Business Branding | What's In A Handshake

Business Branding | What's In A Handshake

Actually a lot. Get it right  and you are giving the right messages and no one thinks any more. Get your business branding wrong and you are giving impressions about yourself that will set you off on the wrong path. It’s one of the First Impression things you do better to get right. In a small way it is part of your branding.

Some years ago I had the pleasure of running some mock interviews for a local Comprehensive school sixth form. The CVs presented were wonderful. The interviews nearly all went wrong the moment the candidates appeared in the doorway. It seems incredible that some youngsters do not know how to walk into a room. As well as that they did not know how to greet someone or how to sit in a chair and look attentive and interested. Any one of those small attributes would make a difference between getting a job or contract or place of some kind.

Presenting yourself is a small part of being in Business. A wider part is presenting your business...... Click here to read the full LinkedIn Article by Bob Shepherd.

Business Advice | They say..... A Cobbler never mends his own shoes

Business Advice | A Cobbler never mends his own shoes

As a general thing I am quite struck by business folk who propound some expertise in something when they are guilty of it themselves!!  The communications experts who can't communicate. The life coaches who are fragile themselves. The business experts who can't market themselves. The PAs who are always late. And so on.

You could say 'Cobbler and shoes' or you could point out that their own experience is an education they can use for the benefit of others. It's a consultant's privilege - 'do what I say not what I do'.  I am probably guilty of some of it myself.  We can't be good at everything. The best card I have to play is the external view. I turn up and there it is, wrapped up in some experience, some training and some developed practices and a different perspective....

Luckily my clients value it.....

To view articles and observations by Bob Shepherd Associates, just click here.

Tescos - The Devil Is Not Always In The Detail

In response to a downturn in fortunes partly due to adverse PR from a couple of monumental mistakes the big Tesco machine has decided to retreat. Some 43 stores across the UK will be closing and some big developments will not be going ahead. A news article today has some details at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31365003 

This strikes me as the wrong strategy. It is not as if there are not still massive profits being turned in. They are not actually short of cash. Closing some stores is negative PR (again) and a reduction in the potential opportunity for income. Empty sites underline the idea that Tescos are not doing very well. In fact they are doing well, just not so well as they used to do. 

A giant Tesco Extra opened in Newport a couple of years ago. From the beginning it was obvious that something was wrong. Rushing to open it against the competition (Morrisons opened just down the road a week earlier!) it seemed poorly laid out and not well managed at the start. It was just too big. By the time you had traversed the aisles and discovered you had forgotten the sugar you were some distance away. 

It works better nowadays. The management has got to grips with it and though there are large areas of unused floor space it is now better organised.

One solution to all these closures and mothballed stores would be to adopt more of the policy they already have for including other enterprises in the main store. A number of small units and kiosks operate within the Tesco store building. Expanding that idea along the lines of a mini shopping mall would attract people to the Tesco store as well. This is the opposite to the current thinking which has people attracted to the units, because they are already in the store for Tescos. Department stores have been doing this for decades and still maintain their integrity. 

Keep it simple is my advice. My feedback to their recent survey on Price Matching was that it was not so important as they thought. Penny pinching over their rivals and in the process doing damage to the economy in the long run only generates more bad publicity in the end.

I am not used to giant supermarket chains phoning me up wanting Bob Shepherd Associates as consultants but the principles of a qualified external view, coupled with management strategies and basic business principles are there whatever size operation you have. The devil is not always in the detail.

Put Gravy On Your Dinner

If an aspect of your small business needs attention there are only three possibilities! First is that you can ignore it and leave it. Second is that you can learn, be shown or concentrate on that aspect. If however you are simply unable to tackle that particular aspect yourself because it is not your forte, or you cannot gain the skills and expertise or you simply do not have enough time to give it, then there is only one other choice. It must be given to someone else. 'Outsourced', as the business jargon has it. 

What you must not do as all teachers of delegation will tell you is pass it over with a sigh of relief and wash your hands of it. This is a case of dereliction of duty, rather than delegation of duty. 

