Category: Tips and Tools

Often, small business owners think of public relations (PR) as simply ‘getting in the papers’. True, you do need to know which publications your audience reads and then work on being featured in them, but there is a lot more to PR than this!

So what is PR for small businesses?

According to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), PR is ‘the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.’ In other words, it’s not just about broadcasting what you do, it’s about branding, trust and relationships, too.

Building trust is a huge benefit that PR has over advertising. An interviewed by a journalist or a review by a blogger is an endorsement that you simply can’t get through advertising. However good your advertising is, it doesn’t have the same value as someone else talking about you. That said, PR works well alongside advertising, as ads can be used to reach new people, then PR can be used to build trust once they become aware of your business, product or service.

PR can be very cost-effective for a small business, too. While it still has a cost in terms of the time taken to create and distribute press releases and articles, there are no direct advertising costs. So PR can make your marketing budget stretch further.

Where to start with PR

First, think about your brand and the messages you want to get across. What do you want to communicate about your product, service or way of doing business? Once you’ve established this, make sure that those messages are consistent across all the channels you use to communicate with your audience, whether that’s in newspapers, industry publications, blog posts or social media.

Should you hire a PR company?

There’s no reason why you can’t start out by doing your own PR. After all, nobody knows your business better, or is more passionate about it, than you.  Yes, a PR company will have a broad range of experience and contacts, but you will only need knowledge and contacts within your own industry to begin with.

In fact, a good PR company will be able to advise you if they are a good fit for you. Nancy Berman of Berman Communications says “We meet very smart, hard-working entrepreneurs with great ideas on a weekly basis, but quite often they are not ready for PR…although we hope that they ultimately end up here.”

However, eventually you may find your business needs the expert skills and contacts of PR agency, or that it’s simply more cost effective to let an agency do the work for you.

Image: DieElchin

I suspect most self employed mums have dipped a toe in multi level marketing at one time or another.  That’s not surprising as they aim very convincing and highly targeted marketing campaigns at mums of young children who want to earn a flexible income.

Unfortunately, multi level marketing tends to be a poor investment for most mums, with many barely making back the money they spend on buying their starter packs. However, the tide is beginning to change.

 Mum’s Enterprise Ltd. have announced the decision that they will not be accepting exhibitor bookings from any multi level marketing brands in a bid to protect attendees and preserve the transparent and honest ambitions of their brand.

Responsible business owners and mothers themselves, Lindsey Fish, Founder and CEO and her business partner Lucy Chaplin, know only too well, the pressures set upon parents to find a flexible work alternative funding life after children and as a result they have chosen to ban these companies from all aspects of our events and protect parents from being conned by them.

Lindsey Fish comments, “Mums Enterprise Roadshow is the UK’s only premium flexible work and business show and it’s vital to us that we provide an honest platform for parents across the UK to attend and discover new and genuine business opportunities which will help them obtain a healthy work life balance and #SHOOTFORTHEMOON.

“We will also ensure security staff are vigilant to any visitors promoting MLM schemes at the events and they too could very well be asked to leave if they seem to be actively promoting and trying to recruit attendees.”

Working closely with Hannah Martin, Founder of Talented Ladies Club, together they are highlighting the vulnerability of women who are seeking a way to earn a large income for little effort, affording them a perceived healthy work life balance.

Together they want to work to protect them from falling into the trap of multi-level marketing schemes because those who are recruited become trapped ‘in’ are compelled to keep selling the dream, as the only way to try to recoup their increasing losses is to continue selling and recruiting, so they cannot afford to speak the truth.

 Hannah Martin, Founder of Talented Ladies Club comments, “Since we started investigating MLMs we’ve uncovered one shocking truth after another. We’ve been contacted by the Direct Selling Association (DSA), reps and even by MLM companies themselves. And not one has convinced us that it’s a legitimate, fair industry.

“Mothers are an obvious target for MLMs – we often have large networks of friends and are looking for opportunities to make money from home. But the glamour of their products, marketing and incentive rewards, and twee inspirational quotes, belies an ugly business model in which 99.6% of participants will lose money*.

