As I mentioned before, traditional business marketing is changing. TV, radio and print media are in decline, because more and more of our time is spent online, the convergence of all these entertainment technologies has been going on for over a decade now and for the time it all seems to be IP - Internet Protocol centric.

What has that to do with my small business(?) - you may ask. It is actually crucial for your small business to understand this trent so you can act on it and actually save some money, by not wasting it on the wrong advertising medium.

Your small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business, may have the greatest product or service, but if you can not make people find you and your products, your small business and business start-up is in trouble, before you even started. There are many parts to the successful small business puzzle and to prevent business failure - blogging could very well be one of them.

Every small business website should have a blog connected to it - needless to say that every small business without fail should have a website. It does not matter if you work globally or locally, a website and blog is a must, not just a nice to have.

A small business blog will help you with the following:

• providing a platform for your small business to interact with your customers
• getting real time feedback from your clients
• provide additional information about your business, services and products
• get your story told your way, offer some control of public opinion
• create buzz about your business and products

It is easy to get a blog with your website hosting company or from WinWeb - you can be up and running in minutes. Hosting your own blog can be more technically demanding, but above all it will waste a lot of your valuable time - writing the articles (posts) for your blog is important - not running your server and blogging software.

Remember nobody is going to tell your story for you and nobody can tell your story better than you yourself.

A lot is being said and written about Business Planning, but when you read the articles you often find it is not a business plan but a strategy plan. I have written in the past about business plans being not very helpful, one of the reasons is that before you do the plan you need to have a vision and strategy.

A complete business plan should consist of of three parts:

1. Vision - is the first step in the “entrepreneurial” process, it does not talk about sales, turnover and cost. It talks about a vision for the “whole” business for the future - 10 to 20 years ahead - it is the long-term goal, view or ideal that drives you small business or business start-up.
2. Strategy - the strategy is the articulation of your vision for your small business in which you put down the practical steps by which your small business is to achieve your vision, based on your current situation. The “strategy” plan has a 3-5 year time horizon.
3. Plan - your plan is only concerned with the next 12 month and is a “tactical” plan of how your small business is going to achieve your strategy.

The Vision & Strategy planning is also refereed to as corporate planning and looks at the business ( including small business) as a whole - it is not a plan for, rather than about the whole organisation. It is often said that only bigger business does this kind of planning - that is utter rubbish - you do it when you set up your small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses, as well - you have a vision. You may not write it down in a formal way, but you a have a vision and a strategy to achieve this vision:

….. I’m going to be the number one melted cheese pie producer in the world, I’m doing it by using my mum’s secret ingredient…….”

or

“….. I’m going to be the best IT consultant in the world by given the best customer service anyone has seen……”

or

“…… I’m going to be the biggest start-up and small business infrastructure provider in the world, I’m going to do it by offering unrivaled software and 24/7 support at the lowest price possible and combine it with real live services for the small business and the business start-up community ….” oh, hang on, no sorry that one is gone already

I think you should write yourself one of those sentences and then do a 12 month cash-flow based on this, if you then add a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) analysis to your plan - your are ready.

Even if you have already started your business - remember most businesses get started accidentally - it is never to late to get a piece of paper and write your vision and strategy down, it focuses the mind. Look at it every time you find it hard to make a decision - it will help.

When I talk here on my blog about outsourcing, bootstrapping or in my company to my fellow directors about more profit, sales, customers and all that with less time, then I’m really talking about improving business efficiency.

I even often misleadingly use the word “grow”, when I really mean efficiency. I’m not one of these people who thinks, that every business wants to grow in size - no, in profit, turnover and efficiency - YES! In todays networked world it is possible to “grow” your business virtually and increase your efficiency at the same time - rather than “grow” your fixed cost structure and decrease efficiency.

Here I just want to talk about which steps one might take to a more efficient small business:

1. look at you business critically and understand what your core business is
2. focus on your core business and objectives, do not waste time with non-core activities - outsource those
3. re-evaluate work processes, remove non-value-add activities, work out how to do that
4. re-evaluate your outsourced activities, are you getting a professional and efficient service
5. check your clients perception of your small business, ask for feedback

The drive for efficiency is an continuous effort in every business, not only small and start-up businesses, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses. It is this kind of thinking that will determine success or failure of your small business venture.

How efficient is your business - to think about that is a much more fascinating way to spend some “free and quiet time”, than watching television - it’s more exciting and rewarding too.

Most people want to start a small business for several reasons, the most common being that they don’t have to report to another person, they think it will give them plenty of time and finally and most importantly because they feel passionately about a business idea.

Start-ups have never been this easy before. Nowadays there is advanced technology that can help create an online office, take care of accounts, etc and essentially provide an entrepreneur with all the tools he or she requires to become successful.

