How to use surveys and polls to grow your business

Using a survey or a poll is great way to understand what your customer wants. The answers you get can give you an insight into what your customers think of you and your business; what kind of service they want; and it gives them a chance to share their perspectives with you. If your survey or poll is engaging, then your customers are more likely to participate and spread the word about you.

The way I see it, surveys/polls have three main objectives…

  1. Getting feedback from existing customers about products or services that you have provided. Ask them if the product or service could be improved or if there was a way it would work better for them. You can use this to improve your services or extend your product line.
  2. You can use a survey to get testimonials from your customers. What worked well for them and why? You can then ask them if you can use their comment in your advertising or on your website/social media page.
  3. To find out what your customers want – is there an issue that needs solving…one that they’d be willing to pay for? If you know exactly what your customers want, you can develop products or services to fit their needs. This shows that not only do you listen to what they say, you act on it.

What questions do you ask?

There are many you could ask and I’ve listed some areas you might want to think about. However, I would advise no more than five to ten questions or your customers will get bored.

When you are creating your questions, think about what you want to achieve…are you looking for ideas for new products or services? Are you wanting to know what needs to be improved? Here are some ideas and pointers that might help you… 

  • If you’re doing a poll, you might want to just stick to one question. You could do a series of polls over a number of weeks on your social media pages.
  • If you are a blogger, you could ask your customers what subjects they might be interested in…for example if you are a beauty blogger, you might find that several of your customers have the same problem that you could address with a blog, such as ‘how to apply mascara properly’ or ‘what are the best products for sensitive skin?’ Answering questions helps set you up as an expert in your field.
  • Segmenting your customers will help you reach the right audience with the right message. A simple example…if you run a garden centre and you send out a regular newsletter, you could ask what plants your audience are interested in. Some may be interested in herbs and fruit – another in climbing plants – someone else in vegetables and flowers. You can then use this information to better target your marketing and communications.
  • Are you thinking of setting up an event? Events take up a huge amount of time and effort from planning to execution, so before you invest your time and money, you could create a poll or survey to find out what kind of event they’d like. Make sure you give some options, so you are steering them in the direction you want them to go in!
  • Competitions – you can use a survey to host a competition. For example if you make cakes, you could put several pictures of cakes you have made and ask, ‘Which cake do you think deserves Cake of the Month’? This also serves to show potential customers what you can do and gives you the chance to show several different kinds of cakes you do.
  • Finally – get a fun aspect in there! Polls and surveys don’t have to be serious – if you just want to engage with your customers, ask a question about something current, such as ‘What do you think of the dancing TikTok trend – did you join in?’ You might spark a discussion which could lead to anything!

Once you have your survey or poll, post it on your Facebook/Instagram page or put it on your website. If you want specific information from your existing customers, you could include the survey or poll in your newsletter or on email.

Final Hot Tip!

Everyone likes a reward, so offer some kind of incentive for your customers if they complete your survey. Give a free report or an e-book, or offer them a small discount on the next purchase they make from you. Offer a further discount, or a free item, if they recommend three people, who then buy from you!

10 steps to a successful business

15
In order to succeed in business, planning and good organisation are key. When starting up in business, most people are full of enthusiasm and it can be such a disappointment to find that simply by switching on your computer and opening your doors for business, that business will automatically come your way. It would be fantastic if it worked that way, but sadly, we all have to work a whole lot harder than that to attract business and be successful.

Here are 10 ways that might help make your business more of a success in 2016.

