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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 30 November 2005
| Thought for the week: "The common denominator for success is work. Without work, man loses his vision, his confidence and his determination to achieve." John D. Rockefeller |
In this week's issue:
Small business answers
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Weekly stir 
What business are you in?
If we asked you the question, "What business are you in?", what would your answer be? Perhaps it would be something like:
- "We make handcrafted garden furniture."
- "We run a café."
- "We supply PC accessories."
Or would it be something else along these lines, which merely describes what your business supplies?
David Frey, author of the UK Small Business Marketing Bible, which we publish, makes a specific point in Chapter 9 of the manual when he refers to an old advertising slogan which says: "Any fool can make soap, but it takes a clever man to sell it."
The point here is that any Tom, Dick or Harry can make a bar of soap, but even if it's the most advanced soap in the world, it won't matter a jot if nobody buys it.
And the same principle applies to your garden furniture business, your café, your PC accessories shop, or whatever other line of business you're in and whatever else it is that you supply. It doesn't matter how good your product is if you can't persuade people to buy from you.
Failing to grasp this principle can be absolutely deadly in the small business world, and is a big reason why so many small firms sink quickly after they start up.
If any small enterprise is to stay in business, it needs cash flow. To get cash flow, you need customers. To get customers, you need to be effective at selling your product or service.
You need to be able to sell regardless of what business you're in – because you are, in essence, in the business of selling your product or service.
It doesn't make any difference whether you're the best electrician in town, or have the tastiest, freshest ingredients on the menu in your restaurant, because there will be plenty of other electricians and restaurants listed in the Yellow Pages. No matter how great you, your business or your products are, your business will fail if you can't sell and persuade people to buy from you or do business with you.
Now if you were to take this point on board and recognise that the most important function in your business is the sales and marketing of your products and services, what would you do differently from now on?
- Would your to-do list look different?
- Would your own personal priorities change?
- Would your view on the recruitment of new employees be different?
- Would the way you look at your business overall be different?
You see, if you genuinely get the point and believe deep down that your primary business objective and number one goal is to sell your product or service, then your to-do list, your personal priorities, your approach to recruitment, and the way you view your venture overall would be radically different to the way it is at the moment.
So now that you know what business you're really in, which is the business of selling your product or service to your customers, what are you going to do about it?
You can read hundreds more of David Frey's practical marketing tips, ideas, tactics and strategies in the UK Small Business Marketing Bible.
Marketing
tip
How to analyse your market and interpret data
Analysing and interpreting market data is an important part of your market research and overall marketing plan for your business.
The following resources provide some useful tools and advice snippets for how to analyse and interpret your market research data effectively.
Finally, you can also get access to our practical factsheet on profiling your target market for an in-depth explanation of how to analyse your potential customers.
Legal
tip
An overview of the Data Protection Act
This week, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has announced its plans to crack down on businesses that have made no effort to protect the privacy of their customers or other people they're in contact with under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.
As a result, we're providing a brief guide to useful sources of information about complying with this piece of law.
Data protection law affects most businesses. Here are a few examples of situations when it might come into play:
- You buy a mailing list of potential customers as part of your marketing plans.
- Your shop has a CCTV system fitted to deter shoplifters.
- Your children's nursery keeps a list with details of the children under your care.
- You're a therapist who keeps confidential records of client consultations.
- Your e-commerce site keeps records of customer purchases for marketing purposes.
The ICO is the authority responsible for enforcing the 1998 Data Protection Act. Its website has useful plain English explanations of the Act, as well as a description of the related Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. It even explores the tricky subject of CCTV cameras.
Note that Scotland has its own Information Commissioner, and what applies in England and Wales may not necessarily apply north of the border.
You can find plenty more about the Data Protection Act and its implications for small businesses, as well as hundreds more legal scenarios, frequently asked questions and factsheets in the UK Red Tape Buster.
IT
tip
Microsoft's new anti-spyware tool
As we reported in EnterQuest two weeks ago when we looked at the problems people were having with Sony's rootkit, spyware continues to be a serious problem for computer users.
Hats off to Microsoft, which quickly declared that Sony music CDs were installing a program it regarded as spyware. And thumbs down to some of the big antivirus software publishers, who were very slow to recognise that Sony's program was dangerous for PC users.
