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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 29 September 2004
| Thought
for the week: "Your most unhappy customers are your
greatest source of learning." Bill Gates |
In
this week's issue:
- another
stupid question about running a small business
- how
to get your press releases published
- survival
guide for 1 October
- Word
under the macro-scope
- avoiding
data protection scams
Weekly
stir
Another
stupid question about running a small business
Welcome
to your latest weekly EnterQuest bulletin, the newsletter that keeps
on asking stupid small business questions. Or does it?
Well, yes and no. Because no question is really
stupid, otherwise it wouldn't be asked in the first place would
it?
So just what are we ranting on about this week?
It's to do with a question that we, and just about
every business adviser, get asked at one time or another, and when
you hear it, it sounds like a daft and ridiculous thing for anyone
to say.
"Do I really need to spend so much time promoting
my business?"
Of course the obvious response to this is that no
small business owner can spend too much time promoting their product,
service or enterprise. But the reality is that the vast majority
of small firms spend too little time marketing themselves, with
far too many of them doing no marketing at all.
We've heard the excuses time and again: "I've got
a fantastic product and location and my customers can easily find
me" or "It's all on our website, which anyone can find and get in
touch with us".
And without a doubt, in those situations, some of
your customers and prospects will find you by themselves, but the
vast majority of the target audience you could potentially reach
don't know what they could get from your business. Worse than that,
some of them will never even know that you exist.
Now many of you will be satisfied that you are doing
enough to achieve a reasonable sales turnover and profit, but we
know from experience that the majority of small business owners
are capable of much better results and probably itching from head
to toe with a desire to achieve them.
So what exactly is the problem here?
The answer to this may well be more apparent if
we ask another question.
Why are you in business in the first place?
There can be a number of answers to this, including
those provided on some of the government guides to starting a business.
You know the sort of thing:
- to provide a service to the local community
- to fulfil your potential
- to be independent
- to play to your strengths
- to provide a long-term future for your children
and grandchildren
Well yes, OK, we understand all that drivel, but
what's the real reason why 99% of people want to run their own business?
To make money, that's why, and as much of it as
possible. The chance to earn more mazuma than you could ever otherwise
dream about. Go on, admit it, it's nothing to be ashamed of, as
deep down that is ultimately what drives us all forward.
So what was the original stupid question?
Do I really need to spend so much time promoting
my business?
Oh yes indeed. To generate enough cash to pay your
operating costs, to turn a decent profit and make it really financially
worth it for yourself and anyone else involved, you simply can't
spend enough time marketing, promoting, selling, and doing whatever
it takes to drum up more trade for your business. It's your BIGGEST
priority.
So why don't more of you do it, and do it more often?
Because it's not easy. Until you know how or are
shown how, that is. Until you get streetwise through doing it for
real, through wheeling and dealing, continually trying out different
techniques and tactics, and gaining those marketing "hard yards"
that will start to generate some real results.
Next week we'll help you focus more on this big
priority for your small business. In the meantime, read our weekly
marketing tip for ideas on how to go about it.
Marketing
tip
How
to get your press releases published
So you've written a press release about your latest
business breakthrough, milestone, award or achievement. It's written
in an interesting, informative style, even if you do say so yourself.
But your release still might not get a second glance by a journalist,
and may well be en route straight to the nearest bin.
Why?
Presentation. If your press release doesn't conform
to certain basic standards of presentation, it will never get past
the busy journalist who has only got time to give it a quick scan
before making the decision to use it or lose it.
It's amazing how many businesses spend ages perfecting
the wording of their press releases, but forget to give basic consideration
to the layout of the thing. Which is a shame, because doing this
makes the chances of your news making it to the papers so much higher.
For example, did you know that many journalists
frown upon the use of unusual fonts or graphics in a press release?
You can use your logo, but any weird and wonderful pictures or font
styles, however pretty they might look, should be ditched.
The following is a list of basic presentation points
you should consider when producing press releases:
- Make sure it's written in a single, sensible
font like Verdana or Arial.
- Double-space the document to make it easier to
scan.
- Date it correctly.