  1. Make a plan. Plan your business goals and how you are going to ID-10070652achieve them. Having a good business plan forces you to look at the feasibility of your business – what will work and what won’t work. It makes you focus on the important and essential parts of your business, your next steps, tactics and strategies
  2. Be organised. Complete a ‘to do’ list every day. This will help you keep on top of things that need to be done now. As you complete each task, tick it off – not only does this give you a sense of achievement, it ensures you don’t forget anything
  3. Analyse your competition. Look at what your competitors do. Why are they successful? Look at the price, quality and customer service that your competitors offer – why will potential customers choose your products or services over those of your competitors? Are there any barriers in place that may prevent potential customers from choosing your products or services?
  4. Know what your customers want…not what you think they want. ID-100282581What do you your customers like about your products? What do they currently buy from you, why do they buy from you and do they give you repeat business? If you’re not sure of the answers to these questions, it might be worth conducting a short survey to your customers and asking them. Give an incentive to reply, such as 10% off their first order of 2016. And a further 10% off if they recommend a new customer who buys from you. The more you know about your customers, your competitors and the business you’re in, the more likely you are to be successful
  5. Provide great service – delight your customers! There have been oodles of books written about customer service and delighting your customers. Some of them advise that you delight them no matter what – I even read somewhere that one company gave a refund to a customer who complained about their tyres….and they didn’t even sell tyres! That’s taking it a bit too far. In order to satisfy your customers, you must deliver exactly what you promised to….to delight them, service must exceed expectations. It really is that simple. Do what you say you will, give your customers what they want (solve a problem they have), and thank them for their custom, inviting them to contact you if you can help them further
  6. Measure everything you do. Whatever action you take as a result of planning your business goals, ensure that you factor in a way to ID-10099989measure whether that particular goal and actions have been successful. By measuring as you go along, if you find something that is not quite working, you can tweak it so it works well. List what needs to be measured, for example, how many people read your Facebook posts or how many comment on a post. Then look at ways to improve this – it might be you monitor your posts and see what kind of post is the most successful and then figure out why. If you have success, shout about it! Your customers will feel reassured they are dealing with the right person
  7. Market and advertise. Marketing your business is about planning the future of your business. What tools will you use to promote your business? For example you could…
    -Join a business networking group and talk to people at every opportunity, giving out business cards
    -Direct marketing – brochures, flyers, sales letters
    -Online – website, blogs, articles (give advice, become known as an expert)
    -Social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest etc.
    -Advertising – print media, business directories, ads in magazine and online
    -Trade shows/markets/craft fayres
  8. Budget. I guess that this one is pretty obvious. You need to know ID-100263887what you can and can’t afford to do and plan accordingly. At the very least, it’s a good idea to have business cards – maybe flyers and definitely think about Social Media and your online presence, such as a website.
    Can you do some of the promotion yourself or do you need to outsource it? And look at what kind of advertising you can afford.
  9. Learn from your mistakes. We all make mistakes and when you are running your own business, you will undoubtedly make several, especially when you first start up. The trick is to learn from your mistakes. If you make a mistake, own up to it – this creates a culture of openness and honesty in your business. Find out why and how the mistake happened and correct it. If you find you can’t correct it, put plans in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again. If you can’t work out why or how the mistake happened, google it – chances are someone else would have made that mistake in the past and they might have published a solution! Once it’s sorted, move on – don’t continue to dwell on it
  10. Stand out in the crowd. Starting a business is easy, but staying in business is harder as you have so much competition these days. To stand out in the crowd, you need to do all of the above! Create a great ID-10037281experience for your customers; know what your customers want and give it to them; find solutions to your customers’ problems; position yourself as an expert; be different from your competitors and shout about how you are different; shout about your success; give excellent customer service; give special offers to customers who recommend someone new who buys something or uses your service….and above all, be yourself, smile and enjoy running your business – it will show!

I hope these points will help you in your quest to make 2016 a successful year for your business. If you have any more tips, please share them, I’d love to hear from you.

One final tip, if you can’t do everything you want to do yourself, don’t give up, get help.

 

Images courtesy of 1) Ambro 2) David Castillo Domenici 3) Stuart Miles 4) Metrue 5)Stuart Miles 6)jscreations at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“I can and I will” – motivate yourself for business in 2016

 

I always try to stay motivated, especially with my freelance work, but there comes a time in all our lives when we seem to lose our mojo for a while, when motivation evades us. How do you deal with that? What can you do to get your mojo back?

How do you start the New Year?

  • With bounding enthusiasm….having planned everything for your business down to the smallest point?
  • Indifference…I’ll deal with whatever comes up when it does. You have a kind of plan but not set in stone
  • Reluctantly….I know I’ve got to get up and get on with it, but I’d rather still be sitting on the sofa watching TV and eating chocolate!
  • Confident….you have a plan, but know that it will probably change and that it’s not perfect, but you’re getting there

There’s no wrong or right way, different things work for different people. For me, I always remember ‘I can and I will’ – it’s a saying I use a lot. When I was working in India a few years ago, it’s the saying that caught on with the team I was coaching about communications. They ended up adopting it for their team when I left…I was quite touched!

