Your operating system...be warned!

Many people may be aware that Windows XP will not be supported as an operating system by Microsoft but they may not be aware of the implications.

It is not just that any problems with the software will not be fixed but also that any security issues that may arise will go unaddressed and this could make your computer vulnerable. In addition, you will find that your contract with your anti-virus supplier is likely to be affected as many of them are saying that they will not support this edition of the Windows operating system either because they rely on Microsoft doing their part about vulnerabilities.

So we are faced with the situation that the hackers are actually helping Microsoft to sell you software. How ironic is that!!!

Written by Keith Powell, Colbea Business Advisor.

My brain's a blank!

Now is there anyone on my list who could do with a battery operated sock warmer?  No?  How about that furry pig draft excluder then?!

I don’t know about you, but every year I find buying Christmas presents more and more difficult.  It’s not that there are a lack of lovely things to buy, it’s just that I can’t seem to dredge up original ideas. Not every present is difficult of course.  Children are fun to buy for and I can always find something to put a smile on the face of my female friends and relatives, but joint presents for couples are pretty tricky and as for you men out there….well…..!

Coming up with new ideas in a society of consumerism and excess is nigh on impossible.  From time to time we’ll see a new product that is such a great idea we wonder why no one had thought of it before.  But how many of those have you seen lately? 

In general, marketing is about ideas.  Of course, it’s about putting those ideas into practice and a lot more besides, but today’s marketer needs to be inventive to be noticed.  There are many ways in which to generate new ideas.  Brain-storming, challenging assumptions, making new and unexpected connections, or going out there and getting an external perspective are just a few.  But I’d suggest the starting point isn’t the idea…it’s the purpose.  As with everything in marketing – and business too – we should be asking ourselves ‘why?’.  How can we generate innovative ideas if we’re not sure what we’re trying to achieve?

Back in the 90’s there was a lot of hoo-hah about company visions and mission statements.  Almost always, the businesses that were creating these missives were established ones.  I’m not knocking them.  It’s always refreshing to revitalise and communicate your purpose.  The thing is, I’ve never met a brand new business owner who has thrust his or her mission statement into my hand.  Why not?!  Surely, the new business needs to know what it wants to be when it grows up!

So perhaps before we start on the meditation, team expression or in-depth soul searching that’s essential in the labour ward of idea creation, we make sure we know where we want to end up.  If a new business starts life with a strong and clear vision it will have a framework for ideas, it will know what values it needs to communicate and, above all, it will have a target against which to measure progress.

Happy head-scratching!

What is going on with borrowing?

I have written in the past about the various attempts being made by this government to encourage lending to small businesses.  My original contention was that this was only helping home buyers with cheaper mortgages and not small businesses.

My views are reinforced by the fact that mortgage lending in August is recorded as 28% higher than in the same month last year.  Looking behind the figures this actually seems to be that people are in fact extending their homes and then re-mortgaging instead of moving.  This only goes to prove that home-owners are getting as financially aware as small business owners.

In the same way as micro business owners are vowing never to again be in thrall to the major banks who can call in a loan or overdraft at a moment’s notice and risk ruining their business, so now home owners are saying, OK you want to lend us money at much cheaper rates, we will borrow but we will no longer do it in a way which puts us at the risk of re-possession.  We will borrow because we have to but we will get the cheapest rate possible and switch if we get a better deal.  The government tells us to do so with the energy companies, so don’t be surprised if we do it with the mortgage lenders.

There is however one further statistic that worries me and also doesn’t help my argument – credit card debt continues to escalate.  Is this people who don’t have their own homes or businesses?

Written by Keith Powell, Colbea Business Advisor.

About turn

I expect you’ve all been deeply shocked by the gas attacks in Syria.  But if we were to take a poll I doubt we’d all agree about what we, as a country, should do in response.

Parliament’s defeat of the vote for military action has caused some repercussions.  Commentators seem fixated on the question of whether David Cameron/the conservative party/the country/the ‘special relationship’ has been damaged by this apparent back track.

All of which started me thinking about what makes for strong leadership and whether a change of mind is a sign of strength or weakness.

Running your own business or managing a company needs leadership AND management skills.  The two are quite different.  Good managers are not always good leaders and vice versa.  So what makes for strong leadership and how come it’s such a rare commodity?

