RESOURCE CENTRE

Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 01 March 2006

In this week's issue:

• Finding the right words to describe your business
• How to flood your business with hot leads and prospects
• The rules for employing young people
• Renewable energy - some tips for businesses
• The Euro Info Centres website reviewed

Small business answers

If you have any questions about your business idea or target market, or need help tracking down a grant, subsidy or business support in your local area, then send an e-mail with your query to the EnterQuest information team and we'll do our best to help.

Send your question to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.

To access over 800 factsheets, guides and small business reports, go to www.scavenger.net.

Weekly stir

Finding the right words to describe your business

Writing promotional and marketing messages about your business and your services is easy:

• If you're a professional copywriter.
• If you've been doing it for years.
• If you're a big company and employ lots of wordsmiths to do it for you.

But for mere mortal small business owners, and new start ups with little or no experience of copywriting, this is an area that is often far from easy, or even a complete nightmare.

If you're a well-known business, it's less of a problem as people are much more familiar with your products and services and what you do.

But when you're a new or little-known business it can be much more difficult to find the right words and phrases to create a message that will convince your prospects that you're worthy of their attention - and ultimately their custom.

Unfortunately, when you're new in business, you can't compare yourself with your more established competitors by saying your products have been selling successfully since the year dot, and you can't swagger about the donkey's years of experience you and your team have in the market.

However, there are lots of words and phrases you can use in your promotional material which will remove the spotlight from the fact that you are new, green and unproven, and possibly too much of a risk to do business with.

Consider the following ideas for words you can use to describe yourself:

1) Instead of saying you're new, try to focus on your professionalism, standards of service or dedication to quality. Use words like:

• unrivalled
• distinguished
• accomplished
• unforgettable
• the only (service, business, product, person and so on)
• respected

2) If you aren't well-known in your industry, try to emphasise what is special about you with words like:

• flourishing
• leading
• notable or noteworthy
• prestigious
• in demand
• preferred

3) If you're small compared with your competitors' businesses, try to de-emphasise this by using terms such as:

• limitless
• a multitude
• possibilities
• substantial
• significant
• boundless

4) If your competitors have a long-established reputation, try to highlight your business' strengths by saying that you or your services are:

• practical
• reliable
• highly qualified
• approved
• of the highest standard
• dedicated to customer service

5) To be seen as different from your competitors, use phrases that will describe things that set you apart from them, such as:

• we add more value
• we guarantee
• we'll give you more
• we care about
• we always listen
• we believe in

6) When your service is unproven compared with your rivals, try to focus on words that describe benefits and results that your customers can expect, such as:

• improves
• reduces
• delivers
• prevents
• makes a difference
• creates

7) Again, if you're new to your sector, focus on your special talent or innovative approach by describing yourself as:

• imaginative
• ingenious
• pioneering
• gifted
• highly competent
• unprecedented

In fact, there are plenty of words, phrases and terms that any new small business can use to explain to prospects why they should be seriously considering you as a capable and reliable supplier.

So the next time you're thinking about how to describe yourself better and you keep getting stuck for words, give the above approach a try. And before you go with the first words you think of, visit www.thesaurus.com to get tons of suggestions for alternative words and phrases you might be able to use instead.

Marketing tip

How to flood your business with hot leads and prospects

One of the biggest issues facing small business owners every day is not having enough qualified prospects. Most either don't have the time or just don't know how to generate new leads.

Here's a simple and practical three-step approach to help you create a powerful and effective prospect generation system for your business.

• Create a special report that provides 'insider' information that the average prospect would not know. It should be highly educational and should NOT contain 'sales' information. The best report titles start with 'How to', use numbers, and are pitched to avoid the fear of loss. For instance, 'How to avoid six common income tax mistakes that are costing you thousands of pounds'.

• Develop a direct response ad that looks just like a newspaper article, but includes a strong, compelling headline, tells people how to get your free report and explains what benefits they'll receive by acting immediately.

• Remember to set up a follow-up fulfilment system. Suppose you've run your lead generation advertisement and calls are coming in requesting your free report. How do you manage all your new prospects? Imagine if you're going to send them three to five follow-up marketing pieces? It will soon become a nightmare if you don't carefully plan when and how you will respond to each request.

This system will work in almost any business that sells a product or service. And once you've found what works, expand it. Widen your advertising to other media and markets, and see how many new prospects you can attract.

The UK Small Business Marketing Bible has more practical suggestions for developing a world-beating lead generation system in chapter 24, and is jam-packed with hundreds of cheap, easy to implement ideas and techniques for promoting your business.

Legal tip

The rules for employing young people

Many businesses consider the rules surrounding employing young people as among the most confusing bits of red tape that they have to comply with. One reason is that the rules tend to change quite often, and another is that there are so many exemptions for different situations, such as family-run businesses.

But regardless of these variations, the main provisions of the law stipulate that:

• The type of work 16-18 year olds may do is limited.

• People under 16 may only be employed in 'light' work. This means work that has minimal health and safety risks and isn't manual-labour-intensive (such as construction work).

• Children under 14 may not work at all (although local authorities often allow under-14s to do a paper round).

• Furthermore, there are controls on the number of hours young people may work during a week.

Having said all that, young people are allowed to work occasionally in family businesses, and there may be exceptions where the work is considered as 'light', or unlikely to pose a health risk. The following links offer more detailed guidance:

• The Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) website has a useful guide to the current legislation on employing young people. It also offers similar advice for Scotland.