So, if you’re feeling like your get up and go, has got up and gone, what can you do to motivate yourself for 2016? Here are some ideas that might help…

Focus

  • Define your goals and how you’re going to keep them (this might be work related or personal goals)
  • If you have too many things on your ‘to do’ list, it will be too daunting, so try and stick to just a few. It makes them more manageable.
  • Research and read about what you want to achieve. Sometimes, typing in what you want into a search engine brings up some great ideas, and sometimes, things you hadn’t thought of.
  • Reward yourself when you achieve each goal – no matter how small – it always feels good to get something in return for your hard work.

Confidence

  • Be positive – surround yourself with positivity. Smile more, even when you’re on the telephone – it shows! Negative people see problems – positive people look for solutions. Try and find simple answers to achieving what you want to achieve.
  • Visualisation – this can work very well – I do this a lot. Close your eyes and visualise what success to you will look and feel like. Visualise how you will get there. This can have a very calming effect.

Maintain your direction

  • Refine your plan – look at your goals and make a list of the activities you’ve been doing to reach those goals. Which ones are working and which ones aren’t? Focus your attention on the ones that are working, tweak them to make them work even better…or break them down into manageable chunks and they won’t seem so daunting.
  • Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill. We all make mistakes and sometimes we see our problems or setbacks as HUGE. Take a step back – is it really that bad? Acknowledge that it’s there, sulk about it for a minute or have a coffee and a biscuit and feel sorry for yourself for a few minutes. Then STOP! Tomorrow is another day, today’s setback will not stop you getting on with the job in hand tomorrow.
  • Most importantly, stay excited! This links in with positivity – print off some motivational quotes and stick them around your desk. Don’t let yourself get bored – if you are losing interest in an aspect of your business, do something about it to make it more interesting. Chart your progress so you know if you are on track – it can be very motivational to see the progress you’re making, no matter how small.

ID-100372599

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

And, above all, love what you do. No goal is unachievable if you plan it well.

Why not share what you do to keep motivated? I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

 

 

 

Right person, right time, right reasons…RIGHT CONTENT!

brainstorm-4222728_640

business-3189797_640.pngSo, you have your own business and you want to promote it – get your product or services out there. How do you go about it? Where do you start? It’s really important to have a content strategy….as this will help you structure exactly what the needs of your business are and what exactly is the right content for your business.

Anything you put out about your business needs to go to the right people at the right time and for the right reasons….and of course, the right content is crucial.

If the content is NOT right, then the people you are hoping to reach won’t read it. Whatever content you put out needs to be valuable to your potential reader, so make sure your content is useful and relevant – what’s in it for your reader? Does it solve a problem for them? Does it give them a solution that they need?

If you DON’T target the right people, then your content won’t be read and definitely won’t be acted upon. You need to ensure that you know who your audience are – just sending content to ‘people’ in general won’t cut the mustard, you need to be specific.

thought-2123971_640If you don’t send content out at the right time, then you are wasting your time. You need to firstly understand your audience or intended audience – what do your customers want? Do your customers or potential customers have questions that you can answer? Do you have solutions to your customers’ problems? If you are aware of these things, you can plan to put content out at the right time.

If you’re NOT putting content out for the right reasons, you are also wasting your time. When you are writing your business plan for the year, you will include measurable business goals. These goals are usually a reason for sharing some kind of promotional content to pull in more customers, or address an issue that your customers may have. The content you publish won’t necessarily sell your wares, but can help to set yourself up as an expert in your field. This, in turn inspires confidence in your abilities and business, which can lead to those all-important recommendations.

Plan your content for 2016

computer-1185626_640December and January is the ideal time for you to look at planning for next year. It’s time to take stock and look back over the last year – what worked well for your business and what didn’t work so well? Which way are you going next year?

Take the time to look at last year’s business or marketing plan (or both) and decide what you need to change to make next year more successful.

