RESOURCE CENTRE

Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 8 June 2005

EnterQuest is now online

In addition to getting EnterQuest sent by e-mail our subscribers can now browse an online archive containing all previous issues of the weekly bulletins going back to January 2004. These are available on a newly-launched website at www.enterprisequest.com. The Enterprise Quest website also includes a Resource Centre providing access to practical information and know-how for start ups and small business owners.

We will soon be adding even more free or low cost and practical resources to the site, and will continue to do so over the coming months.

In this week's issue:

• how to maximise every small business' most valuable asset
  
• testing the usability of your website
  
• health and safety in rented premises - who's responsible?
  
• how to get dumped from the search engines - a handy guide
  
• the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) website reviewed
  

Small business answers

If you have any questions about your business idea, are lacking some basic data about your target market, or simply need help tracking down a grant, subsidy or other source of 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.

Weekly stir

How to maximise every small business' most valuable asset

This week we're going to talk about every small business' most valuable asset, and how to maximise its value in your business.

But before we explain what that asset is, do you actually know what a business asset is, by definition? And pardon us for the little digression, as hopefully all will become clear as you read on.

Normally in financial terms, and especially in terms that are used on business balance sheets and other financial statements, your assets are those things that have a specific and tangible monetary value attached to them, for example:

• Your cash
  
• The money owed to you by customers
  
• Your office and other equipment that you own
  
• Your stock or inventory of products, or the bits and pieces that make up your products

These are the usual assets that are referred to in a business and include things that physically exist and whose value will generally depreciate over time. You can check out the following factsheet, A Guide to Understanding Balance Sheets, which provides a thorough and practical explanation of this type of financial stuff.

However, there are other things called intangible assets in a business, often with no obvious or immediate monetary value attached to them, but which can have massive value or have their value increased if approached correctly.

And one of these intangible assets is probably the most important of all: your customers. The individuals or businesses that buy your products or services.

Potentially this is the most valuable asset you own, but for just about every single small business this is an asset whose potential is never properly maximised or realised.

So how can you maximise the revenue and profit generating potential of your existing customers, an asset that you've already borne the cost of acquiring?

The secret is quite simple. You should communicate with them.

• Communicate regularly and frequently.
  
• Communicate thoughtfully.
  
• Communicate cleverly.
  
• Communicate honestly.

What we are getting at is that you should find clever and subtle ways of educating your existing customers about the ways that they can get additional benefits from doing business with you.

Be warned, though, this is not about bombarding them with incessant and blatant sales pitches in mailshots or emailing them with what will effectively just be a form of spam.

The object is to make them feel proud to be your customer and to remain so, not to make them puke when they think of you or hear your sales patter for the umpteenth time in a month.

Here are a few ideas about what we mean.

• Educate them. Send them an informative, helpful and friendly newsletter that they'll look forward to receiving and that helps get more benefits from using your services.
• Call them. Ask them how they are, what they're doing that's new or if there's anything else that you can help them with.
• Update them. Let them know when you've got something new, different or complementary to what they've previously bought from you.
• Reward them. Offer them something free or a special bonus deal in return for their loyalty and ongoing custom.
• Incentivise them. Start a customer club or members only service on your website which, if they join, will give them increasingly valuable special offers the more that they buy from your business.
• Personalise your messages. Wherever possible communicate with your customers individually rather than collectively to make each one feel special and that you are dealing with them exclusively.

Every business, once it starts trading and finding new customers, begins to start building this intangible but incredibly valuable asset so that it can grow to even greater value. But to do so you must recognise this asset's value right from the start and learn how to maximise it by communicating carefully, ethically and professionally with your customers.

By following these three golden rules you shouldn't go far wrong.

1. Don't make them feel they're being sold to; give them guidance based on your experience and know-how.

2. Don't give them sales hype, just give them honest, straightforward, educational information that will meet their needs.

3. Don't make them think they're being told; give them solid, dependable advice instead.

Alternatively you can just make them puke. And see how long they remain your customers.

Marketing tip

Testing the usability of your website

Designing an effective business website is not just about more obvious marketing issues such as making sure it's optimised for the search engines, packed with fresh, engaging content and imbued with a clear call to action to encourage visitors to take the next step towards becoming your customer.

