gurugeoffrey

Thursday 22^nd December 2011

Going through life just hoping things will get better is what a lot of people think and indeed do! Unfortunately, this does not give us or our family a quality of life that we should have, or expect but I’m sure that you already know that without me saying it.

We are now coming to the end of a very eventful year, one that I think, as most free thinking individuals will agree, has not been the best of years for the business world and for us as well. We have faced so many businesses in crises, with more businesses going under in the United Kingdom and personal bankruptcies, this year, than ever before, in a single year.

So what are you going to do about it? We generally start to think about New Year resolutions at this time of year don’t we? I feel now, more than ever, that four words come to my mind every day that should kick start our thinking for the New Year; they are:

Ø Confidence: - “If you think you’re beaten; YOU ARE.” So combat that by bringing back that original confidence you had when you first started out in business, that same confidence that got you to where you are now. Any mistakes made this year, just take them on the chin, except them, learn by them and get on trying to better things. Remember, without making those mistakes you don’t learn, so, have the confidence to carry on.

Ø Commitment: – What have you committed to so far to get where you are now? You’ve probably worked for long hours, not been there to see the children off to bed, given up family weekends and holidays, for what; to make sure your business survives. You’ve probably had many sleepless nights worrying about where the energy and money will come from to survive. One thing that has always been with you has been your commitment to what you’re doing, a very commendable attribute that you have and should be proud off.

Ø Communication: - One of the failings of a lot of small businesses and therefore budding entrepreneurs is the lack of communication. What do I mean? Well firstly our family, they take the brunt day-in day-out and yet we don’t keep them informed as to problems facing us on a daily basis. We are frightened to admit to our loved ones that we are having problems. That we are not coming up to the standards we set them when we first had this business venture. We don’t want them to think, we’re a failure. Well that’s wrong, communicating with your family is one of the keys, remember they have put up with everything so far, they have stuck with you so far. Give them the satisfaction of helping you NOW. I know that sometimes it is very difficult, I’ve been there.

Ø Control: - This is when we have to really dig very deep into our mental reserves. You have managed to keep control up to now, possibly with difficulty but you’ve managed, so don’t give in now. I know over the Christmas period with so many businesses closed, with so many companies using the excuse, “the cheque’s in the post” and you’re relying on those monies to survive and carry on over the shutdown.

What should I do?

The first thing that’s needed is to prioritise. Prioritise what YOU require during 2012 and then having done that, look at prioritising what your business requires.

By focusing in this order you are going to receive the help required from your family to be able to tolerate you during the year because they will understand, by standing Full Square behind you. Take it from me, it will mean that things will be easier for them later in the year.

Your business, is it over staffed? An emotive question, remember you’re looking at you and your family’s survival first for in 2012.

Start looking at reducing your overheads further:

· Are you carrying too much raw material?

· Are you carrying too much finished product?

· Are you giving your debtors too long to pay you?

These are just a few things that you should be looking at going into the New Year; there will be many more when you start looking into your business dealings.

Have you stuck to your Business-plan during 2011, or is it just stuck in the bottom draw of the filing cabinet gathering dust? Is your market research up to date?

Remember I have been through all the above at different stages of my life and am only trying to give you a few warning signals.

Keep looking at my Weblog for more tips. Sign in for my ”Thought for the Day “link below:

May I take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year in 2012. Thank you for your support during this past year.

Friday 16th December 2011

I have heard the question, why set goals, many times. Goal setting has many benefits. You may ask, what’s in it for me, well here are some great reasons to set your goals.

1. You are focused on what YOU want to achieve. By setting goals, you have clearly stated what you want, not what someone else desires.

2. Your self-confidence increases as you reach milestones along the way. As you complete each action step towards your goal, your self-confidence grows because you can see the concrete results of your efforts.

3. You are no longer confused about what action to take. Rather than starting many different projects and failing to accomplish any of them, goals direct you to take action in specific areas that will move you closer to achieving your desired result.

4. You are able to prioritise your time. Your action plan, with its associated time frames, is a commitment you make to yourself. With this commitment, you will be able to more easily prioritise your available time because you know to do otherwise is only cheating yourself. Goals help prevent you from using available time for unproductive purposes.