Have you ever asked your customers for feedback? Amongst that feedback, is there anything you can address to make your business more attractive? Do your customers have any problems you can solve? If you can pinpoint what it is that your customers want, that you are not currently giving them, you have the greatest opportunity to truly delight them in solving those problems.

future-2372183_640.jpgIf you haven’t asked for feedback, then why not do it now? Why not send out a short survey asking some questions to help you decide which way to go next year – get your current customers’ opinions and ideas – their input could open a whole new market to you.

Once you know what your customers want and have a new plan for next year, with new goals, you are ready to plan your content strategy and will be one step closer to a successful 2016!

 

 

Customer Engagement – Newsletters

news-634808_640 (1)
It has been said that marketing your business with the use of newsletters are a bit ‘old hat’ and are losing their value, but I don’t agree. With other forms of marketing, such as adverts, people will see your advert and look at it if they’re interested in the subject, but it will bypass lots of people. But a newsletter is a powerful tool and goes right to the heart of your business, reaching all your customers. You know they are interested in what you do as they’ve bought your products or services. As well as keeping your customers informed about what’s going on in your business, you can include special offers and highlight some of your products.

calendar-1990453_640Whether you choose to send your newsletter out in print format, or as an online version on e-mail, it’s important to decide the frequency. Most of my clients send out newsletters by email on a monthly basis, so they can be a bit longer than if you are sending out something each week. The most important thing is that the content is timely and relevant, adding some sort of value to your customer. For example, I send out a monthly newsletter for a garden centre – as well as including any news about new stock and special offers, we also include monthly hints and tips on jobs that need doing in the garden that month. We’ve also run a series of articles over a few months on planning the garden for 2014 – this encourages customers to take a good look at their garden, decide what worked well last year and what didn’t, and gives advice on plants and shrubs without doing the ‘hard sell’.

Goals of your newsletter

So you’ve decided you want to send out a newsletter for your business – now you need to think about what you want to achieve. Is the purpose of your newsletter to send traffic to person-1245959_640your website; increase engagement to your brand; create a buzz for a new product or service? The type of goals you have will help you create a more effective newsletter. For example, if you want to send more traffic to your website, you could include an excerpt from an article that will generate interest in your products and then direct them to the full article on your website, or you could just send an introductory paragraph from the newsletter, but keep the full newsletter on your website, so customers have to go to your website to read the full article. Similarly, you could give them a taster of a special offer, but point customers to your website for full details.

Content

The content of your newsletter needs to be engaging – if you don’t keep the attention of your customers and make the content relevant to them and add value, they will either hit the ‘delete’ button or will unsubscribe. A good headline will pull your customers in, so try and make it interesting – not just ‘January’s newsletter’. It’s crucial that you use good grammar and that there are no spelling mistakes and that it is easy to read so ensure that, if you do the newsletter yourself, that it is thoroughly proofread.

question-mark-1751308_640Of course, a newsletter is only one of the marketing tools you can use and it’s always best to use a variety of tools to engage your customers. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the role of newsletters. Do you use them for your business?

Be SMART with your business goals

goals-2691265_640
And so we’re into another year – can’t believe that it’s 2014 already. At this time of year, I review my business and marketing plan from last year; look at what worked well and what didn’t and decide on new objectives and goals for the coming year. But where do you start?

When I worked for a big company in the UK, business planning was all around SMART objectives and this translates well to the small business too. So, what is SMART?

  • S – Specific
  • M – Measurable
  • A – Attainable
  • R – Realistic
  • T – Timely

It’s a good idea to use the measures above to think about your goals – so let’s have a look at them all in turn.

Specific – if your goals are general, you are less likely to achieve them – for example, my New Year’s Resolution usually includes something around losing weight! But as everyone who’s ever tried to lose weight knows, if you just say ‘this year I want to lose weight’, it’s unlikely to happen. However if you make the goals more specific, you are more likely to be successful – for example, goals could be ‘I’m going to join a gym and go three times a week’ and ‘I’m going to join a slimming club and follow a structured diet’. So, in order to be specific, think about:

  • Who is involved?
  • What do I want to achieve?
  • Where – Identify a location
  • When – Establish a time frame
  • Which – Identify requirements and constraints
  • Why – Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal

carpenter-3509492_640Measurable – to ensure that you attain your goals, they need to be measurable; then you can keep an eye on your progress and you will stay on track and reach your target dates. If you have a website for your business, one goal may be to push it further up search engines, so your business can be more easily found by potential customers.   Questions you could ask yourself could be:

  • How will I know when I’ve achieved a goal?
  • What does success in a particular goal look like?
  • How will you measure the success?