Social media coverage is a case in point. It's an important tool in the tool kit for getting the message out there. In some businesses it is vital, in others less so but still important. If the business owner does not feel able to take it up themselves then perhaps someone else should do it. However it is not a case of handing it over. 

However good they are the agent can only do so much. Information and immediate opinion is not there for them and the best that can be achieved is a basic raft of material. It is so important that the business owner continues to put their own mark on it. Perhaps by supplying a few tweets or a couple of small articles for a blog, or posting a couple of entries. That is what gives the output quality and presence. It's what really contributes to the branding instead of merely supporting, which is what the agent can do. 

If you want your business rejuvenated and you want to re-establish direction Bob Shepherd Associates is well placed to give you that vital external perspective. 

Incidental Business Building

Two things happen when I go into a business and neither has much to do with me directly! One is that I necessarily bring an outside view to a business. That means the business owners have the benefit of another perspective drawn from a completely different experience set gained over many years of helping business develop, solve problems, strike out in a new direction and revise their offer. 

The other is that I turn up! By doing so it focuses attention and I find that people have done the things they said and that were on the list from last time. Unconsciously I am fulfilling a role as a catalyst for change by simply appearing by appointment. It is not me putting them in detention for not doing their homework. 

Neither of these fine contributions are on my leaflets but having realised I create these little waves, I do take them into account when with my clients. Cynically, I suppose I use these two forces to encourage and to gain traction with the project we are doing. Setting an appointment not too far ahead, but far enough to take advantage of No2 phenomenon: playing "devil's advocate" as it is known and asking the unspoken questions with a straight face... that sort of thing. 

It's all part of the service. Sometimes I am asked by a client "what will I get for my money?" The answer is sometimes partly that I do not know until we get going. That does not mean there is no process or that I am making it up as we go along. It is just that I have no clear idea what will pop up out of the box when we open it. 

Pandora's box? Possibly! More likely, the material to build a successful business, well coordinated and with strong foundations. Bob Shepherd Associates builds businesses!  

Collaboration

I had a meeting about a meeting this morning. This one was important because the various businesses involved are hoping to work together on a contract for a Creative Industry client. My angle is the stuff Bob Shepherd Associates does normally - putting it into perspective against the resources available. For Creative Businesses the first step is to come up with the idea. The second question should always be 'how are we going to resource the idea?'  The next question should always be 'does it add anything to us to make the wheels go round?'Some people would consider this keeping feet on the ground. There are plenty of useful analogies. I prefer to think it is about pulling all the strands together and ensuring it is a sustainable idea. Exactly the same principle applies to any Business and it typifies the line of thought Bob Shepherd Associates will take. 

Nose In The Clouds Or Nose To The Grindstone?

I am interested in the apparent disassociation between Arts and Business at all levels when plainly both sides need each other. The official line is that Creative Industries account for 8% of business when plainly everything has to be designed, illustrated promoted and marketed and that 8% actually takes an essential part in the other 92%.

Equally the bankruptcy courts are full of 'Creatives' who just cannot understand why money is important to all aspect of the reaction with the world outside. As a measure of resource, size of involvement and a measure of success money is always there and needs to be understood as a basic ingredient of any business dealings. Many Creative Businesses and others fall by the wayside because their owners have not found the patience to understand the business world or have not found anyone with the patience and understanding to explain it to them.

As a consultant I find I am fulfilling that role more and more. I get introduced to a company to aid the search for finance and I find before we go down that route there are basic cracks in the structure that need attention before any funder or lender will even look at their proposition.

Few people can be good at everything and with most business in South Wales being conducted by small enterprises the need is nearly always there to cover some aspect of their business that is a make-do and get-by at present.

Both for development of existing business and starting from scratch I emphasis the value role of a good business adviser who can give an outside view and perspective, can validate the assumptions you have made, who can bring expertise and contacts to you that you do not have from your own world. In short it is worth paying a little for a part time management colleague to run with you in support for a while.

Whether you are a down to earth methodical left brainer or a butterfly mind that will never have the ability to sit still the same principle applies. You cannot do everything well yourself. Have a talk to Bob Shepherd Associates to see what we can do for your business, to lift your view to your horizon, or bring your view back to earth, or to find out which of these you need!