Starting a Business No 5 Promotional Strategy

Your notes for you business plan (see Starting a Business No 3)  will almost certainly include "advertising" or "marketing"; but they are used, perhaps, in a casual sense of "publicity to get business". In this post we shall use the term "promotion" which will include all future activities to create a more embracing concept of what you are about as a business start-up.

Scope  Your promotional strategy will enable your customers' and/or suppliers' tol gain a wider and better understanding of the following:

• your business ethos or mindset;
• your business policies; and,
• more particularly, your products and/or services.

Promotional strategy is likely to cover relevant activities like the following: a) free publicity; b) advertising;  c)  public relations; and; d)  special events.



Free Publicity:  They are purposeful activities which are not charge for and are likely to incude: a) person to person networking;  b) free Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, etc activities (see Research No2 for social media marketing SMM);  c)  press releases for editorials in newspaper and magasine, trade journals, etc.

Advertising:  Initiated by you but are promotional products and activities which are paid for and executed by third parties - might include:  a) newspaper advertising; b) "knick-knacks", pens, place mats, keyrings etc, bearing information about your products and services

Public relations:  Information you distribute about your business, products and/or services which enhances their standing to your customers, suppliers and others - maybe to counter adverse publicity.

Special Events: Events such as: a) business to business events, b) trade shows; c) exhibitions d) an awards ceremony. The intent is that your business has some objective or purpose, eg a product or service launch, an award to donate, etc.

Starting a Business No 4 - Premises

Your business plan is hardly dry and you are asking about premises. Well...a surprisingly large number of businesses begin at home; they are usually a workshop in the garage or a desk and phone in the spare bedroom.  Yes... it is not immodest to think about premises and to include the topic in the business plan.

You ask   "What are my options?" At this stage I give a short list of ideas to mull over and include some pointers to consider. A few of the possibilities are:

1. Working from Home:   Might suit the likes of one of the following: a)  a small workshop in the garden shed / garage for developing an invention to pre-production phase;  b)  a small repair shop for say, sharpening blade, saws and the like;  c)  an office in the spare room may be sufficient  for on-line business or a tele-sales type operation. (See my http://jaefoo-blogcounciltax.blogspot.com/ for three posts on the issue of working at home and council tax and business rates.)
2. On-the Road:  If you are a) a gardener or event type business, eg gigs, you may need a mobile van, lorry, or caravan etc for the transport of equipment and perhaps, personnel; b) travelling to sell goods you will want not only transport but also a place for the storage of goods - here a self-storage facility will be handy - before you are big enough to need to rent / buy your own warehouse!
3. Franchise Business:  If you take on a franchise requiring premises, some franchisors will assist you with a)  a "specification" for your accommodation and facilities you should best try to find, ie an existing property;  b)  alternatively, the premises must be built from scratch - again the fracnhisor would probably have experience for the development.
4. Serviced Accommodation:   A start-up business may require a presentable office for a kind of "probationary" or "trial" period, say 3, 6 or 12 months, before taking the plunge on a longer-term basis with rented or bought accommodation.   The great advantage here is that the "marketing mix" of the promoters of serviced accommodation is laced with the ethos of flexibility. You will find several possibilities available. Just a (very) few examples:  a) a conference/ presentation  room or meeting room for the one-off event; b) an office(s) for one, two, three... persons on terms and conditions for a definite period or for an indefinite say, monthly term but terminable when you want; c) offices, packing accommodation with storage space. 

Starting a Business No3 - Business Plan Preparation

As soon as I hear the words meaning: "I want to start a business", my reply usually goes something like: "Business plan..? Do you have one?" If not we might talk through a list of topics which might feature in the yet-to-be-prepared business plan. 

