All the Advertising and Marketing Gurus talk about positioning as the key to success. What do they really mean? The definition of positioning is ‘Placing your offering before a receptive and available market’. So what is positioning about? Is it just a shrewd instinctive guess as to what will happen next in the economy? A talent for identifying what the right place and the right time will be in 6 months or a year? Or is it about something else?
After what we have experienced over the past year to 18 months it would seem that most of the experts, on whom we relied for advice and leadership, were not so expert at all. In fact they seem to have made a rather large mess of things. My question to you is: What are we to do? We can sit there, listen to the journalists hyping up the problems and wait for something to happen or we can get on with running our business as efficiently as we can. Which will you pick?
The reality is that 90% of people still have jobs. And that means there is about 80% of the money that was here in 2007 is still available. If that is true then the economic problems are mostly about consumer confidence. Small Business can operate in a low confidence time because of the personal touch. I intend to use that personal touch to generate new business in 2009-10.
Invest and Re-Invest
Warren Buffett (American business guru) says that the shrewd business will ‘buy when they are selling and sell when they are buying’. That means that if you have money in this economy there are opportunities all over the place for you. Do you have some SSIA money left? Have you an investment in the credit union or post office losing value? This is the time to make a shrewd investment. All investments have some basic level of risk. If you are in business then it is safe to assume that you can handle a calculated risk. A few questions that you could ask yourself are:
1 Is there a business like yours out there that has customers but is not run very well? Would you consider buying that business? The owner might be willing to sell at a low price in the current market. Michael Smurfit has said repeatedly that it is cheaper to buy a business than to build one up.
2 Could you build up your business with a view to selling it when the turnaround happens?
3 Is there an opportunity to combine with another business and expand your client base while cutting down your overheads?
4 Would it be a good time to have a few sessions with a coach or an enterprise officer to explore some of the possible options?
Whatever you decide, timing will be critical. Now is the time to act. If you hesitate the opportunity may pass you by; but on the other hand neither should you rush into any decisions. Decisions should be considered carefully in order to get the best possible result.
Growing your Existing Business
If the investment route isn’t one you want to follow there are actions can you take over the next 90 days that will position you well for the change that has to come. There are 3 things to work on from today that will put you in a good position as soon as the money starts to flow again.
1. Your Mind Set (where you are to start with)
2. The Roadmap (Where you are going)
3. Read & Learn (Some tools to get there)
The Mind Set
If you were going on a long trip to a place where you had never been before you would consult a map to see the shortest route wouldn’t you? Why should business be any different?
It is a FACT that people who set goals and targets for themselves and their business are 93% more likely to succeed than people who don’t.
Are you part of the top 5% of businesses who plan or the 95% who don’t?
To position yourself for success you can boil it down to taking just 8 steps which if you do them you are almost guaranteed to succeed.
1) Decide where you are going. (Set your Long Term Goal 3-5 Years)
2) Find a Measuring stick for your Success (Money? Happiness? Etc)
3) Write down the goal in detail and look at it every day to see how much progress you’ve made
4) Break down the target into bite sized pieces so that you can do a little bit every day. Put in milestones along the way.
5) Figure out how long it should take for each step
6) Put that into a time plan that will get you the results at the right time
7) Be prepared for setbacks and ADAPT
8) The NIKE step (Just Do IT)
The Roadmap
Once you know where you are going you need the map to get there. So let’s break it down to pure practicalities. Let’s assume that your sales are down by 40% on last year (the national average). Does this mean that your profit - the amount you have for yourself - is also down by 40% or is it different? If you don’t know the answer to this question then this is the right place to start. Find out. Information gives you the power to act.
You need a recovery target. How much do you need to earn in order to have a reasonable life? If you can’t figure that out you need to talk to your accountant or your bookkeeper and get the information. The old saying applies. If it can’t be measured it can’t be managed. If it can’t be managed then you’re not in control and being out of control can be very scary. So manage the numbers and so get in control of things again.
Now back to the drop off in sales. Do you need the 40% back in sales or is there another way to change the numbers? What about costs?
What are you spending money on? How much each month? Write the numbers down. What can you change by even 10%
· Rent/Rates Could you negotiate a rent holiday with the landlord, or a mortgage holiday with the bank? Ask them!
· Motor & Travel Do you look at the price before you fill up?
· Phones : Are you on the cheapest price for Phones, Electricity and other utilities?
· Insurances When renewal time comes can you get a better deal by being a bit pushy?
· Loans You could do a period on interest only on longer loans or re structure a loan in order to get repayments down. Do you need an overdraft to help you through?
· Advertising/Promotion Is it working? Have you got a measure on the return on advertising spend? How much does it cost you to get a new client?
Once you have costs under control you move on to customers.
How many times per year do they spend with you? How much is the average spend per client? What value add or promo can you do for existing customers (they are easier to influence to buy more). You can work all this out.
Now you know how much money you need. You know how many clients that adds up to and what your profit margin is.
You know what short term solutions you need for your problems and so you have begun the journey to recovery. Use that model as a basis Build on that to make a longer term strategy to deal with cost management. You still need to get new customers so you will need some Innovative Marketing Strategies. There is a whole article about this in the newsletter. Pick at least 3 of the strategies and try them out. Test them, Measure their effect and stick with what works.
Read and Learn
The most successful business people are recognised to read at least one book a week. Some good books to read are:
Who Moved my Cheese | Spencer Johnson |
Golden Apples | Bill Cullen |
The Richest Man in Babylon | George S. Clason |
The Magic of Thinking BIG | David J Schwartz |
Selling | Tom Hopkins |
Awaken the Giant Within | Anthony Robbins |
Goals | Brian Tracey |
The One Minute Manager | Ken Blanchard |
All of these are available free at your local library
Don’t get hung up on reading them cover to cover. Just dip in and out you will find gems in them all.
Re-Read the notes from any training course you did, especially the notes you wrote yourself. They are the best ones.
Nothing in this article will change anything unless you use it. I wish you luck in the economic recovery.
Peter Cronin is a trainer. Peter accepts e mail queries on peter@alaymont.com www.alaymont.com