Attainable – Once you have your list of goals, you can start to think about how you can achieve them. Look at each of them in turn and make sure that they are attainable. In the TV programme, ‘Only Fools and Horses’ Del-boy was always saying ‘this time next year – we’ll be millionaires’ – a great goal, but not necessarily attainable…and too generalised!

Think about how you can turn your goals into reality – by writing them down, being specific, may give you further ideas or may highlight opportunities that you may have previously missed.

Realistic – it’s really important that all your goals are realistic. You must be both able and willing to work towards them. You are the only one who can decide what is realistic and achievable for you – some people like to set high targets and goals and get more satisfaction out of the challenge; others prefer to set several smaller goals that will work towards the higher target. It’s up to you which approach you take…but make sure your goals are realistic for you.

time-3222267_640 (1)Timely – Goals always need to have a timeframe – if you don’t have a timeframe, then there’s no sense of urgency and it’s easy to keep saying ‘I’ll start that tomorrow’…and we all know that tomorrow never comes! If we go back to the weight loss scenario, if you say ‘I want to lose a stone’, but don’t put a time limit on it,  it’ll never happen. But, if you give yourself a date (a realistic and attainable date), for example, ‘I want to lose a stone in three  months’ – it’s more likely that you’ll succeed.

By keeping your objectives/goals SMART, you’ll be able to keep a tight rein on how your business is progressing and achieving what you want it to achieve.

Good luck and if you have any further ideas on the subject, please let me know!

How to conduct a SWOT analysis for your small business

business-3543809_640

Whether you’re new to running your own small business, or whether you’ve been going for a while, conducting a SWOT analysis can help your business get on the right track. I tend to glaze over when someone talks about something that sounds like it will be difficult, or something that I might not understand, but SWOT analysis is a very simple concept, which can give you great insight into your business and generate ideas to take your business forward.

What is SWOT analysis

The term SWOT is an acronym devised from four words; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Conducting analysis on your business in these four key areas help you look at internal and external factors that affect or have the potential to affect your business. It’s a good idea to conduct this analysis before you set up your business and marketing plan as it will help you develop your business strategy.

chain-690088_640You could also consider performing a SWOT analysis on your competitors, as this will give you valuable insight into their strengths and weaknesses…and may identify opportunities for your business that they haven’t thought of.

Where do you start?

A SWOT analysis is about making a list in four key areas:

Strengths – list what your strengths are…the aspects of your business or project that gives you an advantage over others. What do you do well?

Weaknesses – these are factors that put you at a disadvantage to your competitors – what don’t you do so well?

Strengths and Weaknesses are the internal factors of your business.

Opportunities – what are the opportunities you can see for your business? You might be able to spot opportunities from new technology, new potential markets for your products or services, or even lifestyle changes or local events.

Take a good look at your strengths and see if any of those can be converted into opportunities. Similarly, you may be able to work on your weaknesses to eradicate them and open up new opportunities.

Threats – do you have any hurdles you have to overcome with your business? Are any of your weaknesses a serious threat to your business? Look at what your competitors are doing to be successful – is there something you can change to compete? Of course, there are other threats to take into consideration, such as bad debts or loans.

Opportunities and Threats are the external factors of your business.

Who can help you?

positive-letters-2355685_640A SWOT analysis can be completed by you, but it’s always good to have another opinion, so draft in some help. Ask friends, employees (if you have them) and maybe even some of your customers – ask them what they think are your strengths and weaknesses. You may be surprised at the answers and it may help you to pull together a strategy to help you succeed further or improve an area of your business.

arrow-1538708_640

Action plan  

Once you have all the information you need, you can devise a strategy to capitalise on your opportunities and reduce your threats. Concentrate on these two areas first as they are the most likely factors that will affect your business and your future success.

Then you can work on your weaknesses and protect and increase your strengths.

When you have completed the analysis, go through your business and marketing plan to see if you can enhance any particular area of your plan.

