RESOURCE CENTRE

Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 06 July 2005

In this week's issue:

• how to avoid useless information and advice
  
• handy tips for effective small ads
  
• the CAP Code: how it applies to your business
  
• your website in other browsers
  
• the Directgov 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

How to avoid useless information and advice

Useless information and advice for small business owners is all around us and in great abundance.

And we get plenty of e-mails from EnterQuest subscribers venting their spleen and telling us about their own frustrating experiences when trying to find help and guidance.

One particular reason why so many new business start ups and small business owners experience problems is that their starting point when seeking help or support is led by the attraction of getting a grant - often misleadingly dangled in front of them as "free money" from the Government or another public sector agency.

Instead, too many people are led down the garden path, because there's no such thing as free money - ie, you normally have to match a grant with your own investment - and the majority of start ups and small firms are not eligible for the grants that are available anyway. The result is a disappointed small business owner who feels badly advised, badly informed and that they've wasted their precious time.

So where can small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs get advice and find information from the "real business world" that's relevant, helpful and practical?

Well, this information is also all around you. Sometimes it's free, and sometimes it's not, but it's always bloody good value.

Our own research among several hundred start ups and small business owners last year confirmed the real picture that the most popular source of information and advice is other small business owners. A bit obvious really.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

• If you know people in business already, make sure you tap into their experience, since they've been there before you and will be happy to help. If you don't know anyone, find a local small business network or business club and join it.



• For financial information and advice, go to your accountant. If you haven't spoken to one yet then do it now. It won't cost you too much, but it'll cost you a damn sight more if you don't.



• For practical how-to information, have a browse around Amazon.co.uk. There are literally hundreds of how-to manuals and books about setting up and running a small business on the market, which have all been written by people who have done it themselves in the "real world". You can also check out our list of over 100 small business books that we highly rate in the bookstore on our Enterprise Quest website.



• The trade association covering your sector will also be an excellent source of up-to-date advice and information about the business or market you're in, and possibly legal information as well. Go to the Trade Association Forum to find the organisation for your sector.



• You can also find comprehensive but concise 10-12 page overviews of trends and developments in 60 key UK market sectors by going to our Scavenger business research website.



• You can find excellent up-to-date statistics, facts and figures about consumer and market trends on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website (er, yes, this is a Government site but we'll give credit where it's due). And the UpMyStreet website is another very good source of potential customer information available on a local level.



• For general business start up advice and training, go to your local enterprise agency. These are independently operating organisations dedicated to supporting new start ups. Find one local to you listed in your Yellow Pages or go to the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA) website.



• Your own observations and experiences are also things that you mustn't overlook. Unbridled inquisitiveness and a desire to learn new things are the hallmarks of every successful business owner.

Now don't get us wrong. We don't just berate Government departments' efforts to support business start ups and small firms for the heck of it. But if we see something that is ineffective, useless or downright duff, and we know of something that's a whole lot better, then we will, of course, do our best to tell you about it.

Marketing tip

Handy tips for effective small ads

Adverts can be placed in special interest media (magazines and websites) to attract specific target customers, or in local newspapers and listings magazines for a more general audience. To increase the response rate from your ads, try the following tips:

1) Always include a reply slip or telephone number, e-mail or web address in your advert to enable customers to contact you to request a catalogue or order a product.

2) If you are selling your product or service through the advert, give a guarantee. Customers are expected to buy after having seen only a few words and a drawing or photograph, so they must be able to send it back (perhaps even at your expense) if they are not happy with their purchase.

3) Don't use a Post Office box as the reply address; this gives an impression of being evasive, and tends to contribute to a low response rate.

4) Keep price and postage costs separate, as well as VAT if you are registered for this, and give an expected delivery lead time.

5) Keep a record of where customer enquiries come from, to track the success of ads in different publications. Also keep note of whether the enquiry becomes a sale. This will help you determine which ads lead to sales (as opposed to just enquiries).

You can find a directory of the UK's special interest consumer media at Media UK, and trade publications are at Trade Pub.

For hundreds more tips, tactics and techniques for promoting your business and increasing sales no matter what sector you're in, check out the UK Small Business Marketing Bible.

Legal tip

The CAP Code: how it applies to your business

The British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP Code) applies to catalogues, circulars, newspaper and magazine ads, direct mail and brochures.

The main provisions of the Code state that ads must be legal, decent, honest and truthful, and there are also specific rules governing distance selling and direct mail. Here's a whistlestop guide to some of the main issues covered by the Code.

• All marketing communications should describe the main characteristics of the product or service being advertised.
  
  
• If you're including prices, you must also include any VAT or other taxes payable, as well as the amount and number of any delivery charges.
  
  
• If the offer is limited (for example, 'while stocks last' or 'sale ends Sunday'), you need to make this clear in the ad, as well as clearly explaining any other conditions that affect the validity of the offer.
  
  
• Include a statement as to whether you will provide substitute products (of equivalent quality and price) if those ordered are unavailable, and whether you will meet the cost of returning substitute products on cancellation.
  
  
• If you use a testimonial, you must have signed and dated proof that it's genuine, and you should also have the written permission of whoever gave you the testimonial.
  
  
• It must be clear that your marketing literature - small ads, brochures, flyers and so on - is promotional.
  
  
• Customer lists should be accurate and up-to-date. Reasonable requests for corrections to personal information should be acted on within 60 days.

Check out this factsheet about the CAP Code for more detailed information, or visit the Committee of Advertising Practice's dedicated website about the Code.

The UK Red Tape BUSTER also has more information about advertising regulations for small firms, as well as hundreds of factsheets, checklists and scenarios for every small business legal situation.

