RESOURCE CENTRE

Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 23 June 2005

In this week's issue:

• does your small business have a strategy and gameplan?
  
• being first on your customers' minds
  
• an overview of public liability insurance
  
• time for a refill
  
• HM Courts Service 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

Does your small business have a strategy and gameplan?

Back in the mists of time (about 25 years ago to be more precise), long before the word enterprise existed in civil servants' vocabularies other than to describe a certain spaceship boldly going where no man had gone before, there were no business advisers as we know them in the UK today.

Well, actually of course there were accountants, consultants, business libraries and other private firms and individuals that did the job of advising new and smaller firms, and by 1980 the first local enterprise agencies appeared on the scene.

But now small business advisers are everywhere in all shapes and guises, and the "advice" you get is equally variable in its relevance and use.

As far as start ups and new small businesses are concerned there's one piece of advice that gets offered more than just about anything else: You can't start up and run a new business without having a business plan.

Horsesh*t. In other words, this sort of advice is not only crap it's also everywhere.

There is absolutely no point in starting a business or beginning a new business project with a business plan unless you have something much more fundamental and important first, and you can't and shouldn't write a business plan without it. So what is it?

A strategy. A strategy for your business and your marketing, or ideally for both.

Your strategy will define in advance the ultimate "big picture" objective that you want your business to achieve profitably and over the long term. Your business plan on the other hand will describe all of the tactics and activities you will use to achieve that higher strategic objective.

Without a strategy your business plan will be meaningless and aimless.

Lets just look at the facts. The majority of people who think about starting a business end up not starting, not first time round at least. The majority of the people who do start up will go on to fail inside three years. The majority of small businesses who survive the first few years will not grow and achieve their true potential.

The factor that is common to all of these people and small businesses is that they don't start out with a strategy and a plan to make that strategy happen. In other words they don't have a gameplan, a plan that is 100% focused on achieving the strategy.

This point comes right from the core of the thinking of one of the world's most successful marketing and business performance consultants, an American guy called Jay Abraham. His methods and business philosophy have been responsible for transformation in thousands of small, medium and large-scale businesses all over the world.

Abraham recommends that your approach to building a business and marketing strategy can be viewed like a military strategy. His argument is that a war is made up of a number of campaigns, the campaigns are made up of several battles, and each battle comprises a number of engagements. And all of these are driven by an overriding strategy and gameplan.

We think this translates nicely to businesses of any size and in any situation. Without your strategy and gameplan you'll either sink or your business will just stagnate and drift aimlessly and uncompetitively in your market.

But an even more important point to recognise in all of this is that you need to be prepared to change your gameplan right from your first campaign and engagements. As soon as you start engaging in your market the chances are that the responses you get aren't always going to be what you expect.

You'll need to continually adjust, refine and adapt your gameplan to keep everything lined up to make your strategy happen. This is where you'll need to learn how to duck and dive, wheel and deal, and continually test and rethink your ideas and assumptions about your market.

If your business plan is rigid and inflexible, and isn't based on an overriding strategy, you'll step in the horsesh*t and then sink like a stone.

If you're strategic in your approach, with a flexible and adaptable gameplan you'll not only find yourself to be in the minority in your marketplace, but you will also stick out and be giving yourself a unique opportunity to make your small business become a very special one indeed.

You can find even more useful and practical explanations of key small business management topics and issues, in hundreds of small business guides, factsheets and reports on our Scavenger website. Go to www.scavenger.net.

Marketing tip

Being first on your customers' minds

How can you make sure that when your customers need your product or service, they think of, call or visit you before any of your competitors?

You could bombard them with mailshots and, provided they've opted to receive them, telemarketing calls and e-mails - but then you run the risk of becoming more of a nuisance than the first port of call in a time of need.

There's a fine balance to strike between staying close to the top of your customers' minds and becoming over-familiar to them, so that you're more of a pest than a useful provider of a product or service.

Here are a few practical ideas for making sure you're top of the hit list for your customers.

1. Build the relationship in unusual ways. People are jaded with telesales calls and mailshots, so why not keep in touch with your customers in a more meaningful, personalised and memorable way? A Christmas or Easter card, or even an anniversary card for the date on which they bought from you last, are all impressive and little-used ways to communicate with customers.
2. Similarly, don't just stick with one marketing media, such as a standard-template mailshot that you send out four times per year, or an e-mail campaign once a month. Vary the types of marketing materials you use, considering more visual, tactile options such as "handwritten"-style letters, brochures and postcards.
3. Make it easy to contact you. Stapling a business card to each invoice or receipt you issue means that diligent customers who keep records of previous transactions will know exactly where to look when they need your number again. Equally, a box of business cards by your till can encourage people to pick one up and stash it in their wallet, meaning it's close to hand when they need you next.
4. Don't be too afraid of letting customers know about other, or new, products and services that you offer. Remember that a customer who was satisfied when dealing with your business will usually be glad to hear from you, and try to use easy to visualise methods such as photographs and case studies to illustrate new offerings from your business.

Find hundreds more ideas, techniques and tactics for increasing sales and finding new customers in the UK Small Business Marketing Bible.

Legal tip

An overview of public liability insurance

We've mentioned public liability insurance (PLI) a few times in EnterQuest, and it's becoming a growing preoccupation for sole traders and small businesses. Firstly, because of the increased risk of compensation claims. And secondly, because having a PLI policy is often a contractual requirement if you're bidding to win contracts from big businesses or local authorities.

In some cases it's also a legal requirement; a business offering extreme sports, for example, is likely to need PLI in order to comply with the law. But even if it's optional, it has become increasingly difficult to operate without PLI.