One initial question / reaction is "Why bother?"  My reply might be on the lines: "Don't bother.... if you have a brain programmed with Business-Satnav and the pot of gold ready to get well under way!"  If not there are three reasons:

1. If nothing is on paperso far, the preparation of the business plan will pull together ideas, cautions, contacts, timings, dates, prices and costs, etc etc, etc;
2. your first business plan is the initial route map to and indication of a successful (or not) business; and,
3. when you need funds, the funder (a bank, a charitable foundation prospective partner/shareholder) will expect your realistic evaluation of your business future, so that they can assess whether they will get back a loan or get a return on their investment.

The content of the business plan is likely to contain the items shown in the checklist below.  However, if a funder has requested a business plan it may require you to include some mandatory items.

Checklist for a Business Plan
What you include and in what order they appear will be up to you. The following are indicators of likely items. No doubt you will have been thinking about the business for some time, so much of the business plan will be putting on paper (perhaps for the first time) all the things which have been swirling about up top!

4 x Ps

• Prospect - Services and Products: offering is service(s) or a product(s), customer after-service 
• Place or Location:  work from home (urban or rural) or from business premises in town centre or elsewhere;
• Pricing: basis of charging, eg for a service is it an hourly rate, call-out charge, plus consumables and costs, plus overheads, etc;
• Promotion: promotional strategy to include:- advertising, word-of-mouth, free publicity (editorials), special events, public relations (see Starting a Business No 5).

SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a business technique which the new business start-upper (say, as a sole trader) (or  job-seeker) might use to explore the context for a new business (or job or career).  {Note For this post the emphasis is on the business context. - the Swot examples are merely illustrative and may not regflect a true "fit" in the context for a particular business.}

• Strengths: Personal qualifications and experiential knowledge and skills - related to services/products or the industry; government policy or agency practice in supporting industry.
• Weaknesses: State of the economy in the next year or so.
• Opportunities:  Weakness of the £ encouraging exporters; potential use of social media marketing (SMM); availability of loans from charitable foundations for start-ups; trade generation by Olympics 2012; new green technologies.
• Threats:   Competition; adverse changes in the taxation regime appicable to the industry; work-life style balance.

Research No3 - Employer's/ Supplier's Status - Some Looks....?

A prospective employer is a "legal person" with a status having characteristics, powers, duties etc which are prescribed or embedded in law.  In many instances you will take status for granted or perhaps not think about it.  For instance, you may be applying for interview to a "individual", "an estate agent", "a hotel","a company", "a charity", "the council", etc.

This post is a brief look at status in the sense of legal persona. You employer is likely to be one of the following:

• a "sole trader", that is an individual who runs his or her own business;
• a "partnership", for example, group of individuals who run a businesss together;
• a "company", that is an organisation owned by the shareholders and run by appointed directors; 
• a "trust", being an entity set up and run by "trustees"in accord with its governing documents, eg a statute (National Trust) or trust deed.

Different prospective employers will, of course be run in accord with their status; the status determines such matters as: 

1. the aims and objectives underpinning the legal person;
2. the owner of the organisation and the extent of the owner's rights and obligations;
3. the "destination" of the assets of the organisation if it is "folded up" or "dies"; 
4. whether it is a "not-for-profit" enterprise or not; 
5. the kinds of and limitations on the organisation's activities;
6. the nature and extent of the formal statutory duties and obligations of an organisation's directors/trustees, officers, and so on, including you if appointed; 
7. the impact of different types of legislation on day to day operations, that is in terms of exemptions, reliefs and concessions, eg a registered charity is not usually required to pay income taxation or capital gains taxation;
8. the range, nature and severity of the different taxes, if any, which will be imposed;

Intellectual Property Rights No 4 - "Textbook" for Inventors etc....?

This morning I found the third edition of the report by the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights. It is entitled "Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy" (see link below).
Although rather dated (2003) it gives an overview of IPR in the context of the development of poorer nations within the world economy. I have not attempted to read it but a few glances at the Contents (for about 191 pages of content) suggest that any jobseeker who desires to know the field will find the an interesting starting point.

I am curious of the content which delves into:
Health, including medicine;

Agriculture;

Traditional knowledge;

Internet;

Patent reform;

International aspects; etc.

