Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 19 April 2006
| Thought for the week: "Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." Auguste Rodin |
In this week's issue:
Small business answers
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Weekly stir 
In a small business, does two plus two make four?
A business adviser was one day called to meet his client, the owner of a small firm that imported and distributed ethnic food ingredients to restaurants and food wholesalers around the UK.
The business was now three years old, employed ten people, had grown quickly and created quite a nice little market niche for itself.
But recently things seemed to have stopped going so well. Sales had stopped growing, the firm wasn't finding new suppliers or customers, and the three directors of the company were spending more and more time on day-to-day admin and operational issues of the business.
So where were things going wrong? The MD of the firm had asked the adviser to come in and try to help.
The adviser arrived at his client's office and decided to approach things by asking a simple question to each of the three directors in turn.
He met with the MD first, and said to her: "What's two plus two?"
"Four, without any doubt," she replied confidently.
He then called in the firm's finance director. "What's two plus two?" the adviser quizzed.
"At the moment, four, give or take 10%," he replied in a way that only an accountant could do.
To complete the picture, he put the same question to the firm's sales director. "What's two plus two?"
"Well," the salesman replied, "it can be whatever you want it to be!"
By getting three different answers to a simple question, the adviser had uncovered the root cause of a problem. A problem that affects just about every small firm and newly started business.
A phenomenon known as the 'entrepreneurial myth', a mistaken belief that all businesses are started up and run by entrepreneurs.
In fact, in the majority of cases, small businesses are started by people who know very little about how to run a business. This is one of the biggest reasons why small firms fail, or fail to develop to their potential. And in the case of businesses where there is more than one director or partner involved, people are more often than not completely different from each other in the way that they look at and understand their enterprise, like in the story above.
To be a success in business, a sole trader will need to be competent at a number of things, including selling, finance and admin, as well as being technically good at whatever area their business trades in.
Unfortunately, most people don't have the right balance of attributes to make them effective or successful at running a business. It's not enough to be "a bit of an entrepreneur", or good with the books and figures, or skilled at managing people, or handy at selling.
At the end of the day, you need to develop your skills, or your business team if there are a few people involved, to cover all of these essential business disciplines, so that you will not only be good at running but also at developing your little enterprise to its true potential.
To read more about the whole fascinating area of the entrepreneurial myth, you could do a lot worse than to read Michael Gerber's excellent book on the subject, E-Myth Revisited - Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It.
Marketing tip
Free tools for developing your selling skills
Being outgoing and articulate are important personality traits for successful salespeople, but it's also possible to learn and develop selling skills using resources that are freely available online.
There are different types of selling techniques, and it will be important for you to consider both of the following:
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Writing skills - for sales copy in your brochures and promotional literature, on your website and for news releases.
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Public speaking skills - for presenting sales pitches and being confident when talking to customers.
The following resources provide information and advice about honing your selling skills and the different techniques involved.
Finally, the UK Small Business Marketing Bible is a practical manual explaining how to increase sales and improve your selling techniques, available both in hard copy and as an e-book download.
Legal
tip
RIDDOR - when do you have to report an accident or disease?
Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995, you must report certain types of incident which occur at your workplace. This applies even if you are self-employed and working alone.
To report an incident, you have to inform the Incident Contact Centre (you can call it on 0845 300 9923), complete the form on the official RIDDOR website or write to the address provided on the site.
Reportable incidents include serious injuries that have actually happened, but also 'near-miss' incidents that increase the risk of a future accident, even if nobody was injured.
Incidents that have to be reported include:
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The death of anyone on your premises.
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Major injuries, including bone breaks, but not broken fingers or toes.
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Accidents resulting in injuries or illness lasting more than three days.
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Disease outbreaks - a doctor will be able to advise you on whether to report or not, but you can also consult this list of reportable diseases.
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Dangerous occurrences, which include fires, electrical short circuits and the collapse of heavy machinery.
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Any incident involving gas (a leak, for example, even if nothing serious happened as a result).
These types of incidents are explained in more depth in the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) guide to RIDDOR.
Most incidents must be reported without delay. But if you're self-employed and on your own premises, you have ten days to report the incident. Check out this guide to using an accident book for further explanation.
IT
tip
How to find statistics on Internet usage
Monday used to be the most popular day for Internet usage. But with the spread of broadband, a new report shows that Sunday has taken over as the day when people surf the web to check the news, find out sports results and, of course, buy things from e-commerce sites.
