to their language to spot whether they like hearing, seeing or touching their purchases and adapt your language to suit these preferences. If you want to go a bit further, breathe at the same rate the prospect is breathing.

How much do you love objections?

Fred also had a hang-up about objections. To which I countered by pointing out that if someone says that your offering is too expensive or they cannot afford it, you have virtually sold it to them. Why did I say that? Because they are saying that they want it ... but there's an objection – money.

Recognising this buying signal, you need to re-establish the value and benefits of what you are offering. I value objections because they identify which parts of the sale are incomplete. When the objections fade, I reach for the order pad and ask my closing questions.

So I am coaching Fred, to change and improve his sales skills. He does some sales, I debrief him, we practice how he can improve and he does some more sales. We are getting some success and I fancy Fred is already thinking more like a prospect. Soon I hope he will be that excellent salesman who picks out all the buying signals.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping company owners and directors figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.

You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133 or email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk.
His podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

Please can you add your pin to our Frappr map at www.frappr.com/help4you

Help 4 You podcast h4u017 061027 - Chauffeur my car; Knowing your mindset

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:52:38 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - What mindset do you use and what is effective?

An interview with Jon Smith of Chauffeur My Car - Our chauffeurs - Your car

Chauffeur My Car works for blue chip companies, smaller enterprises and individuals, providing experienced chauffeurs to drive your car, door to door on an ad hoc basis: part-time, full-time, anytime.

Our chauffeurs drive your car - no more worrying how to get there or where to park, the chauffeur takes care of the details and you arrive relaxed and ready to do the business. Why not try this ultimate hands-free solution for businesses on the move, with chauffeurs throughout London and the Home Counties.

You can contact Jon by telephone: 08081 787575, email: info@chauffeurmycar.com or through his web site: www.chauffeurmycar.com

What mindset do you use and what is effective?

With a new client, I had tremendous difficulty making sense of how they wanted to grow their business and improve their income. Then at our third meeting, I had a moment of insight when I recognised we were assuming different mindsets.

Knowing your mindset

I am sure that no mindset is wrong but my experience with this client shows how important it is to know your mindset and run your business to match it.

1. Manufacturing activity

In the manufacturing mindset, you decide what you want to make and sell. You then set a price based on your costs and sell to the customers what you have on offer.

Success with this mindset comes by competing on efficiency: using your material inputs well and squeezing your costs to increase your profit margins.

2. Selling speak

In the selling mindset, you convince your customers to buy the products that you like selling. Then you get your supply channels to make what you ask for.

Success with this mindset comes by competing on discounts and sales sweeteners to get your profit from the sales volume.

3. Marketing think

In the marketing mindset, you obsess about understanding what your customer values. When you find the benefits that your customers want, you package them to convince your customers to buy from you repeatedly.

Success with this mindset comes by watching your competition, listening to your customers and offering the best package available.

The mindset in professional services

Applying this insight to my client’s professional services business, I was able to ask him three simple questions that helped him recognise his preferred mindset:

Do you want to sell hours of advice, billing by the hour and using your expertise? [Manufacture]

Do you want to sell studies and reports to people who need them, possibly getting affiliates to write some of the documents for you? [Sell]

Do you want to deliver better business results, greater profitability and be a trustworthy partner for your long-term clients? [Market]

Which mindset do you work in? If you understand yourself, and are aware of your mindset preference, you will find business easier.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping company owners and directors figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.

You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133 or email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk. His podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

Please can you add your pin to our Frappr map at www.frappr.com/help4you

Help 4 You podcast h4u016 061013 - Business support; marketing portfolio development

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:07:39 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

* An idea to help your business to grow - How do you develop your marketing portfolio?

* A discussion on the sources of support for the small business

How do you develop your marketing portfolio?

I have been working with a management team who have dreams of growing their small business by developing their market offering. Most small businesses grow because the products and services that they offer happen to find favour with their customers. How refreshing it is to work with business people who plan for growth.

