Friday 21 December 2012

Common pitfalls to avoid

Research has indicated that there are some common reasons for businesses failing. It is important that you are aware of the common reasons for business failure, which primarily impacts on your cash position, so you can plan to avoid these.

  • Not enough capital
  • Growing too fast
  • Hiring the wrong people
  • Lack of experience
  • Too few customers
  • Setting prices too low
  • Poor financial controls
  • Bad debts
  • Poor control of your overheads
  • Competition
  • Poor communication with staff 
  • Health issues of the key people
  • Bad management & Poor supervision
  • Poor communication with suppliers
  • Poor communication with customers
  • Bad luck
  • Poor planning
We cover these areas in more detail on our dvd. www.startyourownbusinessdvd.co.uk

Friday 14 December 2012

Market research

The most common reply to the question of market research is that my friends and family think it is a good idea. Of course they will, as they want to support you and take a true friend to tell you 'don't do it'.
Effective market research is commonly broken down to Primary and secondary research. So your own specific research could include
  • Questionnaires
  • Interviews
  • Focus groups
  • Product tests
  • Test marketing
  • Published information and statistics
  • Observation
  • Mystery shopping

You should also undertake your own competition analysis to see how your competitors approach the market with their product or service. You may have a different approach, but your competitors have started their business, so we suggest you will not have to re-invent the wheel after reviewing your observations.

Friday 2 November 2012

The value to your organisation of different behaviourial styles

We enjoy working with Thomas International as an accredited provider of the personality and behavioural analysis reports, using D.I.S.C. profiling.
So what value to your organisation does someone who has a High D, I, S or C profile provide?
Please read more from our recent blog to discover the value to an organisation of someone who has a high dominant factor of:

D - Drive
I - Influence
S - Steadiness
C - Compliance

www.entrepreneursmentor.co.uk

Monday 8 October 2012

What does your design and print say about you and your business

Your stationery, business cards, website, e-mails, brochures and advertising convey your brand personality to your target audience.
The design is important in developing your image, how you are represented and what makes you stand out from the crowd.

Please make sure that you work with designers and printers that understand your vision for the business and that can create the appropriate and effective message for your business.
This is an area that can not be underestimated, even for the smallest of businesses.
You are going to spend some money to have this created, so get it right first time with the image that is right for you and your market.


Saturday 6 October 2012

Mentoring in leisure and hospitality

So what have I been doing recently?

One exciting piece of work that I have been doing is with a long term client. They are a husband and wife team running their own restaurant in Oxford for the past 7 years.

My role has been to support their decision makiing and planning in many different areas of the business, but predominantly relating back to the numbers in the business, including the obvious turnover and margins, but also reviewing the underlying numbers such as covers, average sale value, service scores, staff turnover and  to name a few.

This last week, we were looking at the seasonal flow of their business, highlighted by the recent visitors to Oxford for the open day at the Universities.

www.entrepreneursmentor.co.uk

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Invited to speak in London

I am pleased to have been invited back again to speak at this years conference of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers in London on 7th November.

Last year, I spoke on the subject of Strategic and Tactical Marketing and was voted the 'the most popular speaker'.  This year, my talk will be covering the 7 effective steps to grow your bookkeeping business.

www.entrepreneursmentor.co.uk

Friday 28 September 2012

Know your leadership and management style

This week, I have been on a course! The subject matter was personality profiling and it was a fantastic course and insight that has developed my skills further to allow me to help business owners know more about their leadership and management style.

Our research shows us that the entrepreneurs that know more about themselves and how they can get the best from their team, usually see the best results.
It is however sometime the last focus of an entrepreneur, as they have other things to focus on such as marketing, finance, operations and to be honest most entrepreneurs consider themselves as good leaders and managers because they own the business.

My company use DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance) profiling to help our clients understand the leaders strengths, style and compatibility with others.