Print off my FREE Conduct a SWOT Analysis worksheet and get started now!I

Happy planning!

Email: cindymobey@outlook.com

Nine fundamental tips for your marketing plan

If you think about marketing, advertising automatically springs to mind. However, marketing (or promoting) your business, is more than just advertising. It helps you to ascertain who your customers are, which customers you want to target and how to get them to choose your products above others in the marketplace.

A marketing plan will also include your existing customers – retention of customers is just as important as gaining new ones, so you need to look at continually reviewing and improving your offer to ensure you stand out from your competitors.

Here are nine fundamental tips on what to include in a marketing plan to ensure you cover the essentials…

  1. Executive Summary – Although the executive summary is at the beginning of the marketing plan, it should be written last. The summary will help you ensure that your plan makes sense and that you haven’t missed anything out.
    The summary should include details of your business, company name and contact details; what your business is about; your key objectives and your strategy for achieving your objectives.
    This helps you to ensure that your marketing plan, your marketing strategy and your overall business strategy all work together.
  2. Vision or Mission Statement – This is a statement that includes what your business is, who you’re selling to, what you’re selling and what is your unique selling proposition that makes you stand out from the crowd.
  3. The four Ps – once you know what your vision or mission is – your strategy – look at the four Ps…
    Product(s) – what is it about your product that makes your customers want to buy it? Do you need to change your products in any way to meet your customers’ needs?
    Pricing – how do you aim to compete with your competitor’s pricing – do you want to match it… undercut them… or do you want to charge more for a more quality product and service?
    Place – where and how are you going to sell your products? Do you sell them yourself or outsource them to retail outlets?
    Promotion – how are you going to let your existing and potential customers know about your products? This includes thinking about advertising, PR, direct mail and personal selling.
  4. Market Analysis – this is where you need to do copious research into what your competitors do and what the state of the marketplace is in relation to the products you sell.
    – Who are your competitors and how well are they doing?
    – What makes your competitors successful?
    – Who are your customers and potential customers – what are their geographic area and income levels?
    – What are your sales and distribution levels – what is your set up?
    – How well have your products sold in the past?
  5. Your target markets – it’s crucial to know exactly who your customers are and what they’re looking for. Take time to understand what your customers want and need and understand why they buy particular products. You’ll be able to target your market more easily if you know who you’re talking to, and what their problems are. Everyone buys products for different reasons.
    If you have an existing customer base, you can easily find out some of this information, by sending them a simple survey, asking them a few questions – maybe give them an incentive to reply, such as all replies will be put into a prize draw to win one of your popular products.
    If you’re not sure who your target market is – try this exercise. Write a description of one of your products – for example, if you were selling mobile phones, you might say it’s small and easy to use. Then write the features – in the case of a mobile, it might be that you can use it anywhere and it’s useful in a crisis. Then make a list of who needs this product – with a mobile it might be people under 20 to keep in touch with friends and parents/people in business to keep in touch with business partners when away from home or office/ for older people it’s good to have in case they have an accident in the home or need to keep in touch with relatives or carers…. You get the idea!
    Then try and decide which will be your target market and which will be your secondary markets…probably best not to have more than two or three secondary markets at most.
  6. Marketing objectives – In this section, you are planning the future of your business. What objectives do you want to achieve? Each objective should include a description of what you intend to achieve and should include numbers to aim for. For example you might want to sell more of a particular product, but just saying you want to sell more isn’t enough – you need to be precise, so you have something concrete to aim for, maybe sell 40% more of that product over the next 12 months. This gives you a solid objective.
    Pull together a timeline of your objectives – what you want to achieve and by when. This makes it easier for you to review at a later date.
  7. Promotion strategies – what tools will you use to promote your business? You could use:
    – Networking – join a business networking group and talk to people at
    every opportunity
    – Direct marketing – brochures, flyers, sales letters
    – Online – website, blogs, articles (give advice, become known as an
    expert).
    – Social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.
    – Video – embedded into social media or via your own YouTube channel
    – Advertising – print media, business directories, ads in magazine and
    online
    – Press releases
    – Direct or personal selling
    – Trade shows/markets/craft fayres
  8. Budget – Along with promotion strategies comes budget. You need to know what you can and can’t afford to do and plan accordingly. Can you do some of the promotion yourself or do you need to outsource it?
  9. Measurement – you should aim to review your marketing plan every couple of months. Look at your various promotion methods and determine which ones work best for you and which don’t.
    You can survey existing customers for feedback; ask for feedback and recommendations; look at what your most popular products are and why. Then you will know what you need to do in future.

