Posts Tagged ‘danny brown’
Advertising Do’s and Don’ts
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
If you’re looking to create an advertising campaign for your business, you need to make sure you approach it correctly if you want it to make an impact. This is regardless of what form your advertising will take - online, print, television or radio. After all, you’re probably spending quite a bit on the advertising costs, so you need to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.
Here’s a list of do’s and don’ts when developing your campaign:
Keeping it Clean
Do use simple ideas: Focus your campaign on one image, slogan, or concept.
Don’t have 4-5 images vying for attention: your ad will likely confuse readers into just turning the page.
Do keep it short: Give them 2-3 benefits and enough interest to make them want to find out more.
Don’t clutter the page with too much information: Again, don’t confuse people with information overload. Save all the extraneous information for your brochure, catalog, or advertorial piece.
Do keep it relevant: Think of your target audience and give them only the offers or benefits relevant to them. You’ll get a much better response rate.
Don’t just throw everything you have out there: If you have several different product lines, you don’t want to talk about all of them in one ad. Relevance is key!
It’s All in the Headline
Do make your headline short and impactful: a website has less than 10 seconds to grab your attention when you land on it. An advertisement has even less, so you need to grab your intended audience from the word “Go!” This means that your headline needs to be snappy, sharp and effective.
Don’t have a long-winded headline: The more your audience has to read, the more bored they’ll become. Get to the point!
Do compare where necessary: consumers want to know why they should buy from you and not your competitors - give them benefits.
Don’t go on too much about your company: you’ll just put your audience off altogether. Offer them something instead - anything that shows what’s in it for them.
Stand Out Visually
Do grab attention with your logo or a graphic: Think about the slogan for clothes designer FCUK - at first glance, you have to look twice to make sure you haven’t misread. This is the kind of attention you want - a catchy slogan and one that stays in your mind after you’ve seen it. If you can afford to, have a professional designer come up with some examples for you.
Don’t be too clever: The last thing you want is for your ad to be so clever that your audience has to think too long to get it. Remember, 10 seconds…
Tags: advertising, advice, danny brown, Marketing, marketing campaign, Marketing Your Business, tips
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Health Insurance for the Self-Employed
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Although being self-employed offers many advantages - being your own boss, enjoying all the profits, etc - there are also some downsides. For example, you no longer receive sick pay from your employers should you fall ill. Obviously this can pose problems, especially if you have mortgage payments to meet and other monthly outgoings, since without any sick pay, you don’t have any income when not working. Thankfully, there are options to take out health insurance if you’re self-employed.
Exploring the Options
The first thing you need to do when arranging self-employed health insurance is to compare the different insurance providers. One of the problems with being self-employed when it comes to health insurance is that it can often be more expensive to arrange than if you were fully employed by a company. However, if you look around and compare your options, you should be able to find providers that offer rates that are comparable to full-time employed benefits.
You can either do this via calling health insurance providers in your local area, or for more options use a search engine like Google to find online providers. An excellent resource to use is Health Insurance Info , which offers details on what health insurance plans are available in your particular state. Additionally, it also informs you of potential high-risk industries, as well as the providers that specialize in different areas.
Other options available to you include the Small Business Service Bureau , or SBSB, which not only offers advice on health insurance cover for the self-employed, but also general business tips for running your own business. Having a site that combines all this information onto one dedicated portal can make running your business a lot easier.
Perhaps one of the best websites for dedicated advice on where to arrange your self-employed health insurance is eHealth Insurance . Here you can compare up to 70 health insurance providers, with policies to suit your particular needs. If there’s any drawback to this site, though, it’s that it doesn’t cover all US states - if your business is in Rhode Island, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont, you won’t be able to take out insurance.
Additionally, the policies are only for one person - so, if you’re running a business yourself you’ll be fine, but if you employ people they won’t be covered. You can get round this by only employing sub-contractors, who would then have to take care of their own health plans and taxes, etc.
If you’re unsure, the best option is to speak to your local Chamber of Commerce. These can advise what options are available in your state, and you may even be able to receive self-employed health insurance cover via a Municipal Employees Health Insurance Program. Although traditionally for employed workers, some states will allow this to cover small business owners as well, so make sure you find out if it’s applicable where your business is.
Tags: danny brown, health insurance, health insurance info, home based business, self-employed, small business service bureau, Starting a Business
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The Importance of Managing your Business Plan
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
One of the key points in any new business is having a business plan to get your company started. This allows you to see where your finances will be used, what markets are open to your product and service, how you’ll attract customers and much more. However, once your business is established, you shouldn’t just forget about your original business plan - indeed, you should continue to refer to it and change as necessary.