5. You can see hope for better things. Goals let you design your future. You may not be where you want to be today, but you are able to see what tomorrow can bring.

6. You can see possibilities you never saw before. The results of taking action, is a lot like buying a new car. Before you bought your car, you may not have noticed that particular model. All of a sudden, you start to see a lot of cars just like yours. The same applies to your goals. Once you start to take action, you are able to see possibilities and opportunities that were probably there all along, but because you were not focused, you could not see them.

7. You are able to accomplish more in a few short years than most people do in lifetime. You will find that once you accomplish your first goal, you will be motivated to set new ones. You now know how, and what to do to reach a goal. You will be able to move forward with a clearer purpose where each new accomplishment provides a greater incentive to achieve even more.

A question that I’m often asked is “Can setting a goal make you a success, and can it make you a winner or an achiever?”

Well, my experience shows that it will help to focus you on areas in both your personal and professional life that are very important and also meaningful to you. This is rather than being guided by what other people want you to be, to do, or to accomplish.

When I finally realised what goal-setting was about and the way it was helping other people, then I logically thought I better do some of that. So yes, goal setting has made a tremendous difference in my life. It has allowed me to achieve my success and to accomplish what in the past I had previously only dreamed of, or wished for.

For me, I consider being successful when I’ve reach the objectives I’ve set for myself. I try to set one large goal or objective each year end to be accomplished and finalised by December, ready for the next one to be set. This year for instance was to have a new book published and on the shelves of book stores, this has been accomplished.

My goals have kept me on track and in some cases, they gave me hope. They allowed me to see not where I was today but where I could be in the future. Yes, I’ve faced challenges and obstacles especially with the diagnosis of my Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia back in 2007 but I persevered, I found ways around these challenges. I was determined and when you’re determined, have faith and stay focused it is amazing what you can achieve.

My latest book

SUCCESS the choice is yours

by

Geoffrey Prince

ISBN:  9 781456789343

Hard Won, Anecdotal, Comprehensive, No-nonsense guidance Do you want to lead a happier and more fulfilled Life?

The book will help you get yourself on a journey that should bring success and satisfaction giving you valuable techniques to stay focused. It gives you some anecdotal experiences and great ideas in every chapter; it’s a step by step guide to your personal success. In today’s ever-changing world, success should never be left to a matter of chance; “Your Success” is down to “Your choice”.

Your “Success” will only come from inside you, from your visions and dreams; your success comes from within, that burning fire in your belly that you can turn into a raging inferno. By identifying this the future that you’re after for you and your family will be here to grasp.

With Geoffrey’s own creative visualisation and natural ability motivating others, as well as having always “walked the walk” not “talked the walk” and by leading from the font, he now empowers others to do the same by releasing their full potential and drawing out their own dormant and natural abilities. Over time, with patience and their own innate ability, as well as their will to want to succeed; he creates results in people.

Thursday 17^th November 2011

I have been networking for well over 40 years and selling my product and services to both large and small business as well, both through appointments, knocking on doors and from referrals. Most of this has been through commission only, meaning that if you didn’t work, you didn’t get paid. This of course meant if you where ill, on holiday or just off work for any reason; you earned no money, sounds hard and yes, it was; however, it made you work twice as hard and work smarter than the next person.

Referral marketing was your “Lifeblood”, so you learned to provide quality products and quality work; if you said you could do it, you didn’t let people down you always did your best not misinform clients over delivery dates. Modern networking is similar. Here are a few tips that I’ve gathered over the years. I call them: -

“the three C’s Confidence – Commitment – Control”

If you adhere to the three C’s you will note that as well as covering your work ethics they also cover networking ethics as well