Pulling together a marketing plan isn’t something that can be done in just a few hours, it can take days – or even weeks – to ensure you have the right information and conduct the necessary research.

Now it’s time to take action!

Ten essential tips in making a good business plan

business-idea-1240825_640.jpg
A good business plan is exactly what it says on the tin – a plan for your business; how it’s going to succeed and what you need to do to make it grow.

Having a business plan forces you to look at the feasibility of your business, what will work and what won’t work….and makes you focus on the important and essential parts of your business – your next steps, tactics and strategies.

stickies-2852375_640

Here are a few tips on what to include, making sure you cover the essentials.

  1. Executive Summary – this is a brief overview of the whole plan. Detail what you do, how your business will make money and why customers will want to buy your product or services. This is best done after you have completed the rest of your plan.
  2. Analyse your market – it is worth investing some quality time in researching your market.
    – Look at what your competitors do – how are they successful and what makes them stand out from the rest?
    – Look at the price, quality and customer service that your competitors offer – then you can work out how to compete.
    – Where are the opportunities for your business – why will potential customers choose your products over those of your competitors?
    – Are there any barriers in place that may prevent potential customers from business-plan-2061634_640choosing your products or services?
    – If your business is already up and running, what do your customers like about your products, what do they buy; why do they buy from you and do they give you repeat business?
    The more you know about your customers, your competitors and the business you are in, the more likely you are to be successful.
  3. Business description – what it is, what you do.
    – Include a brief history of how and why you started your business.
    – Include your vision or mission statement – factors which you think will make your business a success
    – What is the current position of your business?
  4. Business goals – what are your business goals. For example, if you’re already in business, by what percentage do you wish to grow by this time next year? How many customers do you expect to have by this time next year?
    Ensure your business goals are SMART. 
  5. Management teams and employees – If you employ others, give details of your management team and employees and what their roles are.
    – How do they work together?
    – Do they all know what is expected of them and how they can help improve the business?
  6. Operations – what is in place now and what do you plan for the future?
    money-2696228_640– Look at premises you currently work from (it might just be from home). What will you do if your business expands – what premises will you need to ensure your business succeeds?
    – Who are your suppliers? What happens if you lose one of your suppliers and do you have others as a back-up?
    – Do you need to have any training in a specific area to help your business move forward? For example, if you’re a hairdresser, how do you keep on top of current styles?
    – Is there any equipment or materials you may need to invest in? For example, wear and tear on your current equipment – or maybe you may need more advanced software in the future.
    – If you run an online shop, what happens if you get overrun with orders – can you keep up with them and get them out on time with packaging and postage?
  7. Financials – keep a record of what you spend and what you receive.
    piggy-bank-2889046_640– Are you likely to have cash flow problem – if so, how will you deal with it?
    – How much does your business currently cost to run and what is it likely to cost in one year – or two years’ time.
  8. Marketing strategy – this is where you define your tactics and strategies to ensure that you are successful – only needs to be brief in the business plan – you can be more specific in your marketing plan.
  9. Risk analysis – what could go wrong – look at best and worst case scenarios.
    – If something goes wrong, how will you deal with it?
    – Include your contingency plan
  10. Measurement – this is a really important aspect in a business or marketing plan, but often something that is overlooked. Measuring everything you do ensures you know what works and what doesn’t. You can then plan a different approach if algebra-1238600_640necessary.
    – List what needs to be measured – such as how many people look at your business Facebook page or Tweets on Twitter. How can you improve on this?
    – How will you measure your success – what does success look like to your particular business?
    – Shout about your success – your customers will feel reassured they are dealing with the right business

Once you have finished your business plan, you can write your Executive Summary.  Then leave it alone for a few days and go back to it with a fresh pair of eyes. You can then make any necessary adjustments.

time-3222267_640 (1)

I can’t tell you how long it will take you to complete your business plan – every plan is different and it will depend on you. Business planning takes time – you need to spend quality time on researching and planning your business and marketing strategies.

