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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 21 September 2005
| Thought for the week:
"Doubt is the father of invention."
Galileo Galilei |
In this week's issue:
Small business answers
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Weekly stir 
Tips
to improve your business skills and personal business awareness
In
previous EnterQuest bulletins, we've provided you with plenty of
tips and ideas about how you can improve your personal effectiveness
as an entrepreneur and small business owner.
In
the process of doing that, we've always been wary of the amount
of unhelpful advice in general circulation about what entrepreneurs
have got in them that makes them successful.
Things
like confidence, perseverance, resilience, stamina and all that
sort of pointless sh*te.
Now
don't get hold of the wrong end of the stick here, we aren't a bunch
of unholy disbelievers in the so-called 'soft' skills you need to
be a success in business.
It's
just that over donkeys' years of being in the small business field,
we've seen plenty of people with these types of soft characteristics
who have fallen flat and hard on their miserable faces within a
few weeks of starting up the little venture they'd always dreamed
about.
So
what are the softer skills and personal effectiveness habits that
we've noted in those entrepreneurs that have gone on to make it,
or avoided failure at least?
Here's
our guide to four of the softer personal skills and attributes that
the most successful entrepreneurs around have in abundance, and
that they use time and again with such incredible and productive
effect.
These
are: 1) the ability to listen, 2) imagination, 3) calculation and
4) personal focus.
1)
The
ability to listen
The
most effective entrepreneurs in the world are the most effective
listeners. They can read between the lines and pick up on signals
and body language that other people fail to understand. This is
because they listen effectively and take notice of what is being
said or is happening during a sale, a negotiation or any other business
situation.
Every
small business owner has to be able to sell, and therefore needs
to be working on their ability to listen and take notice. In any
event, you should listen to your prospects, customers, competitors,
suppliers, staff and business partners all of the time.
2)
Imagination
This
is also one of the most vital entrepreneurial traits you can have.
And it's possible to develop this as a skill even though you might
think you've got no imagination at all. This is all about having
your mind permanently open to the possibilities in any situation,
which will enable you to quickly, creatively, effectively and often
diplomatically find a solution to a business problem.
The
most imaginative people tend be great readers of fiction as well
as non-fiction. You can develop your imaginative ability if you
focus on fiction authors who write in a style that you enjoy, who
make colourful and imaginative use of the English language, and
who produce devilishly creative plots. It is thought that people
who regularly read this type of literature are more likely to have
the creative sides of their minds open.
3)
Calculation
Entrepreneurs
are often described as risk takers. This doesn't mean they aren't
scared of risk, but rather that they have learned how to calculate
risk and make the right sort of decisions most of the time.
There's
a well-known saying: "If you aren't making mistakes, then you
aren't working hard enough", but we prefer to put it like this:
"If you're making lots of mistakes and you're still in business,
then you must be doing something right."
To
be innovative in your business, you're inevitably going to be taking
lots of risks, but risks that you've decided you're prepared to
take and where you have calculated and can afford the price of failure.
4)
Personal focus
When
you go into business, don't just decide what you want your business
to become, but focus on what sort of person you want to become instead.
Focusing
on your vision of what you want to become and how your business
will get you there will enable you to communicate your vision more
effectively to the people you employ. After all, your staff will
view it that they work for you, the business owner, rather than
the business itself.
So
if you can clearly articulate your expectations to them as soon
as possible, and remind them of these often, they will be more likely
to understand you and your vision and where you are trying to lead
them.
Marketing
tip
The
geese are getting fat already…
Christmas is coming around fast, and it's time to think about saying
thank you to your customers and suppliers with a festive greetings
card.
It's
not as simple as buying a box of cards from your local supermarket,
signing them and sticking a stamp on the envelope, however. A personalised
'stock' card or a personally designed card can make all the difference
in the way your customers view your brand, business culture and
personality.
If
you want to go that extra step at Christmas, there are three options
for you to consider:
1) Selecting a 'stock' Christmas card from suppliers like Printing.com
can save you time, money and resources. These large printers can
print any design cards within their stock on short timescales. Printing.com
offers a huge range of cards for all budgets - basically you can
have anything from cheap and cheerful cards to glossy cards with
luxury envelopes.
2)
Selecting
a charity Christmas card will give a totally different message to
your customers than a shop-bought one. A wide range of charities
with available Christmas cards can be found at this
resourceful site.
Meanwhile,
buying a stock Christmas card from Help
with a Greeting will get you a professional corporate Christmas
card and donate to 12 charities at the same time.
3)
Paying a small fee and getting a card personally designed gives
you a lot of flexibility in the design, printing and cost. Any good
designer will be able to source a responsible low-cost printer who
can print hundreds of cards reasonably cheaply. The bespoke design
gives you the opportunity to have your brand or logo on the back
of the card, with your address rather than the card manufacturer's
details. The possibilities with this option are endless, but this
is the most time-consuming method so get penning your design now!
