First of all, these people will generally 'stick
to the knitting'. By this we mean they ensure their business is
focused on what they are good at and on exploiting what they are
the very best at.
Secondly, they apply this principle to themselves.
They recognise their own strengths and play to them, but also acknowledge
their weaknesses by keeping them in perspective. Where they spot
weaknesses in the business, they ensure that the best way to reduce
or eliminate them is not by trying to do everything themselves,
but instead by finding someone else with the right strengths either
inside or outside their firm, and playing to them.
Thirdly, they are extremely good at or have learned
very quickly how to keep themselves organised, and this is something
that you should be working at doing now.
The key to keeping yourself organised is to keep
yourself under control. This will probably sound daft to a lot of
you, but it's actually all about ensuring that you do the things
that YOU have planned in advance, and do them on time or at a time
that is right for YOU. It's that simple, but something that's tantalisingly
out of reach for too many people.
The best way to approach keeping yourself under
control is to write things down. You can do this anywhere you like
- on the back of a fag packet, on a post-it note, on a piece of
scrap paper - but better still, why not invest in a hardback A4
or A5 manuscript book and label it 'My task lists'. You can use
this every day and take it everywhere with you.
By writing things down you are, in effect, making
a commitment to do the things on your task list. The next step is
then to ensure that you recognise the difference between those tasks
that are important and those that are urgent, and this is where
a great many people lose the plot.
What you should do is write down your list of tasks
that are urgent first, and then follow this with a list of things
that are important, but not urgent. To be in complete control of
yourself, you need to make sure that you complete your urgent tasks
on time, and especially those things that are both urgent and important.
Then you can plan the right time for you to schedule the non-urgent
but important things into your timetable.
It's then entirely down to you to have the discipline
to stick to what you have written down.
On the subject of writing things down, another document
every business should have before and after they start up is a business
plan. Funnily enough, this has been our most viewed, downloaded
and requested factsheet in the last three months, so this week we'll
give you a chance to read it again and remind yourself how important
a business plan really is.
Here is the factsheet:
A Guide to Writing a Business Plan
Weekly
business tip
Why sales letters get higher responses than flyers
and brochures.
Most businesses spend hours upon hours writing,
designing and generally fiddling with the copy (the words), layout
and sales messages in their promotional flyers, brochures and web
pages. But what they fail to recognise is that the old-fashioned
sales letter can outpull these other marketing mediums by up to
ten to one.
Why is this the case? The main reason is that when
a sales letter is written it addresses an individual, whereas the
vast majority of flyers, brochures and web pages try to address
everyone or, in other words, no-one in particular.
A good sales letter suggests to your prospect that
someone is writing them a personal message. So it immediately gets
their attention. And by achieving this initial objective, it makes
them up to ten times more likely to read your sales message.
The result of this? You massively increase your
response and sales conversion rates. People who have read a sales
message that suggests it was written for them personally will be
more likely to send back a reply card, pick up the phone and ring
you, place an order by credit card, opt in to your newsletter and
so on.
Considerable market testing using both online and
offline marketing mediums has shown that sales copy used on leaflets,
flyers and web pages that is written in the style of a personal
letter, is by a long way the most effective in terms of generating
higher response rates.
If your business sells a product or service using
direct response selling methods either online or offline, then start
testing this concept and see if writing your sales messages in the
form of a letter makes a difference to your response rates.
Give it a try and you'll almost certainly be very
surprised at the results.
Have a look at the following example of a website
that uses this method to sell products and services to good effect.
How
to Increase Your Sales on a Shoestring
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:
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 two words
'practice' and 'practise'? Which word is a noun and which one is
a verb?
Answer at the end of Bulletin.
Did
you know?
Opportunities grow for social entrepreneurs
Opportunities are increasing for people setting
up businesses that trade with a social purpose, the best-known example
of which is The Big Issue magazine. The newly published Social Enterprise
Monitor shows that these kinds of businesses are creating more jobs
and have turnovers as high, or higher, than their mainstream counterparts.
More women than men are being attracted into the sector, which is
currently enjoying its fastest ever period of expansion.
The Monitor is available at:
http://www.london.edu/news_events/GEM_Social_Enterprise_AnnualReport.pdf
VAT warning on start up premises
Entrepreneurs planning to buy premises for start
up businesses have been warned against paying unnecessary VAT on
their purchases. Accountancy firm PKF says complex new stipulations
buried deep in the recent Budget require a property buyer planning
to use the property for VAT-exempt purposes to notify the vendor
before the completion of the sale. Failure to do so may result in
'tax election' being disapplied, and could mean that the transaction
does not qualify for VAT exemption.
Find out more by clicking on the 'News & views'
button at:
http://www.pkf.co.uk/web/pkfweb.nsf/frameset.html?Open
Most people now use search phrases with two or
more words
A recent report has highlighted that most people
who use search engines use two or more words in their search phrases.
The most commonly searched for phrases have two words, accounting
for about a third of all searches, and close behind are searches
using three-word phrases, which account for about a quarter of all
searches worldwide. This is showing that Internet searchers are
becoming more experienced and precise in what they are looking for,
so all you budding webmasters take note when selecting keywords
for your website.
To read the report, go to:
http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox27.html
Worth
a visit
Had enough of Googlemania?
If you're sick and tired of hearing about Google,
and Froogle, and their other plans for world Internet domination
then take a bit of light relief by visiting the following:
http://www.googlefight.com
http://www.alltooflat.com/geeky/elgoog (this one will really
test your mental agility, but give it a try!)
Help with legal aspects of e-commerce
Online information to help small businesses starting
up in e-commerce is now available through the Ebusinesslex web portal,
set up by a partnership of Euro Info Centres (EICs). Areas covered
by the portal include contract law, Internet rules, and European
Union (EU) regulations relating to intellectual property matters
such as copyright, trade marks and patents. The site explains, for
example, how a business-to-consumer Internet activity can be established
that respects all legal requirements at European and UK level.
To find out more, go to:
http://www.ebusinesslex.net/front/ricerca_faq.asp?lingua=eng
Worth
a read
We've recommended this book before and we're doing
so again. This is written by one of the world's master sales copywriters.
For the nuts and bolts of writing sales letters, check out:
Just
one word answer
In the UK 'practice' is a noun and 'practise' is a verb, but
be careful if corresponding with the US as in that country 'practice'
is commonly, but not always, used for both.
You can start up in business with a consultancy practice, but
you would certainly want to be well practised at writing sales
letters.
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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.