“MLMs are also very good at appearing legitimate – with clever sponsorship, sweeping industry awards and surveys (easy to do when you have an army of reps incentivised to vote for you) and creating mysterious charities.

“The truth is that MLMs are pyramid schemes in all but name. Their products are simply there to ensure they are legitimate. The real money comes from recruiting large downlines, and everyone bar the top 0.4% of the pyramid loses.”

Mums Enterprise Roadshow Manchester will be a one-day event, taking place on Wednesday 20^th June at Event City, in Trafford City Manchester. Mums enterprise Roadshow London will be its first ever two-day event in London in the larger venue; Olympia London which will take place from Friday 28^th and Saturday 29^th September 2018. The event includes individuals, initiatives and organisations who can help attendees retrain, find flexible jobs, start or grow a business and people can be safe knowing they will not see a single MLM opportunity.

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Running a business isn’t easy and this is especially the case if you have a family. If you want to make sure that you do everything you can to keep everything balanced then it helps to have a checklist of all the things that you have to do. It also helps to make sure that you are not overlooking any aspects of your business as well, some of which can be found below.

Office Space

It’s always a good idea for you to take a look at the physical aspects of your business. When winter is over, it’s then time for you to wash the windows and it is also a good idea for you to clean your carpets as well. You also need to make sure that everything is organised and that you are always keeping on top of your business space. This is certainly going to leave an impression on your customers, and if you don’t make sure that everything is always on-point

then you’ll certainly be missing out.

Image: Rawpixel

Infrastructure

When you have organised your business space, it’s a good idea to give your systems an overview. At this point it also helps to hire UK calibration services as well, because this will help to make sure that all of your machines are kept in working condition and that you are not providing a compromised service. Check over your phones, your servers, your software and more to make sure that everything is up to date. It is also a good idea for you to check your antivirus and security as well, as technology is always advancing so if you don’t keep this maintained then you’ll be putting your business at risk.

Image: startupstock.com

Your Team

You need to think to yourself, do you actually have the right people for your team? If you do, are they doing the right job? You need to make sure that you are fully aware of your team and you also need to make sure that they are all aware of the job that they have to do. If you happen to have employees who are not doing their job right or if you have a team who is not functioning to the best of their ability then this will only be holding your business back and it will cause you serious issues in the future.

Financial Future

It can be hard to find the time to go over your finances. It can also be hard to know exactly where you stand at times as well. By going through all of this information, you can then begin to see what investments you can make and even if you are making the right decisions regarding your business future. When you have a clear picture of where you stand financially, you can then begin to work on improving your business efficiency and this is something that most businesses either don’t get around to, or they overlook the importance of it which can really stop progression and growth.

When it comes to business, you’re always going to have a goal in mind. When you first started out, there would be a reason for it. Maybe you wanted to be your own boss so that you had more freedom in your life. Maybe it was because you wanted to provide for your family’s future. Or maybe it was because you had a passion and you knew you could make something of it. Regardless of why you got started, you would have done so with dreams in mind. But, as you get started in the business world, you’ll often realize that times can get tough. And when that’s the case, you have to learn to progress and move on in other directions.

This is exactly what happens when you’re looking to grow. Growth in business is never easy. You have to work hard, be persistent, and make sure that you’re giving it your all. But eventually, you will find that it starts to pay off. When you’ve got your finances together, and you’re ready to move on up, you’re then going to need the skills, tools, and ideas to make that happen. And for that, you’ve come to the right place.

Now that you’re business is ready to grow, and you’re willing to work to make it happen, here are seven different steps you can follow to take your business to the next level.

Utilize Your Analytics

Up first, you’re going to want to turn to your data. Because you won’t want to make decisions on how you’re going to move forwards without doing this. Your data, and your website analytics in particular, is vital to your business. You can use this information to uncover more about your customers than you could ever realize. You’ll see what products they’re interested in and by looking at where they drop off during the sales funnel, you’ll be able to make decisions that will help you to hone in on this.

