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Author Archive for Business Link

100 INSPIRING IDEAS TO MAKE YOU A CHALLENGER

Published by Business Link on 28 January, 2010 in Creative and News & Opportunities • 0 Comments

Inspirational ideas have been gathered from 100 of the South West’s most exciting companies to help you drive your business forward in 2010.

Each of the 100 displays the type of drive, passion and innovative approach that has enabled them to go head-to-head with their market leaders and succeed despite fierce competition.

They are sharing these powerful and motivational ideas through the 100 South West Challenger campaign, which was launched on January 25 by Business Link in partnership with the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency).

Business Link’s advisers will be analysing these lessons and providing practical advice which, as owner-managers, you can use in your own business.

With trading conditions this year likely to remain challenging, you will need to outthink your competitors – and these 100 South West Challengers will show how.

The campaign will give you no-nonsense advice, delivered in easy-to-understand language with tips on essential topics from marketing to innovation, skills and finance.

The 100 South West Business Challengers campaign will run for 100 working days until Friday, 11 June. Each day a new Challenger profile will be uploaded onto the Business Link website.

The campaign is being supported by Northcliffe Publishing, which owns  28 newspapers and numerous websites throughout the South West, as well as BBC radio, television and online across the region.
The campaign will focus on themes including innovation, marketing, people, environment, focus, customer service, international trade, finance and starting in business.

Challenger companies will be interviewed and profiled as part of the campaign. The 100 Challengers will inspire the South West’s 219,000 small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) whose success is crucial to the future of the region.

They employ more than half the workforce – nearly 1.6 million people between them – so they play a vital role in driving the economy forward and contribute greatly to its growth, prosperity and superior quality of life.

The 100 South West Challengers campaign is not about easy solutions. The South West RDA and Business Link are determined to inspire and encourage enterprise among the region’s small and growing firms, building on its proud tradition of innovation and creativity. But this can only be achieved by working in true partnership.

South West RDA Chief Executive, Jane Henderson, said: “We are determined to encourage all companies to succeed, which is why we are delighted to be working with Northcliffe and Business Link in this unique partnership.”

Business Link, as the independent gateway to business support across the South West, is committed to helping small and medium-sized firms through the current challenging economic conditions.

Phil Smith, Business Link Chief Executive said: “Small businesses across the South West need to put innovation and creativity at the core of their operations. We have 100 examples of successful companies of all sizes which have done just that.”

Follow the daily challenger profiles on our website www.businesslink.gov.uk/southwest/challengers or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blsw

Credit checking

Published by Business Link on 19 November, 2009 in Starting Up and Strategy & Operations • 0 Comments

When was the last time you checked the financial health of your customers, suppliers, and your own business?

You may credit check new customers in order to decide whether to offer them credit and upon what terms. In addition, periodic checks on existing customers could help to monitor changes, allowing you to review credit limits and terms if a customer’s financial health deteriorates; something especially important for high value customers.

Checking the financial health of suppliers may also be important for maintaining reliable and uninterrupted supplies of the goods and services you need to run your business. Again, periodic checking allows you to spot changes in the financial health of suppliers so that you can make alternative or backup supply arrangements if necessary.

Just as you may choose to credit check others, your customers or suppliers might decide to assess your business’s financial health. Proactively checking your own credit worthiness therefore allows you to see how your business may be perceived by others, so that you can work towards becoming more credit worthy should you need to.

Credit checking services

Credit checking services are available from banks, financial institutions and specialist credit checking companies. Specific features of credit checking services vary but typically they may include:

  • Checking whether a business is genuine, i.e. not a fraudulently set up company
  • Overall credit ratings and detailed credit reports
  • Automatic alerts of changes in credit status
  • Information on how good a business is at paying invoices
  • Information on whether any county court judgements have been made against
  • a company
  • Assessment of risk of company bankruptcy
  • Debt recovery services such as legal advice or debt recovery letter writing

For small businesses with a handful of customers, basic credit services might be obtainable for free. Charges usually apply for companies with more than a few customers, or for more comprehensive services.

