Issue 18

I s s ue18•S e pt e mbe r / Oc t obe r2016

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Cont e nt s 0 2 MessagefromtheEditor 0 3 KillerTipsforBecomingaSuccessfulStart-up 0 5 5TipsThatShouldGetYourBusinessOutofDebt 0 9 UsingClientelingtoEstablishLasngCustomerRelaonships 1 1 WhatYouNeedtoKnowAboutBounceRate(BR) 1 5 KnowYourOp ons:5ExitStrategiesforYourBusiness 1 7 WhyShouldYourNewBusinessA endanExhibion?

1 9 You’veStartedYourBusiness:WhatNext?

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L i f e doe s n’ tj us tha ppe n…E a c hofoura consi sl i k ea nys e e dbe i ng s own.Y oune v e rqui t ek nowwhe ni twi l l g e r mi na t eorbe a rf r ui t .

Wi t hc hi l dr e na ts c hool I s e eS e pt e mbe ra sa meofne wbe g i nni ng s a st hene ws c hool y e a ri sa boutt os t a r t .S or a t he rt ha nf oc us i ngon t her a pi da ppr oa c hi nge ndoft hec a l e nda ry e a r , t hi nka boutne w be g i nni ng sa ndt hec hoi c e s , bi gors ma l l , t ha ty ouc a nma k enow-i t i st hel il et hi ng st ha ta ddupt ot hebi gt hi ng s .

T oy ours uc c e s s , S a ndr a

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Killer Tips for becoming a Successful Start-up

By Innovate UK Coming up with an idea and seeing it all come together to turn it into a successful business is a dream many of us share.

Unfortunately it’s not always that easy, and a lot of people can struggle to get their initial concepts ready to the point where they’re making money off them.

While there’s no definitive guide to making your start-up a lucrative business venture, and things will always vary

according to a specific business, there are some tips that will remain relevant and inspiring no matter what industry you’re in. Take a look at the following bits of advice and see how they can improve your start-up.

Carefully evaluate your idea This is often easier said than done.

Separating yourself from a project that

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you’re passionate about in order to carefully evaluate its merits is something that a lot of new business owners struggle with. This is why it’s always a good idea to gather the opinions of others who you will be able to bounce your ideas off. Does your idea genuinely help people? Is there an existing problem that it helps? Will people be tempted to pay for it? Get these questions answered before progressing further.

Research, research, research!

It pays to do your homework. What’s the size of your target market? Is it growing or shrinking? What’s the competition like out there? All of these things have to be considered, as well as the costs for development, delivery, marketing and everything else. Without the proper research you won’t be able to validate your idea when it comes to pitching for investment, so put in the hours and leave no stone unturned.

the professional advice that you need, and take the time to outsource any tasks that would be better suited to third parties. A huge factor that decides your success will be whether you can work with people who have the same passion and commitment to your start-up as you do.

Be realistic with the numbers Short and long term financial projections need to be on point in order to get your idea off the ground. Avoid watching your business dreams go up in smoke by thinking about how far your idea can go on current cash reserves. Then be realistic about when you’re going to need investment and where you will be getting it from. Financial matters will make or break your start-up so be as honest and accurate as you can.

Click image to link to video.

Be ready for action Things move quickly in the start-up world, so it’s important that you’re ready for action when the time comes. Get the right team together, make sure you’ve heard all Bio: Innovate UK are the British government’s innovation agency. They are focussed on finding British businesses and entrepreneurs who can use new science and technology to drive economic growth. They invest in big technology projects like jet engines and oil drilling systems, but they also invest in projects from start-ups and very small business. For start-ups who want to test out an innovative new idea or technology Innovate UK can provide funds for feasibility studies of up to £150,000.

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5 Tips that Should Get Your Business out of Debt

By Diana Smith There is no denying that we are living in very difficult times. The business world is becoming more competitive with each passing second, lenders are tightening their grip on borrowers, and the prices of everything ranging from insurance, to office supplies are skyrocketing. With the things as they are, the words like “debt” and “bankruptcy” are no longer a bogeyman used to scare irresponsible business owners, but something that every business should expect and be prepared for. Let us take a look at some of the steps you should make if you ever find yourself in this difficult situation.

