Business Systems | That Pile of Business Cards & Other Admin

Business Systems | That Pile of Business Cards & Other Admin

I was doing quite well until a couple of months ago. I had a filing system for cards and a cross reference book for business types – printers, accountants, marketing, banks etc. That reading pile was under control and I had a (small) urgent pile and a less urgent pile.

Then it sank. I had (inadvertently) several systems with the most effective being chronological order. How long ago did I see that person/document I now need to find? It must be so far back in the run then….  Click here to read the full LinkedIn Article by Bob Shepherd. Simple really

Business Planning | Executive summary or just an introduction

Business Planning | Executive summary or just an introduction

What on earth is an ‘Executive Summary’? For some reason the term grates with me. What happened to the word ‘Introduction’?

The trouble is that it has achieved a position of strength in the average business mind such that no business plan or feasibility study or similar document is complete without one. I am not saying it is not needed.  I adopt the Ladybird school of learning where if you are tackling a large project or subject it is invaluable to gain an introductory view and thereby a scope of the topic. That way you can see how much is involved and you can gain an appreciation of the whole thing.  To read the full LinkedIn article, just click here. Simple really.

Networking | People in business

Business Networking | People in Business

Business is about people to a large degree. People are always in the mix somewhere. They might be customers, staff, suppliers, contacts etc. Those who have the soft skills for dealing with people successfully can find it easier to get on and to be successful. The small business owner needs to network.

The sole trader or consultant trying to cover everything certainly needs to network. That may not be formal meetings though. Stopping to pass the time of day with people, in person, on the phone, by email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook is always important. It is becoming the case that everyone is assumed to be in with it all and taking part in the conversations.

Some people are more gifted in these things than others.  To read the full LinkedIn article, just click here. Simple really.

Marketing | Brand Building and all that

I have been into a number of businesses lately who haven’t grasped something I think is clear. Your presentation to the big world out there will have much more effect if it is a coherent one. Think about some of the big brand names that have infiltrated our souls, whether we like it or not or whether we actually use them or not. It is quite disturbing in some ways. Becoming a household name has a bit of a relationship with brain washing or brain conditioning of some sort.

There are brands I have in my head that date back decades and there’s nothing I can do about it. I was exposed to them at some point and they will live with me as part of my culture until I pass-away. Certain phrases inevitably finish themselves off in my head with the rest of the message. That shows just how powerful branding can be. To read the full Bob Shepherd Associates article, click here.  Simple really.

Business Planning | Networking South Wales

Business Planning | Networking South Wales

There are dozens of business networks in South Wales . I help businesses with business strategy and planning (“Business Building”) and I deal with business finance and organisation. Not a shameless plug altogether because my point is that the business planning for growth requires experience and knowledge in networking as a major sub heading under the all embracing term “Marketing”. You need all this in place to get your finance sorted to show you are a functional business, by which time you have a plan to put into action, if you have done it properly.


My view is that there is not just one answer to networking. Some networks work best with a business that can be easily pigeon holed by everyone. (Accurately or not – doesn’t matter, you can sort that out later on). Other businesses do not. Click here to read the full LinkedIn article by Bob Shepherd

Running A Business | It's Lonely At The Top

Running a business | It's lonely at the top

If you are running a business you need to wear many hats, you need to know everything and you need to know it now.

More than this - in many case you are isolated and alone. It is therefore, important that from time to time you take off all those hats and create some time for you to reflect, some time for you to learn, some time for 'You' to improve. In fact you will get more done, be more directed and more efficient.  To read the full LinkedIn post by Bob Shepherd Associates, click here.  Simple really.

Leadership | The thing about business, big or small

Leadership | The thing about business, big or small

Whatever the flavour, size, style or type of  business you have there are some common features - some common characteristics. This is the secret behind how I can contribute to a business. I do not actually need to know the technical and finer points of the business to know what needs some attention, needs a fix or needs some development.

For example all businesses need to communicate with the outside world in an attractive and constructively encouraging way. The methods for doing that may have differences in detail and sophistication and will have a different focus on one channel over another, but still the principle is there.  To read the full LinkedIn post by Bob Shepherd Assocaites, please click here.

