Turbo Business Tips Blog

Are your Marketing Promotions Red, White and Blue?

Here is a really simple way to use this weekend's BIG event, the Queen's Jubilee to increase sales.

What I like is that the Business has linked specific relevant products to the event - top marketing tip there for Increasing Sales.

 

 

 

Getting to Share My Birthday with over 100 Positive Business Owners!

 

How often to you get to share a special day with great friends, people you just love to spend time with and your own team - have fun, eat cake and make money all at the same time?

Well it happened to me this week when I got to celebrate my 41st Birthday by holding the 7th Sold Out Oxford Business Wealth Club Open Day with guest speaker Bernie De Souza.

My wonderful wife even made over 100 Purple Cup Cakes to go with the whole branding theme of the day and one returning member, Sarah Seaman from White Leaf Training bought her daughter, Nicola with her who also shared the same Birthday!

The room of Passionate, Positive business owners, some travelling from as far away as Switzerland, Manchester, London, Cardiff and Kent - we all up for a great Morning of Business Coaching and Business to Business Networking.

We were also supported in our Mini Expo by 10 wonderful Business Wealth Club members from theOxford and Newbury Clubs. The support from our Community at these events is really special and what makes them possible.

To see who they all are check out these Blog on the Business Wealth Club site Click Here

By the end of the morning we had a real Vibrant room buzzing with great ideas, connections and contacts and it was only 12 o'clock when we finished so people had time to go back into their business and start IMPLEMENTING!

As I say at the end of every meeting - You get Paid on what you get ....DONE!

Althought when I got home to Sue and JJ - I got paid on what I got Opened as they had set up a Birthday Groto for me and it was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

Who knows it may well become a regular feature in my Seminar Calendar...

Happy Star Wars Day!

Yes today is the "May the 4th" (Force) day and for the Avins family it's going to be a big day as JJ is a HUGE Star Wars Fan as you can tell from this photo.

Interesting thing is that as I have watched and rewatched the move with him and the new Clone Wars cartoons, (great marketing strategy to engage a new generation of customers but the way) I have come to realise that it's packed with great quotes and life lessons.

It has Iconic characters for sure, but also the age old human banter of good Vs evil that every business can play to Plus one of the best Hero's Journey Stories ever told which every aspiring Expert would do well to study and model.

If you study the story of the first movie it was one of running out of money at the end, being turned down by financers and then George Lucas backing himself Big Time by negotiating to take a ownership of the Toy rights and royalities Vs Cash up front!!!

Well the studio executives never thought it was going to be a hot anyway - what a smart and very lurcrative move by George that everybody else thought was just plain crazy, ring any bells for you?

Whatever you do today to have Star Wars fun just trust your feeling (The Force) and back your own Vision in your own Business.

Until next time...

Business Wealth Club Open Day Sponsors SOLD OUT!

Here at BWC HQ we are all VERY excited as we secured our final sponsor for the Oxford Open Day on the 15th May. 

 

One of last years sponsor Alan May from Dream Conservatores Online

 

Click Here to find out more.....

These Business Training and Motivational events especially designed to help our Members and the wider Small Business Community to develop new skills, learn new strategies and meet new suppliers would not be possible at the price of just £20 without our Sponsors Support!

When you consider the fact that everything from Fuel to a Big Mac has jumped in price over the last few years we are proud of the fact that we can still offer these events for just £20.

Here is a list of our Sponsors for the Two events - Please Visit their Web Sites to show your support and who knows you may even like what you find as our members deliver HUGE value to the clients and customers they work with.

In fact 95% of all Members say they look to our community of members FIRST when looking for suppliers - check out the links below to see why:

Oxford Sponsor's are:

Main Sponsor: 

Chloe Thomas from Indium Online - www.indiumwebmanagement.com

Gold Sponsor's

Graham Carson - Inca - Caring Accounting - www.incauk.biz
Malcolm Stacey - Saving Memories for Life - www.tvs-cctv.com
Richard Hillson - Oxford Home IT Support - www.homeitsupport.biz
Elton Boocock - Urban Media - www.urbanmedia.co.uk
Ian Gifford - Christian Steven - www.christiansteven.com
Hilary Fletcher - Ecco Oxford - www.ecco-shoes.co.uk
Brian Croucher - Ask The Property Expert - www.askthepropertyexpert.co.uk
Alan May - Dream Conservatories online - www.dreamconservatoriesonline.co.uk
Diane Dykes - Juicy Marketing - www.juicymarketing.co/

Thatcham Sponsors are:

Main Sponsor:

Brian Croucher - Ask The Property Expert - www.askthepropertyexpert.co.uk

Gold Sponsor's

Edward Williams - OFEC - www.ofec.co.uk
Graham Carson - Inca - Caring Accounting - www.incauk.biz
Malcolm Stacey - Saving Memories for Life - www.tvs-cctv.com
Barry Hopkins - Premier Lifestyle Conservatories - www.dreamconservatoriesonline.co.uk
Ian Gifford - Christian Steven - www.christiansteven.com
Hilary Fletcher - Ecco Oxford - www.ecco-shoes.co.uk

Thanks again Members for Stepping Up to Support our Open Days - Proof Community Works :-)

Hope to see you there.