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Cut the Costs

This move will not earn you popularity points amongst your employees, but it sure is necessary. First thing you will have to do is go through the books in order to discover which issue brought your business into the debt in the first place. Second, you will have to attack the problem, heads on. For example, you can sell the equipment that is not being used to its fullest capacity. This action may cause a temporary bottleneck, but it will successfully mitigate the problem that brought your entire machinery to a halt.

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Make the Debt Repayment an Absolute Priority Other issue that will be plaguing your business for quite some time will be repaying the existing debt, so be sure to relieve this burden as soon as possible and prioritize the high-interest rates. Alternatively, you may choose to consolidate your loans. In some cases, paying one low-interest loan is much more beneficial than dealing with several loans, each with its different interest rate.

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Make the Budget Readjustments It should be obvious that, once you find the weak link in your business’s operations and reassign the assets for solving this issue, your budget will have

to undergo through severe changes in order to adjust to this new reality. The first issues that this new budget will have to address are the fixed monthly expenses like rent and bills. Once you are done, try to push as much of the remaining funds into the moneygenerating business operations. You should also pay special attention to variable costs like manufacturing materials. Reducing your business’s manpower should be an absolute last resort.

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Increase Revenue

Although increasing your business’s revenue should be something you should aspire to, try to keep your income predictions as conservative as you can. In the meantime, do your best to surpass the expectations with these few moves: Renegotiate terms with vendors.

Check if your vendors offer discounts for early payment, or are you able to return the unused

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goods. If these terms are not in your mutual contract try to put them on paper, or find a vendor who will be more agreeing on this matter.

Ramp up the debt collection. You will never be able to repay your debt if you are facing the trouble of debt recovery yourself.

Increase productivity. This may be one of the main reasons why you should avoid shrinking the manpower. If you invest some money into new equipment and motivate your staff properly, each one of these individuals will be able to make a contribution on your road out of debt.

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Support customers to write reviews and testimonials Every business features two distinct types of customers - regular buyers and occasional buyers. Now is the time to tie the latter ones closer to your organization. You will not only increase the revenue, you will create a stable, long-term income flow that will make budgeting much easier. Until you are ready to make some more comprehensive marketing initiative, small scale discounts and loyalty programs will more than suffice.

If you follow these few tips you should deal with the debt crisis relatively easy.

The most important thing is to stay calm, remember that debt is something that happens very often these days, and do your best to guide your ship out of the storm undamaged.

About the Author Diana Smith is a full time mom of two beautiful girls interested in topics related to business and technology. In her free time she enjoys exploring new low cost advertising opportunities.

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Whati ft hechange you’ r eavoi di ngi st he onet ogi veyouwi ngs ?

Embr aceeachchal l enge i nyourl i f easan oppor t uni t yf or s el f t r ans f or mat i on. www. bus i nes s br eakt hr ough. co. uk

Using Clienteling to Establish Lasting Customer Relationships

By Malik Muhammad The experience of imbibing coffee is a passion of mine. This love for enjoying coffee means I seek out the most cost effective, comfortable and special places to indulge in this most important of personal rituals. I was recently in a popular coffee chain where the barista asked me my name then actually wrote my name on the cup.

The coffee was made, my name was called and I was invited to enjoy my experience.

Another popular chain simply takes your order then shouts it out. They are unable to call your name because (unlike the other chain) they didn't ask for it in the first place.

Clienteling is about the strategies or techniques used by a business to establish lasting relationships with key customers.

These relationships are based on data about their purchase behaviours and preferences. An example of clienteling is when a store awards you points on their Loyalty Card according to the value of instore / online purchases. These points give you a reward via points for shopping with them and they collate data based on how you executed your spending to factually understand the manner in which you shop.

This is a win/win for both parties.