- Make sure it's grammatically correct (your computer
spellchecker will help with this, but the only way to be 100%
sure is to have the release proofread by someone else not involved
in writing it).
- Finish it with the standard ending recognised
by journalists: ###
Other tips to help the chances of your release making
the news include:
- Put your contact details, left-justified, at
the top of the release. Include your address, phone number, fax
number, e-mail and website - and triple check that they're typed
correctly!
- Spend time thinking of a snappy title and even
snappier sub-headings, as these will help journalists decide whether
to run your release or ditch it.
- Make sure your release is a maximum of 400 words.
- Write a pithy - but short - 'About us' paragraph
to include at the end of the release.
The UK
Small Business Marketing Bible contains hundreds more tips
and tactics for boosting your sales using proven marketing strategies
that work no matter what product or service you sell.
Legal
tip
Survival
guide for 1 October
No matter what type of business you're in, you are
going to be affected by at least one of the legislative changes
that hit the statute books this week on 1 October.
The UK now has what are known as 'common commencement
dates'. Essentially this means that all new employment legislation
only becomes law on two days every year (1 October and 6 April).
This is to make it easier for business owners to keep track of changes,
or at least that's what the Government tells us.
This year, changes coming into force on 1 October
include amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which
will have implications for all businesses. And, if you employ any
staff, you'll also be affected by the three other changes that occur
this week.
We've prepared the following survival guide to help
you ensure you don't fall foul of the law.
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment)
Regulations 2003
This will now apply to all businesses (previously
it only affected those employing more than 15 people). Basically
the changes mean that if you have premises open to the public,
or if you currently do or might one day employ anyone, you must
make "reasonable" physical adjustments to your business premises
to overcome access problems for disabled people. This includes
obvious stuff like wheelchair ramps, lifts and wide enough doors,
as well as any facilities you might have (such as toilets).
You can get a round up of how the Government thinks
the changes will affect small businesses here.
Guidance from the Government on what constitutes
a "reasonable" adjustment is outlined here.
Check out the Disability Rights Commission's Code of Practice on disabled rights of access.
A more informal guide on complying with the new law is also available.
And finally, here's guidance on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Pensions) Regulations 2003
(which apply if you employ staff and forbid you from discriminating
against the disabled in pension schemes).
Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations
2004
These Regulations introduce new minimum statutory
discipline and grievance procedures. Basically they mean that
you must follow a specific framework when you discipline or dismiss
anyone, or deal with employee grievances. There are more than
12 ways to fail the new mandatory procedures, and doing so can
have dire consequences. These include an automatic decision of
unfair dismissal at tribunal, as well as an increase of up to
50% in the compensation awarded.
Get up to speed by reading Government advice on the changes to the law.
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service
(ACAS) has published a Code
of Practice on the new procedures.
National Minimum Wage Act 1989 (Amendment) Regulations
2004
The rate for adult workers aged 22 or over will
go up to £4.85 on Friday, while the 'development' rate, for 18-21
year olds, increases to £4.10 per hour. A minimum level for 16-17
year olds of £3.00 per hour also comes into force.
Click for Government
guidance on implementing and understanding the new rates.
Employment
Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004
The last legal change that will affect employers
from 1st October relates to the way employment tribunals are carried
out. It's apparently going to make the process more efficient,
and introduces new processes
and documentation.
IT
tip
Word
under the macro-scope
In among the tools available for Microsoft Word
is something called a macro. Now this is the sort of fiddly extra
it's tempting to ignore once you've worked out the essentials
of formatting and font sizes. Macros, who needs 'em?
Well, you might. Let's suppose you're often faced
with documents which are in all sorts of ugly fonts, weird alignment,
and dozens of spelling mistakes. You have to spend half an hour
changing everything to Arial, getting the font to size 12 and
checking the spelling before you can print. A macro will let you
do this at the speed of light, just by pressing a couple of keys.
Here's how:
- Once you've opened your messy document, click
on Tools in your toolbar, then Macro and Record New Macro. A
box will pop up asking you to name your macro. Call it 'cleanup'.
Where it says "assign macro to", click on the keyboard icon,
and then press Ctrl and 9 at the same time.
