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Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Top Tips for 2008

Published by Business Link on 28 January, 2008 in Top Tips • 0 Comments

5 tips to help you get the most out of 2008:

1. Face your demons

Make a list of your worst nightmares. The loss of your most valuable customer(s); a competitor undercutting your prices and squeezing your margins; losing your customer data. Whatever your key issues, make 2008 the year to face up to your demons by devising action plans that aim to avoid the worst case scenarios that keep you awake at night. At first there may be more questions than answers, but facing up to such uncomfortable issues is often more healthy than burying your head in the sand. It could make 2008 your best and least stressful year yet. Or may simply ensure your business survives into 2009.

2. Develop yourself

If 2007 was all about your business, make at least a small part of 2008 about you. Consider your weaknesses and identify areas for self-development. Then explore your opportunities for training, which may include local training events, workshops and seminars, one-to-one training or coaching, bespoke training sessions or online interactive courses. Or even just a holiday and a good self help book! After all, your personal skills contribute to the overall success of your business, so it makes perfect sense to develop yourself.

3. Watch your finances

Continued fears of a credit crunch hitting the UK economy may or may not be realised, but such uncertainties serve as a useful reminder that financial stability is not a certainty. Even if you’re confident that your finances are in order, consider the unexpected – such as how a financial squeeze might affect your customers, suppliers or money lenders, and think about what this may mean to your business. Ensure the basics such as your cash flow, balance sheet and profit and loss accounts are taken care of, and review financial forecasts regularly so that potential issues can be avoided before they happen. The unexpected may not occur, but a solid grasp on your finances means that if it does you are well prepared to ride the storm.

4. Go green

In October 2007 we reviewed a NetRegs SME-nvironment survey indicating that although many businesses have the motivation to go green, a large proportion fail to understand exactly how their business impacts the environment. An estimated 48 per cent of all businesses have taken steps to minimise their environmental impact, but many businesses continue to believe that they don’t undertake any harmful activities and as a result do not implement environmentally friendly practices. It’s likely that during 2008 those NOT acting will become the minority, but many businesses will still need to implement changes if they are to turn environmental consciousness into action.

5. Do something new

The choice is yours, but here’s a few suggestions: Learn a new IT skill. Put a plant in your workspace. Attend a networking event. Make a website. Write a business plan. Delegate. Join an online business community. Reward yourself. Backup your data. Ask someone for help. Review your business performance. Reward your employees. Diversify. Take a holiday. Think of a new way of doing things.

 Download printer friendly version : Top tips for 2008

HR Focus – recruiting options and January 2008 report when millions called in sick

Published by Business Link on 28 January, 2008 in HR & People Development • 0 Comments

Taking on staff – the options 

 Taking on staff can be a daunting experience, especially when recruiting for the first time. Finding the right person for the job is a job in itself, and one which is vital to the future success of your business. So the pressure is on even before you begin. Nevertheless – you can get it right, and there are some simple steps you can take to make the process easier.

The most obvious and most important prerequisite when recruiting is to exhaustively examine your staffing requirements – with both current and future needs in mind. And crucially – within the context of your wider business objectives. You might be able to recruit a full-time employee now, but consider what will happen if you lose a key customer, or later decide you need to invest money to develop other areas of your business.

Such scrutiny may also help you evaluate the various options when taking on staff. For example, if you cannot be sure how much staffing you need, or how this will impact your cash flow in other areas of the business, you might decide to pursue a more flexible approach to recruitment – such as temporary staff or contractors. (Such an approach may also suit you better when recruiting for the first time, if only to avoid making costly mistakes from the outset.)

By considering recruitment within the wider context of your business objectives, you can confidently evaluate your options for taking on staff, thereby formulating a well-founded recruitment strategy.

Review your options when taking on staff – Taking on staff – the options

January sees millions call in sick

Absence management firm FirstCare reports that an estimated 12.5 per cent of the UK working population were absent from work at some point during the second week of January. Flu, coughs, colds and the much publicised Norovirus ‘winter vomiting bug’ have taken their toll already this year, and are likely to linger throughout the coming winter months.

Employers are sure to be doing everything they can to help employees get better and back to work, but such extreme numbers off sick highlight potential issues for employers. Particularly contagious illnesses such as the Norovirus could affect a high percentage of employees at the same time, leaving businesses stretched and potentially unable to operate effectively.

Businesses should consider how they could cope with high percentages of their workforce off sick, before it happens, and devise contingency plans in case the worst occurs.

More info – Crisis management and business continuity planning

Assessing customer value

Published by Business Link on 28 January, 2008 in Sales & Marketing • 0 Comments

Your customers are your most valuable asset. Ultimately, any business is weak without them. But each customer is different, offering a unique level of value to your business. By identifying and nurturing your most valuable customers, you can sell more, increase your profitability and grow your business.

Customer value can be viewed from three distinct perspectives:

• Current value is a measurement of current customer profitability, based on the products and services that customers have previously consumed.
• Lifetime value is an extrapolation of current value, which aims to predict a customer’s future spending based on previous consumption habits.
• Potential value seeks to estimate a customer’s propensity to become significantly more profitable in the future.

It’s important to remember that profitability by definition takes into account the costs you incurred when delivering products and services to customers. You may spend more time or money acquiring and servicing some customers than others, or you might charge higher prices to different customers in exchange for different levels of effort. In other words, customer value is more than just the sum of a customer’s spending. It’s a balance of that sum against the time, effort and money you spent on that customer.

