Business Articles

Be Careful What You Wish For - It Might Just Come TrueBe Careful What You Wish For - It Might Just Come True Your plan should excite you. If it's a good plan, it should have got you fired up, champing at the bit to get out there and make it happen. However, it probably also makes you a little scared. If you've done this planning process properly, you've probably projected yourself into your own future and seen the realisation of all your business wishes. You may have seen yourself at the point where you're no longer working for your business, but your business is working for you, where you are at last free to do what you want with your life. They say we should be careful what we wish for, and while those of us who run small businesses usually want nothing more than to make them a success and to be free from the day-to-day fire-fighting, it is common for us to become addicted to it. Just as the corporate executive who has worked from nine until six, commuting on the same train every day for 40 years, looking forward to retirement, struggles to cope with that retirement when it does come, so the entrepreneur, who spends years giving their all to building a business, can miss the excitement when success finally comes. Prepare for it. While you plan the future of your business or of your career, plan for your personal future. Think about what you will do when you have implemented this long-term plan. Will you set up another business? Will you travel the world? Or will you just spend more time with your family? Whatever it is, know what you want to do and start planning for it now. Knowing that your life will change is very different from preparing for it. You need to find time to get yourself ready, mentally and physically. But you are unlikely to have time at work for a luxury like this. Instead, build time into your daily routine to think about it. When you're in the shower, on the way into work or out on a run, try to picture yourself once you've realised your business objectives. What will your life be like? What will you do from day to day? By building up a mental image of your new life in this way you will acclimatise yourself to it, and will be able to make any plans necessary to ensure you fully enjoy the fruits of your labour.

2011-09-09T17:44:00.001-07:00

Your plan should excite you. If it's a good plan, it should have got you fired up, champing at the bit to get out there and make it happen.

However, it probably also makes you a little scared. If you've done this planning process properly, you've probably projected yourself into your own future and seen the realisation of all your business wishes. You may have seen yourself at the point where you're no longer working for your business, but your business is working for you, where you are at last free to do what you want with your life.

They say we should be careful what we wish for, and while those of us who run small businesses usually want nothing more than to make them a success and to be free from the day-to-day fire-fighting, it is common for us to become addicted to it.

Just as the corporate executive who has worked from nine until six, commuting on the same train every day for 40 years, looking forward to retirement, struggles to cope with that retirement when it does come, so the entrepreneur, who spends years giving their all to building a business, can miss the excitement when success finally comes.

Prepare for it. While you plan the future of your business or of your career, plan for your personal future. Think about what you will do when you have implemented this long-term plan. Will you set up another business? Will you travel the world? Or will you just spend more time with your family? Whatever it is, know what you want to do and start planning for it now.

Knowing that your life will change is very different from preparing for it. You need to find time to get yourself ready, mentally and physically. But you are unlikely to have time at work for a luxury like this. Instead, build time into your daily routine to think about it. When you're in the shower, on the way into work or out on a run, try to picture yourself once you've realised your business objectives.

What will your life be like? What will you do from day to day? By building up a mental image of your new life in this way you will acclimatise yourself to it, and will be able to make any plans necessary to ensure you fully enjoy the fruits of your labour.

A Recruitment Case Study

2011-09-06T09:32:00.001-07:00

There are few industries where it is harder to recruit than in cleaning. Yet, by taking a revolutionary approach to his business Charlie Mowat has, in five years, built The Clean Space Partnership from just him on a laptop in the day and in rubber gloves at night, to a business servicing 450 customers in two cities and turning over $1.8 million a year.

In 2003 Mowat left a successful consulting career to set up his own business, convinced that there had to be a better way to run a cleaning company. He explains: 'The industry is notorious for treating staff badly. My philosophy is simple - if you treat staff well they'll be happy, and if they're happy your customers will be happy.'

He set up his ethical cleaning company winning contracts at offices, gyms, spas and other commercial premises, and giving the cleaners the opportunity to part-own the contracts on which they work. Mowat believes that giving the cleaning contractor that financial and emotional stake in the job ensures that they are highly motivated to deliver.

It became clear early on that the model would work. The challenge Mowat faced was recruiting enough high-quality cleaners to meet the demand. Initially he relied on word-of-mouth recommendation. 'A positive employer brand is critical in this industry' he says. 'If you treat just one person badly it'll get round and no one will want to come and work for you. If you treat your staff well, they'll tell their friends, and pretty soon they'll be sending in their CVs.'

In early 2008 the demand for cleaning services was so great that he had to begin advertising for staff. This brought him a flood of CVs, and he had to devise a process for picking out the good ones. If impressed with a CV, he conducts a phone interview. The next stage is for the company to present what it has to offer contractors and how it works. This is followed by one-to-one interviews and then job offers to the successful applicants.

So far the process has been successful. He has recruited 150 contractors in London and Manchester and is about to expand into Bristol. Looking ahead, he is convinced that he can transform the cleaning industry. 'There are a lot of small, very badly run companies in this sector,' he says. 'It's like estate agency was before Foxtons came in, or minicabs before Addison Lee. It really is an industry ready for change.'

Mowat offers this advice on successful recruitment: 'It's very important to begin with a clear understanding of the type of person you want to hire. Know exactly what job you're offering - the key objectives, the tasks, the remuneration - and think carefully about the sort of people who will succeed in it. Getting that straight at the outset can prevent a great many mistakes.'

He concludes:
'More than anything else, if you want to hire the best people, you need to give them a compelling reason to come and work for you. Average people just need a wage packet, but the top performers want more than that. You need to decide which type of person you want to hire.'

A Business Training Case Study

2011-09-06T09:31:00.001-07:00

'When I launched my company back in 2004, training wasn't top of my agenda,' says Jim Hart, the founder and MD of Europlus Direct. 'I think that's the case with most new businesses. None of us had the time, or the inclination, to take charge of training.'