Please don’t think I’m claiming to be a strong leader myself.  I am old enough and wise enough to know that leadership is not my forte!   However, I’ve worked with a few impressive leaders and have watched how they operate.  The best are visionaries.  They tend to be single minded when it comes to achieving objectives and although they are aware of challenges, they have a ‘terrier’ trait that keeps them hanging on.  So does that mean they never waver or have a change of heart?

In my experience, true leaders share some characteristic ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. 

They don’t

-  jump to conclusions

-  threaten or bully

-  sway between allegiances or causes

-  either over-simplify or over-complicate their message

-  get bogged down with irrelevancies

They do:

-  their homework

-  enlist champions, who believe in their cause and act as advocates

-  communicate their vision to everyone involved, and I mean everyone!

-  motivate their people and trust them to get on with the job

-  have their finger on the pulse.

And perhaps that last point is the most pertinent.  True leaders know what’s going on.  What may have been right six days/weeks/months ago may not be now.  Sometimes environment changes mean that objectives need to change too.  That’s what flexibility and responsiveness is all about.  Sticking to a goal that has been superseded or has become outdated is nothing more than dogma. 

Surely a strong leader is one with the strength of character to stand up and say “we need to do this differently” rather than plough on regardless of the fallout. 

Have you worked with someone who had leadership qualities?  Why not share your thoughts here about what made them so influential?

Well....at least they keep trying!

They keep on trying, but it's a pity they will never succeed with these plans.

There has been much talk in the Enterprise Agency community about the right mess that the Government has made of supporting startup and micro businesses but there has always been the feeling that this could be seen as sour grapes along the lines of “…they would say that anyway as funding has been taken away from them.”

Now that sort of criticism is being made by other organisations interested in helping this important sector, if anything in a less temperate tone than adopted by us.

Judge for yourself by going to:

http://www.cobwebinfo.com/the-monty-python-guide-to-great-business-support/#comment-42507

Comment on the blog if you agree.

Keith Powell – Colbea Business Adviser

Latest assessment of Funding For Lending

The Funding for Lending Scheme is again back in the news, maybe because Syscap are launching a new Short Term Loan Scheme, but I was prompted to have a look at the current situation to see if there was still grounds for my pessimism.

There are continuing grounds for pessimism in that lending to small and micro businesses is not increasing, in fact it continues to decline.  Is this really a cause for concern with the health of small and micro businesses? Despite the decline in lending from conventional institutions like the main clearing banks, in conversations with business managers in several of the clearing banks they tell me that they are lending money, sometimes significant sums. OK, the rates are not exactly attractive and the terms are stringent but there is money to be had.

So, there might be another reason for the decline, perhaps we are at the stage of “once bitten, twice shy”. There are businesses that have borrowed money in the past that suddenly, when things with the lending institutions got tough, found themselves facing demands to pay back, re-finance or else.  This was not a happy time and caused some businesses to fold and many to look carefully at their financial situation and make savings.  Therefore, because of this, we may have businesses that are more financially self-sufficient and certainly more prudent - to use a much maligned term.

I hope that this is the case and therefore micro businesses are in effect saying, thank you for offering but we won’t be caught out again!!

Keith Powell
Colbea Business Advisor

What inspires you?

“Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration”. 

It’s hard to argue with Edison.  He knew that success comes from commitment and hard work, or as he put it, perspiration.  Everyone who runs a business would agree.  But perspiration has a nasty habit of becoming yawningly dull and stale unless it’s peppered with a little inspiration.

Someone once said to me that people are driven by one of two motives – money or power.  I readily admit to being a little cynical but I like to think that I’ve still got some faith in human nature.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting to build up your business to be a successful and respected business leader.  There’s nothing wrong with making money – money gives you choices and helps you influence other people’s lives…hopefully for the better.  But I think there’s a third motive that is just as important to many and that is, “to be the best that I can be”.  That might not mean that we’re challenging ourselves to climb Mount Everest or abseil down the Shard but just to do a job really well, to go beyond our customer’s expectations and to feel proud.  (No….don’t panic, I’m not about to burst into a ‘Miranda’ style rendition of Heather Small’s song!)

Money?  Power? Self-esteem?  They all require motivation.  And the food of motivation is inspiration.

So how can we find inspiration? 

Some people seem to be in a state of perpetual inspiration.  Marvellous.  Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.  I have to work at my inspiration or I’d never get up in the morning!  Here are the tips that have helped me.  Perhaps they’ll be useful for you too.

-           Seek out people who inspire you and keep in contact with them.

-           Open yourself up to wider thinking and challenging ideas, maybe through training courses or professional seminars.