You
can find hundreds more tips, techniques and tactics for promoting
your business and getting new customers in the UK
Small Business Marketing Bible.
Legal
tip
Copyright
on the net - simple yet strangely complex
Copyright has become an increasingly important consideration for
small businesses. You need to understand how to protect your own
copyrighted material and, at the same time, make sure you don't
fall foul of the law.
What can seem dreadfully complex essentially boils down to this
rule: the creator of written work, sound recordings and graphics
has the right to control their use. Original content on the Internet
is automatically protected by copyright. This means that news articles,
translations, artistic works, graphics and music all remain the
property of their creators unless they specifically decide to surrender
their rights.
Having
said that, it would be wrong to imply there's nothing more to it.
There are plenty of complications, but fortunately there are useful
guides to help you negotiate the law as it applies to your business.
Finally,
you can also find hundreds of scenarios, frequently asked questions
and information about copyright, along with every small business
legal situation, on the Red
Tape Buster.
IT
tip
Setting
up a basic website - what are the options?
Some business owners find the prospect of setting up a website daunting,
but there are plenty of tips and guides available that are suitable
for beginners and experts alike. The Good Web Guide suggests what
you need to think about before
building a website.
Once you've decided what you want the site to do, you'll need to
decide how your site will be built.
See
this practical factsheet on developing
a basic website for your business for in-depth information about
these options and links to sources of help and advice.
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 the word 'quorum' means?
a)
something that is unique or unrivalled
b) the minimum number of people who must be present in order that
business can be legally transacted
c) an appendix to a legal contract or document
d) an organisation financed by the Government, but independent of
it
Answer
at the end of the Bulletin.
Website review
The
European Union (EU) portal (http://europa.eu.int)
This
site bills itself as the definitive portal for information about
Europe - trading with EU member states, finding out about new laws
and Directives, and understanding Brussels policy. But how user-friendly
is it?
- Navigation
- given that it contains such a huge amount of information, the
homepage is clearly presented, with good signposting to sections
that are usefully categorised by sector. The homepage's inclusion
of news headlines and 'spotlight' topics keeps it looking fresh.
Navigation-wise, the various topics and links are easy to follow
and logically ordered.
 
- Accessibility
- perhaps unsurprisingly, the site is available in 15 languages,
as well as in text-only format. The site says it meets World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C) basic accessibility guidelines, although
some access keys and help for users of other browsers would be
beneficial.
A
decent score of 13 for the EU portal - it manages to condense a
large volume of information sensibly and logically, and there are
some gems on here that are surprisingly useful for small businesses.
Our
rating - 13/20
Did
you know?
Government
is (finally) researching the tax burden
HM
Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has launched a research project to
measure the administrative burden on small businesses of complying
with the UK's tax system. The exercise was promised in a report
published alongside the 2005 Budget back in March. Business owners
and interested parties can contribute to the research, which will
be carried out by KPMG, and reported back to HMRC by March 2006
- after which, we hope, HMRC will start doing something about the
problem…
No
September security update from Microsoft
"Unspecified
patch quality issues" are what Microsoft is blaming for its
decision to scrap its regular monthly 'Patch Tuesday' - the second
Tuesday of the month, on which it usually releases the updates required
to fix all the flaws and vulnerabilities in Windows and the Internet
Explorer browser. Worryingly, at least one critical patch had been
expected, but Microsoft says it's still "testing", and
won't be releasing its next
update until October.
Worth
a visit
See
it like the Spiders
SE
Spider lets you view exactly what a search engine spider sees
when it crawls your website. You type in your site's URL and then
receive a breakdown of the page's content, including all the tags,
textual content and internal and external links that the spider
will follow.
Credit
check your neighbourhood
CheckMyFile
is a free tool that requires registration before you can use it,
but provides a 'credit check' report on the postcode you enter,
listing things like the number of directors and average income levels.
The economic information each short profile provides is useful when
you're researching target customers and planning local marketing
campaigns.
Worth
a read
This
book is used to accompany the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development's (CIPD) Certificate in Personnel Practice course, but
whether you're interested in this training or not, it's a great
tool for first-time employers. It covers the basics of recruiting
and managing people, looking at employment legislation and the main
issues involved in employing staff. Because it's meant as a study
tool, it's packed with useful checklists, summaries and revision
aids - all of which makes it easy for business owners to follow
and refer back to. Check out:
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Just one word answer
The answer is b).
A
quorum is the minimum number of people who must be present
in order that business can be legally transacted.
The
annual general meeting of a limited company must be attended
by the quorum of its board of directors and company secretary.
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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.
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