We started by reviewing the marketing strategies that Bill, Gary and Tim have for their four products. Some products are doing well but one of them needs to be re-positioned in the market and Tim worried about how this might change the company strategy.

Options in Your Market

For each product, we explored four distinctive marketing strategies:

Penetrate your current market to reach more customers (with your current product).

Extend your marketing to reach customers in new markets (with your current product).

Develop new products for your current customers (to replace the current product).

Diversify the products you offer in ways that complement your current product.

Small companies tend follow one strategy for each product at a time and, as Bill rightly pointed out, it takes 18 months to properly test the market response to a strategy change. So we discussed the strategy for the product A.

Gary is the technical design member on the team so he liked the third approach – selling new products and services to the current clients.

Bill has more sales skills and favoured the first approach (selling the existing products and services to new clients who are similar to the current clientele) together with the second approach (reaching clients in new areas of the market).

Options with Your Products

For each product, the team considered, discussed, argued and finally agreed what they wanted to do. Next we folded the four ‘product strategies’ into a ‘company strategy’ by working out how the marketing of each product would impact the marketing of the others.

This resulted in a decision to treat products A and D as a pair and to find complementary products for the B and C products – aiming to have seven products in their portfolio by next year.

Building the strategy into the business plans

With this company strategy, Tim then amended the Business Plan to reflect the decisions taken while Bill and Gary amended their respective Marketing and Production Plans.

How their clients respond to the new marketing push will be interesting and Tim, Gary and Bill will need to update their plans as they see what happens.

My hope is that developing their marketing portfolio like this, they will have more control of where their company is going and what their clients buy from them.

Sources of support for small businesses

Today I discussed the various sources of business support available to small businesses, and I noted that my experience in only with business support in England. So I would value your comments about the business support that you get, whether in England, other parts of the UK, in Europe, the USA or other parts of the world.

I discussed:

Business Link www.businesslink.gov.uk

HM Revenue and Customs www.hmrc.gov.uk/bst/index.htm

DTi www.dti.gov.uk/bbf/BSS/page28879.html

Federation of Small Businesses www.fsb.org.uk

British Chambers of Commerce http://www.chamberonline.co.uk

Professional advisors: accountants, solicitors, business consultants etc

Of course I put a caveat on the discussion by saying that these are purely my own views and that you should not take action based on them but rather you should ask your own advisors.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping company owners and directors figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.

You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133 or email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk. His podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

Please can you add your pin to our Frappr map at www.frappr.com/help4you

Help 4 You podcast h4u015 060929 - Networking, the Market Proposition

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 11:17:50 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

* An idea to help your business to grow - How do you see your market?

* A discussion on networking for the small business

How do you see your market?

Barry is a farmer who does not like his current market and I have been working with him to change it.

At present he has are few large buyers (mainly supermarkets) for his produce and they are
able to impose terms on the small local farms, forcing them to accept slim margins for what are effectively commodity goods – one cabbage is much the same as another. So Barry’s goal is to find a better market for his farm output.

Changing the buyers

We started by noting that when goods become more useful to buyers, they become more willing to pay for the goods. So we explored how preparation and packaging of the vegetables might change the price offered to Barry. We also looked at offering timely responses to refill requests and what premium he might attract.

We noticed that competition varies with market size and that market efficiency depends on the overlap between buyers and sellers. So Barry plans to become a member of a farm co-operative – with 37 farmers working to sell their goods together, across Surrey, Sussex and Kent. This seems to produce a network effect where each item is more certain to be available (and in bigger quantities) yet the buyers are happy to pay more for dependable, consistent supplies.

Changing the sellers

Barry is also thinking about joining a very large supplies group (if he can raise the substantial membership fee). It appears that with a few large suppliers, there are broad margins and the seller’s needs overshadow the buyers’ needs. At present we are checking through the business requirements:

Barry’s distribution costs vary with distance: Didcot deliveries cost a lot more than Ashford ones and he would devote one lorry to this route.

The pricing options can be defined over the web, with a vegetable equivalent of eBay, allowing Barry to pick contracts to supply according to their profitability.