IT tip

Your website in other browsers

Q1: How many people access the Internet using a platform other than a PC?

a) Over 1 million.
b) Over 5 million.
c) Over 10 million.

Q2: How many people use a browser other than Internet Explorer (IE) when accessing the web?

a) Over 2 million.
b) Over 12 million.
c) Over 17 million.

The answer to question 1 is b) - over 5 million people use something other than a PC - whether this is a portable device such as a mobile phone or a Mac computer - to access the Internet.

And the correct response to question 2 is c) - more than 17 million people don't browse the Internet using IE.

If you're surprised by these figures, you're not alone. It's easy to believe that because Windows PCs and IE are the dominant products on the market, there's no point in optimising your website to display properly in other browsers or on Macs rather than PCs.

But when you look at the numbers, you're talking about over 20 million potential visitors or customers worldwide who may not be able to get the most out of the site you've put so much effort into developing and maintaining.

Here are a few practical tools and resources for ensuring your web pages don't just work for people browsing the web using IE.

• NetMechanic's Browser Photo service offers a photo tour of some of the main problems that can affect the way websites display in different browsers. Viewing these pictures makes it easier to understand the issues in real terms. It's trying to flog a fairly pricy commercial service to test your pages for you, but you can use this service once on one web page for just $15, and there are some practical tips in there to boot.



• AnyBrowser.com offers free tools to check the compatibility of your website with, well, any browser, allowing you to view your site as it would display for users of different browsers. There are tons of different technical resources - including HTML tutorials, link testing services and places to find new fonts or graphics - as well.



• A more hands-on approach is to simply make sure you have access to several different browsers when developing your site. Netscape Navigator and Firefox are the most popular after IE.



• FrontPage Tips offers a step-by-step guide to writing the style sheet for your website with different browsers in mind.

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:

• Mobile Dog Washing Service

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 what 'imposture' means?

a) forcing someone to obey a rule
b) an act of fraud or deception
c) intruding or being a burden
d) behaving inappropriately or rudely

Answer at the end of the Bulletin.

Website review

The Directgov website (www.direct.gov.uk)

Billing itself as the portal to information from the UK Government, including directories, online services and news, this site was launched to a huge fanfare a couple of years ago and has been revamped since then based, apparently, on user feedback.

• Navigation - the blurb claims that the homepage has been rejigged to make it easier to navigate and to provide shortcuts to popular pages, and it's certainly easy to follow. The stuff they've chosen to highlight seems well thought out - the link to all the UK's local authorities' contact details is definitely worth bookmarking, and it's even easy to find info for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales - this is all too often buried deep in the graveyards of Government sites.
  
  
  

• Accessibility - there's detailed advice about which screen resolutions and screen colours on different browsers get the best out of the site, with helpful links to more help if you need it. There's also practical help with PDFs. However, the site hasn't yet achieved full compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) minimum advised standards of accessibility for people with disabilities - though it claims it will later in 2005.
  
  
  
  
• Content - although primarily aimed at consumers, there are real gems to be found for businesses on this site. The travel section is good, the tax section has useful info for self-employed people, and the factsheets on issues such as money, consumer rights and health and safety are more practical than what's available from the departments responsible for enforcing them!
  
  
  
  
• Relevance - although a bit cluttered, the newsroom is well populated with stories that are written in a more readable, chatty style than those on the Government News Network (GNN). The fact that you can view relevant webcasts on topics such as the Budget is also impressive.
  
  

Not bad for a Government website - it's a genuinely useful resource for businesses thanks to the wealth of practical tools to do with tax, legislation and local authorities. And it's a good benchmark for some of the other lousy Government sites that don't even come close to this standard.

Our rating - 16/20

Did you know?

International domain name debate launched

The registry for .uk domain names, Nominet, is asking for opinions and feedback on proposals to introduce internationalised domain names (IDNAs) to the available options for businesses looking to establish a website. Currently only the Roman A-Z alphabet, hyphens and the digits 0 to 9 may be used, making it difficult for the Asian and Eastern European communities to create domain names using the symbols common to their alphabets. Pro-IDNA lobbyists argue that more choice should be available to businesses targeting customers whose first language is not English.

Worth a visit

The cheap alternative to e-auctions

The Peoples Web is a low-cost, independent service which aims to help retail businesses sell online without having to pay the sometimes high fees charged by Internet auction sites like eBay, search engines such as Google's Ad service, and business directories like Yell.com. Your products or services can both be sold via the site for a fee of just £25 per year. The directory can be searched regionally and results are listed in the order that most closely matches the search parameters - so there's no high fees for getting a better ranking.

Start up support from the British Library

The British Library has launched several new services aimed at start up businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. The services include a product novelty service, which uses the Library's patent resources to establish whether a product idea is genuinely original, and a company profile service, which provides detailed profiles and lists of businesses by activity, location and size. Genuinely good eggs, this lot.

Patents guidance for small firms

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published fresh guidance to explain how businesses and inventors can use patents to their advantage. WIPO says that understanding the intellectual property legal system is crucial to the development of a business' innovation strategy. The new guide provides an introduction to how patents work, answers frequently asked questions and provides practical tips on developing a patent strategy in a small firm.

Worth a read

Taking a fascinating look into what makes the difference between new businesses that fail and those that succeed, this book offers an inspirational chronicle of success stories where dreams have been turned into profitable business reality. The entrepreneurs interviewed in the book speak candidly about issues such as how they decided on their business idea and how they got funding, as well as revealing their doubts, frustrations and mistakes. Check out:

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Good luck

The EnterQuest Team

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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.