-           Be curious – about the world around you, about how things work, about how others achieved success, about what makes people tick.

-           Don’t stop learning – your inspiration can come from discovering your own capacity for knowledge as well as from external sources.

-           Remember that we are what we eat!  If we feed ourselves with negative friends, negative media, negative commentaries, etc., we’re unlikely to find ourselves in a particularly inspirational frame of mind.  You could argue that it’s a social duty to be informed about the bad as well as the good in the world, but my point is that we’re more likely to be able to do something positive to help if we’re fired up….otherwise we’ll just crawl back under the duvet in despair.

If you’ve got an inspirational story or tips on how to feed your motivation, why not share them here?

Peeling paintwork

I was reading an article recently that suggested it only took 30 seconds for us to form that vital ‘first impression’.  I was amazed!  I have always assumed it took only about 3 or 4 seconds. 

The article started me thinking about how many first impressions we make during the course of an average day.  I’m not going to hazard a guess but it must be a pretty high number.  Even on days that are fairly routine we’ll be forming opinions about all sorts of things.  It happens every time we look in a shop window, meet a customer, sit next to someone on the train and so on.

When we talk about ‘first impressions’ we tend to think that we’re talking about face to face situations and of course, often this is the case, but the surroundings in which people live or work are just as important.  Have you ever been to someone’s home or office and been amazed at how tidy/messy/ luxurious/grubby (delete as applicable!) it was?  We can’t help but be influenced by these things – perhaps they are more wealthy than we thought, maybe their organisational skills aren’t up to much if their desk is such a tip, or can they not afford a hoover…?!!!

A lot of marketing practice is about human behaviour and psychology.  In fact, that’s the part of marketing that interests me most.  I like to know why people do what they do – in other words, what motivates them. 

Marketing covers many areas of business but appearance and perception is right up there at the top of the list.  Everyone knows that negative impressions are often last impressions because we simply don’t get a second chance. 

So are first impressions just about how we look and act?  Today, opinions are formed long before we have a face to face meeting – if, indeed, we ever do.   Our corporate ID and branding is a strong influencer, but so too is our LinkedIn profile, our email tone of voice, or the content of our latest tweet. 

Everything counts in marketing because all these things add up to give customers an overall impression about us, our business, our values and our service.  We live in a world where our actions are public – often online – and we must be consistent if we’re to be believable.

So remember when you’re putting up that fancy name plate outside the front door – check whether the paint is peeling!


Posted by Ruth Wiseman at Savannah Marketing

Spring forward?

The clocks go forward this weekend, it’s Easter and spring is here…..despite the depressing weather!

I love the time of year when everything starts to grow again after winter, the days get longer and (said with fingers firmly crossed) we start to feel the sun on our faces.  I wonder if the economy will revive itself as spring and summer arrives?

Today sees the release of a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), stating that Britain should avoid a triple-dip recession and that the global economy is looking more positive in general.  The Office for National Statistics (ONC) reported that the services sector grew by 0.3% month on month and 0.8% when compared against the same month in 2012. 

Peter Jones, of Dragons’ Den fame, must be feeling optimistic as he’s purchased Jessops from the administrator.  He says that he’ll streamline operations, reduce the number of shops and cut overheads.  Well, he’s the expert, but it’s a bit difficult to see how High Street shops can compete against cut price internet retailers in the camera and related technology sector.  Let’s hope he’s right and I’m wrong!  As a camera and photography addict myself I know that little compares with the hands on experience and advice you can get in a shop, so maybe that’s where the secret lies.

As we head – hopefully – towards greater and brighter things, we’ll all need to think about how we do our marketing and what we spend on it.  The question of how much money to dedicate to marketing is something Mr Jones will have firm views on I’m sure, but the average across all industries seems to come out around 4% of revenue (although in technology it can top 10%). 

An end to recession doesn’t necessarily mean an upturn in business.  If you want to be ahead of your competition and make the most of opportunities, think about how you communicate with your existing and potential customers.

Happy Easter!

Third time assessment

I have written twice on the subject of the current Funding for Lending scheme, once to express cynicism and then a softening of that position giving some benefit of the doubt towards the major clearing banks.

I have now noted two pieces of news:

The scheme is reported as being responsible for banks launching competitive mortgage deals aimed at borrowers with small deposits.

The scheme is also reported as being responsible for recent cuts in interest rates on personal loans ranging from between £3,000 to £4,999 for one bank and between £7,500 and £14,999 for another.