PLI protects your business against legal proceedings brought by a member of the public who has suffered injury or loss as a result of the negligence of you or somebody in your business. It should protect your business from claims for injury, for example where a member of the public slips on your recently washed floor; for contracting an illness or disease (particularly important for restaurants and cafés); and for damage to somebody else's property.

But buying this sort of insurance is becoming difficult for many trades and professions, since they're considered too much of a risk. In the worst cases, insurance cover either costs too much or has been withdrawn. Membership of some professional and trade associations entitles you to automatic insurance, however. For example, Musician's Union membership includes PLI up to £10 million. So it can be worth checking out the benefits of joining your trade association (there are contact details for most of the big organisations at the Trade Association Forum).

If you're having difficulty finding a broker to insure you for your particular business activity, you can check the directories offered by the British Insurance Brokers' Association or the Institute of Insurance Brokers.

The UK Red Tape BUSTER offers plenty more advice on the various insurance policies small businesses might need, as well as hundreds of factsheets, scenarios, and FAQs.

IT tip

Time for a refill

Replacing computer printer cartridges can cost your business a lot, especially if you frequently use a colour printer to print off reports, letterheads or photographs. So the daft prices for cartridges made by printer manufacturers mean that refilling cartridges yourself can save you quite a bit of money. Most high street computer shops sell kits allowing you to do this; these consist of bottles of ink, a syringe, and basic instructions. You'll also find many computer supplies shops offering refill kits on the Internet.

To help you get the most out of your refills, we've put together a few tips:

• Firstly, do your refills in the bathroom sink or over the bath. It can be a messy business and, unless you take precautions, there's a strong risk you'll end up with ink all over your carpets, desk or clothes.
• Some makers (such as Epson) protect their cartridges using a computer chip to restrict refills. Chips are used either to disable the cartridge altogether or prevent its use after a certain time. However, for less than £10 it's possible to buy a chip resetter, which will unlock the protection and allow you to refill the cartridge.
• Because ink tends to dry out and clog the inside of cartridges, they should be refilled before they become completely empty. It can help to leave the refilled cartridges overnight before using them.
• Five refills is generally thought to be as much as a cartridge can take - after that, the print heads tend to get worn down and the printing becomes less clean and accurate.
• Because you can make a significant saving on each cartridge, it's worth buying the best quality refill ink you can find.
• Once you've refilled the cartridges, use your printer's cleaning process to make sure the print heads are as clean as possible.

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:

• Handmade Petit Fours Producer

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 up-selling means?

a) finding somebody to buy your business so you can finally retire
b) getting a bank to buy the debts you are owed by customers
c) refusing to sell to anybody except the wealthy so as to give your business prestige
d) increasing the value of a purchase by selling a more expensive item or selling more

Answer at the end of the Bulletin.

Website review

HM Courts Service (www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk)

HM Courts Service website attempts to provide information about a vast topic, and tackles everything from defending a claim to licensing laws.

• Navigation - good, but getting around is slightly hampered by the small text. An A-to-Z listing of subjects the visitor might be interested in proved effective and its keywords were well chosen. The forms and guidance section was less impressive, and really only useful for professionals who know the relevant document references.
  
  
  

• Accessibility - the site has a full explanation of accessibility keys, but some of these (particularly text size and fonts) are not style-based and require you to adjust your browser settings. Welsh is the only additional language offered.
  
  
  
  
• Content - here the site comes into its own. They've really taken some trouble to explain things clearly to the layman; jury service, how the courts work and money claims are all tackled without resorting to technical language, and a good part of the information is offered both on the website or in PDF downloads.
  
  
  
  
• Relevance - is it too much to expect the court service to report cases on its website? That's an old complaint, but the site falls down on other details too; for example the full address of the Technology and Construction court should be given, and there should be information for all the County Courts, not just a few. Some links do not work, and although court rolls are online the lack of explanatory information shows they are clearly only for professionals.
  
  

A verdict of 13 looks worse than it is. The many positive points of this website are needlessly dragged down by the confusing and patchy detail on actual hearings and other details.

Our rating - 13/20

Did you know?

Security threats may be over-hyped

IT analyst Gartner has published a report which claims that certain areas of Internet security are currently over-hyped by the media, and urges business owners not to let these threats influence their IT decisions and investments. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), mobile malware, unsafe wireless hotspots, regulatory compliance and 'Warhol worms' are the five key areas that Gartner thinks are overblown in terms of the genuine security risk to businesses.

Worth a visit

Late payment excuses revealed

The Better Payment Practice Group (BPPG) has updated its website with a list of the most common excuses used when a payment is overdue, together with tips on how to deal with them. The tactics include lost invoices, computer downtime and postage delays.

Tool to combat click fraud

ClickDetective is a cunning tool that helps you combat click fraud by tracking return visitors to your site and alerting you immediately, by e-mail, if anything seems suspicious. It also allows you to remind innocent repeat clickers to bookmark your site. The service costs $49(US) per month for 2,000 monitored clickthroughs and a free trial is available.

Playing in the sandbox

Microsoft Sandbox is where you can get a feel for what the US tech giant is developing, and what they're planning for future software releases. At the moment, for example, they're responding to the demand for syndicated news with myw3b and trying to improve Internet searches using what they call search result clustering.

Worth a read

Jay Abraham is reputed to be the world's highest paid super-consultant, charging somewhere in the region of $5,000 an hour. This book is an excellent introduction to his strategies, methods and techniques and it's available at a normal paperback price. 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.