3 minute read
Business Focus
What’s your favourite ‘F’ word?
There are two great ‘F’ words in business. There’s the one that comes to mind when you lose a contract, when your best employee quits or when Revenue says your business is due a VAT audit. That’s the bad ‘F’ word.
On That Great Business Show, known as ‘Ireland’s best business podcast’, we have another ‘F’ word that we like very much. That’s FREE. Every week on the show we have tips, hacks and insights from great businesses about doing business better. And our guests give that advice for FREE. We like! So, in no particular order, here are a couple of ideas to help promote your business and the beauty of them all is that they are free, so it’ll only take a little time on your part to help highlight your business ‘baby’. Enter Awards Once the awards are in some sense relevant to what you do, bang in an entry form. Nowadays, awards organisers know that if they make it difficult or cumbersome to apply, then applications plummet. That’s not what they want, so everything is simplified. Why awards? Well, you could win. That could mean a cash prize or maybe mentoring (details on right) and business advice. If you don’t win, you may still get national or local publicity, and you’ll network (details on right) with others in business in your area or sector. Facebook Everybody (well 75% of adults in Ireland) say they have a Facebook account, but very, very few know how to use it promote a business. Luckily for you Dave O’Hora of Limerick based www.Southern.ie gave a masterclass on using Facebook for business on Episode 43 of That Great Business Show, and it’s available for FREE on your favourite podcast platform. LinkedIn We’ll be doing a similar masterclass on using LinkedIn for business shortly on the podcast. Stay tuned…. Mentor Every businessperson needs a shoulder to cry on, and every business needs a mentor, a sounding board to bounce ideas off. Your Local Enterprise Office and Enterprise Ireland have fantastic, vetted, mentors that podcast guests say were transformative in the development of the mentee’s businesses. Find one, or a number of advisors, and keep them close. OK, they may not be free, but it might only cost you the price of a cup of coffee. Network It sometimes sounds crass and sometimes sounds dull, but it’s one of the easiest and most effective ways of developing your business. If people don’t know what you do and where you’re based, how are they meant to buy from you? Tell others in ISME about yourself through publications like this. Attend events relevant to your sector. Join organisations like the Irish International Business Network www.IIBN.com (full disclosure, I’m the current chair) – and you really have no idea who you’ll meet and what connections, national and international you can make – just by turning up and saying hello. Reviews When you’re buying a car, you read the reviews. Do the same for your business. Ask people to review your business on social media, on your website or wherever customers are likely to see them. If you know you’re doing things well, you have nothing to worry about, and plenty to be proud of. And, like the rest of the advice here, reviews are FREE.
Conall O Móráin is the presenter of the weekly That Great Business Show podcast series and you can tune in here . To have your business featured, contact producer@thatgreatbusinessshow.com or add details here.
