10 Steps To Success in 2013

10 Steps To Success in 2013
With 2013 upon us and all the doom and gloom in the press about the economy, the Euro and anything else they can come up with a negative slant on to depress us does all this news actually impact what you are doing and can do for your business? I think not. There is still money out there being spent. BMW had record sales in 2012 with an increase in sales of 8.8% worldwide and Sports Direct (thanks partly to the Olympics) was looking at 20% year on year improvement of turnover. So here is a 10 step guide for you to consider in order to be successful (or more successful) in your business over the next 12 months. One assumption is that you already have a product/service to offer that the market wants. If you are starting up a business, you may find the Start Up Guide useful. Share this guide with a business colleague.
t: 01933 375 300 ~ e: me@paulgreen.biz ~ w: www.paulgreen.biz ~ blog: www.paulgreen.biz/blog 2012/2013 All rights reserved no unauthorised use of any of the contents of this document is permitted -1-

1. Market Identify who your ideal customer is. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, be specific about who you would want as a client. Look at who your best customers are now (and your worst) and aim to get more of the best. Your niche could be defined by: turnover number of staff geography industry sector sex, age or ethnicity hobby/interest position within a company ...etc
or more than likely a combination of these factors. It is easier to target a prospect list with a 1000 names on it versus tens or hundreds of thousands. 2. Competitive Advantage Once you have established your target audience for what you have to offer, what makes you better than your your competitors; business from what the distinguishes
competition and would have a prospect choose you as opposed to one of your rivals? What pain are you easing or need are you fulfilling and what are the benefits of doing business with you over an alternative supplier? You need to stand out from the crowd and not appear the same (or a commodity) to your potential customer base.

Imagine if you were a shop on the High Street and a competitor opened up next door, what would you do to encourage people to come into your shop or if you took the 'header' off your website and swapped it with the 'header' of your nearest competitor's website, would there be any significant difference? If you can become the recognised expert or specialist in your line of business this will significantly enhance your position versus the competition. 3. Message Knowing your ideal customer and competitive advantage allows you to focus your message really clearly, bringing out the specific benefits that touch a nerve with your potential client compelling them to do business with you. Within the niche you have identified, you may also have sub-groups that you can address with a message very specific to them. For example, if your niche is offering websites to businesses in the county where you live - the offering to a start up business and an established business would be different as the needs of each would vary. Therefore the benefits would need to align with the specific requirement for each of those distinct types of prospect in the approach you take to acquire them as a client through the marketing message you use.
For a free comprehensive guide on marketing specifically aimed at small medium size enterprises (SME), please visit the link below (no registration required). www.paulgreen.biz/free-stuff/marketing-simply/ With over 120 pages, this guide covers all aspects of marketing: What Is Marketing Marketing Strategy Market Research Internet Marketing Direct Marketing Advertising Promotion PR Pricing

4. Method Great, so you've got your target market, your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and a message that hits the spot - now your challenge is to get the message out there through a variety of marketing activities. In my mind, these be categorised into passive and active, then online and offline. Passive marketing is an advert or a directory listing for example, where you are waiting for a prospect to take action to contact you i.e. you have no direct control or influence. Active marketing is where you are engaging directly with your prospect - this might be through email marketing, telephone calls, direct mail, etc. In this case you have more ability to encourage a 'call to action' that will lead to new custom. On the whole, being more 'active' is likely to yield better results for your business. Your marketing should be ongoing and you should be implementing multiple channels to your identified market. 5. Measure Whatever your marketing efforts entail - you need to be measuring the results and tracking where you get the most leads being generated. You can do this in a number of ways. This is easier online as you can use specific website or email addresses that relate to a particular campaign. Google Analytics is also a great, free tool to track visitor activity on your website.

There are also tools for tracking traffic via email campaigns and social media interactions, as well as pay-per-click ads; most of them are free or low cost. For offline activity, telephone tracking numbers can be an effective, and relatively low cost way of knowing where business opportunities are coming from. A telephone tracking number is a 'normal' number (as opposed to 0845/0870/etc) that is published in your mailshot or advert, specific to that particular marketing channel; thereby providing you information on how many calls came through for a given project. It is important to know your return on investment for any marketing that you do, to enable you decide what to do more of what works and less of what doesn't work - this way you get more 'bang for your buck'! 6. Price Do you understand the difference between price and value? If you are selling on price only, there is always the possibility that a competitor will undercut you. Buyers who purchase on price tend to be less loyal as a customer; next time they may also buy elsewhere because it's cheaper. If you can create value in what you are offering (combined with your competitive advantage relative to the need you are fulfilling) then customers will invest in what you have to offer and will buy more from you or come back for different products/services. Creating value can take many guises - it could be a guarantee, or something extra for nothing e.g. a free carry case for a laptop, or something that is exclusive to your business, a special offer (not a price discount), etc - hopefully you get the idea?