- Then click "assign" and close the box. A smaller
box will appear somewhere on your screen, which you can safely
ignore for the time being. You're now recording a macro.
- Now select all the text and change it to Arial
12-point, click the alignment button to send the text to the
left of the page, go to tools and "check spelling". Finally,
print the document.
- When you've done all that, click on the little
blue cube where it says Stop in the small macro box on your
screen. It should disappear.
Congratulations, you've just recorded a basic
macro! To test it, open a new document you want to tidy up, and
press Ctrl and the 9 button again. The macro will go through the
whole process again, only this time all you have to do is think
about the spellchecking.
You can make any number of macros doing all sorts
of things, but automating repetitive tasks is one of the easiest
places to start. And if you're still not sure how to make one
of your own, try downloading some of the free macros at PC World or from Microsoft's download site.
IT
security corner
Last week saw the 100,000th virus hit cyberspace,
according to security company McAfee's assessment of all things
nasty, including worms, Trojans, spyware and adware. According
to McAfee, it looks like 2004 will be the worst year ever for
these pests, with a new virus, or a variant of an existing one,
now being discovered on a daily basis.
Get the full picture from McAfee at:
http://www.mcafeesecurity.com/us/about/press/mcafee_enterprise/
2004/20040920_085956.htm
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
Do
you know what a 'zombie farm' is?
a. a business which has liquidated and is selling
off its remaining stock
b. a computer that has been taken over by a hacker without its
user's knowledge
c. a collection of expired websites which still get found by search
engines
d. a weblog which no longer receives contributions
Answer at the end of Bulletin.
Did
you know?
Telephone
Preference Service: have you opted out?
Since the law changed on 25 June this year, more
than 100,000 businesses have opted out of receiving unsolicited
sales calls under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations
2003. The law allows all businesses to register with the corporate
version of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS); consumers can
do the same with their version of the TPS, and 5.7 million of
them have done so, according to the latest figures.
There's a free service for checking that a phone
number you're planning on calling isn't already registered with
either version of the TPS at:
http://www.numbercheck.co.uk
Data
Protection Act: don't be ripped off
If you keep records of your customers, suppliers
or employees, you may need to notify the Information Commissioner,
who keeps a data protection register of businesses storing sensitive
information. It costs £35 to do this - however, for over a year
now, businesses across the UK have been plagued by scammers trying
to con them out of a good deal more. These rogue firms send official-looking
letters to you, demanding a fee of between £95 and £150 for notification
of the register. They then try to slap you with the statute books
by saying you'll fall foul of the Data Protection Act 1998 if
you don't cough up.
We've found this recently updated list of known
scammers, which also includes samples of some of the official-looking
letters used in the swindle:
http://www.stopecg.org/dataprotection.htm
Meanwhile, proper advice on the real system is
available from:
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=316
Worth
a visit
Haven't
I seen that somewhere before ..?
This fascinating collection is updated twice a
week, and aims to show you the similarities between different
ads from around the world. Can genius strike two different ad
agencies at the same time? Or is there something a bit shadier
going on?
You decide ...
http://www.coloribus.com
Call
that sales copy?
An amusing take on bad copywriting at its very
worst, this article looks at three genuine examples of sales letters
sent out to customers by businesses around the world. From using
inappropriate pictures to ridiculous special offers, the article
puts the spotlight on glaring errors in these firms' take on modern
communication - and in doing so, provides a practical lesson to
all of us.
Go from bad to worse at:
http://www.wnim.com/currentissue/current/copycat.htm
Worth
a read
Consisting
of a series of illuminating interviews with successful entrepreneurs,
from well-known millionaires like Richard Branson and Terence
Conran to lesser-known but no less inspirational small business
owners, this book asks each candidate to define the key 'make
or break' moments they encountered on their route into business.
It also contains insightful summary chapters which discuss success,
management and motivation in more general terms. Check out:
Just
one word answer
The answer is b.
A zombie farm is a computer that is under the control of a
hacker without its user's knowledge.
Zombie PCs and networks are highly sought after by Internet
rascals - they can be used to broadcast spam and phishing
scams and to spread virus-infected e-mails.
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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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