Reminding myself of the problems that Alfred must have had 1200 years or so ago in developing steps towards nationhood - education, defence, "town", planning, "civil service"..., I must now scan the last eight years to learn of the impact (or not) of the Report and of any progress!

http://www.iprcommission.org/papers/pdfs/final_report/CIPRfullfinal.pdf

Research No 2 - How to research an Employer, etc using Social Media Marketing?

At the end of a job interview the interviewer almost always asks the likes of: "Have you any questions for me?"

It may be a good idea to have several questions up your sleeve: as opposed to none! Of course you will not be expected to ask more than one or two: the important point is that you will be able to show an interest in the organisation/ position/ department etc. Also, you have the opportunity to surprise or interest the interviewer with a genuine query - that's great.

Researching an employer will probably give many questions - which you might be able to bring into the interview as it progresses - leading to a good interview. So, how to research the employer...? (Similar approaches may be used to look at a supplier or a business which is for sale.)

The starting point is the recruitment literature. It should be sufficiently detailed to attract you to apply for the job being offered! Otherwise you will need to go to other sources.

Social Media Marketing: Today the seemingly progressive employer is into social media marketing so during the interview you will be able to demonstrate (if appropriate) your highly developed SMM knowledge and skills (for business) by referring to the content of :

• the latest tweets that have been issued by the employer - avoid looking at Twitter during the interview(!);
• the latest posts on the organisation's website;
• the most recent Google Alerts about the industry received on your smartphone;
• profiles of directors, managers and others you may have sussed on company's wall on Facebook or within LinkedIn;
• hashtags you use to research products and services in the industry;
• job specifications for positions for the developing SMM employment sector, particularly in the company's industry;
• comments you have made on various blogs associated with the organisation or industry;
• with caution, the Retweets or Likes you have about posts and profiles of the individuals and organisations you follow on Twitter or claim as a Friend on Facebook (respectively); and,
• your blog on Google+ (Sorry, but that might be taken by the interviewer/reader as one-up-manship or one-up-womanship.)

Caution: All the above suggests that you may need to be cautious. This will be particularly so if you sense that the interviewer, perhaps and older person, is not yet into these new fangled thingymijigs. For instance he or she may be an "arch enemy" of one of those you claim to be Follower of or as a Friend.



Finally, the interviewer may listen to you and subsequent to the interview:

• climb on to your Facebook wall;
• seek your Profile on LinkedIn;
• hunt down your wilder comments (to blogs); and/ or
• visit your personal blog or website to read your posts.

This post has tried to cover the jargon and elements of SMM - the next post will seek other sources.

Research No 1 - Why research / evaluate an Employer / a Supplier / a Business for Sale

This post is the first of a short series which looks at researching for particular purposes or circumstances. Thus,the circumstances for evaluation are: i) a job-seeker evaluating a prospective employer; b) a start-up business reviewing a supplier of goods and services; and c) possibly, a start-up business initiating due diligence of a business which is up for sale. All three are is likely to find that it takes time.

Taking time to research properly may well pay-off (in time and cost) for the job-seeker in terms of the likes of:

• aborted or fruitless CVs (and covering letters) or job applications;



• failure to get interviews;



• unpreparedness and hence inadequate interviews.

For the supplier-seeker inadequate research may mean critical losses (of time, costs and customers) due to the likes of one or more of:

• failures of supplies to arrive on time;



• poor quality products or services which need to be returned; and,



• poor after care and support.

The buyer of a business will need to ensure adequate research so as to avoid aborted costs, lost time, and possible problems such as:

• hidden problems, eg unpaid accounts,wages, and/or taxes;



• problems with the management, eg production of goods, delivery of services;



• personnel problem, eg staff leaving;



• outstanding liabilities or claims against the business;



• non-compliance with statutory requirements, eg taxation returns.

Some lines of enquiry and sources of information for each of these will be the same but the approaches are certainly very different.