Take time out at least once every three months to review your plan. Some things you planned will have gone well, others not so well. A business plan is a working document. It’s never finished…always a ‘work in progress’.  Having a business plan won’t guarantee you success, but it will go a long way to helping!

Business Plan  click on this link to download your free business plan template.

If you need help writing and researching your business plan, please feel free to contact me by email – cindymobey@outlook.com or via my website, www.cindyfreelancewriter.com

 

Cross-cultural communication and the great French lunch!

meeting-1453895_640It’s widely recognised that English is the language of business across the world. Here in rural France, I help people promote their small businesses, and although most of my encounters have been with English business women, I’m lucky enough to have joined a great group, Les Dames de FER, which I spoke about in my last blog, which help and support English and French women in business. Through this group I’ve gained so much knowledge about business life in France and find their training sessions and support invaluable. But what support is there available for French people who need to join a business meeting in the UK and what are the differences between English and French business meetings?

British diplomacy

Back in the UK, business meetings are mainly fairly formal and the British are known for their ‘stiff upper lip’ and the ‘grin and bear it’ attitude. Diplomacy is just something the British naturally do. For example, if I was in a business meeting in the UK, and didn’t agree with what someone was saying, I wouldn’t have dreamed of directly disagreeing with them. I would have said something like ‘Yes, that’s really good and it could work – alternatively we could look at it this way’.  But, whether in a business meeting in France or just in general conversation, the French are much more direct and will say exactly what they mean – if they say no, they mean no! There’s no misunderstanding.

When I first came here, I wasn’t used to the direct approach and thought the people were a bit abrupt, but I’ve come to realise that I was wrong –  this is the French way and no offence is meant – it’s just that they state facts.  But the British worry about causing offence or hurting someone’s feelings by disagreeing, so will say things such as ‘I see your point, but….’ which as a British person, I know this means they don’t necessarily agree with me. However, to a non-native English speaker, ‘I see your point….’ means it’s agreeable. The business English language barrier can cause confusion for non-native English speakers. And it’s not just in business that there are cultural differences.

French differences

Since moving to France I’ve noticed many cultural differences; in some ways it’s like stepping back a few decades. Most shops close on a Sunday and often Mondays too. Banks don’t open on a Monday either. And of course, there is the French lunch hour (or two!)

restaurant-1763081_640In the UK, lunch is a very informal affair, especially if like me, you work in an office. It’s accepted that meetings can be conducted over lunch – people will grab a sandwich and take it to a meeting. I nearly always ate my lunch at my desk, whilst carrying on working.  However, in France, this is unheard of… here, lunch is an occasion. Except for the big towns and cities, most shops close between 12 – 12.30 and don’t open again until 2 – 2.30pm. In my village, the church bells go mad announcing that it’s lunchtime. The French take their time over lunch, eating a three course meal with wine. And in rural areas, the timing of lunch is very flexible! If you’re trying to get a renovation project completed by tradesmen, you have to be prepared for the great French lunch – they down tools and disappear for a few hours. However, that’s not to say they’re lazy – they start work earlier, usually at around 7am and often work until it gets dark.

Time is something that is very loosely followed in France too – if a meeting is to start at 10am, it rarely starts on time – people will mill around chatting with a coffee. Everything is very laid back and informal. However, once a meeting starts, things are done in a methodical and direct way with conclusions and any action to take all very clear and concise….…and of course, if a meeting is conducted in the morning, it finishes dead on 12…..time for lunch!

5596899_orig[1] (340x51)Just as I continue to learn about cross-cultural communication in France, with the help of Les Dames de FER, it’s important for non-native English speakers who conduct their business globally, to not only learn the English language in order to compete in the English business market place, they also need to learn the complexities of cross cultural communications – including all the foibles of business English and diplomacy.

There are several companies that help non-native English speakers compete in the business marketplace. Executive Language Tutors is one such company. Based in London, their courses give men and women in business the confidence to perform and communicate in the professional workplace. Their courses range from elocution and accent reduction, to learn business English and cross-cultural communication.