Marketing | Brand Building and all that

Marketing | Brand building and all that

I have been into a number of businesses lately who haven’t grasped something I think is clear. Your presentation to the big world out there will have much more effect if it is a coherent one. Think about some of the big brand names that have infiltrated our souls, whether we like it or not or whether we actually use them or not. It is quite disturbing in some ways. Becoming a household name has a bit of a relationship with brain washing or brain conditioning of some sort.  To read the full LinkedIn post, just click here

Marketing | The Power Of Business Communication

Marketing | The Power Of Business Communication

Communication takes many forms and is not just about speaking at events or writing. In business many things are important but communication is right up there at the top of the list.

What many do not realise is that you are communicating your business worth, credibility, trustworthiness, efficiency..... To read the full LinkedIn article by Bob Shepherd Associates, just click here.

Setting Up A New Business

Setting up a new Business

Anyone can set up a business - Observation and experience has taught me that not everyone has the make up to do so successfully. Most professional Managers have come across those psychometric tests beloved of the HR people. Some people say they can manipulate them but I always wonder why you would want to do so. The corporate career world is full of people who are round pegs in the square hole of their employment and who are basically unsuited and unhappy with their lot. The‘Peter Principle’ pops up all over the place as people are promoted one step too far. Heaven help us when that step puts them in a senior position that carries such a bow wave of credibility that they are unassailable and too senior to be criticised. There are enough of them out there!  To read the full LinkedIn article, click here.

Business Ethics and Presentation

Business Ethics and Presentation

What is it about the human condition that promotes corruption? By corruption I do not just mean out and out dishonest extra payments to circumvent a procedure, such as seems hopelessly endemic in some parts of the world. I mean any attempt to pull a fast one, to gain an edge by underhand means, to mislead with some sort of commercial gain. Simply to not bother is almost as bad. To read the full LinkedIn article by Bob Shepherd, click here

Time Is The Biggest Resource

Time Is The Biggest Resource

Many small businesses have started up in the last few months. Some born of opportunity and some born of necessity.  If they have been careful the owners have made sufficient headway to show they can maintain their course and develop their business. Planning and forethought is a major key to this.

Resources is the baseline for any progress. Directly or indirectly money is the lowest common denominator here and the business needs money at least to keep the domestic expenses going until the business can take up the load. Then the business itself needs money to get going. There are a hundred and one things to spend out on in the first set up stage.  Click this link to read the full post, on LinkedIn

How To Avoid Alientating People During a Presentation

How To Avoid Alientating People During a Presentation

Do you feel obliged to have a presentation for that little talk?

You need to demonstrate a command of your subject and yourself, but there is more to this than having a comprehensive set of slides.

There will be times, though, when you’re in front of an audience or a group and actually need some other presentation aid. It could be worthwhile using a flip chart or some props. How about standing up and winning them over with strength of personality? Humour is more powerful than statistics.

This post by Bob Shepherd contains some insightful thoughts around achieving a successful presentation. Remember you are taking the audience on a journey. Don't lose them! “Click this link to read the full article, on LinkedIn” 

Several things to get right at networking

Several things to get right at networking

Networking may seem daunting, but it is an essential business skill. The best net-workers accept they are not on a mission with a sales pitch. The real point is to build up your circle of contacts and your influence out there. It’s a big mistake to think you are going to turn up and everyone will slap their foreheads in wonderment that they have somehow managed without your services until now. It is said you need to be in touch with someone seven times before they’ll start to consider you as a colleague for working.  “Kissing frogs to find a princess”, is the analogy that is trotted out to illustrate the point.

This post contains some essential advice to the art of business networking.  Click this link to read the full post on LinkedIn

Traditional Marketing With A Hint of Digital Marketing - Make It Easy For Them

Digital Marketing | The digital follow-up to networking

Recently, I have been catching up on my business contacts (do stay on top of this!).  I take a card from the pile that is starting to topple over and I go through the following process....

• I look to see if there are any Social Media icons with the businesses tag present? – Yes/No (7 second have lapsed)
• If no, go to their website: (14 seconds have lapsed)
• Are there any Social Media icons at the top of the page – Yes/ No
• No, scroll down to the footer – Yes/ No
• No, click the contact icon (are they hidden Here) – Yes/ No
• If I still can’t connect with the person (40 Seconds have lapsed). I ask myself “do I need to connect with this person – this is becoming hard work!”

So now, look at your own Business card!  Would someone have the same problem connecting with you?  To read the full LinkedIn article by Bob Shepherd Assocaites, just click here.  Simple really

From Little Acorns ...

Don't judge a book!

Small business acorns grow into big business trees!  Recently I took on a new client who was running a very small lifestyle business. I always maintain in helping a business the size of business does not matter. The principles of business are always there to be questioned and looked for. What you do about that alters with the sophistication and size of the business, but the basics are always there.