Paul

No Strategic Planning Equals Mess & Failure (Just ask the Government!)

For years I've been telling and selling the Value of Detailed Strategic Planning for businesses of all size.

Why?

Well without a written down, detailed and prioritised plan you can refer to every day to stay on track you make bad short term decisions that can cost your business Millions in the following months and years in lost sales and profits.

Just look at what is all over the news today and quoted on the BBC Website: 

"The Public Administration Committee said an absence of national strategy was leading to "mistakes" such as those following the recent Budget."

For Mistakes read mess and bad decisions that take you way off track!

A Clear Strategic Plan for a business allows you to say NO to more things than you say YES to and ensures that all decision are made in some kind of framework.

7 Things You Must Have in Your Strategic Plan to Succeed:

1) Your Vision, Mission & Values - why are you in business? (Could be 3 I get that) 

2) Current SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses / Opportunites / Threats)

3) Clarity on Your Sandbox, or where you'll operate and do business. Global or Local?

4) The Key Financial Goals, by Quarter, Anually & 2/3 years ahead

5) The Top 3 Annual Goals

6) Your Top 3 90 Day Goals that get you to your Annual Goals (Why BWC Has Planning Sessions)

7) Your Big Hairy Audatious Goal (BHAG) - this needs to be 15 years out min.

To see results some of my clients get from sessions creating this check out:

http://www.paul-avins.com/pages/coaching_strategic_planning.php

Give me your feedback on Your Strategic Plan & Your BIG Goals! 

Fish, Chips and Charity...

Sue & I decided to take JJ off for a few days of "Friday Fun" recently and while away in one of our favourite places Bournemouth I had a craving for some good of fashioned Fish & Chip.

 

There is an Amazing restaurant down there I always try and visit and on Saturday night the queues were down the street so we decided to come back for Sunday lunch and SO glad we did!

Why...?

Well when we went back on the Sunday they were holding their Annual Charity event with Cod & Chips for just £2! Needless to say we bought loads and even gave a bit extra to the pot.

I was remined that at a time when the British press seem to be bashing British Businesses and accusing us of making too much money, not paying enough tax etc that Entrepreneurs CAN & DO create massive Value in their local communities and this was just another great example.

I'd like to congratulate Fred & his team for putting on this event and suggest that if you ever get the chance to visit, go as it's the best Cod and Chips around.

The Apprentice - Episodes 3 & 4........

OK, OK - I know, I am two episodes behind with my Apprentice blogging....  but seriously - the week before last just didn’t warrant the attention - so here is a Ketchup :-)

The task was to design and make a new condiment and then of course sell it. One team turned up at a high end food retail outlet without a product sample for them to try - and the other team where trying to take on Heinz with a fiery hot ketchup / sauce at about 4 times the price!

Despite the fact that the Boys (plus Katie) sold 305 bottles of the completely un-pourable sauce with a name spelled incorrectly (not that Paul or I noticed!) making £585 in Profit - it turns out that apparently, having more product to sell can make you more money! I know shocker - The Girls Team sold 607 jars of Chutney and handed over a Profit of £1028 to Lord Sugar - not bad!

The moral of this story however is something that the Mentors at the Business Wealth Club do teach a lot at their fortnightly Mentoring and Networking Meetings - and that is to know your numbers. The Boys lost because they mis-managed and lost control of their Production System - which in turn forced them to increase their Pricing structure. Paul’s PROFIT PIPELINE model demonstrates this perfectly. At the beginning of their Task they had a clear idea of expected material costs, production output and therefore expected profits.  But bit by bit - throughout the day... profit seeped away in the guise of failed production, wasting both time and raw materials. A really worthwhile exercise to go through is to map out your product or service life cycle and see if there are any points along that pipe where you might be spilling profit.

Last week’s episode got Paul and I a bit more hot under the collar. It also had the best comedy line of the series so far... “Don’t look a gift House in the Eye” - I suppose Gift Horses can be easily spooked, or maybe they are just shy, but hay watch out for their eyes!