Since the business world evolves continuously, it’s more important than ever to be ready to face any new challenges that you might encounter. This is where managing your business plan effectively will come into its own.
Have Regular Reviews
To ensure that your business plan is current to your particular business needs and requirements, it’s an excellent idea to set up a regular review process. This can be monthly, bi-monthly or even quarterly - however, anything over that timescale is probably leaving it too long. You can carry out the review if you’re a sole proprietor, although having an external business analyst or specialist to look over it with you is a sensible idea. If your business has numerous employees, then your Senior Management should review the business plan.
Once you decide on the frequency of the review, it’s time to ensure that you have set agendas to discuss in the review. These should include:
* Review of previous/existing business plan
* Changes in strategy to future business plan
* Agree how long reviews should last
* Set result comparisons on how well your business plan is performing
Although these are just some of the basic steps you should be looking at when reviewing your current business plan, they’re often the most used as well, so it’s a good idea to make sure you include them when planning and carrying out your review.
Why You Need a Regular Review
When you first started your business, it’s more than likely that the market was very different from how it is now. Even if you’re fortunate enough to be in a particular niche where there’s very little competition, you can never rest on your laurels - too many businesses have failed this way.
This is why reviewing your business plan regularly is so important. As an example, think about how the Internet has changed the face of business. If you just have a business plan in place that only has plans on how to compete with local businesses, then your online competitors will soon leave you behind. So you need to make sure that your business plan is updated to not only take into account your offline bricks and mortar business needs, but also any online presence you have. It’s not difficult to maintain a business plan, but it’s extremely important for any real success to happen.
Tags: advice, business plans, danny brown, management, managing your business plan, tips, updating your business plan
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Why Soft is the New Hard Sell
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
One of the most successful movies at depicting business life was ‘Wall Street”. Made and set in the property boom and “me too” decade of the 80’s, it was the perfect example of the “hard sell” approach of sales and advertising. Now, however, despite some people still relating selling or advertising a product as normally “hard selling”, many companies are turning to the method of “soft” selling to get their message across.
The difference here is that instead of aggressively “forcing” your advertisement onto consumers and customers, your business should now adopt a softer approach that will actually make them more likely to buy from you. This is because they won’t see you as trying to make them buy your product - instead, you will appear to be trying to help them with their requirements.
Soft Selling in Action
If you’re still unsure of why your business should be using a soft sell approach to both your marketing and advertising campaigns, then the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign is a perfect example. Instead of using super-thin models to promote their products, the advertising campaign for Dove’s beauty products uses real women of all shapes and sizes. The message is that Dove knows that not all women are magazine perfect, and they’re celebrating this by using real women with real body shapes.
The success of this approach has seen sales of Dove products increase massively - despite Dove products often costing more than their counterparts. This is testament to how their advertising campaign has clicked with women everywhere, and has also resulted in their competitors using similar tactics.
Soft Selling and Your Business
Once you realize the benefits of soft selling, it’s time to see how it can work for your company. Depending on the market you’re in, you will have to take a different approach to ensure you target the customers you want. However, no matter which industry you’re in, the key to a successful soft selling campaign is to make sure that you’re using it effectively. To do this, you need to come across as offering a solution without actually trying to sell that service or product.
Another good example is the current campaign by Apple, showing why Mac’s are better than PC’s. The adverts don’t attack the PC, or say that it’s an inferior product - instead, they show what a Mac can do, and that it can actually do everything a PC can do and more. Because Apple isn’t deriding the PC industry, potential customers see Apple as a friendly company who doesn’t have to stoop to low-end advertising tricks, and as such Apple Mac sales have increased exponentially.
Let your business take the same approach - instead of calling out your competitors, let your advertising show that your product offers a solution to everyday needs. Slogans like “We understand…” or “Let’s talk about…” offer a softer and friendlier approach, and should see your sales and customer base increase accordingly.
Tags: advertising, advice, danny brown, Generating More Sales, hard selling, Marketing, Marketing Your Business, Sales, soft sellng, tips
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Using Your Website to Increase Customer Loyalty
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
One of the best ways for any business to maximize their profits is to keep their customers happy - after all, happy customers usually mean loyal customers, and loyal customers mean sales. For small businesses in particular, though, keeping your customers happy can often mean the difference between your business surviving, or falling prey to the larger companies in your niche. There are many ways to keep your customers happy and coming back to you, but one of the most useful and cost-effective methods is by using your company website.