You also need to make sure, on a basic level, that it is easy to use and does exactly what it promises so that visitors' experiences will be clear and enjoyable.

We've discussed accessibility in previous tips - that is, making sure your website is available for people with visual or other disabilities. Usability testing is a different concept, but is no less important.

The best way to test the usability of your website is to enable a focus group to try it out. Select a few customers who represent your wider customer base, or even ask friends and family to help out. Then give your "guinea pigs" a list of tasks to complete on your site, while you sit and watch. It could be something as simple as finding your contact details, or something as complex as placing an order online - but there's no better way to test whether your site works or not, and where any tweaks or improvements need to be made.

You should also consider some of the following issues:

• How does your web site appear to users with different browsers and screens? Remember that some users will be viewing it with a small screen and some with a very large one; and although the majority of Internet users have Microsoft Internet Explorer, a growing number use alternative browsers such as Firefox.
  

As well as these easily measurable goals, you should also get your focus group's opinions about 'softer' issues, as this can provide a valuable insight when you may be too close to the situation to see the wood for the trees. Ask for feedback like:

• Summarise what you think my business does, based on the information on this website
  
• List the products that would interest you on this site

This can help you to identify places where your website's marketing message may be going wrong or not hitting the mark, without having to invest in costly web design professionals to troubleshoot for you.

You can find out more about usability testing at Jakob Nielsen's web site, useit.com.

Read more about fixing mistakes on your website in chapter 31 of the UK Small Business Marketing Bible, where you can also find hundreds of ideas, tips and techniques for increasing sales.

Legal tip

Health and safety in rented premises - who's responsible?

If your business moves into an office or workshop as a tenant, it will be useful to make a clear agreement with the landlord as to who is responsible for health and safety. Some areas will be your responsibility alone, some will be the landlord's and others will be shared between you.

• If you're an employer, you have a general duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to protect the health and safety of your employees as far as possible (see this guide published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)). You are responsible for ensuring that the temperature in the workplace is appropriate, that the working area is adequately ventilated, that there are washing facilities, sanitation and drinking water, that equipment is maintained and the premises are kept clean. You'll also need to make a risk assessment.
• Many new businesses set up in serviced or shared premises, and the health and safety responsibilities are likely to be shared between tenants and landlord. Both sides are responsible for making sure the environment is as free of risks as possible, but it's wise to get specific responsibilities written into your lease for the sake of clarity.
• Fire risk assessment is a shared duty, because both tenant and landlord have responsibilities. This is particularly true in the case of shared premises, where the landlord must make sure there are adequate fire escapes and a fire alarm. But tenants must also do their best to prevent fires and train their staff with regular fire practices. See the HSE's guide to fire risk here.
• Electrical machinery, such as computers or other machinery used at work, are most likely the tenant's responsibility. But the landlord also has a duty to make sure electrical wiring and things like sockets are safe.

As you can see, the legal boundary between what the tenant and the landlord has to do is flexible. Each case is unique, and both parties have responsibilities to ensure health and safety. Consequently, a lot of the detail is left to the individuals to clarify in a lease according to what's possible. As usual, the one over-riding guideline is to get your lease checked out by a solicitor before you sign it.

The UK Red Tape BUSTER offers plenty more advice on premises and health and safety, as well as hundreds of fact sheets, scenarios, and FAQs.

IT tip

How to get dumped from the search engines - a handy guide

Of course, we don't really want your website to get ignored or blacklisted by all the search engines - this is more of a guide to avoiding that. There are certain methods unscrupulous website owners use to promote their sites, but the search engines are cunning creatures and in the end they usually find out if people are trying to cheat them.