Whether or not a coffee chain puts our names on our cups isn't the point. The point is that one chain sought to develop an instant rapport with me which made me more likely to return. This simple action was an attempt to give them the competitive edge to get my money - all other factors being equal. They demonstrated a small example of instant clienteling.

Does your business make each customer feel special? Are your in-house systems geared towards good customer service?

How do your log your repeat customers?

Do your high end spenders receive simple yet meaningful indicators of your appreciation for their custom?

These questions are meant to assess your current attitude towards your customers

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because people like to feel appreciated.

People like to be associated with success.

An article published in February 2016 on Bloomberg.com refers to figures from the Allegra World Coffee Portal stating that coffee sales rose by 15% to ÂŁ3.3billion ($4.8billion) last year. Starbucks is widely acknowledged as the global coffee-shop chain market leader but came second to Costa in the UK market share where they occupy 25% to the 47% occupied by Costa.

(Starbucks was the chain that put my name on my coffee cup by the way) In order to remain competitive, improve your profit margin and increase your market share; it's useful to build good relationships with your customers. Positive word of mouth adds to the perception of your brand or your business because people will buy what they talk about. Talking about your business / brand comes from them feeling good about your product and / or being associated with your brand. The size of your market share should not dictate how you value your customers. The smaller your market share is the more you need your

customers and the larger your market share is the more you need to maintain your dominance. Clienteling makes all the difference whatever your market share.

Three examples of effective clienteling: 1. Deal with complaints quickly and thoroughly.

2. Invest in developing the basic interpersonal and communication skills of all team members. Utilise social media to reinforce your core values.

3. Ensure there is a consistent message in all interactions with your client base ie from your business card to your packaging, to your online presence to your product or service and every experience in between.

Repetition and consistency are two of keys to mastery.

If people enjoy dealing with you then they are more likely to tell a friend, recommend your service and engage in repeat business. Accurate data and maintaining good business relationships may well convert to actual profit.

Malik Muhammad was raised and educated in Jamaica, read law in London and is the conceptualiser of The Empowerment Mastery System. He enjoys vegan cooking, quad biking, jazz and yoga. He is an after dinner speaker, workshop facilitator and convenes international & corporate inspirational seminars.

Malik is the host of online talk show 'Reasoning Sessions' and specialises in sharing self-empowerment strategies with diverse and multi-faith audiences.

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What You Need To Know About Bounce Rate

By Christelle Macri In simple terms, your bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who land on one of your website’s pages and then leave without viewing any of the other pages on the site. As a result, it can be one of the most useful metrics for assessing website and web page performance as well as user behaviour, so it is important that you or your search engine consultants pay attention to it.

Within Google Analytics, the bounce rate for specific pages is displayed as a simple percentage. So, if your bounce rate for a page is 70 percent, that means that 70 percent of visitors who land on the page are leaving without clicking onto another page. Similarly, you can view the bounce rate for your entire site.

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It is important to stress that bounce rate is slightly different from exit rate.

While your bounce rate measures the number of visitors who left after visiting a single page, the exit rate shows how many people leave the website from a particular page, regardless of how many pages they have previously visited.

What Does a High Bounce Rate Mean?

As you would expect, a high bounce rate is often regarded as an indicator of either poor website performance, or a poor search marketing strategy. It may indicate that the pages on your website are not compelling or relevant enough for your audience, or it may suggest that you are attracting the wrong kind of visitors through your marketing efforts.

With that said, a high bounce rate is not always a bad thing. For instance, if your website is set up so that the landing page your marketing strategy brings to most traffic to has a clear call to action, having a high bounce rate might actually be perfectly acceptable and even desirable, because it means that single page is leading to conversions.

"Websites that are excellent at solving information problems quickly often have high bounce rates," says Nick

Eubanks from Search Engine Watch. "If a user comes into your site and finds exactly what they were looking for; an answer to their question or solution to their problem, why should they stay a moment longer?"

