Posts Tagged ‘Profits’
When you start out in a from-home business, time management is an area of business management often overlooked or ignored.
Surely everybody knows a friend in small business who races about like a mad dog all day, without enough hours in each day, all they do is rush and get overloaded – is it that this person is you! At the end of the day, when the rush settles, what have you completed? Do you think about the day and wonder “what happened to the time, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I hoped to do. If this feels familiar, then you might have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people never seem to rush, they are composed and unflustered. The difference in them and other people is they have exceptional time management.
What is time management? It is merely arranging time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can actually get how to time manage our day, we first need to question ourselves what we are attempting to achieve today, this week, this year and even up to ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The easiest key in my preference to achieve goals is to write them down. You could review the goals at times to feel that they are meaningful and achievable but not so achievable that you don’t need to put in the work to succeed at them otherwise what is the purpose of your goals in the first place?
From the start of each working year you could sit and think about what you want to complete this year. It might be that you hope to gross up your profits by 20%, you might decide to move into bigger premises, you may hope to take down your debt significantly. From the start of each new working week you can write down on a note pad or in your diary the signifcant projects that have to be finalised this week, and check on them on each day to be sure that you’re making progress and hopefully check some of those projects from your list.
You might keep the list on your desk or on a spot where you could be persistently reminded of what must be completed throughout the week. This list may be in order of necessity so that the major projects at the top of the list get taken care of earlier. Any projects not accomplished this week will be carried up to next week on a higher priority, this should require it gets ticked off.
The next thing you might not be doing is having a daily list of projects to accomplish. This may assist keep you on schedule during the day. Again, this list should be displayed where you are able to constantly refer to it and wipe off the chores finished. Finishing off the projects should allow you a sense of a job well done and let you review how you are progressing through the day. Always hold to this list where possible and continue working from the highest priority to low priority. I know things could jump up over the day that could throw the whole day in the air, but you need to either deal with the dilemma and get back on to your list or if the unplanned job isn’t as time sensitive as some of the items on the list then list it at the bottom on your list and continue with the project you were doing.
Each item you hope to do could be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep each day outlined and you achieve your daily goals. Be alert to starting tasks and not completing them. This might become tomorrow in a disaster of half finished jobs and will cause “list blowout”.
You will end up with a list a mile long and you will give up in despair and reverse back to those habits of getting yourself in confusion during your day and accomplishing nothing.
Remember that every day you achieve your goals and tick off all the projects on your list, you become a day closer to reaching your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
A few pointers on Time Management:
Do it once and do it well, it’s frustrating returning to the task and having to redo it.
Learn to civilly communicate to people when you’re busy working and that you will speak to them at a later time.
Learn to issue chores that truly don’t need your involvement.
Don’t go on wild goose chases.
Don’t fizzle away time during phone calls that will not do something.
Don’t procrastinate.
Look back to your list of jobs to do often during the day.
“Map out your day” in the morning and schedule out your daily list the minute you begin work. Complete what you begin.
Prioritise as a matter of habit, always begin things in their order of urgency to you and your customers.
Be evasive with time wasters, people that would simply like to chat all day, and if they are employed by you, set them straight, or get rid of them.
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Marketing is one of the key drivers of business success and profits. Unfortunately many companies make common mistakes with their marketing. Here’s a few of these common mistakes.
Using institutional advertising
Institutional advertising is about branding and establishing what that brand stands for in the mind of the consumer. Most television advertising is institutional and it is often used by larger companies as a way of getting their name out there. It doesn’t ask for a response to a specific offer. For most businesses institutional advertising is a mistake. Far better to try to engage your prospects at an emotional level with a specific offer that solves their problem.
Chasing new customers at the expense of existing and past customers
Many customers leave you because of perceived indifference; not because you actually did something wrong, but because they think you didn’t appreciate them. This could simply occur because you failed to stay in contact with them and someone made them another offer that they decided to go with. The best bet is to stay in contact with your customers on a regular basis; seven times a year is a good number and much of this can be done using email. Promotional products like pens and mugs are a nice way of keeping in touch and saying: “Thank you for your business.”
Trying to achieve a goal with a one-shot campaign
Your prospects need to see a message between four and seven times before they will be convinced to try something new. No single marketing campaign can get this result unless the offer is very good.
If your budget is limited, focus on targeting a smaller group rather than a larger one. A classic example is direct mail. I have been guilty of sending out thousands of letters to everyone I know only to receive a poor response. A smarter thing would have been to select a smaller group and have a series of mailings.
Being tactical not strategic
Marketing is about strategy, to gain new customers, to have customers spend more money when they interact with you, to encourage customers to return and so on. The strategy is the message you are delivering and the action you want the customer to take. The tactics are the particular methods you use to deliver that message. Often people choose the tactics then the strategy: “Let’s do a brochure! Great idea” “What do we want it to say?”
Choosing a tactic before a strategy is like jumping in your car, pulling out of your driveway and then asking, “Where do I want to go?” If you are thinking strategy first, you would ask yourself what message you want to send and the action you’d like to take, then you would think about the right way to go about it,
Not being unique
Advertising is like wallpaper; most people know it is there but can’t recall specifically what it is. This is not good, especially when you consider that a marketing study found that only 20 per cent of people could describe the wallpaper in their own home. Let’s face it, it’s hard to stand out in a market when people can’t remember things they see every day.
Research suggests that people are exposed to between 4,000 and 9,000 advertisements daily. Seth Godin talks more about this in his book Purple Cow (a must-read for every marketer). If you want people to talk about you, be unique. This may simply involve identifying what you do best.
What is one of the best ways to make your business stand out? In some industries it is hard to stand out. For example, commodity markets like petrol, electricity or building products. But regardless of what industry you are in, there is one way that will allow you to stand out in the marketplace. By choosing the thing you want to be known for, a unique selling proposition or unique buyer advantage, you can create a strong presence for your business. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.
It is difficult for business owners to choose the thing that they want to be known for. It’s almost as if by saying “We offer the fastest deliveries”‘ you are saying that your quality is not good. But what if you think your quality is also worth mentioning?
Given the amount of advertising noise heard by customers and prospects on a daily basis, you are better off sticking with one message and repeating it over and over.
Take FedEx for example, they do many things right, but the only benefit they promote is speed : “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”. This is a fantastic marketing slogan that is single-minded. It doesn’t tell you that they offer great value. It doesn’t tell you that their staff are the friendliest. It tells you that they are fast. By adding another four qualities, it would only dilute their message.
The key to choosing something to be known for is to emphasise your strengths. There will be things that you are really good at and things that you are okay at, learn to accept this and focus on your strengths. You can never be all things to all people, so focus on the prospects that you are likely to convert into customers and fulfill the needs that are important to them.
Keeping in contact with customers and prospects is a marketing strategy that many companies neglect. What better way to say thanks for your business, than promotional gifts?