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Evaluating New Business Ideas

People who are self-employed generally like to stay that way. If they sell a business they quickly start another one, and successful owners seem to have a ‘knack’ for coming up with good ideas for new businesses. This ability is based largely on their experience and on a set of values or standards that should be applied to every business idea before going ahead with it. This system of evaluating business ideas applies to both products and services; we use the term ‘product’ to mean both....

Five Oversights That Can Kill Your Business

Business owners usually have long term visions for their enterprise, but most business failures happen quickly, before the owner is able to change course or implement strategies that will correct the situation.  The fatal gap between planning and performance is often the result of one of the following set of factors, although two or more of these can occur simultaneously and accelerate the organisation’s demise. Take a close look at your own business and be sure none of these are taking s...

Top four kinds of Marketing Advertising

Most of us tend to use the same kind of ad over and over again. If your ad is pulling in sales, stay with it. But if results aren’t quite what you’re looking for, try switching to one of these top four types of ads.Your ad can simply work to build your company’s image. Most of the banner ads big corporations have on the Internet are designed to do nothing more than familiarise people with the company name. A big chunk of the ads on TV do the same thing. And that’s not bad. Most customers...

Customers Are Only Human

Customers Are Only HumanAs businesses of all sizes increase their uptake of technology and use equipment to save money and take over functions previously provided by people, they’re also running the risk of alienating their customers.Extensive ‘telephone trees’ intended to direct callers into the most appropriate channel to handle their enquiry require customers to go through a series of options even though they already know what they want to accomplish with their call. Something that is m...

Delivering The Goods

Any business which involves selling a physical product requires the ability to arrange delivery of the product to customers in one way or another.Unlike larger organisations, small businesses don't have huge budgets and people available to develop their own carriage service so the most frequent option is to use a third party whose business is shipping so as to ensure logistics are carried out effectively.But to do it in the most cost effective way can involve some deliberation of the options. Th...

Create a Network of Wealthy Customers

Create a Network of Wealthy CustomersWhether the 80/20 rule applies to your business or not, if you can identify your wealthy customers you can target them directly with high-value offerings. And even if you don’t have 20% of customers that you’d consider ‘wealthy’ you can create a network of customers that will help you grow your business and greatly benefit your bottom line.Define your trading areaStart with an accurate definition of your trading area – where your customers are. The ...

Become an expert in your own industry

Whether you sell to businesses or consumers you can increase your level of success by becoming an industry expert – someone who’s well known and acknowledged as an authority on matters concerning your industry. It takes work to achieve this kind of commercial stardom but once you’re at the top it’s almost self perpetuating.Get ready for recognitionPrepare a clear definition of the industry you want to represent, whether it’s a broad one such as ‘retailing’, or very specific, such a...

Find Your Niche And Market To It

There are many definitions of a ‘niche’ market but essentially they’re a subset, a smaller segment, of your existing target market. This is very important because it means they may already be aware of you and are already prospects for your company’s offerings.Members of your targeted niche will share a similar set of characteristics. You can exploit that by satisfying those common needs and catering to their particular interests, and they can be extremely profitable if you provide them w...

Look Good to Lenders

Look Good To LendersBusinesses borrow money for a number of reasons. Additional capital may be needed to increase production capacity or to open a new retail outlet. It might be necessary to borrow to expand overseas or to upgrade the business’ IT facilities.Whatever the reason, borrowing money involves the need to favourably impress the lenders you are approaching for finance. There’s never a guarantee that they will support your proposal, but there are some preliminary steps you can take t...