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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 08 February 2006
| Thought for the week: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas A. Edison |
In this week's issue:
Small business answers
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Weekly stir 
How to make your small business interesting
Here's some good news for you this week.
The majority of small business owners are generally complete meatheads when it comes to marketing themselves.
So why exactly is that good news, you might ask?
Because despite the fact that most small business owners are senseless at selling, crap at copywriting and goofs at guerrilla marketing, this doesn't mean that you have to be as well.
If you can learn a few simple but effective and highly practical marketing techniques, tactics or strategies that will work no matter what small business you're in, you could be in with a great chance to clean up in your sector.
You see, the opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurial upstarts like you is to home in on, and take advantage of, the biggest and most common area of weakness in your competitors' attempts at marketing themselves.
Which is the fact that their marketing messages and sales copy will just be plain boring.
Most small firms' marketing messages send their customers to sleep instead of stirring any interest or desire to find out more about their products and services.
So how can you turn this into an opportunity, then? Let's start by asking you a simple question.
Do you think your business, and your products and services, are interesting to your customers and prospects?
Of course you do.
But are you letting them know how interesting your products and services are?
Probably not, if most of you are being completely honest.
The secret to gaining a marketing edge over your competitors is to produce marketing messages and sales copy that articulate your message in an interesting, educational, informative, useful, newsworthy and, above all, factual way.
Don't hang back with this task either, because the devil, as always, is in the detail. The old advertising adage still applies today - the more you tell, the more you sell.
If you went to a dating agency to find yourself a new partner (or just a date), do you think you'd have any success at pulling by only letting people know your name, your age, that you have a dog and are a Libran?
Or would you increase your chances if you could tell them absolutely everything about why someone should want a date with a humorous, well-travelled, ambitious, red wine drinking, sweet-toothed, hillwalking, trombone playing, opera hating, specialist trampoline testing, telly addict and raconteur like you?
Pretty simple, isn't it?
And the same applies to promoting your business. Here are a few tips to help you approach this in a different way to how you're probably doing it now.
- Don't be boring. Educate your prospects about the various ways they will gain an advantage from doing business with you.
- Don't use hyped-up sales blather. Just stick to the facts, the benefits and the value they will get from you.
- Don't ramble - impress with every sentence.
- Make it emotional. Think like you're at that dating agency.
- Make sure they can see or hear your message. Are you driving it home?
- Tell them every single reason why they should be using your service.
Give this a try by looking at it in the light of the marketing message you have been attempting to put across up until now.
Does it pull? Or is it just dull and downright boring?
The UK Small Business Marketing Bible has a five-step formula for writing a foolproof marketing message in Chapter 4, and is jam-packed with hundreds of cheap, easy to implement ideas and techniques for promoting your business.
Marketing
tip
Delivery options for exporters
Following last week's tip about finding suppliers and partners overseas, this week we're covering how to choose a delivery option when you want to send goods abroad.
The options vary according to a number of factors, including the size and weight of the consignments, their destination and their value. You should also be aware of restrictions that may apply to certain types of goods, like fresh food.
The following resources provide more information about the delivery options open to UK exporters, including how to complete shipping documentation.
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The Royal Mail has a series of web pages explaining its delivery services, including air mail, surface mail and bulk overseas mail. It's most commonly used for smaller shipments but can arrange large-scale freight carriage too.
Finally, why not check out our practical summary of export documentation, along with our guide for first-time exporters.
Legal
tip
Common commencement dates - a step in the right direction?
Last year, in an effort to simplify the introduction of new laws, the Government implemented a system of common commencement dates. This means that instead of bringing in laws on random dates, they now deliver their red tape in bulk at the beginning of April and October.
The schedule for 2006 has now been published. 6 April and 1 October will see new laws on age discrimination at work, weights and measures in food production, bankruptcy and copyright, as well as a host of other sector-specific measures.
The whole thing is less simple than it looks, because some new laws are still introduced at other times. But it's a step in the right direction... isn't it?
The common commencement dates can be downloaded from the Department of Trade and Industry's website.