So, we have the situation where participating banks are drawing down money against the scheme to fund cheaper mortgages (which I predicted) and personal loans (which I didn’t expect).

What can I suggest for my fellow small business owners who want a small loan to develop their business? If you are a Sole Trader with a good credit record you might be able to get a personal loan - but you had better say it is for a retirement party and not mention it is to try and develop your business so you can employ people on Job Seekers Allowance at the moment.

If you are a small private company – keep whistling!

Posted on behalf of Keith Powell.

Are you free for a meeting?

How many times have you seen a colleague emerging from a meeting rolling their eyes sky-ward and saying “Well….that was a waste of time!”  Most probably you’ve done it yourself!

I used to work for someone whose tolerance of bad meetings was fractionally below zero.  I always knew when it had gone particularly badly, as he’d return with face like thunder, stride purposely towards his office muttering “Couldn’t run a chip shop” under his breath, and slam his office door.  Even if you don’t react in quite the same way, the fact is, meetings can be a waste of time and when you add up the time of all the people in the room, that can be a lot of time and a lot of money!

If you work on your own or in an office with just two or three others, your meetings will be mainly with customers, suppliers, business partners, etc.  I’ve found that even though such meetings are often organised and controlled by someone else, a little preparation can really pay off.

We all know the basic rules of running an effective meeting: circulate an agenda, nominate a chairman, list actions afterwards, blah, blah - it’s not rocket science and is something we probably learnt very early in our working life.  But I’ve been to meetings that have followed these rules to the letter and yet they’re still not successful, which made me ponder why that was.

I wonder if it’s because a lot of meetings don’t actually have an objective.  They may have a sort of catch-all-woolly-reason-for-getting-together, but no one’s defined the exact expectations. 

Let me illustrate what I mean: the marketing and production departments meet to discuss the launch of a new product.  What’s the meeting about?  The launch of the new product….right?  Wrong!  It’s fair to assume that both departments knew they were going to launch a new product (or they should be fired!) so why are they there?  How about marketing of the new product launch?  Well, it’s a start, but still not particularly focused.  However, if the meeting’s purpose is to select the marketing channels and define the key messages for the product launch, everyone has an exact idea of what they need to achieve before they leave the room.

Similarly, if you are meeting a client you will think you know what the meeting is for but do you really have clear objectives and, when they are met do you always stop there?

Unfortunately, however clear your objectives, meetings can become a platform for people to voice their opinions, grievances, successes or just listen to themselves speak for a while!!  A well known IT company used to have a policy of no chairs in meeting rooms, working on the theory that if everyone was standing up the meeting would soon be over.  If you are ‘in charge’, limiting the duration certainly focuses the mind and helps the meeting leader to retain control. 

I always seem to be up against the clock and my betting is that you do too, but perhaps a little time spent thinking about what we want to achieve from a meeting could save us all a lot of time in the long run.  I’ll let you know how I get on….!

If you’ve got tips on running productive meetings (and I’m sure you have) why not share them here?

Funding for lending - the current state of play

Much has been said about this Government initiative and I have been very pessimistic - if not downright cynical – about the likelihood of this being a useful stimulus to small businesses. The headline figures were certainly bearing out my main contention that the most likely beneficiaries are going to be homebuyers with a slight easing of mortgage problems and a number of small business organisations have criticised the initiative for under achieving for small businesses. The problem is that it is tempting to comment on the headline figures and not look too much at the detail.The main reason for this is that it is not only difficult to get at the real figures but it is also a problem looking at a small range of figures over a relatively short period and extrapolating those into an overall view.
Think how long the average period a mortgage or business loan is taken over and then add in the size of the loan parc and you then see how long it is going to be to sort out the problem of lending in general.The figures are so enormous that they become so unreal they are difficult to comprehend. Movements in borrowing or lending are affected by so many factors that are not within the control of the banks, I give just a couple:Someone works for Jessops and loses their job because of the way the market has changed from cameras to smart ‘phones. They had a mortgage but can no longer keep up the payments so their house reverts to the lender. This becomes a bad debt but the house is sold for the value of their debt so it is cleared meaning a reduction in net lending.
Someone wants to burrow £5,000 to fit out a small café and approaches their bank for a loan. An unsecured loan is agreed at 16%. The parents of the café owner hear about this and look at the rate of interest they are getting on their savings and suggest they will lend the money at half the rate of interest.  The loan was available but not taken up.The second example is something that I am coming across much more when talking to start-up businesses so we therefore should be careful when looking at the figures, not just kicking the banks.
At this juncture it might be worth looking at what the main banks themselves say.