Barry’s inventory costs will change because he will need to store and refrigerate some goods to control when he markets them.

Besides his farm shop, Barry will need to rent part of the group warehouse, depending on the volumes stored.

Applying market change to your business

So Barry has worked out how to escape from the unattractive market and to join a more profitable one. How can you apply this to your business to control the buyers and sellers from whom you profit?

Networking for the small business

Where do you network?

Ask your clients.

Ask your competitors.

Surf the web

Business networking groups in Kent http://www.kent.countynetworking.co.uk/organisations.htm

On-line groups

Business Referral Exchange http://bre.ecademy.com
Ecademy http://www.ecademy.com
Biz Tribe http://www.biztribe.com

National groups

Lead Generation Club http://www.breakfastforbusiness.co.uk
Beermat Mondays http://www.beermat.biz (London, Birmingham, Manchester)
Business Junction http://www.businessjunction.co.uk (London only)
Open Business Connection http://www.openbc.com
Business Referral Exchange http://www.brenet.co.uk
Business Network International http://www.bni-europe.com
4Networking http://www.4networking.biz

Local groups

Thanet Business Network http://www.thanetbusinessnetwork.co.uk
Thanet Beach Buoys http://www.beachbuoys.co.uk
Kent Wedding Ring http://www.kentweddingring.co.uk
Kent Invicta chamber http://www.kentinvictachamber.co.uk
Channel chamber http://www.channelchamber.co.uk

Affiliate groups

Business Incubator – start up and growth companies
Business and industrial Park – tenants, support companies
University Business School – alumni, lecturers, students

Affinity clubs

Rotary, church, gym, wine tasting, adult evening education, golf, car rallying

Guidance on Networking

Aim to make connections rather than close sales

Introduce yourself, pick someone who is shy

Ask what people do and how you can connect them

Listen for opportunities for your connections

Focus on what you deliver not your job title

Describe your business in terms of benefits not features

People need to know what sort of customers you work with

1% to 5% of people are interested in buying, 90% might be ready later if you keep up a regular contact

Only take a business card if you can help the person forward

Help 4 You podcast h4u014 060915

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:35:54 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How do you negotiate for fun and profit?

An interview with Donna Payne of Paynes Solicitors - Legal advice in clear English with straightforward terms.

Paynes Solicitors is located on Walmer's picturesque seafront. They help with moving home, wills, powers of attorney, court of protection matters, family disputes and civil disputes. There will always be someone glad to take your call and to keep you updated on your concerns.

You can contact Donna by telephone: 01304 372441, or fax: 01304 372367. Her web page is www.paynes-solicitors.com and her email donnapayne@paynes-solicitors.com

How do you negotiate for fun and profit?

We live in a world where global business often involves tough negotiating situations that can make many small business people feel uncomfortable.

When I am asked to coach someone in this situation, I always encourage them to define their BATNA, their Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement, and we use this to assess potential agreement. If you are negotiating for a salary raise, your BATNA might be to find a better-paid job!

You can find your BATNA in three ways:

What can you do to pursue your interests without help? If you are negotiating for supplies, can you find a second source?

What can you do to make the other person respect you more? If you want discounted prices, can you affiliate your purchasing with many colleagues to gain weight?

How can you bring in a third-party to further your interests? If you can co-opt an expert, an arbitrator or an academic report, would you gain strength?

When you need it

Generally, I find that a BATNA needs be built and maintained to strengthen the negotiating position. Say you are selling your house and a purchaser shows interest in buying, build yourself a BATNA by showing your house to more people, and line up a second and third purchaser too.

BATNA gives you great negotiating power irrespective of the size, power, seniority, or ability of the other party. Then decide where to open your negotiations, how far to move, and how long to hang on for a settlement. I refuse to accept first offers because my experience shows that working together on a deal can create extra value for both parties.

What it gives you

When I have a strong BATNA, I can say, "I am okay if the negotiation does not go forward!" I understand I have the power to say "No!" and to ask "What if?" against every assumption that I can find.

