AB: All-Round Nice Guy

At the beginning of this year, reports began to circulate in the media that the economy would be ‘off the boil’, or ‘heading for a rocky patch’. Whichever euphemism you choose, the story was clear: originating from the joys of the sub-prime mortgage markets, and arriving firmly on the doorsteps of our business, the economic outlook would be looking decidedly shaky for a season.

Talk of interest rate rises, combined with a general sense of unease about how long the downturn might last, meant that a lot of consumers decided to ‘keep their money in their pockets’ - and *that*, in turn has led to the a general blowout in payments amongst businesses, resulting in a fairly widespread cashflow crunch across the country.

So what really is cashflow? Why is it so important? And how the heck is my business going to survive this trend? Important questions - and if you don’t already know the answers, then it’s vital for your business that you read on…

Marketing your business is both a dark art, and an inspired work - that is, even with the best of intentions, marketing is a lot of trial and error, and plenty of hit and miss. Sometimes you make gains with bold new initiatives, but other times you’re just one of the many messages that radiates daily from the business world.

To use just *one more* cliché, the important point here is not to put all your eggs into the one basket - spreading around different marketing strategies is just the same theory as in the investment world: spread your risk, and make a secure return overall.

One of the best ways to spread your marketing message is to cover both extremes: highly targeted, under-your-nose type things, as well as far-reaching, low cost-per-view type things.

One of the best highly targeted marketing tools is a direct mailout - a brochure/catalog/catalogue/cattle dog - call it what you will, it’s either read voraciously, or used as a bin liner by millions daily.

And at the other end of the spectrum, one of the best ways to mass market is via the humble web site - build it and they will come… perhaps…?

It’s fitting that web sites without any changing content are back-handedly referred to as ‘brochureware’ in the industry, since both paper-based brochures and virtual brochures have both the ability to communicate strong marketing messages about your business, as well as ability to bore your customers to tears.

Since we’re aiming for ’strong messages’ here, and not for ‘bored to tears’, the following will show you the strengths and weaknesses of both types of brochure, when to use which one, and how to use *both* online and offline marketing to make good investments in your small business marketing.

OK - bear with me here - before I tell you how to have a more successful 2008, I’m going to talk about the *brand* of your business for a few paragraphs - but don’t go all glassy-eyed on me, OK?

In simple terms, the brand of your business is the total message your business communicates to your customers. It’s the sum of your logo, your shop fitout, your customer service, and your business ethos - everything that adds up to ‘the real you’ in business terms.

In pure marketing terms, ‘branding’ and ‘brand management’ are complex concepts that are often vague and immeasurable - so much so that small business owners don’t often invest too much time in ‘their brand’ - well, not knowingly, at least.

The great news is that the smaller a business you are, the more your own personal ethos infiltrates your business, to the point where your business reflects the person *you* are, and vice-versa - in effect, your own values and beliefs shape your business, and hence how your customers perceive your business
- your brand.

In short, for a small business, the big picture of your brand takes care of itself - all you have to do is keep on making small, smart improvements to your business marketing each year.

With that in mind, here’s some top tips for reviewing and re-invigorating your business in 2008.

As of June 2006, there were almost 2 million businesses in Australia, and almost 2 out of 3 of those are single-person businesses - the solopreneurs, if you like. A proportion of these businesses must be contractors working for a company as a contracted employee, but the vast majority are people like, well, you and me - soloists who have a niche, and are actively making a go of their business…

…but what happens when soloist turns into… soloist, plus one?

Obviously, you’re doing something right, so my hearty congratulations - but suddenly, some major selling points of being a solo businessperson turn into a real surprise: whereas before, you didn’t have to have meetings with yourself, or write down internal memos from your marketing department to your accounting department - now, suddenly, you have to hand stuff over to your new employee. Very scary stuff.

But how do you get your knowledge out of *your* brain, and into the hands of your new staff? For that matter, this is just as important if you’re in a client/service relationship or even if you’re in a parent/child relationship - so take heed all ye bosses/clients/parents!

Whether you sell widgets, or you service widgets, or you sell your time and skills to others who make widgets, sometimes your business is in a crowded market, and there’s not that much that differentiates your business over other business - at least, not in the eyes of your customers. Certainly, customer service, professionalism, price and quality are the cornerstones of any successful business - but let me add in one more to the mix: good design.

Sure, it’s intangible - spending time and effort making your business look better or run a little smarter doesn’t translate directly into selling any more widgets - but to put it into footy terminology, it’s simply another ‘one percenter’. Well, those one percenters win matches - so lets look at few ways for your business to kick some goals…

We live in world of marketing buzz and hype, where we are bombarded daily with hundreds of messages all telling us what is or isn’t good for us. Every day, new ways of ‘cutting through’ the volume of advertisements and marketing hype have to be invented to get some sort of traction in the marketplace - even if only for a short time before the next ‘big thing’ arrives…