Initially it wasn't a problem. The company works in a very specific niche, helping IT hardware manufacturers stay on top of their customer service contracts. Its first client was IBM France, and it expanded rapidly to pick up IBM contracts in Spain, Germany and Italy.

Europlus Direct has also extended its services to other IT manufacturers through the launch of a sister company, Occident International. The two companies now employ over 30 different staff, and in 2008 had a combined turnover of around $4 million.

However, as the company has grown, Hart has become increasingly aware of the need to provide staff training. He says: 'We've suffered with staff leaving the company because we didn't offer structured support. I realised that if I wanted to keep good staff I need to look after them, and a key component in that is offering training opportunities.'

He continues: 'Furthermore, the core of our business is sales, and good salespeople need training, not only to ensure they have the skills and knowledge required to hit targets, but also to keep them fully motivated.'

At the beginning of 2008 Hart employed a training and recruitment manager. Sharon Craggs has introduced a two-week intensive training programme for all new sales staff, quarterly training from IBM for all staff, ongoing team leader training and a structured training needs analysis for all staff.

This has had an immediate effect. Hart says: 'Although it is difficult to isolate the effect that increasing training has had on the business as other new things have been implemented at the same time, sales are up by 20 per cent in the six weeks since Sharon came on board.'

This has given Hart and his management team confidence that training is more than just a cost to be endured. They will be investing further in training to offer team-building days, complex sales training and NVQs. They are in the process of devising a fully structured training schedule for the entire company through to the end of 2009.

Hart offers this advice to anyone who is leading a growing business:

'Invest in training as soon as possible before staff start leaving, or before you suffer some other adverse effect. If you use any external courses, always go by recommendations. Finally, don't forget about training yourself. You might be the boss but you've still got a lot to learn, so go on courses, read books, get yourself a mentor. However you do it, never stop learning and growing.'

7 Things You Can Do Online Right Now For Free To Grow Your Business

2011-09-01T16:15:00.001-07:00

1. Change your email signature so it does more than just provide your name, company and phone number - what more could you tell people about there?

2. Set up an online poll. You can add one of these to your website very easily and very cheaply. People like to vote, and think what you could do with the results.

3. Post on a discussion board. One of the best ways to encourage people to engage with your site is to engage with theirs.

4. Put your URL on your offline marketing. Is it absolutely everywhere it could be?

5. Set up a system to ensure you respond to online requests within 24 hours - every time.

6. Visit your website and look at it through the eyes of a first-time visitor - or even better, find someone to do this mystery shopping for you. Is it really as user-friendly as you think? Does it really convey the messages you want it to?

7. Ask subscribers to your email newsletter to tell their friends and colleagues about it.
The other crucial skill that you need is sales. First, here is a case study of a company that used internet marketing to rocket to success.

The Importance of Business Planning - Case Study

2011-08-31T00:36:00.001-07:00

'When Microsoft started out, the team there had a very clear mission,' says Darren Fell, Sussex Entrepreneur of the Year 2007-08. 'They wanted Windows to be the operating system on every computer in the world. When I started Pure back in 2001,1 tried to set out with that level of clarity. I wanted to become the standard for email marketing.'

Back then, he was operating from his spare room, he had remortgaged his flat and he had taken out every credit card, loan and overdraft he could get his hands on. He was determined that his business was going to succeed and he had a very clear plan for how it was going to happen.

He says: 'When I started out with Pure I laid down specific, time-based targets, and I knew how I was going to achieve them. I can't pretend that I met every one of those targets. All good plans are flexible, and very often in business it takes longer than you expect to achieve your goals, but having the plan in place meant I always knew where I was going.'

This meticulous planning certainly produced results for him - Pure now has more than 800 clients including the Financial Times and Innocent Drinks. The company was listed in 2007 as the eleventh fastest growing new media business in the UK, and in April 2008 Fell sold Pure for $7.8 million.

A serial entrepreneur, Fell began working on his next venture while he was still running Pure. In his evenings and weekends he developed the concept for Crunch, an online accounting system aimed specifically at the rapidly growing freelance and contractor market. It launched in November 2008.

He is applying the same careful planning to this new venture, aiming to reach $5.5 million turnover and $1 million profit within three years. 'Once you've got to the $1 million profit level larger companies start taking you seriously as an acquisition target. It's important to plan your growth to get to that level before you can even consider any sort of exit strategy'

His success is by no means solely due to planning. He also advises other entrepreneurs to innovate constantly to ensure that their products and services stand out from the competition. He believes strongly in diversification to reduce reliance on one client or one sector, and he warns against allowing the 'money men' to cut costs at the expense of providing outstanding customer service.

He is, though, a vigorous advocate of business planning. He concludes:
'Very often in my experience the reason why companies plateau is they don't have clear financial goals or a plan for achieving them. Entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses need to spend time getting plans in place, and then be prepared to revisit and recast those plans regularly.'

How to Create a Plan to Grow Your Business

2011-08-30T12:24:00.001-07:00

To build this plan you need to get a clear picture of your business as it is now. Begin by considering your product, people and market.

1. What do you sell?
2. Who makes it (or delivers it if you sell a service)?
3. Who sells it?
4. Who buys it?

In order to grow your turnover and profit you need to change one or more of those factors. It can be internal: you can work on a strength or correct a weakness. Or it can be external: you can take advantage of an opportunity or side-step a threat that others fall into.

In order to grow it may be simply that you need to increase the quantity of people making or delivering your goods. Or you might need to make more fundamental changes, say to your sales process or your target audience, or even to the product you are selling. To be certain about what you need to change - to come up with the right plan - you need to have a crystal clear understanding of your product and your company and how they fit into your market.