• This Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) guide to the Working Time Regulations defines the various age brackets as well as explaining the limits on hours and rest times.

• Your local authority should be able to explain what are permitted jobs for young people under the powers it has to make by-laws.

Finally, our practical factsheet on employing staff under the age of 18 provides a detailed summary of the issues involved, together with sources of further information.

IT tip

Renewable energy - some tips for businesses

The current trend for rising gas and electricity bills means that saving energy is becoming a priority for most small businesses. There are all sorts of ways of cutting costs, and using renewables such as wind or solar power is one common way.

Note that it isn't yet possible for most businesses to convert their supply to 100% renewable energy, and it usually requires an investment to pay for the necessary equipment such as turbines or solar panels. But the upside of it is that grants or low-cost loans may be available.

Where can you find out more?

• The Renewable Energy Association (REA) website offers a wide range of general information, and a particularly useful FAQ section.

• The Carbon Trust gives businesses free advice about saving energy, plus up-to-date information about interest-free loans and grant schemes.

• The Energy Saving Trust offers businesses a variety of services, particularly as regards economical transport and travel.

• Some schemes and information sources are regional. Check out Energy Efficiency Advice for Scotland and Action Renewables for Northern Ireland.

New business idea

Each week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business ideas in the UK.

Here is this week's idea:

• Ecological Cleaning Products Retailer

Just one word

Regularly improving your vocabulary is not just about learning a new word and its meaning. It will improve your general knowledge and make you feel and act smarter in all sorts of personal and business situations.

Do you know the difference between the commonly confused words 'cursive' and 'cursory'? Which of the following two definitions applies to which word?

a) casual or hasty
b) a particular style of written script

Answer at the end of the Bulletin.

Website review

The Euro Info Centres website (www.euro-info.org.uk)

Euro Info Centres are a network of local information centres providing support and guidance on everything to do with Europe - from compliance with Directives and regulations to business opportunities and funding schemes. But how user-friendly and accessible is the website?

• Navigation and presentation - the homepage is clearly divided into areas for locating your nearest centre, researching European business opportunities and browsing news stories. The European Union's theme colours of blue and yellow are well used, but the site doesn't make optimum use of page space on the homepage, with the result that everything looks rather cramped.

• Accessibility - the site features an impressive range of access keys, plus specific guidance for users of PCs, Macs and different web browsers, including how to change text size. The only thing missing is some foreign language options - even though this site is intended for a UK audience, some ethnic minority language options would be a useful addition.

• Content and usefulness - the tool for finding your local centre is handy and easy to use (although it's a shame there aren't more centres in Scotland, northern England, Wales and Northern Ireland). And the business opportunities database is a great resource, and helpfully categorised by sector and month.

• Relevance - latest news is published via a monthly newsletter - this is fairly sparse, with only four or five items per edition, but you can browse an archive of issues. To keep things looking fresh and topical, the site also receives a feed from the popular EUobserver resource.

Overall, this site is definitely worth bookmarking if you're hungry for exploiting European public or private business opportunities, or simply keen to stay up to date with the news coming out of the European Commission (EC).

Did you know?

Microsoft’s latest flurry of patches

The latest monthly security update released by software giant Microsoft includes seven new patches against vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system, two of which are deemed critical. The company has also released an updated version of its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Worth a visit

Blogging for safer Internet usage

The EC heralded last month's Safer Internet Day by launching a 'blog' site where key security organisations, businesses and Internet users can comment on the ethical, legal and safety issues associated with Internet use. The blog particularly focuses on the copyright and other risks related to blog publishing.

Free guide helps firms with accessibility rules

A free 48-page 'Guide to Accessibility' has been published by accessibility consultancy Configure Ltd to help small businesses comply with rules surrounding the accessibility of their premises for people with disabilities. Firms have a legal duty to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure accessibility under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995. The guide covers arriving at the premises, approach and entry, and internal facilities such as reception areas and toilets.

 Fuel discounts with new card scheme

The Pipeline Card is a free discount tool developed in an effort to reduce fuel costs by the power of bulk-buying. It's easy for large companies to negotiate discounts on fuel for company car fleets, but the Pipeline Card aims to offer this bulk-buying power to smaller businesses. The scheme currently has over 160,000 members, and a discount of between 5p and 10p per litre is being negotiated with a major national fuel retailer. It will eventually be available in most of the UK.

Worth a read

This book claims to blow out of the water the Dragons' Den nonsense about entrepreneurs being a special or magical breed of being. It combines the wisdom and advice of 50 successful entrepreneurs, and bases its 'plot' around a frustrated employee who is upgraded on a long-haul flight and learns the secrets of business success while sitting in first class. The unusual concept provides an engaging read, and the book is jam-packed with practical tips. Check out:

Visit www.enterprisequest.com to access all back issues of the EnterQuest bulletin.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for us to make this service more relevant please e-mail your comments to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.

If you wish to discontinue your subscription to EnterQuest please click on the 'SafeUnsubscribe' link at the bottom of the bulletin.

Remember that we guarantee never to sell or give your e-mail address to anyone else.

Good luck

The EnterQuest Team

This information is meant as a starting point only. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made, the publisher makes no warranties that the information is accurate and up-to-date and will not be responsible for any errors or omissions in the information nor any consequences of any errors or omissions. Professional advice should be sought where appropriate.