If you are an employer, then we can also help you recruit, retain, develop and manage your people. We can provide you with an insight into your team, so you know, what motivates them, what are their core strengths and limitations, and what is their potential.

We work with clients that have improved their recruitment and retention of staff simply focusing on the profile of the ideal team member for the role advertised.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

The Oxford Marketing Conference

Since 2009, A1 Marketing have organised the Oxford Marketing Conference and this years event will take place on Tuesday 16th October.

If you are within easy travelling distance of Oxford, then this is a great opportunity to listen to a range of expert speakers for both online and offline marketing, plus participate in some short marketing focused activiities.

So if you work in marketing or are responsible for marketing your business, then why not come and join us on the 16th in Oxford.

For more information, please see www.oxfordmarketingconference.co.uk

Friday 21 September 2012

Why a DVD?

Earlier this year we launched a Business Start Up Guide on DVD.
So why a DVD?
Working with many start up business owners every year, we met many that had no inclination to read a book, of which there are so many.
We were also told that many of the books covered too much detail for the initial start up period and therefore we chose our content to be the 'must know' guide covering the foundations and initial considerations for all new business owners.
www.startyourownbusinessdvd.co.uk

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Is your LinkedIn profile forgettable?

LinkedIn can be a great social media tool for many businesses.
But if you are going to have a presence on this platform, then please ensure that it is not forgettable. Here are my 10 key tips to ensure that you develop your basic profile and create a reason to attract someone viewing your profile.

  1. Photo: Ensure you have one and it represents you and your business, not the last time you were out with friends, unless of course that is your business!
  2. Headline: More than just your job title. What do you do to help your customers?
  3. Websites: Ensure they are personalised and not just 'My company website'
  4. Skills and expertise: Complete covering all your skills listed using key words your prospective customer or contact may be searching for.
  5. Status updates: Ensure you have status updates and appear active, but please ensure they are not simply self promotional.
  6. Recommendations: Obtain recommendations, as much more effective someone else saying how good you are.
  7. Summary: Include a description of your current role and how you are solving your customers problems.
  8. Interests: An opportunity to show your personal touch and not just business focused or boring.
  9. Groups: Demonstrates your interest in your sector or skill area.
  10. Connections: Link up with people from day one

Saturday 1 September 2012

Limited Companies and the Responsibilities of Directors

We are surprised by the number of people who establish limited companies because they are aware of the limited liability factor or the tax benefits, but do not know anything more about their responsibilities as a Director.
Please visit the companies house website and read more about this knowledge all directors should have.

Saturday 25 August 2012

Think with your eyes wide open

It was great to read the news today that a report has revealed that more people are thinking of starting a business than ever before.
Perhaps with the current economic climate this may be forced on some people, but from the work we undertake with startups, then their certainly appears to be a higher level of positivity for entreprenuership.
We meet and talk to many people with an idea and the desire to run their own business. Quite often they have mentioned it to family and friends and as you would suspect many encourage them.
However we encourage you to enter the initial considerations with your eyes wide open and undertake good market research to establish there is a market for your product or service.
Quite often you have to push your comfort zone with market research, but look to ask your 'ideal customer' how much they pay a possible competitor, why they buy from them and how often.
This information is critical to help you build you business plan, forecasts and strategy.

www.startyourownbusinessdvd.co.uk

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Working with Influencers for your business

A key marketing strategy for many businesses is to gain new customers from referrals.
So when meeting key business influencers for your business, remember to:
1. remind them what you do and why you can help their contacts
2. engage them with your trust, excellence and results evidence
3. ask! but focus on your ideal customer

Thursday 16 August 2012

Prospecting with a plan

When you are prospecting for your sales pipeline, then this should be a process and have a plan.
What is your goal, what is your edge, how is your attitude and what is your key activity for an action plan?
We suggest to all our clients to keep a record of activities and measure against your objectives, especially around the areas of size of pipeline, number of resales, referrals received, referrals met, introducer meeting and events held or attended.
Keep your prospecting strong and pipeline flowing.