I love using "if" to trade off what we each want then we can hold the price while changing the package. When I have to, I concede slowly and always ask for extras to balance each concession. I find that if I keep asking "How do you see this?", I can build bridges (rather than attacking), discuss other person’s feelings and show mine, so we avoid deadlocks.

As you can see, I aim to gain profit and pleasure from negotiating, even when the bidding is tough.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping company owners and directors figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.

You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133 or email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk. His podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

Please can you add your pin to our Frappr map at www.frappr.com/help4you

Help 4 You podcast h4u013 060901

adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:23:47 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How do you lead a team of individuals?

An interview with Sam Paxman of Totally Training - Putting your customers and team first.

Totally Training offers bespoke training designed to meet your needs and deliver the results you want in acquiring knowledge, achieving skills and changing behaviour.

You can contact Sam by telephone: 08450 941859, or mobile: 07841 187436. Her web page is www.totallytraining.co.uk and her email samantha@totallytraining.co.uk

How do you lead a team of individuals?

Mike, a new client, approached me for help in leading his work team. His business has run for several years and now has eight staff. His description of the problem is "We seem to be individuals, struggling with our own jobs. Although I'm in charge, I have no sense that we are a team, helping each other with problems and sharing our achievements. It's like I employ eight people not a business team."

Simple leadership model

So I am coaching Mike to act as a business leader in three areas:

How does he behave to achieve the TASKS that he wants completed?

How does he build the TEAM to support each other?

How does he use the skills of INDIVIDUALS to the best advantage?

Define the task

Mike has a team because he cannot do all the marketing, selling, production, book keeping, despatch and after-sales service on his own. When he was a one-man band, he used to. Now the business is bigger, Mike needs a team to cover the work.

So Mike must plan the work, structure the team and monitor progress effectively. He must also show he has business goals and that he is effective in directing the team towards those goals.

Mike also needs to break the big goals down into smaller ones before allocating responsibilities between the team. And dynamically, he needs to help the individuals pick up the jobs that need doing – and to put down what does not need doing.

Organise the team

I like the way teams develop their own personality quite separately from the personalities of the individual members. Mike needs to build his team so that it sets its own standards of behaviour and performance on its members. Mike's part is to ensure that the team is committed to meeting the business objectives as they match the changing market.

Of course, Mike is already controlling and reviewing the work as it is done. I am also coaching him to enable a team focus on emerging problems and issues so every one contributes their creativity and ideas in responding to the needs of the customers.

Motivate each individual

Mike is good at briefing each individual on what is expected of them, training them and guiding them in their tasks. He must also help each person to see the significance and value of their contribution – and to find good ways to recognise this adequately.

Some of the staff are 'at work' but not working to full capacity. One coaching goal is that they should be able to look back and say "Last year I worried about doing this job; now I’m taking it in my stride and enjoying it."

Leader tasks

Mike himself needs to change his behaviours to move between:

A ‘helicopter view’ that checks that the small tasks add up to the whole task.

A ‘grass roots view’ that checks that value is delivered at the detailed level.

As he makes this behaviour visible, I hope that Mike and his team will start to see how the leader’s triple focus on Task, Team and Individual helps the business to grow and prosper.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping company owners and directors figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.

You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133 or email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk. His podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

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adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 18:29:59 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How about giving instead of selling?

An interview with Kathryn Goddard of Boulevard Flowers Flowers make an entrance.

Boulevard offers “Contract Flowers” delivered each week, in traditional or contemporary arrangements, in quality vases, to complement your décor, in your corporate colours. The style, flowers and colours used can be varied each week to provide a welcome to your clients in your reception and public access areas.

You can contact Kathryn by telephone: 01227 264020, fax: 08707 541574 or mobile: 07802 248862. Her web page is www.boulevardflowers.co.uk and her email kathryn@boulevardflowers.co.uk

How about giving instead of selling?

As a business coach, I work with business owners and managers to improve their marketing, boost their sales and grow their profits but I find that many people simply did not believe it was possible for me to increase their profits by 100% or more.