Anyway....  the task was to buy antique and second hand items (or should I say “tat”) and re-sell them. The two teams took very different approaches. One decided to buy fewer “quality” items and keep their shop clean (I would have described it as empty - but I guess I’m just not trendy enough to be shopping in London’s Brick Lane!), while the other team stacked their shop to the rafters and decided to “add value” to some of the stock by screwing legs to beautiful vintage suitcases and painting Union Flags (their words not mine!) onto anything they could.  Now Paul and the Mentors would always say that to make money is to “add value” - but in this case, value was definately in the eye of the beholder, and it just didn’t hit the make for the stylish Brick Lane crowd.

But then - amongst all of the chaos, Paul began to notice some great ideas. Team Phoenix began to group items together to show a customer how things might be purchased and used together. “Finally” Paul screamed - “someone is using some common sense”, they were trying to cross sell and also they were using some Catalogue Management techniques that Paul would Mentor his Clients on.  He Coaches them to package similar products together and have their ranges (and by ranges I mean your shop floor, your web site, your brochure or any other way that a prospect gets to peruse your wares...) make sense with each other, enabling you to Cross Sell and Up Sell throughout your offering.

The results were very polarised. Phoenix, who purchase only 50 items and kept a very tight rein on their spending, only parting with £360.10 - made a whopping profit of £1,063.40.  Contrast that against Sterling who spent nearly double that at £660.76 - had over 200 items in their shop... profit? Only £783.49! This whole episode was summed up beautifully by Paul with one of his famous equations “Products x Promotion = Profits” So my question to you is....

Can your customers understand your Product offering? Are you reaching enough people and telling them often enough where you are and what you can do for them? And lastly... are you making enough Profit?

If you have to stop and think about any of these answers - why not find your closest Business Wealth Club Meeting and see if one of our Mentors can show you how to make this equation really add-up for you!

Sue Avins

 

 

 

 

5 Cracking Business Ideas for Easter!

 

While I'm sure many of you will have already headed for some exotic holiday relaxation, for those of us still working and driving our Small or Medium business forward here are a few "seasonal" ideas for you to enjoy....along with your chocolates.

 

 

1).  Sweeten the deal you offer new clients this Holiday Season, perhaps with a Free Easter Egg with their first order.

2).  Offer a Easter Weekend Only Deal - ending Monday Night - Already had one in like this today from Play.com .

3).  Send key customers or suppliers a Luxury Easter Egg (OK may be a bit late now but start planning for next year!).

4). Use the time to Set some Eggciting new Goals for you life!!

5).  Reach out to a Personal relationship that needs attention and breath new life into it - after all it's the time for healing and  rejuvination.

OK off to the Spa now to start my long weekend with some well earned R&R.

I just want to take this opportunity to wish all our Readers a Very HAPPY Easter!

 

 

Portas' Ideas To Boost Towns Win's Government Backing......

Queen of Shops get Funding for Town Centre Plans...

The Government has agreed to fund 10 pilot town centre schemes investing £1million into each after the colourful fast "Coach" and TV personality Mary Portas delivered a wide ranging report into the decline of the UK's high streets and what to do to turn them around before it's too late!

Online shopping and Out of Town Centres have changed British retail for ever and it's encouraging to see the Government finally taking advice from recognised experts in their field to bring about change in a creative and positive way.

We wish her every success and look forward to visiting one of the pilot towns when her ideas are implemented.

The Apprentice Episode 2.........

OK - so episode 2 of the Apprentice.....  what can I say - I feel a little bit silly reporting to you as Business Professionals that in fact, it turns out that you SHOULD listen to Focus Groups and Market Research - and guess what.... it’s a good idea to know the price you are trying to sell your product for before you go into a pitch situation!

There - now you have these amazing insights - your all set for success!

Facetiousness over, I have to say that I really do think it’s time that the BBC re-vamp some of the tasks.  I struggle to see what can be gleaned about someones Business prowess by asking them to come up with brand new product idea's from scratch, design, build and then sell it all within 2 days. Yup - sounds like a realistic test of how any sane Business Owner would bring a new product to Market. (Not in our experience anyway!)

With any new Business, Product or Service idea - Paul and the other Business Wealth Club Mentors would always Coach someone to start small. Prove a concept before committing large resources or funds.  Time and time again we see enthusiastic Owners getting so wrapped in their own invention - they never think to check “does the Market actually want what I am selling? and will they PAY for it?”

To be honest I didn’t really think much of either of the products that the teams came up with after they had ignored the advice of their focus groups, why oh why bother asking them then?

For Phoenix (the Boys Team), it was a small kitchen vegetable waste composter / disposal bin. For Sterling (the girls), a child's bath splash guard / waterproof drawing board.

Lets hope the next task is a little more realistic and has a few more business lessons in for those of us operating in the Real World.

Sue Avins