Santander

·         Claims to be actively embracing the scheme and is promoting the benefits of it to customers via a national  advertising campaign.

·         Net lending to business increased by more than £3.4bn in the past 12 months. 

·         Currently averaging a 20% increase in lending to British business for each of the past three years.

·         Plans to maintain its expansion in lending to small and mid-sized companies.

RBS Group

·         Says Funding for Lending has led to interest rate cuts of up to 1.7% on loans to small businesses and the removal of arrangement fees, saving customers an average of £4,500 on the cost of a loan.

·         Core business net lending of £160m between July and September. Gross new lending increased 3% for Q3 compared with Q2.

·         Invoice and asset financing of £117m, which is not included in Bank of England figures.

·         A further £800m has been offered to small businesses and is waiting to be drawn down by customers. Claims it is “on track to deliver the full £2.5bn of SME FLS funding by February 2013”.

·         Gross new lending to small and mid-sized companies in the first nine months of £28.6bn.

Barclays

·         Lending to all businesses rose in Q3 from £28.1bn to £28.5bn or 1%.

·         Over the past year lending is four percentage points above the industry average, the bank claims.

·         However, the bank argues that “demand for lending amongst businesses remains well below pre-recession levels with applications decreasing by 25% over the last year”.

Lloyds Banking Group

·         Having drawn £1bn so far, the bank plans to draw down an additional £2bn by the end of 2012.

·         Plans to maintain 4% net lending growth to small and mid-sized businesses.

·         Funding for Lending has enabled the group to provide a 1% discount on interest rates offered to businesses.

·         Was the first bank to draw down funding under the scheme and can draw a total of £20bn by the end of 2013.

·         Lent more than £10bn to small and mid-sized companies in the first nine months of 2012, amounting to net lending growth of 4%. 

Bearing this in mind, I am going to wait a bit longer before I start saying “I told you so!” but I am watching closely!!

Written by Keith Powell, Business Advisor at Colbea. 

One size doesn't fit all

Sad to say, I’m old enough to remember when there was a bit of a craze on women’s clothes that bore the label, “one size fits all”.  Of course, it never did!  Human beings tend to come in all shapes and sizes and being fairly small myself, the “one size fits all” garment looked as if I was wearing a wigwam. 

“Now why is she wittering on about old clothes?”, you’re wondering.  It was Trevor Edwards, Colbea’s trainer and speaker at the next BIG Group Meeting, that made me think of it.  No, he wasn’t wearing a particularly ill-fitting shirt at the time (in fact, he was his normal smart-suited self) but he was talking about how we should treat our customers if we want to make sure our offering is a good fit with their needs and expectations.

Technology has driven a sea change in terms of the level of service businesses are able to provide to their customers.  The collection and analysis of data means we can look at people as individuals rather than ‘en masse’.  If we use that information well, we soon understand that different customers want different things from us.  The pendulum of business has swung from simply supplying goods or services to developing relationships that will facilitate buying behaviour. 

All buying is, in fact, a solution to a problem.  That problem could be a need or a desire and could range in complexity from very simple behaviour (I’ve run out of milk, therefore I buy a pint a milk) to a major decision making process such as buying a house.  Buying helps us to solve a problem or achieve a goal.  Even buying the same product will have different meaning for different buyers.  For example, the middle-aged man who buys a Ford Focus wants an economical family car that’s reliable and has plenty of space – it fulfils his need.  The same car bought by an 18 year old who’s just passed his test may be much more of an aspirational purchase.

Trevor’s going to tackle the subject of customer behaviour in more depth at the BIG Group Meeting on 15 January.  He’ll be looking at communication, buying behaviour, what happens when things go wrong and what you can do to put things right.  You’ll be taught ways of understanding your customer and of designing communications that help you overcome issues and strengthen relationships.

If you’re not already a member of BIG Group, contact Liz Bourne for more information liz.bourne@colbea.co.uk

The Obama Brand

The world woke up this morning to hear that President Obama will serve a second term in the White House.  After what we were led to believe was a close fought campaign, Obama romped home with a comfortable majority.

It got me thinking about the similarities between political campaigning and ordinary straightforward marketing.  Not that anything is ordinary or straightforward in today’s marketing world of course!  A lot has changed in the four years since Obama first took up office; at that time he was well ahead in the use of social media but in 2012 both candidates used every possible method to engage voters….including Facebook, Twitter, et al.  