Think about it - in today’s business environment, most sales now take place online. And if someone is looking for a particular supplier or provider of a product or service that they’re after, then that person will probably look for a business using an online search engine like Google, as opposed to looking in a phone book or calling directory inquiries. So it makes sense for your website to be the ideal tool to not only get your customers in the first place, but keep them coming back afterward.
Make Your Site Interactive
So how can you use your website to its maximum effect to keep your customers happy? There are many ways, yet one of the best and most proven is to make your website as interactive as possible. This doesn’t mean that you have to have dedicated sections where visitors can pretty much have carte blanche to change the look of your site. However, there are a lot of options available to you to make your site interactive for both new visitors and existing customers.
The best method of interaction is offering your customers something that makes them feel involved - this could be a newsletter that they can sign up for, with special early offers on new product launches, for example. Or it could be a newsletter offering advice on how they can best use your products in either their everyday personal or business lives.
Another way to entertain customers while they’re on your website is to make it engaging. One of the best ways to do this is to have something like a talking character that responds to their query - there are numerous pieces of software and technical companies that can arrange this for you. The more advanced the software, the more responsive and interactive the experience, leading to more fun for your customers.
Ask Their Opinions
Almost everyone likes to think that their opinion matters, no matter how much or little expertise they might have on a given subject. Therefore, it stands to reason that they will be more receptive to a company if they feel that business is really listening to their needs. One of the ways you can do this via your website is to have a forum. Here visitors can log in and post comments on anything from your products to items they would like to see. By having a forum moderator from your company, you can ensure that customers know their ideas and suggestions are being taken seriously.
These are just some of the options available to you to make your website more interactive and fun for your customers. Even just having one of two of them will make a world of difference, and should see your client retention rates increase dramatically.
Tags: customer loyalty, customer retention, danny brown, E-Commerce and E-Business, Interactive Sites, Web Design
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Keeping Your Small Business Costs Low
Monday, April 21st, 2008
It’s often hard enough to run a successful business, whether you’re a small-to-medium business owner or a large multi-national. Making it even more difficult are the costs involved if you’re a small business looking to either launch a new product or service, or even your company website. Thankfully there are a host of options and resources available for you to take advantage of, and very often they’re either free or extremely cost-effective.
Use Networking Opportunities
As a small business owner, you’ve probably heard of networking, and may even have attended specific networking events. Bringing together like-minded business people of similar backgrounds, networking can be a great way of promoting your business in a very cost-effective manner. Instead of having to spend thousands on advertising, you can often pick up new clients or affiliate partners for your products at networking events.
Look for Non-Profit Options
Another excellent method of keeping your business costs low is by using non-profit companies. These can offer you sound business advice, from starting a business to maintaining a business plan, as well as the legalities involved in running a business. Additionally, because they’re non-profit, you won’t have to pay exorbitant fees to gain this advice - very often it’s free. Non-profit companies and groups are normally made up of business experts in your field as well, who have enjoyed their own success and simply wish to help others become successful too. Check with your local SCORE organization or Chamber of Commerce for details of what’s available in your area.
Small Business Administration
Across America, one of the very best resources for businesses looking to keep their costs low is the Small Business Administration, or SBA. Set up over 50 years ago, the Small Business Administration has been pivotal in helping many new businesses get off the ground, as well as continue to trade afterwards. Acting as a completely independent agency of the U.S. Federal Government, the SBA can help small businesses find financial aid packages at far lower costs than traditional business loans, as well as put the owners of these businesses in touch with experts who can help them grow. Additionally, there is a dedicated section on the SBA website that caters solely for new start-ups, and as such is an invaluable resource for small business owners.
Use Your Local Resources
While the SBA offers excellent online resources (as well as various offices throughout the US), it’s not always convenient if you want to sit down and discuss your options with someone. This is where your local information outlets can come into their own. Economic development organizations are a good example, and can be found statewide. Much like the SBA, these organizations can offer both technical advice as well as details on how you can raise capital for your business. They also offer groups similar to networking set-ups, where you can speak with experts in your particular niche.