When Bounce Rate Is a Problem Although there are exceptions, in general, a high bounce rate is a cause for concern, because most websites’ goal is to get visitors to stay as long as possible in order to increase conversions. If your website falls into this category and your bounce rate is high, it can kill potential conversions and negatively impact upon your business as a whole.

So at what stage should a bounce rate be considered high? According to Avinash Kaushik, an analytics expert: "Anything over 35 percent is a cause for concern and anything above 50 percent is worrying." If your Google Analytics page is showing a worryingly high bounce rate, it might be time to take action.

How to Reduce Your Bounce Rate Should you find that your bounce rate is high, there are a number of things you and your search agency can do to reduce it and improve your website's overall performance. Below, we have compiled a list of helpful tips:

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Think about what visitors want to see - The first page a visitor lands on needs to solve their problem.

Think of your landing page in terms of whether or not it satisfies the type of search queries that generate traffic.

Make sure your website loads quickly - Very few things negatively impact upon bounce rate quite like slow loading times. Keep your website simple and avoid making it too content heavy. According to KISSmetrics, 40 percent of people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.

Stop targeting low value keywords - A common cause of a high bounce rate is that your search marketing strategy is attracting the wrong sort of traffic.

If you find that certain keywords are resulting in low value traffic,

stop targeting them, or adjust them slightly.

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Ditch those irritating pop up ads While pop up ads may offer a tempting way to bring in extra money, they annoy people and can cause people to want to leave quickly. If, on the other hand, you have pop ups to encourage subscribers to your mailing list, adjust the timing so that people can see your website first.

Finally, think about the quality of the content on your landing page(s) and also your overall design. Poor quality website design was tolerable ten years ago, but it isn't any more. Make important information on your website easy to find, ensure website navigation is simple and limit the number of distractions on each page.

About the Author Christelle Macri is the founder of Ebizpromotion, a leading SEO company in Berkshire, with a no-nonsense and ethical approach to digital marketing. She is also search engine consultant with over 17 years experience in the internet advertising industry. Having worked for a major search engine and pioneering pay for performance advertising networks, she is an expert at turning her clients’ websites into consistent revenue streams, using a variety of digital channels.

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Know Your Options: 5 Exit Strategies for Your Business Derek Lotts Even the most successful entrepreneurs carefully plan their potential exit strategy.

Carefully planned exits are usually much less painful than sudden and spontaneous ones. There are many practical reasons why entrepreneurs quit their businesses. Some of them are hooked up to the art of the start and become bored by the time their company reaches 50 employees, while others are pressured by outside investors, who want to collect their returns. Whatever reason you have for quitting your business, you’ll probably use one of these 5 most common exit strategies.

Merger and Acquisition This is the most popular exit strategy for tech entrepreneurs. You probably heard hundreds of success stories, about small companies being purchased by tech giants.

These mergers and acquisitions brought millions of dollars to startup entrepreneurs and significant assortment and revenue increases to bigger companies. These are some of the most famous M&As in the last

couple of years: 1. Facebook purchased WhatsApp; 2. Microsoft purchased LinkedIn; 3. Johnson & Johnson purchased Synthes; 4. Facebook purchased Instagram; 5. Google purchased Motorola Mobility.

Of course, selling your business to a larger company is not an easy task. We’re talking about big corporations, whose appraisers analyze every aspect of your business down to the smallest detail. It’s advisable for entrepreneurs who have a business for sale to find specialized companies that offer listings on high-traffic professional websites such as BizClassifieds or Businessview. This way, your sales ad will receive wider exposure on specialized websites and registers.

Initial public offering (IPO) Most companies put their stocks on sale in order to collect funds they’ll use for expanding their business. In spite of this, initial public offering is also used as an exit strategy. Entrepreneurs can put 100%

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of their business on a public sale, or they can keep some of their company’s stocks in order to receive dividends later on. This exit strategy has been very popular, prior to the Dot-com bubble burst. Since then, IPO rates have been on the constant decline.

invest the rest of the money in in some other business. Ideal buyers are usually individuals with adequate knowledge and skills and a high motivation to succeed.