Test your pricing, make sure you are not selling too cheaply - if you have the right value proposition, price will not necessarily come into it - take BMW/Sports Direct (above) for example. You can often afford to put your prices up and not impact your bottom line profits. Did you realise if your margin is 40%, a 10% price increase could sustain a 20% drop in sales volume without any impact on your profitability? The 'double whammy' here is, that if you lose customers by putting the price up, you have just identified those customers that only buy on price (and you may not regret losing them!). For more information on price increasing for other margins and percentages - take a look at http://tinyurl.com/price-increasing. 7. Profit No doubt you have heard the expression: "Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity"? There is no point, as a business owner, having a high turnover but only a few pounds profit - or worse still, a loss. Understand the break even point in your business and keep control of your costs; whether it is staff, raw materials, utilities, rates, etc. Have regular management accounts generated (at least monthly) by your accountant, bookkeeper or finance manager, that provide you with the key financial measures that are important to your business (including a cashflow forecast - see below). Knowing where you are in your business from a 'bottom-line' perspective enables you to make more informed decisions about the direction of your business.

8. Cashflow Cash is the biggest killer of businesses large and small. Lack of cash within a business (or extensive borrowing and the inability to repay it) cuts off the lifeblood within an organisation and ultimately will lead to its failure. Knowing what cash is coming in and out of your business and when is essential. Invoice regularly - there is no need to wait for the end of the month and chase invoices before they are due. Doing this ensures there are no issues that would prevent payment, that you are on the payment run and to keep your bill in the mind of the debtor - sometimes it's who shouts the loudest gets paid the soonest. Manage relationships with creditors and negotiate better payment terms that benefit your business. Have a cashflow projection that looks forwards not backwards, so you can manage bills that will become due in the future; like VAT for example. Download a free cashflow template. 9. Outsource As a business owner, you are not an expert in every single aspect of what it takes to run a successful business - no one is (not even Sir Richard Branson or Lord Alan Sugar!). So outsource those functions that you either don't like doing or can't do effectively. The obvious ones are the financial accounting requirements for a business, legal matters, HR/Personnel issues, Health & Safety. But what about sales, marketing or operational needs for your business?

Employing staff is not always the answer or the best option for your business (as employees bring their own problems for business owners with them!) - there are advisors, consultants and experts that can provide solutions for whatever your business is looking for. The benefits of outsourcing (versus staff) are that it is 'turn-on-and-off-able' as and when demand changes and the relationship is one of supplier to customer, not manager to staff, so potentially the dynamic is better; or at least different. By offloading such responsibilities from your shoulders, this takes the onus from you working 'in' the business, allowing you to work 'on' the business and take a more strategic view on the direction of where you want your business to be. 10. Plan Ultimately whatever the aspirations for your business, write them down in a business plan in line with what you want to achieve over the next 12 months. By documenting your S.M.A.R.T. objectives, you are able to share them with peers, staff, bank managers and/or advisors to the business and it enables you to track progress and make decisions more easily that are congruent with where you are heading. Include specific actions with who is doing what, by when and the associated measure such that you can monitor how you are getting on with the plan. Time is one of the most valuable assets you have and it is limited to so many hours in a day, days a week, weeks in a year and, as you know, time flies (where does it go?). With a dynamic business plan (i.e. one that doesn't sit on the shelf gathering dust), how you prioritise this commodity is made clearer and you can make the best use of the time made available to you and be more effective with the actions you take. Download a free business planning template.

Something that will underpin these 10 steps is attitude. Having a positive, but realistic, outlook will help you stay out of the quagmire of the press and those around you that subscribe to and focus on the negative elements that exist around us. In life, there are 'sappers', those that drain energy whenever they enter a room or a conversation, and 'zappers', those that inspire with their interactions and are encouraging with their words. I think you know who you should mingle with! I hope you find these steps useful and here's to the (continued) success of your business in 2013. Please feel free to provide me with feedback: me@paulgreen.biz. Share this guide with a business colleague.
Paul Green is an experienced, small business expert and author. He is a founder partner of UK Business Advisors (UKBA), Fellow of the Institute for Independent Business (IIB) and a Group Director of NN coNNect; the fastest growing local business network in Northamptonshire. He spends most of his time in the SME sector, typically working with Managing Directors and Owners of companies with more than 5 staff or a turnover in excess of 250k. He has personally worked with over 40 business owners and can improve your profitability within 60 days........or your money back! His specialisation is in strategic and business planning, sales assessment and performance, mentoring/coaching and leadership development. Whilst he is based in the East Midlands - Northamptonshire, he has access to an extensive network of business professionals across the UK (and worldwide) that can offer business support across all 'pillars' of a business: strategy, finance, sales, marketing, people, operations, resources and management and a wide variety of industry sectors. He is the author of 50 Essential Business Advice Tips To Ensure Your Business Flourishes & Thrives in 2013.
Disclaimer no responsibility can be accepted for any actions that you take as a result of the contents provided in this guide. There is no guarantee that implementing any of these steps will definitely ensure your business is successful or that they will prevent your business from failing. They are presented as a guide based on the experience of the author working with many different types of business and are provided as a choice for you to consider if they will make an impact on your business.
t: 01933 375 300 ~ e: me@paulgreen.biz ~ w: www.paulgreen.biz ~ blog: www.paulgreen.biz/blog 2012/2013 All rights reserved no unauthorised use of any of the contents of this document is permitted - 10 -

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