But what really interested me was the way in which the two presidential candidates ‘lived’ the brands that represented their campaigns.  It raises all sorts of questions about where brands and what we might call ‘public personalities’ start and end.  Could they be one and the same thing?  Do we want them to be?  Think about Richard Branson or the late Steve Jobs.  They’re so synonymous with Virgin and Apple, respectively, that they seem to embody the values of those particular brands.  Branson and Jobs have been nothing but fabulous ambassadors but we can all think of instances where one person has single handedly brought down a brand through careless actions or words.

Is there anything we can learn from this I wonder?  I happen to be a one-man band (well, a one-woman band to be accurate!) so I guess that my ‘brand’ is me.  There is no one else to represent my business; I create the values that underpin it and I promote those values through the way I work.  But I used to work for a multi-national company – in my office alone there were roughly one thousand people.  How can a brand possibly remain strong in the face of such diverse values, personalities and aspirations?

I think the answer lies, at least partly, in defining the brand, championing it at every possibility and being true to the values that it represents.  Actions always impact a brand!  It’s what we do that gives our customers the opportunity to adjust their thinking, positively or negatively.  Our marketing may be spot on but if a disgruntled employee lets loose on Facebook or a senior executive’s rude comments end up in the press, that single action will have substantial repercussions.

The truth is, it’s the opinions of others that build our brand – whether we are aware of it or not.  Now that’s food for thought!

Be safe on the road this winter

Basic maintenance

Engine oil: Use a good quality oil which matches the specifications in your vehicle manual. Check the levels regularly to identify unusually quick usage early, preventing long-term engine problems.

Tyres: Check tyres for worn-out tread, bulges or lacerations. Consult the vehicle manual for the correct tyre pressure and use a reliable gauge to check this. Over-inflated tyres can cause wear around the centre of the tyre, while under-inflation results in wear around the outer edge and poor fuel efficiency.

Servicing: Get the car serviced as regularly as the manufacturer recommends to maintain engine efficiency.

When should I change gear?

“I tend to say that, in a petrol engine, a gear change should be done at 2,000rpm. Diesel cars need to be worked a bit harder, say at 2,500rpm, before moving up a gear.” 

Not sure how to carry out these checks?

Before you set off

Remove excess weight: Unnecessary weight in the boot makes your car work harder and consequently uses more fuel. Remove anything you don’t need for your journey.

Prevent drag: A roof rack or box adds wind resistance, resulting in drag at high speeds on the dual carriageway or the motorway. If the roof rack or box is not being used, take it off.

Leave straight away: Idling wastes fuel – don’t start the engine until you're ready to go.

On the road

Plan for the road ahead: Look at the road ahead, as far as you can see, for any potential or developing hazards and take early action by easing off the gas pedal and braking gently. By slowing down in good time, you’ll lessen wear to your tyres and brakes and conserve fuel.

Easy on the gas: Use of the accelerator pedal, which is very sensitive, should be smooth and gentle. Harsh acceleration

Slow down in gear: Advances in engine and braking technology mean that it is no longer necessary to change down into lower gears to slow down. Release the accelerator in good time to slow down smoothly and prevent unnecessary braking.

Change up gears earlier: Correct manual gear changes when speeding up, rather than labouring in the wrong gear, can have a significant impact on fuel efficiency.

Drive at appropriate speed: Driving faster requires more fuel. In fact, driving at 80mph, apart from being illegal and dangerous, can use as much as 20% more fuel than driving at 70mph. Stick to the limits and considerable fuel savings can be achieved.

Cut unnecessary electricals and air con: Don’t use the fan heater or air conditioning when they’re not needed, as they draw their power from the engine. 

Thanks to Tariq Musaji for this post - Tariq is a member of Colbea's Business Innovation Group, and a Driving Standards Agency-approved driving instructor and managing director of Farrah Driver Training Ltd based in Wickford, Essex.

Lending to small businesses - here we go again!

Some of you may have read my earlier piece on the Government’s scheme for solving the problem of banks lending to small businesses and the way billions of pounds would be made available under a scheme to encourage bank lending to small businesses OR for mortgages.  Sorry if you thought me cynical but now I feel vindicated in saying that, at best, the money would go on mortgages.  Why?