• Always carry plenty of business cards whenever you’re out of the office.
• Being approachable is a sure way of making quality contacts
• Making your first impression will stand out, so make it a good one, remember; you only have 8-12 seconds to make that first impression because you’ll not get a second chance.
• Your handshake will tell people what you’re like, not a limp fish and certainly not a bone-crusher.
• You were born with two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as hard as you speak
• Your goal in networking is to foster and develop relationships.
• You should learn to ask open-ended questions the same as you do when you’re selling.
• Always put the person you’re talking too at the front of things and yourself in second place.
• Being confident and having a positive attitude is very important but don’t become a bore, let them talk as well.
• You should follow up very quickly on the people you’ve spoken with at ALL the networking events you go to, this proves your genuine and mean business.
• Make sure you collect all business cards and write on them the date and venue, it certainly helps later.
• Always be yourself at every event you attend, this will leave a lasting impression, people will say I would like to me again.
• You should find out what events are in your locality and visit as many groups as possible; there are so many these days. You’ll be more than welcome at most and it’s cheaper than advertising.
• You must understand that to be successful you’ll need to be able to give to the group before you can expect to take from the group.
• Never miss a networking event. Prospecting is your “Lifeblood” in business.
• You should attempt to build a rapport with people. Become someone others look to as a font of knowledge.
• Aim always to highlight what you do and try to bring in anecdotal situations to build genuine interest.
• When you have joined a group, try to get involved in the background first before you push yourself forward.

Most of my business over the course of being in business has come from referrals and through going to networking lunches, breakfasts, evening events and visiting trade shows.

Networking is by far the better way of promoting your company, make a short, sharp and confident presentation and people will want more information from. You should understand, it’s not the person you’re talking too, it’s the people that they know that counts.

Kevin Duckworth as a young man, set off for London from Liverpool equipped only with a Ford Cortina and a sleeping bag and ended up working in the financial heart of the country that is The City.

October’s Liverpool Business Network event took place last week hosted by Len Rainford, which took place at the fantastic venue that is Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa.
With a FREE Educational Seminar, pre-lunch networking along with drinks on arrival, leading to the main networking lunch and after dinner speaker, The Business Network Liverpool has much to offer. We believe its successful and proven format sets us aside from the rest, with a strong core of members that continue to grow month on month and an average attendance of 50 key decision makers from a wide variety of organisations each month.

October’s pre-lunch seminar was one with great character. Presented by Kevin Duckworth ‘Financial Raconteur’ entitled ‘Has Money Killed the Beautiful Game? – Football and Cash. Kevin went into detail not only about the financial aspect of football but also its highs and lows, and the effect it has had on the game, its players, supporter’s and how it has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry, along with relating, and drawing comparisons to the modern business world in which we all work in today.

The lunch was once again a great success with many valuable contacts and introductions made, with attendees already meeting up and planning to do business with each other. Our aim at The Business Network Liverpool is to support and help you grow your business through introductions and referrals. If you would like to come along to any of our future events please visit our website and follow the simple booking process. We look forward to welcoming you to our next event which is being held on the 9^th November at the Atlantic Tower by Thistle, and to demonstrate how we can significantly help your business.

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SUCCESS The Choice Is Yours ISBN N0: 9 781456789343

Do you want to lead a happier and more fulfilled Life?

The book will help you get yourself on a journey that should bring success and satisfaction giving you valuable techniques to stay focused. It gives you some anecdotal experiences and great ideas in every chapter; it’s a step by step guide to your personal success. In today’s ever-changing world, success should never be left to a matter of chance; “Your Success” is down to “Your choice”.

Your “Success” will only come from inside you, from your visions and dreams; your success comes from within, that burning fire in your belly that you can turn into a raging inferno. By identifying this the future that you’re after for you and your family will be there to grasp.

With Geoffrey’s own creative visualisation and natural ability motivating others, as well as having always “walked the walk” not “talked the walk” and by leading from the front, he now empowers others to do the same by releasing their full potential and drawing out their own dormant and natural abilities. Over time, with patience and their own innate ability, as well as their will to want to succeed; he creates results in people.

September 2011

I have put this paper together to help you to identify which customers to focus on and your key objectives in reaching them. It explains what to include in your marketing strategy and how it can be used as the basis for effective action.

Marketing & Advertising

Over the years I’ve been in business and around businesses. I’ve found that a lot of business owners believe, if they offer a good product or service, that customers will come to them! Very wrong, if your business is not marketed and promoted effectively and in many different ways to that of your competition; your prospecting bucket will dry up. If you do the same as your competition, why will anyone want to buy from you? Therefore, how do you separate your business from the rest? Remember the prospecting of your business is your life blood.

