Out and about helping YOU succeed

Working with our local sixth form college in Bradford (am I allowed to call them sixth form colleges any more?) this week has been an insight into the way communication methods have changed for the better and a reminder that life shifts at speed.

In designing our contribution to the Freshers' Week for September, we have been looking at the best way to connect with those who seek to leave college at the age of 18 and instead of going into employment, will seek to become enterprising and start their own ventures. It will be good to then stay in touch with them via mentoring support as they and their business progress.

Our contribution to the week will be to have two separate stalls, one for those wanting help finding jobs through our recruitment processes with local registered companies eeking new staff and who will want to take the best and ignore the rest - and why not? The other stall will be more interesting from a Small Business Big Profit perspective given that we will be looking to provide a signposting service to Enterprise activities and engagements.

When you end your full-time education at 18 where do you look for Small Business ideas and guidance? the local Enterprise Agency will be helpful so make contact. The Business Link organisation can provide some very useful contacts and general guidance for most, before passing you on to specialist advisers who will help with technical and legal enquiries.

But the chance for a young adult to be around an existing entrepreneur, around someone who already has that experience to share and that opportunity to promote is a valuable connection to make. With this in mind we are creating connections between Owner-Managers of SMEs who are willing to take someone on for a couple of days to follow them or shadow them in a couple of typical days. This provides an insight into everything from the importance of Skills with people; the need to understand and be capable at negotiating; the means for establishing rapport quickly; to be able to summarise and confirm what is discussed and agreed at a meeting; and the ability to identify and validate the financial opportunities to come from each meeting or transaction.

We will be hosting some local business owners who have agreed to come in and speak about their motivations, about what drives them and helps them to grow and develop their businesses, about theior own personal storied of what makes them 'tick'. At the same time we will also be promoting our own podcasts, videos and blogs in order to connect with and engage our audience of many hundreds of young adults. We will use SMS text messaging to invite them to the event, and then follow this with weblinks and the blogs for the Freshers' Week experience.

No paper in sight and no brochures other than those in PDF and audio file format! A far cry from my own first college Fresher's Week some twenty plus years ago when every piece of information came in it's own envelope and computers were something like a big machine in a room that no-one but 'the few' were allowed into.

Labels: enterprise business partnership, enterprise in schools, mentoring in education, yorkshire business services

When times become tough it is all the more important to KNOW where your business is and what it is doing.

Do you know if you are breaking even?

Do you know what your cash position and forecast are?

Do you know how you are going to get that work done over the holiday period with less staff?

How long can you survive hoping those orders are coming in?

These are just some of the Hard questions we need to ask ourselves, understand the answer and then decide the appropriate actions we need to take.

Despite all the statistics and information telling us how businesses with business plans are more successful than those without we still don’t have a plan. BUT when times get tough the slack or optimism in any of our businesses goes. It can turn very quickly into decline and we need to know what is going on and respond. The “patient” can get sick to terminal in a very short timescale without the right treatment.

This is a time when it is all the more important that you are working “ON” the business and not “IN” the business. Work out your costs and work out your forecast sales and income. BE REALISTIC. Then work it out again assuming the worst case and the lowest of all your assumptions. Take note or when it is that you start losing money and not making money. Look at what actions you need to take to slim down or address unnecessary costs and what you need to do to drive up the income.

Whatever the outcome of your review, the important thing is that you have increased KNOWLEDGE and the information upon which, to make decisions and take actions.

Your chances of survival just increased.

This is not about negative actions but positive actions. They are positive because they are proactive – thought through, in advance and considered.

If this is something you are not used to doing, unsure about how to go about it don’t hesitate – just ask us.

Carol

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851 and visit our website and learn more at www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com for more news of what is happening in your own Yorkshire business community.

Labels: business, Change, Growth, planning, Profit, success

Are there opportunities in these tough market conditions? Certainly there are.

The unanimous verdict is yes and a few of the comments are;

• Quoting Warren Buffett

• “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”

• Vulture Funds are picking up assets at 50% of their original value - sifting diamonds from the forced disposals

• The "baby and the bath water" - Anytime there are significant efforts to clean up the balance sheet good assets go out with bad. Tighter regulatory controls and more restrictive capital requirements are going to force companies to sell not only the credit asset classes but also other businesses that may be a significant drag to earnings and/or return on capital invested. Another purchase opportunity.

Any business with a sound balance sheet and / or access to cash should think about growth through acquisition. There are, or soon will be, businesses and other assets on the market and in some cases at vastly reduced asking prices when compared to a year ago.

There are other businesses suffering and being squeezed by their funders...they may not be "on the market" but they will be open to an approach now that they would have rejected.