Tags: Accounting, business costs, cutting costs, danny brown, Finance and Accounting, saving money, tips
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Use a Professional Employment Organization and Save on Recruitment Costs
Friday, April 18th, 2008
If your business is successful enough to have numerous employees, then you’ll be aware of how costly it can be to administer. Whether it’s employee benefits, health plans, simple payroll details or more, the costs to maintain your employee base can soon mount up. If you’re finding that it’s a cost that’s draining your finances, then you may want to consider using a Professional Employment Organization, or PEO.
What is a PEO?
The best way to look at a professional employment organization is to consider it an outsourced part of your existing HR department. They can handle everything that an in-house HR department can, and often much more as well. For example, because experts in HR staff an outsourced HR company, you can be sure that people who know what they’re doing, as opposed to a single HR specialist in-house with normal administrative assistants, are meeting all your employee details.
Additionally, as well as the cost-effectiveness of a professional employment organization, they can also handle the legal aspects that having a business with employees can entail. This includes hiring the employee; setting up their payroll details, insurance and taxes; and generally employing your staff member for you.
One area not to confuse a PEO with is that of a temporary employment agency. Although a PEO is providing you with your staff, it’s actually as a full-time employee, as opposed to a temp who could move on at any time. This means that should an employee provided to you by a PEO wish to leave your company, they have to work to your requirements. So if you need one month’s notice or three months, that’s what they have to abide by.
The Benefits of a PEO
One of the biggest benefits of using a PEO is the overall savings it can make to your company’s finances. Since you’re not responsible for any of the employee’s costs, you don’t have to worry about the extra costs that these can incur - setting up taxes and the related admin costs, health plans, training, etc. All these costs are taken care of by the PEO.
Additionally, since a PEO handles all of the employee’s financial details, they can also offer benefits that you might not be eligible for with a normal recruitment agency. For example, you could enjoy the benefits of group insurance, enabling you to save even more money on your usual employee costs. A PEO can offer you this package since it supplies numerous small businesses with employees, and can therefore offer the savings involved back to the employer.
If your business looks set to expand and you need new staff, consider a PEO before you set any advertising in motion for recruitment purposes. Not only will it save you the cost of the advertising, but it can save you much, much more in the long run.
Tags: advice, danny brown, hiring, Hiring and Human Resources, professional employment organizations, recruitment, tips
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Business Loans and Peer-to-Peer Options
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
One of the most difficult parts of any small business is to have the funding you need. Whether it’s start up costs or the need for new equipment, the cost can often be more than you can afford. One way around this is to take out a business loan - yet what happens if you don’t have the relevant credit, or your business hasn’t been trading long enough to qualify? This is where peer-to-peer business loans come into the equation.
Working much the same way that a more traditional business loan works, the big difference with a peer-to-peer loan is that it’s funded by private individuals, which can include friends and family, and managed by larger companies. These include Prosper, Virgin Money, Lending Club, Zopa and GlobeFunder amongst others. The business owner gets the loan they need, and it’s carried out like a normal business transaction, with all the relevant protection and repayment options.
While it’s not quite as prevalent as a traditional business loan yet, the amount of business owners and entrepreneurs now using the peer-to-peer option is growing considerably. For example, both Virgin Money and Lending Club provide a peer-to-peer business loan to as much as 20% of their overall borrowers. The same goes for Prosper, with the average peer-to-peer loan sitting at between $9,000 to $21,000.
The reason for the increase in the amount of business owners looking to the peer-to-peer business loan option is that the more traditional lenders are tightening their belts. Due to poor stock markets and higher defaulters, banks and financial institutes are turning down borrowers whose credit is good, since the risk factor is too great. Without the peer-to-peer option, this would result in many more businesses falling by the wayside, which would simply add to the low confidence in the business markets.
Another reason for the increase in peer-to-peer loans is that it allows people who may not have a business “head” to become involved in a business they’re interested in. Although not a partner as such, a lender of a peer-to-peer loan feels like they are contributing to that business’s success, and this leads to more opportunities for borrowers to find the money they need.
If you’re considering a peer-to-peer loan for your business, or even if you’re considering becoming a lender yourself at a later date, make sure that you carry out a few simple checks, to ensure that you don’t end up out-of-pocket later on. These checks include asking for references or credential checks from interested parties. You should also check the company out at the Better Business Bureau, which can advise of any complaints raised about the company in question. Even a simple search engine check will bring up any negative news about any peer-to-peer lender, and will potentially save your business thousands.
