New business thinking for a new business age
This post is the second of our extended article, Getting more Business in 2013. To see the rest of this article, click here
This article originally published in Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA
The Business Link helpline received 1,500 calls a week in the first three months after its launch in November 2011, according to a Government review. Around a third of callers were pre-starts, 18% were in the process of starting up and 46% had already started up. The main reasons for businesses and pre-starts contacting the helpline were for finance and funding advice, while two thirds rang because they could not find the information they needed on the Business Link website, which has subsequently been switched off. In addition, the review found respondents preferred one-to-one advice over web-based sources of information.
none of which surprises me at all. But how about you. Have you called the helpline? What do you think about it? I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Drop me an email at martin.parry@mgba.co.uk or put your thoughts in my comments box below.
This post is Part One of my extended article, Getting more Business in 2013. To see the rest of this article, click here
• Understand clearly who your customers are. Write a specification for your ideal customer. What they are business or consumer or both; what size they are; what do they do; why do they buy from you; what do they buy from you. Once you have a clear idea ensure that all the rest of your activity addresses this ‘ideal customer’ wherever possible.
• Review all marketing messages. Ensure that they speak to the range of customers you have or are targeting and that they address an issue that the potential client has.
• Differentiators. Ask yourself why am I different from my competitors?
Why do my customers come to me and not my competitors?
This article originally published in Boosting Your Business, the house magazine of UKBA
A new fund has been launched by community pub support organisation Pub is the Hub.
The New Community Services Fund will help pubs to diversify and provide services to their local communities. For example, by providing library services, producing school meals, and opening farm shops and post offices. Local government minister Brandon Lewis recently announced the Government would donate £150,000 to the Fund.
Sounds like a very good idea to me. So why not tell your friendly pub landlord next time you see him. Or better still get down there now. Cheers!
Read more on this story at:
http://www.pubisthehub.org.uk/news/story/new_community_services_fund_boost_for_british_pubs
email me: martin.parry@mgba.co.uk
If you are a smart phone user really into your apps, click the link for a really good blog from Dan in which he lists his favorites. Well worth a read
Top 10 Apps—Opportunity at your fingertips.
martin.parry@mgba.co.uk
But while you are all waiting with baited breath for our 2013 marketing article, my spies in the HMG cabinet office tell me that government plans to get more SMEs in the government procurement gravy train are actually progressing. My little bird tells me that four new industries have been added to the pipelines. Professional services; Financial services; Waste management and the Fire services sectors have been added bringing the total value of published opportunities to £4bn. Little bird overheard Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude say “We are determined to make it easier for firms of all sizes to compete for and win Government business so we can leverage our spending on suppliers to help the economy grow.”
As always if you have any views on this post, use the comment box below or drop me an email. Always glad to hear from a business colleague.
So if you want to find out more about this, click here
Email: martin.parry@mgba.co.uk
As Christmas is drawing nigh, it might be a good idea to use the break to detach yourself from the office phone and inbox and spend some time planning how you intend to build your business next year.
So this month I thought we should think about marketing and how to get the best possible return for your marketing budget’. You need to be getting your message out there in the market place. So my colleagues in MGBA and I have written this months article designed to give you some great marketing ideas and how to make sure every pound spent drives your business forward.
How To Get The Most Out Of Your Marketing Budget
One of the first items that is cut in an economic downturn is the marketing budget. Often it is perceived as an expensive luxury. But this is exactly when you should increase marketing activity when many of your competitors are reducing theirs.
We will be giving you some brilliant aid tips to keep your lead generation and brand image marketing going while not spending a fortune. So follow this blog and look out for my next post.
2. Channels
3. Networking
5. Website
6. E-Marketing
7. Newsletters
email me at martin.parry@mgba.co.uk
HMG’s plan to encourage employers to enter into settlement agreements with staff seems to be stumbling already. The proposals encourage SMEs to enter into arrangements with staff to avoid costly tribunal cases andwere announced in the review of employment law in 2011. However the CIPD believes the idea will cause unnecessary arguments in the workplace and increase confusion surrounding the dismissal of staff.
But what do you think? Do these proposals cause more problems than they resolve? Or do you see this as an opportunity to unload ineffective staff? Why not let me know. Email me at martin.parry@mgba.co.uk or put your ideas in the comment box below.
More information here:
There is more on the proposals at:
http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/23/11/2012/59032/cipd-questions
-government-proposals-on-dismissals.htm
I understand the worlds first Green Investment Bank has just been launched by Vince Cable. The bank has made its first investment in an anaerobic digestion plant on Tees-side and is looking to follow this up using £3bn of funding under it’s belt.
Said Vince Cable, “The Green Investment Bank has the potential to be a game-changing component of the UK’s low carbon economy, and a profitable centre of excellence in specialist and renewable investment.”
Martin Parry
Indigo Business Ideas 