You will have heard Vince Cable and his latest announcement on lending to small businesses to his party conference – not Parliament as I would have thought more appropriate. This got my cynic-ometer running again and made me think - oh well, the last idea didn’t work so they thought they had better announce something else!  In fact, this is the second time this ‘something else’ has been announced but I assume he thought the media might notice it this time if he announced it at a conference.

With these announcements there is usually not much detail and this is true of this one in as much as further details will be released later in the autumn.  This one was a few phrases for the party faithful to applaud and a few headlines for the media.  The reality is that the idea has not yet been submitted to the EU for its permission for us to implement our own economic policy, so that could stop it in its tracks.

Additionally, the idea will have backing of some Government money (10%) but the rest will come from private capital from investors.  I cannot make out how this will be achieved as the “bank” will not deal direct with borrowers but through normal banks – this of course means two bites of the cherry before it gets to the small business owner.

Finally, Vince Cable has got to get it past his new Conservative guard dog – Michael Fallon – and I think this will be even harder than it was with Mark Prisk!!!

The Treasury response to the report on small business finance from Tim Breedon (BOOSTING FINANCE OPTIONS FOR BUSINESS) states:

“The Government also welcomes the suggestion of a single delivery agency for Government support schemes. This provides a welcome contribution to the debate on the role of Government finance interventions in tackling market failures. The comparison with state-supported agencies in other countries shows the different models available. The Government will examine the options and will need to consider the evidence and rationale carefully, balancing any proposals for change with the need to ensure continuity for existing schemes that work well, reporting back later this year. “

This doesn’t look like that single delivery agency for small businesses so will other suggestions follow?

My view still remains that it is up to us to sort out the question of finance ourselves – the current Government cannot understand what a micro business is, let alone the problems it faces.

Posted by Advisor Keith - 26 September 2012 

HELP....I need somebody!
HELP...not just anybody!

Austerity.  If I hear that word one more time I might just have to scream.  It’s on almost every news bulletin, in almost every business article and is so engrained in my mind I even felt compelled to start my own blog with it!

None of us needs reminding that we’re in hot water, economically speaking.  The question is not what we can do about the situation but what we can do despite it.  Where can any of us turn when resources, grants and government backed schemes for small businesses are melting away faster than a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a hot apple pie?

As a marketing professional myself, it’s no surprise that I rate marketing as a priority area.  But despite, or perhaps because of, my professional bias, I feel strongly that new and small businesses don’t, in general, pay sufficient heed to marketing.  I’ve been lucky enough to see some excellent marketing theory turned into even more excellent practice, but I’ve also seen some mammoth blunders!  It’s my belief that even those lucky enough to get work via word of mouth or from a regular and stable client base must examine their marketing practice all the time.  Why?  Because there are always hungry competitors out there waiting to pounce.

So where can businesses turn for marketing advice when times are tight and cash is strapped?  Here are my thoughts:

-           The Chartered Institute of Marketing (the professional body that champions best marketing practice in the UK) has heaps of information in the knowledge centre on its website – www.cim.co.uk.  You’ll have to register if you’re not a CIM member and want to download survey results or white papers. 

-           Buy a book!  A book on marketing theory may sound dry as the Atacama Desert but it will be invaluable.  You don’t have to read it cover to cover (no one’s asking questions afterwards!) but dip in and out and you’ll discover some fascinating stuff that will help you spend your limited marketing budget wisely.  ‘Sticky Marketing – Why everything in marketing has changed and what to do about it’     by Grant Leboff gives a good background to modern marketing, but it’s just one of many accessible books.

-           Open your eyes!  Question what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and what the likely effect will be.  Look at your competitors and try to evaluate their actions.  Get to know your customers; find out where they are, what they’re doing and what you can do for them.  Once you know that, you’re on the marketing road to success.

-           Recognise when you need professional help.  Damaging a brand is easy.  Rectifying that damage is lengthy and costly at best, impossible at worst.  If you engage professional help from a business advisor or marketing consultant look for appropriate qualifications from bodies such as the CIM and/or a business accreditation and quiz them about their own business experience.

Questions about marketing?  If so, post them here.

Austerity or fiscal stimulus

The jury is still out, although it seems clear that the current Chancellor appears to favour the former.  

As I type this, a survey from the Institute of Directors (IoD) has just been released, which is critical of the Chancellor’s ‘belt tightening’ policies.  Sadly, the IoD members conclude that the country will still be in recession at the end of 2012. 

Whether that will be the case remains to be seen but as the Labour PM, James Callaghan, admitted in 1976, additional spending only worked by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment.  At the moment both of those factors are just about under control and no one wants them rise.

