Trade Stand

A great way to market your business is by having a trade stand at an event or in a supermarket or shopping centre. Getting a stand is only a step in the right direction to attracting those new customers how you operate the stand is vital to achieving a successful result.
Your stand should be attractive and functional but aside from the basics just make sure you feel confident in the way it looks.
The least important part of your stand, however, is the stand. The most important part of the stand is you!
Big shiny stands will attract shoppers but do you want shoppers or do you want leads?
Giving out leaflets and smiling at potential customers is only a small part of making your stand a success. How do you measure success when manning a stand? 
Before you go decide how you will measure success. 
Do you think that getting rid of thousands of leaflets is a success? Maybe you think that several people promising to call you is a result. 
Unless you are selling things on the day in which case you will know how well you have done, how you will measure your success is vital if you are going to have a good day. 
Maybe success to you is getting your name out there in which case an empty leaflet box might be a measurement of success. Giving out all of your business cards could also be a measure of your success.
Be realistic! Have you ever taken a leaflet and told someone you will call and not? Have you got business cards stuffed in your desk drawer of people you have said you will follow up with? 
Buyers are Liars! Here is something to remember, we are all well meaning liars. Yes I will call you, I'll take one of those and get back to you. We all mean well and so will all the people you meet on your stand, they will all mean to call you, mean to visit your website and mean to give you an opportunity to quote for that job. 
Take control. Rather than wait for them to call you why not call them. Why not take customers name address and phone number and the all important email address. If they are genuinely interested they will give you their details and then the ball is in your court. Turn their promises into reality and save them the hassle of calling you, they will forget.
Honest Results. You will be able to measure your success by the number of potential customers whose details you have rather than the number of leaflets and cards you have given away. After you have followed up your hard earned leads over the coming days, weeks and months you will be able to really measure your results.

For help with your Trade Stand or Instore Maqrketing why not get in touch with Ian at http://getters.co.uk

Ian Whitburn

Getters

Don't spend a fortune on advertising unless it works for you. Too many small businesses blindly spend money on advertising their business but don't bother checking the results. It is always worth advertising where and how your new customers found you. You can soon evaluate your marketing spend and work out where to spend your money.

Some large companies spend money just to get brand awareness but as a small business that is difficult to evaluate. You can just ask your customers though and you will soon find out if on line advertising, leaflets, social media or newspaper adverts do it for you or not. When you know the answer you can target your marketing budget to the area that works for you.

Simple!

Recession 2011: Managing the pressure

Being self employed whether working with your own family business or running a large corporate can be highly rewarding but most definitely a challenging working environment. The last 3.5 years have been tough for everyone and the impact of the recession on those in business has never been like this before.

It is now down to the survival of the fittest and only the strong will survive. But what are you or your managers doing to manage stress and what can you do to remain cool calm and in control?

Here are some recent figures that relate to working under pressure.

• Nearly half a million people in UK report work related stress to a point they are made ill.
• Each case of stress related ill health leads to an average of 30 days off work.
• Thirteen and a half million working days are lost in Britain each year to work related stress.

Recognise the signs of being under pressure/stressed/down. Call it what you will:

• Difficulty sleeping. Tired all the time.
• Headaches
• Being Indecisive
• Irritable, Anxious, Hypersensitive

Why does it happen?

• Eating on the run.
• Rushing. Taking on board too much.
• Not taking "time out".
• Taking work home.
• Not taking time to exercise or relax.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers have a legal responsibility to ensure the health of their employees while at work, and this includes being responsible for minimising the risk of stress related illness.

It is a know fact that Stress kills. If you recognise the signs and symptoms in any of your employees or indeed in yourself then it is time to take action and "get a grip" before stress takes hold of you.

If you are interested in knowing how to turn things around and help you get through the challenging next 12 months of the recession and manage the stress that it brings then register for one of Simone Price 2 hour workshops £35.00 venue and date to be confirmed.

Simone Price (Dip PT, Dip SRM, CFET)
Lifestyle Consultant and Personal Trainer.
Director Simone's Health Clubs Ltd. www.simones.co.uk 0789 0101 226

Finding businesses in the Forest of Dean can be quite difficult. There are many well established, fabulous businesses tucked away all over the area. With the cost of business rates and services as well as rents etc it is no wonder that many thriving businesses are now running from the owner's home.

With the trend towards massive American style Shopping Malls and Designer outlets, high streets seem now to be struggling in the Cities let alone small market towns like those in the Forest of Dean Towns.

It's not all bad news as there is one trend that really suits areas like the Forest and that is the trend towards on line business. Not that you necessarily need to sell on line, just be found. There are many businesses that used to have shops that will now come to you as that is a cheaper and better way to do business. As our ability to study and analyse businesses anonymously from our computer grows, so does our confidence in dealing with these companies.

As the internet grows still further are we in danger of loosing our market town high streets altogether? I think we are, unless we change the way they look. We want to be entertained now so I think our high streets will need to be mare like attractions in the future, with unique boutique style visitor shops being the only way small towns will survive.

What do you think?