We all know that you only have 8-12 seconds to make a first impression. The reason is you will never have a second opportunity to make that first impression again. Over the years I’ve found that if you speak to quickly and rabbit on about your business without clarity, people get bored with you and switch off. You should be able to tell the prospect you’ve just met, what you do in the shortest time possible. I call this “The 60 second presentation”, the Americans call it “The elevator pitch” for obvious reasons.

How do you market your business?

We must first look at the facts today. More and more a critical part of the marketing strategy is by word of mouth e.g. referral business. Validation from personal relationships is in my opinion the key to buying success and the basic buying process. The main problem is today people don’t want to believe that. The power of word-of-mouth sales is proven and is being proved day-in-day-out; by those people who go out of their way and try it.

Referral sales, is one of the fastest ways of marketing today and yet it has been going on for thousands of years. In David Maister’s splendid book “Managing the professional Service Firm”, he cites research that claims that over 50% of new clients come via referral marketing. In other words, the majority of new business does not come from advertising, brochures and conferences and so-on. This does not mean that you don’t market and advertise, you must of course start any process of selling your wares, service or products by advertising and marketing.

Obviously we are talking broadly here because every business is quite naturally different. Great products or services have that “buzz” factor; people talk about them and sometimes get very excited over them. The “buzz” factor can be created or it can be nurtured. The thinking is that the “buzz” your product or service has and therefore, the sales opportunities you have would be tremendous if everyone was talking about it, (not about the competition).

Central to any successful marketing strategy is an understanding of your customers and their needs, the ability to satisfy your customers needs better than your competitors are able to will help build your customer loyalty and increase sales. However, both customer needs and the business environment in which you operate are constantly changing. Therefore your marketing strategy needs to take into consideration what changes are taking place and the opportunities and threats that are emerging. A marketing strategy also helps you assess how successful you are at meeting your customers needs as well as how successful your competitors are. It may also help you identify new markets that you can successfully target.

Key elements of a successful marketing strategy

One of the key elements of a successful marketing strategy is a thorough understanding of who your customers are and what needs they are looking to satisfy. Customer groups or segments can be identified and individually targeted with marketing activity that specifically addresses their particular needs. In order to meet those customer needs and remain competitive, it’s very important to identify and respond to any changes in your customer needs and attitudes in your particular industry as well as in the broader economic climate. It’s therefore vital that you assess your business environment when developing your marketing strategy.

You should always a create a marketing strategy that makes the most of your strengths, then match them to the needs of the customers you’re targeting. For example, if a particular group of customers are looking for quality first and foremost, then any marketing activity aimed at them should draw attention to the high quality service that you’re providing. It’s so important to think through the consequences of any strategy you put together making sure it’s realistic. For example, there would be little point in basing a strategy-plan on rapid growth, if you would not be able to stick to it; would there? The best strategy will reflect your own strengths and weaknesses.

A key element often overlooked is that of monitoring, analysing and evaluating, just how effective your strategy has been. This control element not only helps you see how your strategy is performing in practice, it will also keep you abreast and inform you of your future marketing strategy. Don’t forget that your marketing plan (your action plan for implementing your marketing strategy) needs to be constantly reviewed and updated or replaced when necessary; just like your own products or services need to be constantly looked at and up-graded and reviewed regularly.

Understanding your strengths and weaknesses

Your strategy must take into account all yours and your business’ strengths and weaknesses; as they will always effect your marketing-plan. Always begin your marketing strategy by brainstorming your ideas. Being totally honest and rigorous with yourself. You need to complete a SWOT analysis, When you start looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you will start to realise that the quiet time doing the SWOT will show you more directions for you to go for.

Strengths could include:

• · personal and flexible customer service
• · special features or benefits that your product offers
• · specialist skills

Weaknesses could include:

• · limited financial resources
• · lack of an established reputation
• · inefficient accounting systems

Opportunities could include:

• · increased demand from a particular market sector
• · using the Internet to reach new markets
• · new technologies that allow you to improve product quality

Threats could include:

• · the emergence of a new competitor
• · more sophisticated, attractive or cheaper versions of your product or service
• · new legislation increasing your costs
• · a downturn in the economy, reducing overall demand

Having done your analysis, you can then measure the potential effects each element may have on your marketing strategy. For example, if new regulations will increase the cost of competing in a market where you’re already weak, you might want to look for other opportunities. On the other hand, if you have a good reputation providing quality work with excellent delivery and your key competitor is struggling, the regulations might present the opportunity to push aggressively for new customers.