However it is important to do a reality check before one begins a start-up:

* Starting your own business requires commitment and dedication. While you may choose to work at a time schedule that suits you this doesn’t mean you will have more free time than earlier.

* Financial insecurity: The initial phase of any SMB is marked with uncertainty and financial insecurity but this can be overcome with a good business plan that caters to all situations that may arise. Mind you if your own business is less financially secure than a job is still a matter for debate.

* Isolation: Being your own boss can be overwhelming and you will have to provide answers to your own queries and also to those of your employees. On-demand small business infrastructure is also a helpful tool to combat isolation, it helps you to build your own business community.

The Department of Trade and Industry has set up a taskforce that will provide a model for women entrepreneurs and help them break away from the mind set of owning small businesses that are more to do with passion and less to do with profits.
The taskforce is led by Australian Glenda Stone, who says that women usually start businesses for the wrong reasons; they are guided by passion for their venture rather than the basic principles of finance and profits.
The taskforce aims to change the trend of ‘cottage industries’, that women entrepreneurs usually focus on, to new ones that generate more wealth and jobs, and plan to grow and expand.

Surveys and studies by the Warwick Business School and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reveal that women entrepreneurs prefer to invest small amounts of capital and are averse to taking high risks.

Ms. Stone adds that women entrepreneurs need to focus on business finance and technology and should not restrict themselves only to retailing and personal business; ‘profits before passion’ she says should be the mantra of businesswomen.
A misconception she says that mumpreneurs seem to have is that a home business allows them more time and flexibility. While it does give them flexibility, the business requires dedicated work hours to make it a success.

I got a comment today from Ian Denny, to one of my earlier posts Success or Failure - Who cares? I then went to his blog to read about him, I think you should too. He calls his blog Phoenix from the ashes and writes:

Thoughts and feelings from a company founded from the ashes of one that had died. A story I intend to be one of hope for those who find themselves in “business despair” or as a consequence, potential financial ruin personally. At least at the time of creation, we had turned the corner and had hope for the future. So please read on to find out if the story had a happy ending.

I admire him, his candid reality check, very public goals and the hope for an happy ending. I wish him luck and from reading his posts I would say he is on the right way.

One can just hope that people like Ian find the strength to get up and do it again, despite the doubts and worries. There is only one person who can make Ian give up, that is Ian himself.

Tags: Business Failure, Client Relations, DIYPreneurs, Entrepreneur, SOHO

It is not only my SIIA On-Demand Conference engagement in Amsterdam or the fact that Phil’s post has been nagging me ever since I read it, but the fact we are doing some of - or sort of - what Phil has written about already for some time - and yet the impact has been small IMO, I am talking about giving our software away for FREE. But most of our almost 200k users have been acquired by direct contract with larger businesses with a stake in the small business sector - customer churn hurts anyone, even big boys.

Bearing in mind that I already said software has little value, I would like to discuss our current thinking for the near future with my readers and would be delighted to get some feedback on the blog or by email. Here is the deal:

AccountsOffice and CashBook

We would make a plug-in available that would allow anyone who has affiliations with small business to offer both products free of charge to their small business clients, we may charge a small fee (GBP 200/ US$ 400/ € 300) as a one off for white labeling, if needed. Some customization can be done when the system is set up, at sign up. So you would just go online sign up to the deal and within 30 minutes you could be up and running.

I’m thinking business mentors/advisors, trade associations, magazines, office suppliers, telcos, ISPs - you get the idea. This would create some stickiness (or lower the customer churn) for these web-sites. The clients would be served well with a free accounting system including our famed 24/7 support (see Paul Druckmans - former President of the ICAEW - testimonial).

OnlineOffice

For OnlineOffice (a 5 - user license) we would put out this “advertisers” pricing, including ALL the OnlineOffice products included in our price-list to endusers:

• Up to 100 licenses - GBP 100 / US$ 200 per month ( GBP 1 / US$ 2 per lic.) ;
• Up to 1′000 licenses - GBP 500 / US$ 1′000 per month ( GBP .5 / US$ 1 per lic.);
• Up to 10′000 licenses - GBP 4′000 / US $ 8′000 per month ( GBP .4 / US$ .8 per lic.):
• Up to 100′000 licenses - GBP 20k / US $ 40k per month ( GBP .2 / US$ .4 per lic.).

Our partners would only sign up for the 100 licenses deal and we would allow up and down movement in the pricing groups without penalty. This means between 90 to 98 % of the revenue stays with our advertising partners.
This in itself would allow big + small businesses, home businesses, lifestyle business, self-employed etc. to create revenue each month - basically for putting some advertising on their web-site, catalogues, membership or just offer it with the current service. For example web-designers, internet cafes, blogs, Virtual Assistants, call centers, to name but a few examples.