Sunday 12 August 2012

Investment opportunities for smaller companies

£500 million of Government investment for small and mid-sized businesses is open for applications. The Government is asking for applications to manage the investment available through the Business Finance Partnership (BFP).
The BFP aims to ease the flow of credit to small and mid-sized businesses in the UK by diversifying their sources of finance and making them less reliant on bank lending. To read more please click here

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Could Factoring Free Up your Business Cashflow?


Historically factoring or invoice discounting had a poor reputation as a last resort finance, however more and more business owners are benefiting from a more positive experience.

The lifeblood of any business is cash. You need good cash flow to keep your business viable. In some ways it's more important than turning a profit because even profitable businesses can go under due to poor cash flow during the economic downturn. If cashflow is an issue for your business, factoring could provide a good solution. Factoring companies will advance you cash based on the value of your invoices, within a few days of you issuing the invoice.

Monday 6 August 2012

Limited Companies and the Responsibilities of Directors


We are surprised by the number of people who establish limited companies because they are aware of the limited liability factor, but do not learn more to know about their responsibilities as a Director.

If you are starting a Limited company, then please visit the companies house web site and read more on the Directors Role and Responsibilities.

Thursday 2 August 2012

Business Continuity Planning

The more years you put into running your business, the more you will feel the need to protect it and ensure no-one can take it away from you. No wonder people refer to their business as their baby!
Without getting into the area of reputation damage, product failure or an employee stealing your clients, there are broadly speaking five areas to be aware of that could badly affect your business. What is your continuity plan for the following?
  • Fire
  • Flood
  • Theft
  • Data Loss
  • Malicious Damage

Tuesday 31 July 2012

Newsletters - A few Do's and Don'ts

Our Do's
  • Review the intention and content of your e-mail newsletter. It needs to provide useful information - not a pure promotion of your product or service.
  • Have content of real value for your target market, such as tips, new ideas or industry articles.
  • Consider the length of your newsletter. Aim for it to be read in max 10 minutes.
  • Build your mailing list. Have easy sign up options in all your communications and encourage people to join your list. Remember they have to opt in to receive.
  • Send it in the simplest format so that your readers, who have a wide variety of e-mail software and computers, will hopefully receive it in an easy to read style.
  • Keep it short. For lengthy points use a URL link pointing to further information on your web site.
  • Use hyperlinks to your web site or related articles.
  • Ensure that you include easy unsubscribe information in each of your e-mail newsletters.
  • manage your newsletters and understand the type of articles that engage your readers.
  • Keep your title and timing consistent, as people and spam software will recall previous copy.
The Don'ts
  • Send attachments or special formatting, unless you know that this is what your entire audience can and wants to receive. Also a risk of going straight to spam boxes.
  • Send unsolicited e-mail (spam). You could permanently damage your reputation.
  • Send an e-mail newsletter out to often.
  • Use too many images.
  • Use technical or slang wording.

Friday 27 July 2012

7 effective steps for business growth

Each area of business growth should be systemised, so that it is a habit in your business and business as usual instead of something for occasional focus.
Our suggested 7 steps are:
1.Number of leads marketing
2.Conversation rate sales
3.Number of customer sales cross sales
4.Value of sales prices
5.Margin cost management
6.Buy more often sales & service
7.Increase customer lifetime retention

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Your Business Plan

Your business plan is arguably the most important document that your business will ever create. So why do some people only complete a business plan when asked by the bank? 
Is it not knowing where to start or what to include? Is it because people ‘know’ the business and do not feel they need one? Or is it the fear of monitoring performance against plans? 
In our opinion, not one reason should stop the planning of your business in such a formulated manner, providing you with the ultimate reference document. If you out perform the plan then great, but many times, when we speak to business owners, we get told ‘I do not know why it has not gone as I thought it would. It was not as I planned’.
We suggest that as a minimum, your business plan should include:
  • The key details of the business.
  • Your executive summary including your aims and objectives.
  • The business description including your unique selling point.
  • Your key people and the business operations.
  • Elements unique to your business such as stock, premises, training plans, equipment, insurances etc.
  • The Marketing plan.
  • The financial forecasts including flexing for potential scenarios.