They will continue your company’s development and make it profitable again.

Sell business to employees

Liquidation

Various companies introduce complex employee ownership programs in order to reward their employees and motivate them to work harder. This is also a great way for entrepreneurs to sell out their business to trusted employees and reward them for their loyalty. Most employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) start with forming an independent trust, whose purpose is to buy off owner’s stocks. This trust then holds employees’ stocks until they leave or retire, and then sells it back to the company.

Business owner can leave the company for good, or they can keep a share of company’s stock in order to receive dividends.

This is probably the worst way to end your entrepreneurship project, but sometimes liquidation is the only option. Process requires you to make an elaborate inventory of your business assets and hire an appraiser to value them. There are many different ways how you can sell your assets, and the easiest and the least painful way is to hire a professional auction company for this task. You should use the auction money to cash out your investors and creditors, IRS and your company’s employees, before the closing date.

Sell business to a friendly individual This exit strategy is different from M&A because it doesn’t combine two corporate entities into one. Selling company to an individual buyer is a great way for entrepreneurs to pay off their investors and

Many entrepreneurs consider business exit as a failure. But it’s much better to think of it as a succession plan or a successful transition that will enable you to invest your money, time and effort in another innovative business idea or the development of your new company.

Derek Lotts is a writer that aspires to get recognition for his writing skills. He has an utterly curious mind and is always on the lookout for fresh and trendy topics. Follow him on twitter.

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Why Should Your New Business Attend an Exhibition?

By Sathesh Alagappan As a new business, making the step to exhibiting can seem daunting. After all, it can come with a fairly big upfront investment so you’ll want to be sure that it can deliver a positive return on investment.

Luckily for you, it can. Here are 5 reasons why your new business should exhibit:

Proven to have a good ROI When carefully planned, exhibiting is proven to have one of the best ROIs in comparison with other marketing methods.

If you’re exhibiting for hard sales and leads, then it’s a proven medium to help you meet your aims.

In order to get a good ROI, you need to make sure you carefully plan your event.

Once you’ve worked out how much the event will cost to attend (after adding up all those hidden costs too of transport, stand space, displays etc), work out how many leads or sales you have to make to break even. From here, you can set your

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exhibiting goals to define how successful your event was.

Get feedback There aren’t many other means of advertising that get you face-to-face with your future customers. It’s a great time to ask them questions, see which products they like and what they are looking for from you. It can be a real eye-opener to receive this feedback to help you grow and develop your new business in the right direction.

Establish your business There’s something to be said about being seen at exhibitions – being shoulder to shoulder with your competitors and allowing visitors to make a direct comparison between you to see who is best for them.

Of course, this also provides you with a perfect opportunity to establish yourself as part of the market and be seen as an equal player. To make sure you’re seen and heard above the noise, make sure you have stunning exhibition displays.

Brand awareness If you choose the right exhibition to attend for your business, then you’ll meet highly targeted customers. There’s a potential for

hundreds of people who could buy your products or services to find out more about you.

Remember that brand awareness plays a huge role in a purchasing decision – so being known before the start of a sales cycle is really important! So even those that don’t directly convert to anything more now, could do in the future.

Increase your data Being able to increase the number of people you’re in contact with about your business is really important in order to nurture them for repeat sales, increase their sales value and even to convert them from a lead to a sale.

By hosting a game, or competition on your stand you can ask for people to add their business card to a bowl or enter their contact details into a tablet to be entered to win a prize. Of course making sure that they understand that in exchange for their data you’ll contact them. From there, you’ve now got an opportunity to send them your email marketing messages as well as to phone them post-event to grow your data and ongoing awareness of your brand.

Sathesh is a freelance writer based in London. His main interests include economics, business methods, and labour relations. He is a History graduate from the University of Southampton.

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You've Started Your Business: What Next?