Here are a few tricks to avoid:

• Pay a dodgy business that guarantees it will get you hundreds of links to your site. The advantage of increasing links to your site is that it will improve your rankings, of course, but there are businesses that will take your good name and spam it all over message boards, directory sites and forums, and then send you a bill for their troubles. This will eventually cause your rankings to fall, and you may even be blacklisted forever.
• Add your site to link farms. Link farms are pages featuring endless links to totally unrelated sites, all designed to boost rankings. This is a particularly heinous crime in the eyes of the search engines, since their business is to provide valuable links to relevant sites. The penalty, when they find out, is very likely to be blacklisting.
• Add irrelevant keywords using text the same colour as the background in order to attract passing trade. This is an old trick, but it's remarkable how many people still seem to think it works. It's most likely to cause an instant drop in your rankings.
• Submit your site every day. If you're submitting to a directory which is sorted and listed by humans, such as Yahoo!, this will at best cause irritation, and at worst earn a ban. Patience is the key here, and you'll only need to submit once to many search engines. If you're planning to get listed by Yahoo!, you may need to wait several weeks before re-submitting.
• Try to beat the search engines, fool them, game them, in short do anything that you think will gain you a sneaky advantage. You may be tempted to use the latest trick, but in the end the search engine programmers will find you out. Interesting, relevant content is the best way in which you will achieve a good ranking in the engines. The alternative might be watching as your website plumbs the depths then disappears altogether.

Want to find out more? Google has a guide to getting listed, including what to avoid, here, and Yahoo! has a guide to submitting your site with details of the paid and free options open to webmasters.

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:

• Toy Library

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 'podcasting' means?

a) making audio files immediately available online for users to download
b) contributing to a weblog or discussion forum using a wireless connection
c) posting a video advertisement on your website
d) holding a business meeting using video messaging

Answer at the end of the Bulletin.

Website review

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (www.odpm.gov.uk)

This is the website where you can find out about planning permission, fire safety legislation, building regulations, local authority issues and a multitude of other information relevant to small businesses. But how effective is it for the small business owner?

• Navigation - this is one of the better designed Government websites. The homepage is not only clear and easy to find your way around, but also looks good, and key sections such as news, fire safety and building regulations are simple to locate.
  
  
  

• Accessibility - a clear link from the homepage reveals an impressive range of accessibility options, and the site is compatible with screen reading software, offers access keys and pledges to keep the size of downloadable documents to a minimum. You can also change the text size and colour.
  
  
  
  
• Content - we can't fault the practical, easy to follow nature of the information on this site. Factsheets and publications about complex legislation such as the Building Regulations 2000 are plentiful and readable, and there is plenty of interesting explanation about the Government's planning policy. Honestly!
  
  
  
  
• Relevance - there is up-to-date information about changes to fire safety legislation due in 2006, and the news section of the site is also fresh and topical, with 10 press releases for May alone.
  
  

An impressive score of 17 for the ODPM site - other Government departments would do well to use this as a benchmark, particularly in terms of the range of accessibility options they should all be offering.

Our rating - 17/20

Did you know?

Bagle worm back on the scene

A new variant of the Mytob worm has been discovered, which itself is a variant of the Bagle worm which wreaked havoc in 2004. The worm spreads via e-mail and carries an infected zip file which, if opened, can download a Trojan into a user's PC. The worm is said to be spreading rapidly, but anti-virus firm MessageLabs has an explanation of how to remove it.

Worth a visit

Are your web pages eyecatching?

This fascinating blog provides a unique insight into what users look at, skip over and fail to spot on web pages. It provides comment on how branding is used on business websites, and provides links to interesting articles and resources covering topics like website design, search engine optimisation and writing style.

Check your newsletters

ISPs are much better at picking up spam than they once were, but this also means legitimate e-mail newsletters are sometimes mistakenly blocked before they reach the reader. The E-Zine Checker is a useful resource for 'scoring' your newsletter in terms of how many 'penalty points' it would potentially attract. It offers a free list of fixes you should make to improve your newsletter's chance of making it through the spam filters.

Sales health check for firms

Sales training company Appleton Associates have developed the free Sales Health Check tool, which is available online. If you input a few key details and answer a series of questions about your sales strategy and selling techniques, you'll be given a free report including tips and suggestions for how to boost sales.

Worth a read

This book provides an easy to follow introduction to Internet technology aimed at beginners. It explains how businesses can use the web to their advantage in practical terms, looking at marketing opportunities, e-commerce and using the Internet for research. It also provides tips and techniques for creating your own website, using e-mail effectively and keeping your online operations secure. Check out:

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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.