Developing your marketing strategy

With an understanding of your business’ internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats, you are now able to develop a strategy that plays to your own strengths and matches them to the new emerging opportunities. You can also identify your weaknesses and try to minimise them. So the next step you should do is to draw up a detailed marketing plan that sets out the specific actions to put that strategy into practice.

Questions to ask when developing your strategy

• What changes are taking place in your business environment? Are they opportunities or threats?

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?

• What do you want to achieve? Set clear, realistic objectives.

• What are your customers looking for? What are their needs?

• Which of your customers are the most profitable?

• How will I target the right potential customers? Are there groups that I can target effectively?

• What’s the best way of communicating with them?

• Could I improve our customer service? This can be a low-cost way of gaining a competitive advantage over rivals, keeping customers, boosting sales and building a good reputation.

• Could by changing my products or services help increase my sales and profitability? Most products need to be continuously updated to maintain competitiveness.
• How will I price my product or service? Although prices need to be competitive, most businesses find that trying to compete on price alone is a very poor strategy. What else are my customers interested in?

• Quality? Reliability? Efficiency? Value for money?

• What is the best way of distributing and selling my products?

• How can I best promote my products? Options might include advertising, direct marketing, exhibiting at trade fairs, PR, referrals, business to business meetings or marketing on the web.

• How can I tell if my marketing is effective? A small-scale trial can be a good way of testing a marketing strategy without committing to excessive costs.

Tips and pitfalls

• · Before you start looking at new markets, you should think about how to get the most out of your existing customer base; remember it’s more economical and quicker than finding new customers.
• · Consider whether you can sell more to your existing customers or look at ways of improving the retention of key customers.

Concentrate on the market!

Your marketing strategy document should:

• · Analyse the different needs of the different groups of customers you’re selling to.
• · Focus on a market niche where you can be the best.
• · Aim to put most of your efforts into the 20 per cent of customers who provide 80 per cent of your profits.

Don’t forget the follow-up

• · Put your marketing strategy into effect with a marketing plan that sets out actions, dates, costs, resources and effective selling programmes.
• · Measure the effectiveness of what you do. Be prepared to change things that aren’t working.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Making assumptions about what you feel customers need and want.
• Ignoring the competition.
• Trying to compete on price alone.
• Relying on too few customers.
• Trying to grow too quickly.
• Becoming complacent about what you offer and failing to innovate.

Here’s how I chose the right marketing mix

Two years ago, I reviewed the marketing strategy of a company for its assessment and development services. A new focus and a more structured approach has already paid dividends. The last financial year was very good. Let me describe the process I adopted.

What I needed to do first was to: Identify their strengths and weaknesses

Over the past few years the company has been doing well but their approach to marketing was very hit-and-miss. I went through the business from top to bottom and pinpointed out their strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side, customer research showed that they had a great reputation for their quality service, which in my opinion is always the most important fundamental in retaining valued customers. Unfortunately on the minus side, brand awareness was low and some of the systems weren’t working well. I also used published academic research to find out more about their target customers’ mindset and why they bought from them, (asking their customer proved a very valuable insight).

I used all the information to create a marketing strategy with very clear objectives. These included developing a network of partnerships, raising the brand awareness, positioning themselves as strategic thinkers in the market, and getting more business through referrals.

Work to a plan

With clear objectives in mind, writing and implementing a marketing plan was easier. I changed the marketing mix and their approach:

• The printed newsletter which went out every quarter, which had been their main direct marketing method for a long time was made more customer-focused by including market briefings and was sent out every month. The feedback has improved mainly because it was invited and they’ve now had several approaches from new clients who’ve received it.
• Instead of cold calling, they stepped up marketing via their network of partners.  They provided them with clear information so that they could promote all their services to their clients. Now about 20 per cent of what they invoice is to partners rather than end users.
• They established themselves as strategic thinkers in the market place and began getting articles published in relevant trade journals. This raised brand awareness and enhanced their reputation.  They also now use re-prints of the press articles as a direct marketing tool.
• They have re-designed their website and launched an Interview Guide on CD-Rom to show the flexibility of the services.