Microsoft is also making a big effort in this direction with the free download it offers called Windows AntiSpyware. It works with both the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems. It's currently in beta format, meaning that it's still experimental, but Microsoft have been working on it based on user feedback since the beginning of 2005, and it promises to get rid of spyware that causes pop-ups, slows down your computer and generally poses a security risk.
For Windows 98 or 95 users, you can also try the useful Ad-Aware tool, which is free to use and updated regularly.
If you're looking to develop your own business website to sell to customers via the Internet, why not check out the Small Business Builder, a unique tool to enable a complete novice to set up a website or online store.
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 'industry' and 'sector'? Which of the following definitions applies to which term?
a) a particular division of a specific field of commercial activity
b) a group of people or firms engaged in a particular type of commercial activity
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
Website review
UK Resilience (www.ukresilience.info)
This site is Government-backed and provides links and information designed to help businesses with continuity and contingency planning. But how user-friendly and accessible is the website?
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Navigation and presentation - the homepage would work better if, instead of having to scroll down endlessly to view what's available on the site, the designers had used the redundant white space to the right of the main content. That said, the different sections of the site are clearly signposted, and related links and sites are practical and comprehensive.
 
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Accessibility - as with so many of the Government websites we've reviewed, there's a disappointing lack of accessibility options, which is particularly poor in view of the essential emergency information contained within this site. There are no foreign language options, and even though the site does use images, no alternatives are provided for people who can't view these.
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Content and usefulness - the section designed for businesses provides a wealth of really helpful downloads, guides and factsheets about business continuity planning, from toolkits on assessing risk to guidance on coping with a flood. There's help for dealing with IT disasters as well as physical ones, and the links and contacts for what to do in the event of an emergency make this site really worth bookmarking.
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Relevance - the homepage features regularly updated news on key topical issues related to contingency planning, like the severe weather we've had recently, as well as bird flu. It also lists at-a-glance contacts for incidents like train and plane crashes and chemical accidents.
A highly important and current resource for businesses of all sizes, this site's solid score is a result of the volume of practical toolkits and guides it offers, together with the fact that it acts as a centralised resource of all the key contacts you might need if the worst happened.
Our rating - 13/20
Did
you know?
'See it Right' web accessibility project launched
'See it Right with UseAbility' is the name of a new web accessibility assessment system to be launched over the next few weeks. The audit is a joint initiative by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and AbilityNet, and if your website is approved as accessible and useable, you'll be entitled to display the 'See it Right: UseAbility' logo. The project is all part of a wider effort to help businesses comply with their obligations to make their sites reasonably accessible under the terms of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Yell 'Best Family Business' Awards 2005 announced
Yellow Pages online publisher, Yell, has announced a nationwide competition that will reward the best family-run businesses in the UK. Ten regional winners will receive a £1,500 cash prize, and the overall winner will receive £3,000 as well as free Yell advertising and an outdoor poster advertisement. Firms run by one family member, with at least one other relative employed by the business, are eligible to apply. The closing date is 31 January 2006.
Worth
a visit
Practical health and safety guidance online
A new website has been launched by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work which offers practical information and examples of good practice in occupational health and safety in business premises. The site has a section specially tailored for small businesses, and offers a list of good sources of advice on health and safety issues.
Thousands of Government forms from one website
A free service has been launched which lets you download more than 1,000 forms from different Government departments from a single website. Capform works from a database of electronic versions of forms normally available only in hard copy, such as self-assessment tax return forms and VAT forms. A great time-saving resource that beats waiting for the post.
Toolkit to help firms understand age laws
The Government's Age Positive initiative has put together a comprehensive toolkit to help small firms prepare for the introduction next April of legislation banning age discrimination. The toolkit comprises a checklist to help you audit and assess your existing employment practices in terms of age diversity, and suggests an action plan to make key improvements in areas like recruitment, training, redundancy and retirement.
Worth
a read
Taking as its aim the concept of reducing the fear factor involved in starting up a business by breaking all the different aspects down into manageable chunks, this book is perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs who are keen to start their own ventures but unsure where to begin. It's packed with endless lists and tables to help you plan your enterprise, as well as using practical examples to explain the more complicated issues. Check out:
Just one word answer
Industry refers to definition b) - a group of people or firms engaged in a particular type of commercial activity.
Sector refers to definition a) - a particular division of a specific field of commercial activity.
For example, airline businesses make up one sector of the transportation industry. |
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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
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