So I decided last year to shift my marketing strategy. I stopped selling and started giving value to everyone - whether they are a client or not. Instead of trying to convince people that I have the knowledge and ability to solve their marketing problems, I give them the knowledge anyway and let them decide for themself. I have switched my focus from what I want to sell to what they want to use.

Try giving value

Why not take this concept, test it in your business for ten days, and see what happens. Decide for the next two weeks that the prime purpose of your business is to add value to the lives of your customers.

Pay attention to their problems, listen to their needs, find ways to make their lives easier, step into their shoes, do whatever you can to enhance the quality of their lives: give them help for free, brighten their day, buy them a coffee, and find ways to show that their well-being is your top priority.

Will a few people treat you badly? Sure but who cares. Most people will be simply stunned at how helpful you are, how different you are from your competitors and how much they enjoy working with you. Your working day will become fun.

Become customer centred

We can be so immersed in increasing sales, in growing our business, in improving our own lives, that we miss the obvious. Ironically, the route to success is to stop worrying about your own success and start thinking about the success of your customers and potential customers.

Have you any idea what it is like to wake up in the morning and know that you are going to make a difference to people's lives? This attitude will totally transform the quality of your working life. Whereas your job might appear mundane or boring, it can become ever-new and exciting: your purpose in working moves from 'paying the mortgage', to enhancing the lives of the people around you.

Adrian Pepper coaches people through business and personal difficulties, helping companies figure out what to do, how to move forward and what to get organised.

You can contact him at Help 4 You Limited on +44 (0)7773 380133 or email adrian@help4you.ltd.uk. His podcast for small businesses is at feeds.feedburner.com/help4you.

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adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 13:39:30 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How do you put the brake on a growing workload?

Some reflections on the Open Studies event and the artists that I spoke to in podcast 10

- The business models of art

o selling the art objects

o selling guides that comment on art objects

o selling art as a service

- sales skills of the artist and income available

A discussion of what business coaching is and how it could help your small business

How do you put the brake on a growing workload?

I have clients who struggle with an impossible and ever-increasingly workload as they run their lives. In fact, some of them hire me as a coach purely because they want to put the handbrake on their life, push it back into balance and stop being an “everything-doer”. I too suffer from times when I am over-busy and this is how I respond:

Delegate. If you have too much on your plate, it is essential to look around you and pass some of your responsibilities over to someone else. Ask your other half to cook just one meal next week. Share the school run with another mum. Get colleagues to take turns in replenishing the stationary cupboard.

Stop over-booking your diary. Come on, you know who you are. One more night out with friends won’t matter - you feel should make it out to that network meeting in case you meet your dream client. Stop. Why not leave one whole day blank with no plans at all. Have you ever tried to read the name of a station when you are speeding by on a train? If your life is going by too quickly, you might be missing essential signposts to where your life could be going.

Run Away. Now I do not mean escape forever, but shut your PC down, put your phone on silent and take a walk. This can give you some essential breathing space. Come back calm and collected and it will help you prioritise the essential and take control of the small stuff again.

Sub-contract time. It may be that your business needs another pair of hands. Do you really need to stuff all those envelopes? Would you be servicing your business better by focusing on developing new clients and get someone else to follow up on old clients? This applies to the running of your home as well – if you hate ironing, get someone else to do it. It will obviously cost you money, but what could you do in those extra couple of hours a week?

Know when to stop. Sometimes we can try too hard to make things happen now. If you feel that it is taking blood, sweat and tears to get something moving, ask yourself if your timing is right. Please do not use this as an excuse to give up before you have even tried, but you can try move too quickly when patience would take less effort.

Get back to your values. What is important to you about you do? If you have forgotten what your core values are, then it is time to take a break and get back to basics. May be now is the time to dust off your business plan and update it?

Stop feeling guilty. If you are saying to yourself “I should be doing this”, take this as a warning signal that the guilt monster is sitting on your shoulder. So what if something does not happen – just ask yourself “what is the worst thing that could happen by not getting this done?” If it is not life threatening – is it worth the headache and stress of getting it done?