My new client had a part time face painting business. Immediately coming to mind will be kid's parties and school fetes. Coming from a corporate background my client had some contacts already and had also done some company events as well as a few parties.

Other possibilities open out when you think about it. Weddings? The bridesmaids have spent a fortune on their makeup and everyone else is made up to the nines. However they won't mind having a pretty design on their arms. The children need a focus anyway so a wedding makes sense as does a corporate staff event.

Add to school fetes some agricultural shows and other outdoor events and you can see the business needs some hired help. Collaborating with trusted painters and recruiting helpers to manage queues,  take money and distribute leaflets means having a well organised operation. Outdoor events can mean anything from rallies and shows of all kinds to athletics and other sporting events, including internationals. This leads on to other collaborations and before long we are organising  events.

Having the right staff to represent you means training and managing. Promotional activity means having equipment sets and materials, banners, gazebos, stickers and leaflets, portfolios etc. etc.

In a short space of time our little face painting hobby business has turned into a full blown entertainment exercise with a substantial capacity for income.  Now we have a franchise-able business!

There are the designs for the various events and festivals of the yearly calendar plus the health and safety training.  Supplying the materials and templates and specialist equipment opens up further income streams for an attractive franchise business. Then the web sites and all the promotional activities become developed and sophisticated for everyone involved.

"Face painting by Irene" in Chepstow and Caldicot  can be Face Painting by Nora for Norwich, Martin from Manchester,  Bridget from Bristol... 

We have a UK wide business!

 

Many thanks to Face Painting By Irene and Irene Quelch who has given me permission to use her business as a basis for this article. She is not there with all this as yet, but is well on the way. Irene can be found at http://facepaintingbyirene.co.uk/ and contacted by phone on 07826 847617 if you are in SE Wales. 

Other areas, Stand by! It's coming!

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.

What First, What Next?

What to do first, what to do next? Starting your own business is fun, worrying, exciting and full of query. 

Most people start their business with a good idea of what they are going to do. Very often though they have not thought quite how they are actually going do it. Surely everyone will see how valuable a service or how good a product this is? We'll open our doors on the Monday and be flying by the end of the week!

The reality is very different of course. The statistics show that most businesses will fail in the first year and a few more stubborn individuals in the second and third years. Nonsense of course, because those figures include the wacky ones, the lazy ones, and a collection of no-hopers. If you took a measure of the good business ideas that are delivered with real intent, adequate planning, good support and sensible resources for what they are doing, the success rates are very different.

Bob Shepherd Associates will get you there sensibly, quickly, practically and with good practical guidance on what is feasible and what should be scheduled for next year. It will save you loads of time and money, not to mention your overall nervous condition. 

We have many stories, examples and testimonials from others who also think we can do it! 

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. 

Fat Bloke On A Plane

Whatever your level of business, what you should do must be proportionate to the rest of your business. If you are a small one man band you may consider a marketing spend of £1000 on something to be a big deal for you. If you are a larger business you may not. 

If you have a turnover of £3m or so a £3000 overdraft "in case of need" is no doubt out of proportion with your needs!

If you are running an online business you should not be struggling with a 12 year old lap top! 

If you have a maintenance and fitting business of some kind you should not be turning up in a 15 year old rusty van! 

If you are running a marketing business you should show a decent website yourself and not make do with an email address at hotmail!

All these are real examples which have come to my notice recently. In each case there is a mixed message delivered (at best) to your customers which raises questions on the strength and credibility of your business. 

The questions raised are either along the lines of "is this business as well established and competent as they say or are they flying a flag to appear more important than they are in some way?"

From the business point of view you can get away with it to some degree appearing to be bigger than you really are by being careful to present a professional looking and competent service. You can hide a local phone number or your location with an 0870 or 0800 number. You can compete against larger firms by taking stage payments. And so on.

But, if you have started a business aimed at gaining larger customer contracts be careful that you do not overload your presentation. It may be better to start with smaller contracts and work up. Some advantages may be that you get paid more often with less chance of a crippling bad debt. Your reputation for good work may spread from the smaller companies more readily and more often than with the one big company. Let's be a bigger fish in a smaller pond and be happy with that for now. 

To use another analogy for all this, if a fat bloke gets on a very small plane and sits on one side you have to accommodate that and compensate in some way. If he gets on a big transport plane no one will worry.   

Bob Shepherd Associates looks at the whole of a business and helps you get the external outsider's view.