This kind of knowledge of consumer surfing behaviour is very valuable if you have a business website, and although it might take a little time to find, a lot of it is also freely available. Check out some of the following sources as a starting point:
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Alexa regularly posts snippets of information on its front page, and is useful for comparing the popularity of websites (such as those of your competitors). See, for example, the ups and downs of Amazon and eBay.
Of course, these three sites also offer expensive paid reports. But between them, they offer enough free information to get a good picture of the trends in web surfing and the most popular sites around, and should give you some ideas about how your website marketing can be improved.
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 'qualitative' and 'quantitative' research? Which of the following two definitions applies to which term?
a) describing the number, size or measurement of something
b) describing the type, kind or characteristics of something
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
Website review
The HSE's 'Better Business' site (www.hse.gov.uk/betterbusiness)
Aimed specifically at small businesses, this microsite aims to complement the HSE's main site by providing information explaining how to implement good health and safety practices in terms that small businesses find relevant and easy to understand. But how user-friendly and accessible is the site?
- Navigation and presentation - the homepage is dominated by stereotypical images of inexperienced business owners, in an effort to convey the message that the information on the site is easy and relevant for even the very smallest business. But the breadcrumbs across the top of the site could be more meaningful - titles such as 'It's easy' and 'Good for business' disguise the fact that there is some really useful info behind them.
 
- Accessibility - the site features basic accessibility standards such as image tags, and the layout has been created with ease of use in mind, but unlike the main HSE site there are no foreign language options.
- Content and usefulness - the simple, bullet-point approach to tackling key health and safety issues such as workplace absence and managing risks are well set out and written in easy to read, jargon-free language. The tools to get you started, which feature quizzes and downloadable posters that you can use in your workplace, are also practical and engaging.
- Relevance - there isn't any news on the site, but the legal information and explanations are bang up to date and the site makes good use of signposting to other HSE resources, such as its Health and Safety Starter Pack for new businesses.
Like the main HSE site, this resource has been thoughtfully designed with small businesses in mind. In an effort to appeal to its target audience, the approach is at times perhaps too simplistic, but the interactive tips and tools provided are hugely useful, particularly for inexperienced business owners.
Our rating - 14/20
Did you know?
New data protection guidance for mailing lists
Additional guidance on complying with the Data Protection Act 1998 when buying or selling databases containing personal information has been published. Databases are frequently used to acquire ready-made mailing lists, but the law has been ambiguous when the information comes from a business that is closing down or being sold. The guidance suggests that individuals whose names are included on these databases must be told about the change of ownership.
Amazon enters the food market
Amazon is taking on the humble corner shop by selling food like cornflakes and tins of soup along with books and DVDs. The online retail giant is currently only offering the service in the US, but it can't be long before this new trend reaches the UK. Amazon is selling the food in bulk-buy format, and is undercutting traditional online food stores as it bids to become the net's dominant one-stop shop. It's offering free shipping on food orders of over $25, but says it can take up to five weeks for a delivery.
Worth
a visit
Online marketplace for small independent retailers
Notonthehighstreet.com brings together more than 100 small independent businesses selling everything from gifts to clothing and pet accessories. The various shops are listed by type, and everything can be ordered online from the main site. It was put together by two friends who were having difficulty finding the things they wanted to buy, and is a great example of the new online marketplaces that are becoming available for independent stores.
Check your blog reputation
Blogging is beginning to have a major influence on the way businesses promote themselves and network on the web, and now there's a new tool to help you find out what's being said about your sector in weblogs around the world. Blogging 4 Business lets you check out references to businesses large and small in blogs and articles published online, as well as providing tools and tips for building your own blog.
Worth
a read
Better known for her advice on property development, Sarah Beeny has now published this manual to help consumers select reputable tradespeople to carry out home maintenance jobs for a fair price. But it's also a fantastic resource for small business owners working in the skilled trades, as it provides a summary of average pricing for a huge range of domestic jobs, as well as tips on finding suppliers and actually doing the work. Check out:
Just one word answer
'Qualitative' refers to definition b). It relates to research which describes characteristics, type or kind. 'Quantitative' relates to definition a), and relates to research describing number, size or physical measurement. |
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The EnterQuest Team
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