IT
tip
Using your ISP's autorespond facility to reply to e-mails
Sole traders and small businesses have to manage without the staffing resources available to big business. So what can you do if people are trying to get in touch by e-mail when there's nobody in the office, or at holiday time?
By setting up an autorespond message, you can deal with this problem. Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer this facility, so you can use an autorespond even if you use a web e-mail program like Yahoo! or Hotmail.
Incoming e-mails are stored on your ISP's server until you connect to the Internet and retrieve them. To set up an autorespond, log in to web mail at your ISP's website and go to your set up options.
What should you say in your autorespond message?
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Your message can also be turned to your benefit by encouraging the recipient to visit a particular page on your website, or a 'Help' section where they might find an answer to their query.
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Finally, most ISPs allow you to forward messages to another address, and this can be set up if somebody else is available to field queries.
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 what 'predilection' means?
a) a confirmed choice
b) an aptitude for public speaking
c) a preliminary version or draft
d) a preference or tendency
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
Website review
Envirowise (www.envirowise.gov.uk)
An advice and consultancy service for businesses looking to minimise waste and generally improve their financial performance, Envirowise claims its advice is confidential, practical, independent and proven. But how user-friendly and accessible is its website?
- Navigation and presentation - a clean-looking, well-designed homepage divides the key areas of the site into sensible categories and makes it easy for users to locate relevant pages quickly. Small but thoughtful features, such as the inclusion of the helpline number on the homepage, contribute to the overall positive impression this site makes.
 
- Accessibility - the site is offered in text-only format, which is helpful because of its fairly heavy use of images. There is also a Welsh language option, and a function to comment on or query an aspect of the site.
- Content and usefulness - there is a wealth of comprehensive and easy to understand information about all aspects of improving your environmental impact, from minimising and disposing of waste to understanding your legal obligations. A useful links directory provides further resources, and the information on this site is broken down both by region and by sector.
- Relevance - although press releases are only issued at a rate of about one a month, the topical information about legislation and other environmental issues on the site is bang up to date. There is also a regularly updated calendar of business events.
Impressive navigation and thoughtful attention to detail are behind this site's high score - breaking down information by sector and local area is highly useful for such a complex area of law.
Our rating - 16/20
Did you know?
Identity theft costs £1.7 billion
In the same week that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced a month-long blitz on scams, fresh calculations from the Home Office suggest that identity fraud costs the UK economy over £1.7 billion each year. The Government is using the findings to promote the concept of identity cards, which it says would provide a sturdier system than the current reliance on documentation such as birth certificates. It's also promoting its dedicated identity theft website, which offers more information about how to protect yourself and who to contact if the worst happens.
Large firms take 80 days to pay suppliers
The UK's large businesses have increased the average time they take to pay their suppliers' bills to an extraordinary 80.6 days, according to detailed analysis by credit consultant Experian (click on the story entitled 'Pay my bill? Try me again in two months'). Businesses in the financial services sector increased their payment times by 13 days in 2005, but suppliers to food retailers will be pleased to note that the food industry paid an average of 5 days earlier compared with 2004.
Worth
a visit
Start up safely with this interactive tool
Supported by key regulators including the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Small Business Service (SBS), Safestartup.org is an interactive website aiming to explain the key health, safety and environmental regulations for new businesses. You take a quiz to identify your location and size of business, and get a tailored to-do list covering topics such as risk assessment, insurance and staff welfare. This is a really useful service from the Government - will wonders never cease?
Affordable new PR service for small firms
A new pay-as-you-go service has been launched for small businesses looking to get public relations (PR) support on a tight budget. The Buzz Factory provides a range of PR services, including news releases, feature articles and media competitions, at fixed prices that start from £50.
Worth
a read
Practical and interactive, this book is packed full of checklists, tests, worksheets and exercises to help make your start up dream a reality. It covers everything from researching your idea to getting finance and managing staff, and is peppered with genuinely engaging case studies and comments about people who've set up successful businesses, including some well-known names. Check out:
Just one word answer
The answer is d).
Predilection means preference or tendency.
If you are setting up a café, your market research should focus on people who have a predilection for drinking coffee in a relaxed social environment. |
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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
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