Three useful watchwords

Credit checking services assist in the prevention of late payments and bad debts, and are also geared towards monitoring changes in credit worthiness over time, so that you can review credit limits and terms with customers or source new suppliers. Some services also help to resolve disputes through assistance with debt-recovery letters and legal action. So, keep in mind the following three watchwords:

  1. Prevent. Use credit checking to identify high-risks and either avoid them or enforce tighter payment terms.
  2. Monitor. Use credit checking to spot and react to changes in credit worthiness over time.
  3. Resolve. Use credit checking services to help chase late payments before they become bad debts.

Guide to Preventing late payment

Top tips for achieving a work-life balance

Published by Business Link on 19 November, 2009 in Top Tips • 0 Comments

Set work and life goals, create a routine, remember what’s important. Find a balance between work and life.

Create a work and life routine
A clearly defined work routine helps to keep focus when you should be working, and makes you feel more entitled to breaks when they come around. Regardless of how busy you are, be sure to include a few hours rest in your daily routine, without fail. Once your designated rest time comes: switch off and enjoy life. Also see Organising your days.

Set realistic timings
Be realistic about how much you can fit in. Things often take more time than planned, pushing other tasks behind schedule and leaving you demotivated and forever playing catch-up. Set realistic timings, or put some spare time in-between key tasks; if things do go to plan you can always use the spare time to catch up on emails, or take a break.

Set work goals
What key goals must you achieve this week to make you feel productive and satisfied? Realism is important when answering this question, otherwise you might constantly feel under pressure to work when you should be relaxing. Once you achieve the goals you have set, you may find it easier to justifiably switch off.

Set life goals
Why not set life goals too? What personal goals can you set this week to achieve a happier life? Catch up with three friends or family members each week; make two trips to the gym; read one book? Also think about setting longer term goals such as ensuring you take at least one long break every year.

Separate work and life spaces
Do you work from home? If you do, when the working day ends: close the door to your office, put your work phone on silent, pop your papers in a drawer, and slide the laptop out of sight. If you don’t make efforts to separate your work and life spaces you may never feel truly switched off from the pressures of work.

Mix work and life
It might sound counter-intuitive when trying to separate work and life, but could you multi-task work and life in order to get more done more quickly? If you are attending a meeting in town, could you get your shopping or dry cleaning done afterwards? If you have a business conundrum to ponder, could you do so whilst walking in the park?

Say no
Saying no to one thing may enable you to say yes to something else. Is the appointment with that pushy salesman really going to offer value? Do you really want to attend that social occasion that’s bound to bore you? As with our tips on setting goals, it’s about remembering and prioritising what’s important in both work and life. Obviously this is one tip you could take too far; be mindful of and sensitive to times when you shouldn’t say no even if you’d like to.

Delegate
Business leaders and managers can struggle to cede control, which means they often end up doing the jobs of multiple people. If you can delegate a task effectively, you can win back part of your life. Delegating can also engage and motivate employees who feel privileged to take on new and important responsibilities, so it can be a win-win.

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Top tips: Tackling workplace disenchantment

Published by Business Link on 19 November, 2009 in Top Tips • 0 Comments

Tough times have resulted in growing employee dissatisfaction in many workplaces. What can businesses do to foster a happier and more engaged workforce?

The Economist recently reported that employee disenchantment with work is growing, partly due to the recession, and partly to “the drive to improve productivity, which is typically accompanied by an obsession with measuring performance”. So what can companies do to create a happier and more engaged workforce?

Pay attention to the human side of management
The Economist advises companies to “do more than pay lip service to the human side of management”. Managers should value the human dynamics important to their roles; factors such as open and strong communication, effective employee engagement, understanding and empathy for the employee viewpoint, and fair performance management.

Understand the employee viewpoint
One key practical step is figuring out the root cause(s) of employee disenchantment. Open up strong lines of communication between management and employees in order to understand workplace views, frustrations or anger. Use this intelligence to make judgements on how you can improve things.