Which side are you? Have you even thought about growth or acquisition?

Take the time to think outside the box - think of the new opportunities for your business in this market.

How many contacts do you have?

I don’t mean the phone list on your mobile I mean in your business. Do you even know how many you have and more importantly do you realise how valuable they are?

I am always amazed when I work with businesses that they are unaware of the value each of those contacts can bring to the business.

Firstly those contacts already know you whether they are customers or suppliers. They are also contacts which you have invested time and effort getting through all your sales efforts and activities.

Secondly what I find time and time again is that these contacts are not being used to promote or to grow the business. So many businesses still work with manual or hard copy paperwork and do not use the contact information in any way.

Your customer list is valuable;

• you can use that list to promote or inform your customers of your new products and services.
• you can just keep in touch with them to remind them of your services
• you can ask them for feedback to allow you to improve your services
• you can ask them for testimonials or referrals to others who may need your services
• you can thank them for their business

This is not an exhaustive list but just some of the ways you can interact with your contact base in a constructive way. How you communicate is up to you using email, direct mail, brochures or calls whatever you do its better than nothing at all.

There are many ways and services you can use and lots of people who can help if you are one of the people not using this valuable asset you have.

Let us know how you are using your contacts and if you are not why not?

Carol Buchan

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851 and visit our website and learn more at www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com for more news of what is happening in your own Yorkshire business community.

I am inspired by the businesses I work with and feel privileged when I have the opportunity to help them collaborate.

The old adage of "one plus one = five" certainly applies when businesses have the foresight and vision to see the opportunity of collaborating.

What do I mean - well one companies problem of waste and the waste costing them up to 6 figures per year directly to dispose of surprisingly enough is the sort of thing another partner needs as raw material for their plant. The trick is how do you connect them together.

When we get clients asking for help it is excellent when connecting them together provides a solution that is certainly much greater than either would have expected.

In this case the bottom line problem of one actually solves a problem of another and what is more gives them the opportunity to increase profitability and generate revenue.

Its not easy - like anything it needs work, vision, certainly needs help from a third party not only to identify the opportunity but to help make the thing work.

If you have not considered it before you should - who should you be connecting with?

Carol

I had the great pleasure to go along and hear Tim Campbell of apprentice fame, speak at an event in Harrogate last Thursday evening.

He is an excellent speaker and and went through his experiences and challenges and also some of the lessons learnt through the Mentors - such as Alan Sugar have shared with him and that he has experienced.

Out of this excellent session one of the messages Tim spoke about rang out loud and clear.

Are you in a business or do you just have a hobby? A business makes money and a hobby just gives you money to live on.

How many of us run our businesses as a hobby? Its not wrong or right but it is important we know what we are doing and act accordingly. If we are in it to make money and run a business then we must have a plan and clear deliverables on the way.

Which is it that you have? When you are thinking about starting up in business or working for yourself are you clear where you want to go?

If you are not sure or you cannot answer this then how do you expect to get there!

Look closely at yourself and your proposition and ask yourself these questions and be honest!

Labels: business, planning, Profit, success

Are you really spending your time on what is important? Do you even know where that time goes and why you never have enough?

These are common gripes and questions which come up with all the people and businesses we deal with. A lot of people have even been on “Time Management” courses to help them organise themselves even better than they did before!

We then ask, “what are you spending the time on and what did you get done today”. More often than not it is difficult to answer – “but I know I have been busy”.

My question to you is are you focussed and effective? I do not mean are you busy or well organised, I mean are you EFFECTIVE? Does what you spend time and money on deliver any measurable benefit and could you do it an easier or more effective way. For example – A door to door salesperson can be very efficient, excellent and selling door to door, BUT are they effective? They could sell much more using a better method such as e-mail or direct mail.

Let me tell you about Pareto’s law which I use all the time when working with businesses. A simple definition is ……80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. Think of it this way:

80% of the results flow from 20% of the actions

80% of the profits come from 20% of the customers

80% of the business comes from 20% of your product lines

And I could go on – most of the time its even more extreme.

Think about this in relation to what you do day by day and how much time you spend doing it. Let me give you an example: Do you check your emails every 10 minutes and break off from what you were doing? Why? Most of them are junk anyway and if you ignored the 80% of dross and concentrated on the 20% important think what would happen. Don’t let that pop up box, telling you an email has arrived, run your life. Turn it off. Check your email when you want and stop the interruptions. Its a lot easier to ignore the rubbish all in one go and then concentrate on the important.

Think about it – what is the 20% which really generates value and profit for your business and stop doing all the rest. Challenge yourself to change and become EFFECTIVE and transform your life.

Carol Buchan

Labels: business, Change, Growth, Profit, Time, usiness