Tags: advice, business loans, danny brown, Finance, Finance and Accounting, peer to peer loans, small business loans, tips
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Non-Compete Contracts and Whether or Not You Should Use Them
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
With businesses constantly wary of losing staff to rival companies, many are now enforcing what’s known as non-compete contracts. This is where new employees sign a contract that states they cannot contact a client of their old company to take them to their new place of work. It usually applies for anywhere between 2-3 years from the date the ex-employee leaves the company. However, whilst it’s an excellent way for business owners to protect not only their clients but also their intellectual property, it can also have its negative sides.
The Pros of Non-Compete Contracts
The obvious benefit of having a new employee sign a non-compete contract is the protection it offers you and your business. Say you have an excellent sales person who accounts for over half of your annual sales alone - there’s a reason they have such a high success rate, and a lot of it has to do with the relationship with the client. If that same salesperson was to leave your company, there’s a strong possibility that they could take their best clients with them, which could prove extremely costly for your company. Having them sign a non-compete contract will negate this possibility.
The other benefits of having a non-compete contract is that they can save you a fortune in legal fees if there was a case of an ex-employee stealing your best clients. Since they signed the contract in question, any defense they would have had would be null and void, as they would be in breach of contract.
The Downside
While there’s no question that a non-compete contract can offer you a high level of protection when it comes to your core business, they can also have the opposite effect as well. One of the biggest downsides of enforcing these types of contracts is that it can actually put people off wanting to work for your business.
With employees changing jobs as frequently as they do in today’s job market, anyone looking at a company that has a non-compete contract in place might actually prefer to look elsewhere. This is particularly true if it’s a sales role that you’re looking to fill, with many salespeople preferring to build from an old client base as opposed to starting from scratch.
They can also be difficult contracts to enforce, even in a court of law or employment tribunal. In the US especially, there are many states that won’t officially recognize a non-compete contract. And although a decision may go your way in court, the cost of bringing it to trial in the first place can be an expensive endeavor.
The Alternative
Since there is no clear-cut strength and weakness of a non-compete contract, many companies are now looking at alternatives. One of the most popular is the “300% Contract”. Instead of a new employee signing a non-compete contract, they will agree instead that should they leave and take any of your clients with them, they will have to pay you compensation to the value of 300% of that client’s annual spend with your company.
Tags: advice, danny brown, employees, Hiring and Human Resources, legal, management, non-compete contracts, tips
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The Importance of Starting a Social Marketing Campaign
Monday, March 31st, 2008
In order to bring in new customers, many businesses use expensive advertising methods. From newspaper adverts to trade magazines, radio or television commercials or more, the cost to get your business name out in the open can often be an expensive undertaking. However, there is another method that you can use, and it’s both inexpensive and hugely effective - social marketing.
What is Social Marketing?
At its simplest, social marketing is a method of online marketing that can bring very substantial results for businesses that use it. By working to a set plan over certain timescales, you can use things like blogs, social networking sites, online forums and much more to drive new traffic to your company website. And new traffic very often means new customers.
There are literally hundreds of ways that you can use a social marketing campaign to get results; however, if you’re new to the idea then there are certain ones that are easier than others to implement from the beginning.
Make a Timetable
Just like any part of your business’ marketing plans, social marketing needs to be approached properly and with a solid plan of attack. Making time in your day-to-day workings will ensure that you can concentrate all your energies onto getting the right ideas across.
Use Social Media Sites
Over the last few years, traditional methods for reporting the news have gradually been replaced by social media sites. These websites have millions of users who share news stories as soon as soon as they break, often beating established news sites to the punch. Places like Digg, StumbleUpon and Technorati are excellent for users to recommend stories and other websites. If you set up a profile, you can then have friends and colleagues start to recommend your news to other users, which in turn will lead to an increased interest in your business.
Start a Blog
Often looked upon as the musings of lonely people with nothing better to do, blogs done properly can be as effective a marketing tool as you could possibly think. Not only can blogs offer a great opportunity to have the very latest news from your business made available, they can also allow you to show your strengths as an expert in the areas that you’re talking about. Once people start reading your blog and agreeing with what you’re writing, they’ll most probably look at the business that the blog is associated with.
You can start a blog fairly easily - either as a sub-domain on your existing website, or as a separate entity that links back to your site. This second option is an excellent way of growing links to your website as well, which is another important aspect of social marketing. By combining all these aspects, you’ll soon have a far improved presence online, and one that the likes of Google will soon pick up on.
Tags: advice, danny brown, E-Commerce and E-Business, Growing Your Business, marketing campaign, Marketing Your Business, online marketing, social marketing, tips
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