They now look at and review their marketing strategy and update the marketing plan every three months. As a result of one review, they decided to attend a big trade conference, which worked extremely well for them and generated a lot of new leads.

Clean up the database

Marketing to their existing customers was easier and cheaper than starting from scratch with new ones, one reason is because existing customers are very much aware of their quality. However, to market effectively their database needed updating. It’s just as well they did, because as it was updated they found that approximately 55 per cent of their entries contained some sort of inputted error, some were duplications, incorrect post codes, company names, e-mail addresses or in some cases they were completely irrelevant. If they had marketed the original database they would have wasted a lot of time and money.

Now that they have a functional database with a solid marketing strategy in place they are moving forward. Another important move was to nominate one member of staff internally to take full responsibility for the database so that now it’s kept up to date meticulously. They also use bought-in contact databases to help them target new customers. 

What they’d do differently?

They were slow to realise that the content they had on the website and in other marketing materials was a gold mine. It can be repackaged in lots of different ways. For example; a case study written for the website can be used as:

• · A mail shot.
• · Do an e-mail marketing campaign.
• · The basis for trade magazine articles.
• · It is a good base for making up handouts for meetings as well.

They’re much better at it now, and use all the content, including survey results, across all the marketing channels. However, they do realise they could have made use of what they had locked away much sooner.

Question?

Can you think of any way to get people talking about your product or service? The quantity of “buzz” factor that can be generated will be totally dependent on the product or service itself and the amount of energy you put into it. It will always be a lot harder to create a “buzz” about a dull product or service, although it will be a very good challenge for you to start trying now! There will have to be a direct correlation between the “buzz” factor success and the profitability. This unfortunately doesn’t have any academic evidence to support my theory or idea but it does intuitively seem correct to me. After all the buzz and excitement that was around the “Rubic cube” when it first came out was driven by the “buzz” factor. There are many such things that over the years have got us all talking when we have tried them, look at the present “Sudoku” that has gone wild.

So how do we start creating that “buzz” factor;

You need:-

• · A very unique selling point, your (USP).
• · To give a quality service or product.
• · Make sure of course it’s a product or service that people want, need and desire.
• · To give a very good service, (far better than the competition) can offer.
• · Your after sales or your client support department needs to offer a very good service.
• · Your customer care service needs to be of the highest quality.

When you are providing the above, you will have created that “buzz” factor.

Advertising the product or service you are providing.

When you decide on any advertising you must not think that big is beautiful, it won’t be after it has appeared, been used up and passed its sell-by-date. Continuity is the best and in my opinion the only way to keep your product or service in the public eye. If you’re a joiner, this week’s advert will be thrown out with the paper but next week Mr. or Mrs someone could be looking for a joiner they look and guess what, it’s there but it was last week as well.

Car flyers and shop window posters.

These again are of great importance because your name and logo are being shown around, this itself is going to stimulate interest. Being that most of us are creatures of habit and shop and do other things on the same day every week, we think that when we place flyers under windscreen wipers in the local supermarkets we must keep it up continuously but going back on different days, (use the 4 day system) that way different cars will be there. Please don’t think that because you placed flyers under the windscreen last week you shouldn’t go back, you should continuity is one of the important keys to success.

When you’ve finished reading the marketing plan I would be happy to look over what you’ve done. If you like please e-mail

e-mail: geoffrey@geoffreyprince.com

“SUCCESS the choice is Yours”

ISBN No: 9781456789343

Geoffrey Prince

Thursday 1st September 2011

When you want to take Control of your Life again, for whatever reason, sit down quietly over a period of time, this will help you to relax and develop an open mind; your free spirit will come to the front. You will start to remember things from your past, that you were very good at but, unfortunately felt you never had the time to carry on. I am dealing with a greater proportion of people who, for one reason or another have come up against a barrier in their life. Not knowing what their capable of and very often thinking only negative thoughts about themselves.