By Pascal Culverhouse Starting your own business is an incredibly exciting, yet daunting, adventure. While taking the leap from idea to execution is often the most difficult part, the hard work doesn’t stop there. To ensure your business is successful, you need to have a long-term strategy.

How Do I Stand Out Against Competitors?

Whatever business you run, you’re going to have competition - and it’s not enough just to continue doing what you’re doing. To one up your competitors you have to closely watch their efforts, focus on what they’re doing well, and then do it better.

Embrace What Makes You Different – this is vital as more and more people are using mobile devices and this is set to rise.

WhenIf you managed to start your own business, it’s likely that you have a viable product or service that there’s a place in the market for. What makes you distinctive isn’t always easy to identify, but once you

do, you have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that you can market. You should never forget to promote this, as it can make the crucial difference between your company, or your closest competitor, getting custom. If you’re in e-commerce, it might be that you deliver first-class, without fail. Your USP could lie in your supply chain. Where do you source your products from? Are they ethically made?

Perhaps you help out small businesses by sourcing your stock from independent companies. Whatever it is, make sure it’s the first thing your customers see, because if their values align with yours, you’ll have customers who will keep coming back for more.

Use Social Media Social media is a fantastic way of reaching out to your existing customers, as well as targeting new ones. Customers like to be treated as human beings, not a sales ticket.

Actively asking your followers for their opinion, and sharing content that is relevant to them and resonates with them, will make them more likely to be loyal to your brand. Shares across social media equals exposure, so the more people that are aware of your brand, the more business you’ll have flying through your door.

Bonus: How Can You Effectively Use Social Media?

Twitter has a great tool that allows you to monitor the influence of your tweets.

Twitter calls this “impressions”, and it’ll tell you which tweets got the most attention and shares. This way, you can monitor what sort of content your followers like (it might be specific topics, or content types such as lists, videos or infographics) and produce more of the same.

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What Is A Long-Term Plan, And Why Have One? Without a plan, your business can go south very quickly. While it’s never possible to account for every contingency, having a goal will help you focus your efforts. The best way to create a plan is to take it step by step. Start by looking at where you are now. What resources are taking up your time, and should you refocus that time on areas that are neglected? Then, look at where you want to be. Don’t be too ambitious here by saying you want your company to be grossing a certain amount in five years time. Try looking six months into the future. What do you want to have achieved? It might be increased exposure online, or a mail list of customers you can target with thoughtful copy and exclusive offers.

Once you have your main goal in mind, you can brainstorm solutions to help you attain it, and then put those steps in action. If you want increased exposure, perhaps you should put more effort into creating an effective marketing campaign. If your goal is to rank higher on Google, you can utilise SEO to optimise your website for keywords your ideal customer is using.

A long-term business plan will always be more effective if it’s put down in writing. If you have any employees, they’ll be able to refer to it so they know exactly what needs to be done to help your business reach its

targets. This need not be overwhelming, though. Take your strategy one step at a time and create small, realistic objectives to be completed in a time-frame. As you work through these tasks, revisit your timeline and revise it if necessary, based on your achievements.

Do I Need To Be Innovative?

In the changing scene of business and the way we interact with customers, being able to dream up new ideas of how you run your business is crucial. Too many businesses fall into the trap of getting too comfortable, and without fresh ideas, your business could be doomed. This doesn’t mean you should change your business and what it represents on a regular basis. In fact, that’s a bad idea.

What you should be doing, however, is generating a buzz around your product or service in ways that your competitors haven’t thought about. This could be taking a piece of industry news and taking a unique angle, or hosting a giveaway for new and existing customers.

When you’ve started your business, knowing what to do next can be an intimidating task.

However, making it successful is a long game, requiring hard work to build a social media presence and define what makes your company distinctive. Constantly innovate, have a long-term strategy, and you’ll find yourself in the best position to take your business to the top.

About the Author Pascal started Electric Tobacconist Ltd in July 2013 to complement his seasonal family business Fantastic Fireworks. After proving so popular and successful, he left the family business and has found himself with a growing number of staff and seven figure turnover.

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