Act on justified complaints
When workplace disenchantment is justified: commit to making changes. Reacting to and acting upon legitimate complaints positions you as a company that listens and cares about changing things for the better. A proactive approach also means employees are more likely to share their concerns and complaints in the future.

Manage expectations
If workplace disenchantment is unjustified, be clear with feedback to employees so that their expectations are managed effectively. Demonstrate that you have listened, but firmly explain the business’s perspective; explain why your point of view is justified. If employees understand your perspective they are more likely to respect it.

Be honest and clear
Bob Sutton from Stanford University suggests that companies should ‘come clean’ with workers, even in situations where there is bad news. He also says that in general business leaders must be clear with the signals they send out; ambiguous messages or out-of-turn phrases can quickly create anxiety and speculation among employees.

Handle poor performers
Targets and performance measures are important and often necessary, but when handling poor performers keep in mind the human perspective. Are skills gaps hitting performance? Could low morale, motivation or personal issues be to blame? Work together to understand the reasons, and work to improve things for both business and employee.

Work towards ongoing employee engagement
Negative emotions are “often crucial for survival” because they “narrow and focus attention” onto problems and spur positive change. By creating ongoing feedback mechanisms for capturing and curing workplace disenchantment you can continually turn problems into positives, for the benefit of both the business and its employees. Such a ‘win-win’ culture is part of what fosters a truly engaged workforce; so in essence, problems really can turn into positives.

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Green marketing: go green, then shout about it

Published by Business Link on 19 November, 2009 in Environment, Sales & Marketing and Strategy & Operations • 2 Comments

Consumers increasingly want more information on the green credentials of businesses, products and services.

Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in the environmental credentials of products and services. Why? Because consumers want to become more environmentally responsible, and because they are realising that energy efficiency can lead to lower lifetime running costs for products or services.

According to a recent Carbon Trust survey, seven out of ten consumers want businesses to provide more information on their green credentials. In other words: most marketers are failing to provide the information consumers are looking for when making purchasing decisions.

Green-minded, marketing savvy businesses should see this as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage. Companies that choose to go green, and then shout about it – by providing consumers with the information they are looking for – can stand above their competitors in an increasingly environmentally conscious world.

Done well, green marketing can enhance a business’s brand image, add value to its products and services, and appeal to an expanding audience of green consumers. Done badly, green marketing can undermine a business’s reputation and destroy consumer trust. ‘Greenwash’, an unsubstantiated or irrelevant environmental claim, is increasingly a source of complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency. Consumers want honest and well-substantiated information, not marketing spin.  

Marketing activity must follow positive action. If you are claiming to be green – make sure you are being green. It’s about first taking tangible steps to reduce your environmental impact, and then shouting about your achievements.  

A good place to start: review the current environmental performance of your business and its products or services. This may involve a thorough look at your business operations, from development and production to packaging, distribution and administration. Also consider the environmental impact of your customers’ use of products and services, and the ultimate recycling potential of products and packaging. From this analysis you can formulate an environmental policy which outlines the present situation and defines objectives for development. You may benefit from quick wins, but don’t ignore more significant environmental challenges – turn them into long-term goals.

When deciding which environmental achievements to shout about, consider your most significant wins, including the issues your customers are already aware of or care about the most, and those which directly affect them, such as the lifetime energy consumption of a product or service, or options for a product’s reuse or recycling.

As touched upon, any environmental claim must stand up to scrutiny and present your company in an honest way, so be sure that you can back up your marketing messages. Use clear and unambiguous language. And while minor green initiatives can be promoted, do not do so whilst overlooking more significant environmental issues.  

Customers are increasingly looking for information on the green credentials of businesses. So promoting your green value is truly becoming an opportunity to differentiate and win sales. Define a strategy, go green, then shout about it.  

Guide to market your environmental credentials

Guide to grow your business through sustainable innovation