I was asked for some advice from a friend recently. He is new to business and although talented in his field, he was worried sick about getting his tax affairs in order. I guess the main worry for most of us is, "will i have a big tax bill to pay and no money to pay for it?"

These are some simple steps that you can use to keep on top of the dreaded tax return.

1. Open a "tax saver" bank account to sit along side your current account. With a tax saver account you can quickly and easily transfer money over from you business account. When you make a sale that included Vat, just switch over the Vat aspect of the sale to your tax saver account until needed. If you draw money from the business (wages etc) remember to transfer over the income tax due on that withdrawl. That way you will always have a "real time" balance on your current account and you will accrue interest on you tax saver account.

2. Generally speaking I use the 20% method to curtail unneccessary spending. This is where you keep reminding yourself that everytime you withdraw money from the business or spend cash on somthing that is not business related, it has actually cost you 20% more. This rule is an approximate allowance for the income tax that becomes due on that money because you used it for you! Example if you spend £100 in Waitrose, it has actually cost you £120. Scary isn't it?

3. This is the most important step. you must find and use a quailfied accountant. A good accountant will teach you how to keep good records and tell you what you can claim against. Trust me this will save you a fortune and will greatly reduce the chance of you getting an unwelcome and expensive inspection. I recently spoke to somone who had worked out that he had a tax liability of over £5000. Fortunatly he took my advice and showed an accountant his figures. He saved nearly £3000!!!! He has been submitting his own return for 5 years! "ouch".

I hope this has been useful and have included a link to my own accountant in Mitcheldean.

www.millhallconsultants.co.uk

The short answer is 'Yes!' The longer answer starts with 'It depends...'

Financing your business

If I have a small business SME client looking to get finance from a bank or from a Finance house or a business angel then you need a good business plan that says where you are coming from, what you are about, what you intend to do and why it is a good idea. The level of professionalism starts with good and moves up the scale commensurate with the amount involved. However they won't thank you for a massive telephone book sized plan that has so much flannel in it they can't see the wood from the trees.

Small amounts from the bank probably do not require a plan though you run the risk of them wondering if you know what you are doing. The point of a good presentational plan is exactly that - to show off you know what you are talking about. If it is presented in the way the bank likes to analyse propositions. they are going to be friends with it straight away.

Starting a business

Definitely you need a plan. It's the planning that is important, not so much the writing down, so a bunch of 'To Do' lists might well be good enough. People do not realise how much is involved in running a business. Setting out on the journey without the map is asking to get lost.

Developing a business

At Bob Shepherd Associates we often help businesses wanting to move to the next level. That might be by launching a new initiative, or simply consolidating a business that is not firing on all cylinders. The principles of a well balanced, well conducted business are just the same as when it was launched. If anything is not performing well and supporting the whole it needs to be made to work better with the rest of the business. A plan may be necessary; an outside view certainly is. Set aside a little budget for help and it will pay you back several fold.

We've got a plan!

Give yourself 10/10. If it lives in a drawer somewhere take off 4 points. Take off 3 points for every six months since you looked at it. Take off 7 points if it is less than 3 pages long. Take off 5 points if you used a business plan template Take off 8 points if it is a several generation old photocopied questionnaire type template. Take away 9 points if it did not have a monthly cashflow forecast that you update.  Take off 25 points if you did not see the point when you did it.

Bob Shepherd Associates builds businesses. That could be a brand new business or one hoping to develop to the next level. We do this by examining all the components of your business and making sure they all fit together properly. See our website, our tweets and our facebook page for indications of the sort of business we help. Get practical sensible help to grow your small business SME successfully!

There are many components to your small business. And many of those are common to all businesses to some degree. For example a small one man band may say ‘I don’t have premises issues – I work off the kitchen table’

Premises problems? Yes you do! The very fact that you don't have premises can be an issue in itself. Working from home can be a case of it taking over altogether. A business running an on line book business has just taken up an old shop I know simply to give them selves space to organise and work. In their case storage is a particular issue. In fact they don't mind if no one comes in at all - all their business is online and anyone coming in is a bonus.

Not that working form home is always a bad thing. The point is that it is a piece of the jig saw that has to fit well. A dedicated space for the work is a must, whether at home or not. There are many advantages to working at home, but also some disadvantages. When the shopping delivery arrives and you are the only one on call - you have to stop what you are doing. The temptation to carry on into the wee small hours may be the problem. It may also be that you get so distracted nothing gets done.

In helping business I have seen all of these and consideration ha to be given to what to do about it. The rest of the big jig saw you call your business is the same. No matter what the size of your business it all has to fit together.

Bob Shepherd Associates helps businesses that are large SMEs and others that are small one man bands. The help we give takes fully into account the size of business, the sort of business, the market and the marketing, the resources you have and the resources you need.... There is so much to it and it all needs to work together to help you to grow your business successfully.

We have made some changes to the Bizin site after consultation with members and users one of which is the blog page. Anyone can join and add a blog. so go on pick a subject and get blogging. I am looking forward to reading the blogs, although I do have to warn you that they will all be monitored so please be nice and friendly. There are many experts featured on the site so I am hoping you will all join in and blog on the subjects you know about.

So, blog on....