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adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 09:20:35 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - What are the right research questions to ask?

A composite interview with a range of painters, sculptors and potters where we talked about

- How do you market art and cultural goods?

- What makes people pay money for art and cultural goods?

(The contact details for the artists are given at the foot of this blog entry)

What are the right research questions to ask?

A problem I often come across is that my clients have not researched their market enough: since they do not know what their customers want, they have a poor sales uptake. However investing in focus groups and customer surveys can be a fast way to waste your money unless you ask the right questions. Useless questions lead to useless answers however much money you spend.

Having the wrong focus

Recently I was talking with the marketing director of a company that sells wallpaper:

Director: Something must be wrong with my catalogue because lots of people who look through it don't buy.
Coach: What people?
D: The people who ask us to mail them a catalogue and then don't buy anything.
Coach: What makes you think it has anything to do with your catalogue?
D: Well, they asked for one, didn't they? Why would they ask for one if they weren't interested in buying?
Coach: Maybe they are just shopping around? Possibly they’ll buy in the future? Perhaps they wanted to look at the pictures. Maybe the reasons they didn't buy are to do with things other than the catalogue.
D: What do you suggest?
Coach: Well, in studying why people don't buy, we could ask how your catalogue relates to your customers’ buying process.

If we had followed the initial "Something must be wrong with my catalogue …" approach, the research would have had the wrong focus, yielding results that relate to the catalogue’s composition. Turning the focus onto how to use the catalogue to influence buyers’ behaviour means that we might learn how to convert catalogue requestors into buyers.

Teasing the meaning from your questions

Once you have the right research questions, the research is easy. Finding questions that are worth answering is much harder, needing input from several people:

Write down all the questions that you want researched.

Rewrite the same questions but paraphrased with different words. If rewriting gives you a different slant on them, create a new question list.

Read each question, one at a time to an associate. Pose this question to your associate, "What will we learn if we get answers to this question?" Note down several example answers that they might expect a typical customer to give.

If you find that your associate's responses do not reinforce what you hope to learn from the question, your question is not clear enough so reword it again.

Have the associate take your questions and conduct the same exercise with a third associate. Again, reword as necessary.

Making your investment productive

You may spend 10 or 20 hours with a couple of people before you are really clear about the questions you want to ask (and the answers you expect to receive). This is an excellent way to ensure that £000s you spend on surveys or focus groups will be well invested and the results you get will powerfully improve your understanding of your market.

Here are the contact details for the artists involved in the SEAS Open Studios

Artist	Details	Contact
Annie Spencer Smith	Black and White photographer	72 The Strand, Deal CT14 7DL 01304 367365 bassis72@hotmail.com
Barrie Hawkins	Sculptor of figures in wood and plastics	1 Stanley Road, Deal CT14 7BT 01304 381182
David Nicholls	Artist in sculpture, painting, calligraphy, lettering in stone	157 Beach Street, Deal CT14 6LD 01304 360981
David White	Potter making commemorative, tableware and bespoke stoneware	11 Downs Road, Walmer CT14 7SY 01304 363118 http://www.kentpotters.co.uk/potter_dw.html
Dione Owers	Painter	Upstairs at Two’s Company, 92 High Street Deal CT14 6EG 07708 932649
Elisabet Horoszy-Ridley	Artist in painting, stained glass and work with natural objects	159b Beach Street, Deal CT14 6LD 01304 363502
Elisabeth Sephton	Photographic artist inspired by the coast, countryside and wildlife of Kent	3 Poets Walk, Walmer CT14 7QD 01304 239624 info@imagesthatlast.co.uk http://www.imagesthatlast.co.uk
Francesca Howard	Painter	The Barn at the Hollies, Fleming Road, Woodnesborough CT13 0PX 01304 813525
Jill Cox	Designer
Jim Robertshaw	Painter in acrylics of seaside scenes	8b Alfred Square, Deal CT14 6LU 07968 957394 jim@robertshaw1.demon.co.uk
Julie Wale	Painter	16 Bowling Green Lane, Deal CT14 9UB 01304 373248
Katharine Love	Textile artist, creating small and large pictures in thread-work	89 Downs Road, Walmer CT14 7TB 07969 325258
Marilyn Williams	Potter making picturesque ceramic tiles	11 Downs Road, Walmer CT14 7SY 01304 363118
Penny Bearman	Painter, oil paintings and pastel work particularly portraiture, community and schools projects, exhibitions and murals.	49 Downs Road Walmer Deal Kent, England CT14 7TB pennybearman@uwclub.net penny@hulse.prestel.co.uk
Penny Jackson	Painter and sculptor	120 Sandown Road, Deal CT14 6NX 01304 239736
Peter Hayes Watkins	Artist	Cherry Tree Cottage, 4 Robert Street, Deal CT14 6DL 01304 239794
Ray Cox	Designer
Steve Clark	Pole lathe turner and chair maker	133 College Road, Deal CT14 6BU 01304 360096 07966 382768
Susannah Preston	Painter on murals, mosaics, public and private commissions, portraits, trompe l'oeil, decorated furniture.	196 Middle Deal Road, Deal, CT14 9RL 01304 366966 http://www.ohmyart.co.uk