Wednesday 18 July 2012

What is out of date?

If you are selling food, then it is obvious when one of your products becomes out of date as it is past its best before date quoted. However do you regularly review your offering to ensure that it still matches the expectations of todays market and has not gone out of date? The reaction of a consumer to eating something out of date would be one of disappointment. Perhaps this could be related to a prospects expectations when they are reviewing your web site to read about a product or service that has not evolved or been updated for a long time? If it is not broken, then don't fix it, but we encourage you to regularly review your offering and how you fit in todays ever changing market place.

Saturday 7 July 2012

Time Management and knowing the basics

Do we really know the full extent of what we are trying to manage?
Many people we work with identify the need to manage things such as work for their customers, their emails, their travel time and the day to day administration. However only a few consider those small things that eat into our precious time.
Remember we only have 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to choose what we want to do. Once it has passed it has gone forever.
Some say they would not have the time, but we recommend keeping a daily time log for at least two weeks and logging every minute of your day. What did you really do. Then analyse the period and identify the true activities that need your time management focus.
Without such knowledge, it is then difficult to plan for the obvious without the time getting hijacked by another unforeseen activity.
This may also highlight areas where you may be undercharging or activities you can delegate or outsource.

Wednesday 4 July 2012

What are the top 5 numbers in your business?

Is it your turnover target or your margin percentage? Is it the number of leads you want each month or thenumber of new customers? Is it the maximum number of times the phone should ring before answered? or is it the maximum number of hours to which you will reply to an enquiry?

These numbers will be very personal to you and if achieved will help drive the success of your business.
So are you measuring these 5 numbers on a monthly basis in your management information? Are they on every meeting agenda looking at ways to improve them or simply focus on them?
If not then why not, as you have identified them as your top 5 numbers.
Mike Foster, speaks on this very subject. To read more, please see our web site

Wednesday 13 June 2012

New DVD launched to prevent 80% of business start-ups failing

Press Release 
Two Oxfordshire business owners have come together to launch a new product to help business start ups both survive and thrive.

Co Producer, Mike Foster said: “Research shows that 4 out of 5 businesses fail within their first 5 years. And, of course, the pain caused by those failures has an impact on the prosperity and employment prospects of the economy as a whole, let alone those personally involved. So we decided to share our expertise and launch a product that provides advice on creating the right foundation for success and those all important initial considerations for a business start up.”

The DVD is split into 7 sections and has 44 subject areas covering the initial considerations, setting the right foundations, finance, product / service, marketing & sales, employing people and customer service.

Mike added “The feedback has been very positive and our customers so far have said how they are pleased to see such a delivery of the content instead of the usual book or web page content.”

For more information, please see www.startyourownbusinessdvd.co.uk

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Do you need a speaker for your event

The type of topics that I have been asked to speak about are:

  • Time management – gain control of your daily activity
  • How to win your ideal clients – your marketing strategy and tactics
  • Social media – should I be using and tips to set up your LinkedIn profile
  • Making your financial numbers work for you
  • Designing a business that works
  • The 7 systemised steps to business growth
  • The must know guide to starting your own business
  • First Aid skills

See http://a1-group.co.uk/index.php/aboutus/business-coach-and-speaker
 
If you would like me to speak at your event, then please contact him by clicking here

How does this local entrepreneur manage so many hats?

Under Mike Foster’s leadership A1 since it was established in 1999 is certainly living proof that diversification doesn’t dilute a company’s effectiveness, but rather enhances and strengthens it.

To read the full article in the recent B4 magazine, then please click here