Answer Upon - Business

Marketing Planning with some Wisdom from Uncle Marty
A strong marketing plan needs to start with a clear understanding of the Vision of your company or business unit. Marketing is a powerful tool when used properly, but it will not get you anywhere unless you know where you want to go. Therefore the first step in your planning exercise is to establish a Vision for your organization. You can define Vision as what you want your business to be in 1, 2 and 5 years with respect to sales, image, products, customers and staff.From this point you need to set some Vision oriented goals. These goals can be very simple, but should be written. Examples are sales i

support.’

Step Three: Outline the problem the present situation is causing.

‘As the business is growing my cash demands are becoming bigger and so cash flow is getting harder to manage. The flexibility around payment times is now getting more difficult to control.’

Step Four: Outline your idea scenario.

‘Now that the business has become more established we need to put some discipline around settlement terms and so ideally I like to see any invoices settled as promptly as possible.’

Step Five: Outline the action and final outcome which you feel is fair.

‘Can I suggest that from

How to Announce a New Product
How can the introduction of new products affect the way I network at meetings?When I have a new product to launch, I make sure that I have a 20 to 30 second pitch ready for the next networking event I attend. I also make sure that I have a supply of product announcements offering a free sample. As I work through the crowd, I make sure that I am talking to a person that could use my product, by listening carefully to what they have to say, and if the product does not fit I go on to the next conversation.The important thing to remember is that you should not force your product onto everyone you tal

A reader of my weekly newsletter approached me with a question which is common to many small businesses. Here was his problem and how I thought he could tackle it.

“I am a one man business in the labour consulting field, I have a small regular clientele who are more personnel friends. However every month I struggle to get my payments from them. I obviously do not want to get too heavy handed due to the risk of losing their custom but on the other side the lack of payment or the late payments is creating a cash flow problem for me. How do I get through this one?

Your suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.”

Sound a familiar problem? Well, here is how I think he and you could address this sort of commons issue.

You are dealing with an issue facing many start up businesses – your first customers are sometimes friends or family and therein lines a number of problems:

1. You can feel that you should be eternally grateful for they help and support in assisting your start up

2. You can feel obliged to stretch that gratefulness to the point where it hurts your business

As you are finding out the time has to come when you must break away from the original terms of business and put dealings on a more firmer, business-like arrangement. The trick of course is how to do this without thinking you may lose not only their business but their friendship.

So the first step is to acknowledge the fear that you have in the back of your mind about the potential loss of business. Having acknowledged it, accept it as a possibility – welcome to the real world! During your business life you are going to lose clients along the way – you may as well test your reaction now instead of later!

This acceptance of the possible loss of business is an important and essential first step. Without this what you have to do next will never happen and the problem will remain.

Now to tackle the problem. You have to be open, honest and transparent with your friends; this is the crux of what follows next.

Step One: Acknowledge how their support has been invaluable in getting you started.

‘John, I’ve got something important I need to discuss with you. Before I start I want to say how instrumental your support has been in helping me get my business off the ground …’

Step Two: Outline the present situation.

‘As you know as we have been friends we have both been flexible where payment terms on invoices are concerned. I’ve been pleased to do this because of your support.’

Step Three: Outline the problem the present situation is causing.

‘As the business is growing my cash demands are becoming bigger and so cash flow is getting harder to manage. The flexibility around payment times is now getting more difficult to control.’

Step Four: Outline your idea scenario.

‘Now that the business has become more established we need to put some discipline around settlement terms and so ideally I like to see any invoices settled as promptly as possible.’

Step Five: Outline the action and final outcome which you feel is fair.

‘Can I suggest that from n

How To Manage Your Time Effectively
As a manager I never seem to have enough time to do everything I need to do in my day. After a great deal of soul searching and more than a little worry I talked to a few people and realised that the problem was not the amount of time I had available but how I managed to use the time I had. A colleague suggested that I look at everything I did from the time I left for work in the morning to the time that I arrived home. To do this I had to make a record of every detail of every activity that I did during the day. After a couple of weeks I began to realise where things were going wrong and who the time thieves