So I always suggest that you go back to square one, go back to the beginning, when things were good for you. It’s certainly a very good way of finding out what you’re capable of and also about what you feel that you would like to do, by completing a SWOT analysis. This gives a good idea of what you’re capable of doing NOW based on what you’ve done in the past. The SWOT analysis is an extremely useful tool for understanding yourself and decision-making for all sorts of situations, whether that’s in your private life or in business.

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

“It was Dr Heinz Weihrich introduced the earlier version of the SWOT analysis, the “TOWS Matrix” in 1982. TOWS stands for Threat, |Opportunities, Weaknesses, Strengths SWOT is simply a rearrangement of these, reflecting the need to assess your current situation and reflect internally (i.e. your strengths and weaknesses) before you can look to the future and explore externally (opportunities and threats)”.

The analysis headings provide a good framework for reviewing strategy, position and direction for you or your business, for any projects or any other ideas that you may have. By completing a SWOT analysis it is very simple to do. The SWOT analysis also works well in brainstorming sessions, project planning and meetings. Use the analysis for business planning, strategic planning, competitor evaluation, marketing, business and product development and research reports.

What you must do is to Brainstorm yourself!

I mentioned before that a SWOT analysis is very good in meetings; it’s also very good when you are in thinking mode. Over the years, I’ve found a discipline of always write everything down in a hard backed A4 book.

By committing everything to paper when it comes into your head, it may be outlandish or foolish it doesn’t matter. What matters is you’ve captured the moment and will remember to do something about it because it’s been written down.

I’ve found that it’s one of the best ways of stretching yourself. I would say; don’t talk to anyone at this stage because what you are after is; your thoughts committed to paper covering the things you are possibly wanting to do.

So I would suggest you should do this exercise now. It may just transform your thinking and your life!

Your SWOT analysis

When you’ve finished doing the analysis and you happy with what you’ve done then please e-mail it to me and I’ll look it over for you.

e-mail: geoffrey@geoffreyprince.com

Sunday 10^th July 2011

Success in business depends on providing a product or service with a value that meets what your customer’s expectations are. Unfortunately many small business entrepreneurs fail within a short period of time because they don’t effectively communicate to their prospective and present customers the benefits of their product or service they are providing.

This is particularly true of many home-based businesses, who have been misled into believing the myth that “if you design, manufacture and build it, customers will come to you” a lot of start-up internet business entrepreneurs believe this; absolute nonsense.

What you’re doing is to get the acceptance of what you are selling, then it will depend on how well you are able to represent your business in the minds of your prospective and present customers. If you are sure that your offer is of good quality and good value then your next step will be to get that information across to your market place. Generating business by exposing, networking and promoting yourself, consistently network yourself and your product. Advertising and promotions alone will not work in isolation.

When Marketing and advertising fails

If you have spent time and recourses putting together and writing a Business-plan you would have spent considerable time working out your original advertising and marketing strategy; or should have. A problem you now face is, how effective has that strategy been? or has it been a waste of time and money? What should be concerning you at this point is; have I been sticking to it religiously?

A lot of business owners start to think that because it doesn’t seem to be working now, it’s wrong, so I must stop and save money. At this point, I must change what I’m doing. I must try and advertise in this paper, in that paper and try developing a new marketing strategy, hopeful of bringing in more business. Wrong. Unfortunately their new campaign becomes ineffective. Why? Generally it’s because of knee-jerk reaction, an irrelevant message is being sent out, because they are probably using the wrong advertising medium, or not hitting at their niche market. I am certainly not an advertising guru and would not attempt to be one.

What my suggestion would be:

To achieve your advertising and marketing goals, you need to, go back to square one, go back to when your strategy was working, in other words go back to your original Business-plan. You need to develop that winning formula again that was effective, it was a good message, it placed you in the correct market position.

The message you originally sent out was, “believable and relevant” it was the one that you started with, having full conviction in portraying your “vision and dreams”. Remember when you have the correct strategy and your (USP) “Unique Selling Point” is positioned correctly, you will, drive sales. So when the right message is being sent to the market place, it will again become more effective.

Very often when life has got me down during the last 60 plus years. I’ve re-read this poem by C. W. Longenecker and it always help lift me.

Please read this if things are getting you down; I can assure you that it has helped me through my Heart crisis and now coping with my Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia.

Friday 10^th June 2011

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
when he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst, that
You Must Not Quit.