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adrian@help4you.ltd.uk (Adrian Pepper) — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 05:07:41 -0500

In today's show, I gave you:

An idea to help your business to grow - How effective is your marketing?

An interview with Simon Abra, a multi-role entrepreneur

In the second part of this interview, Simon Abra explores the commercial aspects of running the Kent On Sundays magazines and papers, helping businesses to advertise in a way that optimises the value they get from their investment.

He also talks about his personal interests as an entrepreneur selling health related products through network marketing and selling the Seashore giftware collection directly to the public.

You can contact Simon Abra on tel: +44 7791 860548 or by email.

How effective is your marketing?

Although marketing is a popular topic, it is often ineffective. Linda had started her new business venture with an assumption that everyone would want to buy from her and her business was struggling. I was engaged to coach her in marketing so she would learn the simple process of researching if anyone wants to buy her products and services, promoting her goods to her intended customers and finding timely sales opportunities.

Test your market robustly

I could see Linda losing everything if she continued promoting her products and services to an untested market. So we planned how she would research her market. Her first step was to try her business ideas on several groups of friends. Next, we arranged to talk to significant samples of her intended customers about the potential goods – and I insisted that she note down their comments: what do they need, what will they pay and how much might they buy a week. This gave us results to work on and a process that we can re-iterate every time she re-tests her market.

Solve actual problems for paying clients

This market research gave Linda the insight that customers will only listen to what is relevant to them: can she solve their problems and meet their needs. At each iteration of the market research, we made a tighter definition of Linda’s niche market, based on who really needs her goods, who can pay her prices, and how often they want to buy. This helps to eliminate the disinterested people and to focus on the niche occupied by those who might buy.

Sell to the best opportunities

At this point, Linda launched her products and services using a marketing campaign to reach her niche customers. We built a prospects list and worked on educating them about the products and services that Linda could offer, using three different means of contact. The aim was to get a response to confirm that each prospect is indeed interested in Linda’s goods, that they would consider Linda as their supplier and that they had a timescale in which they would decide to buy.
Using these marketing responses, Linda approaches the most interested prospects to help them to buy her products and services. Where they are not ready to buy immediately, she schedules a future contact.

Encourage your customers to buy again

As we measured how Linda’s marketing investment linked to her sales results, I started to talk to her about repeat purchases. We then worked out how Linda could keep in touch with customers so that they remember to buy from her again. We also identified a couple of champions among the repeat customers who would actively recommend Linda’s goods to their friends, relatives and business acquaintances.

Encourage customer loyalty

Linda now has a hot list of current and previous customers. This business asset can be valued by the sales Linda expects to make to every loyal customer. Sometime next year, we plan to extend the marketing to find customers who want complementary goods, as well as upgrades and add-ons to their original purchases.

As a result of the coaching, Linda has a marketing and sales process that finds what people want, who will buy from her and when they want to buy.