Of course, when measuring the lifetime or potential value of customers, nothing is certain. High value customers may buck the trend, deciding to purchase elsewhere or curb their spending. Conversely, low value customers may become exponentially more profitable. Nevertheless, making sense of customer value – both current and potential – helps focus resources and crucially helps minimise the chance of high value customers going elsewhere.

Tracking spending habits and measuring customer profitability can be difficult tasks, so much so that large organisations with thousands or millions of customers invest heavily in gathering and analysing data in order to group customers by value. But businesses of any size can make use of such approaches. A small company selling products or services to a handful of clients could quite easily find the information they need to analyse customer behaviours. And though perhaps less systematically, could seek to predict a customer’s future spending and profitability. Even companies with more than a few customers can make sense of customer value by employing straightforward data collection and analysis methods to capture and interpret data. 

For any business of any size, the focus when assessing customer value should be on collecting the right information and subsequently evaluating it in the right ways. The task may be crude or complex, but either way the process should provide some level of insight into which customers offer most value to your business.

Learn more about assessing customer value – Identify and sell more to your most valuable customers

Growing plans

Published by Business Link on 28 January, 2008 in Strategy & Operations • 0 Comments

Any successful business that matures past the start up stage will face the dilemma: Should they grow bigger or stay the same size?

As cash flow and profitability increase, underpinned by loyal customers and rising demand, the temptation to grow bigger is as strong as the potential for increased rewards in doing so.

But it should be remembered that some small businesses may be anxious about growing. The idea may have always been to avoid the complications and pressures of big business. Business owners may wish to preserve the entrepreneurial spirit that flourishes in small, hungry businesses. Or they may hope to keep close ties with customers and suppliers, maintaining the personal touch. They might even worry that growing the business may dilute the camaraderie and close team dynamics of a smaller business. Desires and concerns like these may be so strong that the idea of growing too big may seem like a change for the worst.

Whether you want to grow your business or not, it’s important to focus on business planning in order to maintain control. Let’s say that you are tempted to grow but are concerned about losing the ‘personal touch’ with your customers. In this instance you should aim to tackle this issue closely in your growth plan. For example, your plans may include the appointment of customer account managers whose sole responsibility is to ensure high quality care of customers; or you might decide to employ someone to take on elements of your day-to-day workload in order to free up your time to focus on customer relations. Conversely, if the prospect of growing by recruiting staff is so costly or bewildering that you don’t want to take such a risk, you may need to plan how you are going to fulfill or manage customer demand without extra help. Often, even the act of not growing needs to be planned.

Of course, growth can too easily be misinterpreted. Sometimes growth isn’t about employing more people or raising finance for big investments and grand plans. In many ways, a business can ‘grow without growing’. Growth could be about consolidation; through increasing efficiencies, improving current processes, or raising prices. From this perspective your growth plan may be focussed on staying ‘small’ but growing in terms of productivity and profitability. Remember – it’s easy to confuse size with greatness. Many business can be great without being big; indeed, some businesses may be great simply because they are small.

Whatever your perspective on the meaning and virtues of business growth, a key step to take – whether you want to grow or not – is to have a plan. If you have a plan, it’s more likely that managing your business will continue to be exciting and rewarding, no matter of its size.

Download guide – Deciding whether to grow

Get involved in Business Networking

Published by Business Link on 28 January, 2008 in News & Opportunities and Sales & Marketing • 0 Comments

Networking is a simple concept with the basic aim of bringing people and businesses together. It’s a chance for businesses to showcase or share their experience and knowledge, seek help and guidance, collaborate, find sales leads and customers, or maybe just swap contacts details. In short, the focus is on linking up like-minded people so that something positive can happen.

Traditional real life networks can sometimes be formal groups, with rules about who can participate. For example, there may be set joining criteria in order to attract members with common attitudes or characteristics (such as company size or background). This is not intended to foster a ‘clique’ – it’s really about maintaining relevance so that attendees can get equal value from the networking experience. Such groups encourage highly engaged participants, who recognise their role in contributing to the overall networking dynamic.

Of course, not all business networking is so involved. One recent trend to hit the business world is the emergence of ‘speed networking’, which are casual events based on the speed dating concept where participants spend just a few minutes talking to each other. There are usually less restrictions about who can take part, the assumption being that although there is a higher probability that participants will bump into undesirable contacts, they will not have to spend too much time with them and can move on to meet others as quickly as possible.

Online networking is another growing marketplace where business people can link up without leaving their desks. ‘LinkedIn’ is an online business community based on the concept of building a network of ‘trusted contacts’. ‘BT Tradespace’ aims to link small businesses, individual sellers and customers, through its online community and business listings. Focus is again on building trust – this time through user comments, reviews and ratings. Such sites aim to build trust through clever technology, rather than through personal judgement resulting from face to face contact.

The involved membership only approach, and the high volume approaches like speed networking and online communities represent two extremes when it comes to business networking. There is in fact much more in between, such as networking breakfasts where business people simply sit down to eat with like minded peers, and formal or informal networking events held by local Chambers of Commerce or other business support organisations. The trick is to do a bit of research to find out what’s going on in your local area. Once you have found a networking approach you are comfortable with, all that is left to do is get involved!

Find out more – Learning through networking with others