Engage With Your Customers

From here, you’re then going to want to think about what you can do improve your relationship with your customers. Because in order to grow, you’ll need to focus on your customers and what they want from you. If you’re able to talk to your customers more, and uncover what they want from you, you’ll be able to apply this to your efforts to grow.

Source The Best Suppliers

Next, you may want to look at your suppliers. Are you working with the best people for the job? Or do you need to start finding suppliers in the first place? You’re going to want to look for quality wholesalers, such as Global Foods UK, that can offer you the right products for your business. Cutting corners won’t help you. So definitely look at working with the right people to be able to do the right job.

Strengthen Your Branding

You’re also going to want to think about your brand. Because if you’ve been operating without a brand image, this is going to be the next thing that will help your business to grow. But bringing in the right branding ideas, you’ll often find that you can bring your business together with the right look, and it will also support your marketing efforts too.

Up Your Marketing

While we’re on the topic, it’s time to go in full steam ahead with your marketing efforts too. Because when you want to grow, you need to put yourself out there. Whether you’re marketing to a new audience or looking to upsell to your existing clients, marketing matters. So strategizing for the next twelve months should help you to really up your game.

Bring In Support

Is it time to hire your first employee, or maybe your fifth or tenth? When you want to grow, you need help. By hiring someone, your business will get the support it needs to be able to head in the right direction. And to grow, you should be physically growing as a team too.

Keep Looking Ahead

And finally, you need to make sure that you’re mind is always moving forwards. Because in order for you to grow in the future, you need to know where you want to be, and start putting the wheels in motion now. So if you want to have so many customers or make X amount of sales in a particular period of time, now is when you need to get the operations started to make it happen. By looking forwards, you’ll be able to keep on growing.

Image: Pexels

 

As an entrepreneur, you may not have the time to watch television. What a frivolous way to waste a chunk of your day! But, there is more to the boob tube than entertainment. Artists often draw from what they know, which means there are business lessons aplenty. Okay, Keeping up with the Kardashians might just be trashy tele, but it doesn’t apply to every series!

These are the programmes that are entrepreneurial and the lessons you can learn. Press play whenever you are ready to get started.

The League of Gentlemen

For the TV heads in attendance, The League of Gentlemen was a cult classic that made its overdue return last year. However, the boys from Royston Vasey weren’t just freaks who ate humans and terrorised the locals. Okay, maybe Papa Lazarus was, but the others were closet businessmen and women. Take Tubbs and Edward as an example. Their motto was ‘a local shop for local people,’ and Sam Gipson agrees that localising content is imperative. It’s a big, bad, accessible world, but forgetting about the local community is a sure-fire way to alienate your base. Plus, local goods and services are in fashion nowadays and have a unique selling point.

Game of Thrones

Yes, the people of the Seven Kingdoms are known for their brutality and scandalous sexcapades, but there is political intrigue too. Anyone running for office should take note, as should bosses and anyone who holds a managerial position. Watching Tyrion play the game is a great way to figure out how to manage office politics in the office. Granted, no one will get their head chopped off, but the sentiment is the same. Then, understanding how Jon Snow and Khaleesi inspire loyalty is an excellent way to maintain employee and customer faith. Just don’t take it too seriously or else HR will have a field day.

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares

Aside from the overly dramatic music and bad acting, RKN does provide valuable insight into the cooking industry. For starters, anyone with a bit of money and a half-baked idea can’t be successful. Secondly, quality is important but so is timing and service. People pay money and they want to value across the board. Thirdly, a hard taskmaster screaming insults can be effective in the right moments. Bosses shouldn’t miss the times when Ramsay puts his arm around a person’s shoulder to elicit a response, too.

The Office

David Brent is based on the type of bosses most people ridicule. Although inoffensive in many respects, he manages to put his foot in his mouth time and again. Why? It’s because he wants to be one of the boys. People in power don’t like to hear this, but certain roles require an element of distance. Fraternising with subordinates is always going to be tricky and uncomfortable. Any Brent wannabes should think twice before emulating his road to ‘success.’

Watching TV with a different perspective can unveil new truths. What do you see when you binge a box set?

Image: Papafox