Much of the capital injected into the banking system through quantitative easing has ended up there – with the banks…which has increased their capital base significantly.

In spite of claims that lending has increased, small businesses are still not getting the funding they require.  A recent Bibby Financial Services survey suggested that less than one in ten small businesses succeeded in gaining finance from their Bank. Could it be that banks are not lending because they have hidden liabilities?

Unfortunately the whole economical situation is extremely complicated.  But without funding for business where can the country find an impetus?  Rather than pussy footing around, shouldn’t the Government step in to sort out the banking sector once and for all.

Posted on behalf of Advisor Angus.

Going for gold

What fantastic success from Team GB!  If there’s one thing we can learn from the Olympics it’s got to be the concept of commitment.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been struck by the lengths that athletes go to in order to achieve their goals.  There are no half measures!

I guess business is much the same.  If you’re committed to your business idea you’ve a much greater chance of success.  But there are important considerations that no amount of commitment can replace.  Sadly, for every business that succeeds there are many others that don’t.  ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time’ is on many a business tombstone.  Here’s my checklist for evaluating your business idea.  It’s not definitive and I’m sure you’ve got other thoughts, so let me know!

-           What’s different?

           You have to compete on something, be that price, quality, delivery mechanism, etc., etc.  It’s hard to find an original idea but it needn’t be hard to out-do your competitors.

-           Is there a market?

            What seems like a really cool idea to you might not have the same appeal to everyone.  Before you start selling hand knitted cat cardigans make sure there are lots of pet owners out there clamouring to buy them!! 

-           Where are your customers and how you will reach them?

            Amazing though it sounds, many people just launch into a business without doing any research.  You might get lucky, but you probably won’t!

-           What price will you charge?

            If people can get the same elsewhere for less, they will.  If your price doesn’t cover your costs and leave a profit margin, you’ll fail.  ‘Simples’ as the meerkats would say!

-           How will you grow?

            If you are a one man (or one woman) band that’s fine, but you’ll soon reach a ceiling beyond which you can’t take on any more work.  Is that your plan, or are you aiming to be the next Richard Branson?  Knowing if you are going to grow and if so, how, should be something you consider at the outset.

-           Where are your knee pads and helmet?

            In other words, how will you protect your idea?  Your intellectual property is often the most valuable business asset you have.  Ask how easy it is for others to steal your idea and get legal advice on how to protect it. 

-           And finally….do you have the commitment of an Olympic athlete?

            Starting a business is hard work.  It will have more lows than highs, especially in the early days, and there will be times when you wonder whatever possessed you to be your own boss.  Do you have the attitude, skills and, most importantly, the commitment to make it work?

Mentors or Advisors?

Some while ago the Government decided that there was no longer a need for the physical entity called Business Link. As they had already spent £34million on its website they said that was enough information. They were persuaded that occasionally people starting a business would want to talk to someone so they added in a call-centre facility as well.

As it happened the British Banking Association had also persuaded them that they could provide 30,000 Business Mentors who would all work for free and therefore why would new and developing business have any need to go to an Enterprise Agency for help? Obviously this was seen as a great way of saving money by the new Government who had begun to realise that providing support for the new growth businesses that the economy needed was going to cost money they could ill afford.

Naturally, they could trust the banking profession to deliver on a promise, and they look as if they will have done so; the Mentorsme website shows an increasing number of mentoring organisations as well as individuals available. Whether all of them are free is a bit questionable.

My argument is not with the numbers or the cost, or how that relates to the initial promises made, but to the actual concept.

In my time helping small businesses I have acted as Consultant, as a Business Advisor and as a Mentor and I am qualified in all three areas so you could assume I know the difference. Unfortunately those organising help for small businesses do not, particularly the difference between an Advisor and a Mentor.

You can illustrate the difference by asking a question. Someone is starting a small business and goes to someone for help. They first ask “ How do I register as self-employed?” The Business Advisor says “You need to register with HMRC for two reasons, because you need to pay class 2 National Insurance and you need to register for Self Assessment Taxation. There is a form you need to download and complete on the HMRC website so go to…” – you get the picture.

The Mentor, in answer to that question, should say “Well, what do you think?”

This is a simplified situation but, I believe, illustrates the misunderstanding between the two roles. The Business Advisor is there to provide answers, the Mentor is there to provide guidance. We should not confuse the two.

THIS BLOG IS FROM ADVISOR KEITH - Feedback welcome.