There is little downside, no real cost - lets face it many websites offer google ads, the earning potential for these websites with our advertising partnering is, if you have the right readers group.

For the big boys the upside is even bigger, they could just absorb the OnlineOffice cost and offer the service free of charge to their clients, to reduce customer churn, the so called “Business Offering” would not only include for example more call minutes or a higher monthly subscription, but would add real value to the relationship between supplier and client.

For WinWeb the upside is enormous, we get to provide the Small Business Infrastructure, incl. the Live! services, our advertising expenditure would remain very low, we keep our cost down (fixed and variable) and still have the advertising reach of a big budget spender.

Isn’t this what you were talking about, Phil? I am looking forward discussing this in Amsterdam.

I think this could be fun as we are ready to launch the new US software within days. It will also give me chance to compare the CPAs (US) with the professional accountants (UK), should be interesting - I will make sure I report on my findings.

What do you think - any takers?

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Client Relations, CPAs, Entrepreneur, FREE Business Tool, ICAEW, Institute of Business Advisors, Lifestyle Business, LinkBack, Marketing/PR, Micro Business, Office/IT, On-demand, On-Demand Europe ‘07, OnlineOffice, Outsourcing, SaaS, Sales, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, SOHO, VAs, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, VSB, Web 2.0, Web Technology, WebOffice, WebWare, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

What is it your business really needs an accountant or a business advisor, let’s look at it!

Your accountant will help you to prepare your annual income statement with which you will have a past look at your business. You will need this information to fill your tax statement, find out if your business is worth running - if you made or lost money. Maybe you decide to grow or close your business. Your accountant can also help you to prepare documentation to give to your bank to get a loan for your business.

But is that really what your business needs? Does your accountant take the time to find out if you really need that loan, or if you really need to close your business or just make some changes to the way you run your business, like outsource some of your non-essential business processes, let your employees work from home and with that reduce the fixed cost in your business. Have someone play the devil’s advocate with your business plan.

Your business needs a future before you need to worry about the past.

Unfortunately most accountants don’t “deal” in the future, they only look at the past performance of your business. This is where Business Advisors or Business Mentors come in. They are all about the future and the planning there of - that is what your business needs.

Importantly you need someone to give you good advice based on facts when you need it, not after you sent your papers or data-disk. By then your problem could be out of control or the opportunity gone. The only way to do that is by using an on-demand online system.

If your accountants starts talking to you about balance sheet and P & L, before he/she talks about cash-flow, do yourself and your business a favor - get up and leave and find a new advisor. The truth is most accountants have the same problems running their business as you have with your own.

But if you’re really lucky you could find a Business Advisor Accountant, then you would have found the best possible partner for success in your business adventure for the future and the past.

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, CPAs, Entrepreneur, Holden Associates, Institute of Business Advisors, Micro Business, Office/IT, On-demand, Outsourcing, Cash-Flow, SaaS, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, SOHO, Teleworking, VAs, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VSB, Web Technology, WebOffice, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

Before my meeting with Steve yesterday, I was interviewed on behalf of the Government of New Zealand, asking my opinion about doing business with New Zealand. We have several hundred New Zealand customers and I have been involved with my export activities with that region for a number of years.

What became clear from our conversation was, that New Zealand as a whole, is thinking about it’s place in the World in terms of business and live-style. European Governments, sit up and take note ” …. and live-syle!”

One other point caught my attention, and that is the notion, that entrepreneurship is hampered by the worry about failure. This is a fact I encounter very often when I am speaking at events or directly to entrepreneurs. One could just say: ” Don’t worry about that, life is too short!”, but that would not do it justice.

Success is a staircase of failures.

And to tell you the truth without failure, you can never build a really successful business. Let us look at this from a different point of view.

If someone comes up to you and says: ” Hey I like your product, it’s great.” What can you learn from that?

But if someone comes up to you and says: ” I don’t like your product, because…..!” Now you are learning, right?

Right, but this person also thinks you have failed in one way or another (!), yet this failure will move you forward. In other words you need to fail in order to provide a product or service that clients want to pay for. And sometimes the failure may be “catastrophic” for your business model, that does not mean it has to be catastrophic for you.

Once you include the possibility of “failure” in your business model, and act accordingly, you will not really FAIL. The only time you really fail, is if you give up yourself.

If New Zealand can find a way to teach their entrepreneurs to succeed with their “failures” and maintain a happy life-style, an ecologically sound and socially tolerant business environment, the whole world could benefit. I believe New Zealand to be in an almost unique position, to do this.

Let’s have it. New Zealand, New Thinking.

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Idea, Business Infrastructure, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Entrepreneur, Environment, Home Business, Homesourcing, Micro Business, New Zealand, On-demand, OnlineOffice, SaaS, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, SOHO, Teleworking, Very Small Business, VSB, WOW