Posted by martinparry on October 5, 2010 under Business Planning, Marketing, Sales, SME News, Start Ups, Strategic Planning | 
20 Years of marketing management in such corporate giants as Rover Group, AT&T and ntl: taught me little about the marketing and development needs of SMEs. The objectives and imperatives of such companies are light years away from the focus and immediacy displayed by small companies who rarely have a clear view of their objectives and strategies preferring to move forward on a day to day basis. This lack of clarity and simplicity however was not totally new to me. Before my marketing career among the corporate giants I had owned and managed business within the Travel, Leisure and Computer Services sectors and was very aware for the need to generate profitable sales at minimum investment in cash and time based on clear and simple objectives.
The size of business and market sector however has little impact on the essential truths of business marketing. All need to deliver the right products competitively but profitably priced; backed up by effective promotion and communication and supported by everyone in the business to deliver the best possible customer service and positive messages. It is therefore vital to remember that marketing is not the responsibility of a single part of the business tasked with generating enquiries. Marketing, like quality, is the responsibility of everyone. There is no point in investing thousands of pounds in websites, brochures and advertising if the installation engineers are scruffy and unhelpful!
This holistic marketing approach is reflected in a number of projects on which I have worked. The first example is a business that imported and distributed electric and woodworking tools to hobby modellers. Distributing via a team of sales agents to the retail industry my client had a respectable and profitable turnover of circa £3m. Family owned, the problem was that the business was not thriving. It hadn’t grown in years and chairman dad wanted to retire and was pressuring CEO son to deliver the growth that would enable him to do so.
The whole business was flabby! Dispatch from the warehouse was slow; sales unremarkable; too many customers buying too little. The company lacked direction, strategy and meaningful targets. Working with the board we undertook a complete review of the business resulting in a re-organisation of the sales team; a sharp knife taken to the retail customers cutting out those who failed to reach sales targets, focussing on those willing to respond positively to a new retail incentive scheme. As far as delivery was concerned, we invested in the distribution centre reducing average dispatch from 5 days to 1 thus allowing us to improve customer service; speed invoicing and improve cash flow by cutting stock and debtor days. All this activity was underpinned the identification of management criteria and reporting available at management meetings and ensured that senior management took responsibility for their delivery.
As a result sales revenue grew; profitability improved and morale throughout business recovered rapidly. Since the completion of this project the business has been successfully sold for a good sum; dad has retired and son is a senior director of the new expanded business.
A second project involved a larger business, circa £10m revenue working in motor components. They manufactured suspension systems for manufacturers like GM, Land Rover and Scania. Their problem was simply despite having a number of successful product lines they had identified a product gap during 2011 – 2012 and wanted to develop a product to fill it. The excellent management team had discussed this on several occasions but had failed to agree. And it is true to say that my suggestion to ask the staff was met with a degree of scepticism. However I was given a team made up of machine operators and junior supervisors and we set to work.
Our task was to make new product recommendations that would make maximum use of existing skills and resources within the company. Three days was spent brainstorming the project and undertaking detailed SWOT and PEST examinations of each idea put forward. After hard work from all involved I was given 10 product ideas to put to the leadership team. Of these, three were adopted by the business for initial development and my team were asked to be heavily involved in programmes that ultimately delivered two new and profitable products for the business.
My purpose in selecting these two case studies for discussion was simply to demonstrate the truism that marketing is not websites, brochures or social networking. Marketing works at a strategic level within businesses to deliver high quality, profitable products and services by a trained and motivated team of people led by those who have a clear commitment to the company’s objectives. Lack of sales is often blamed on the web site or the sales manager. As advisors and consultants we should be prepared to look much deeper than that!
Sc: martin.parry@mgba.co.uk
Free Resources
Marketing-Simply – A Guide to Marketing for SMEs –
Business Plan Template – Cashflow Template – Start Up Guide
Guide To Strategic Planning – Small Business Guide
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Posted by martinparry on June 20, 2010 under Business Planning, Finance, SME News, Start Ups |
New businesses set up by graduate entrepreneurs are giving the economy a significant boost, it has been claimed.
The statement came from the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) which has just published the results of a study into the impact of its graduate programmes.
The organisation, which was set up six years ago, currently supports 3,550 graduate businesses, works with 90 universities cialis on lineand has received £2.25m in funding from organisations such as Barclays, Microsoft and HSBC.
“Over 80% of new, growth companies are set up by graduates,” said Ian Robertson, chief executive of NCGE.
“At this critical time for our economy we need to improve the environment for wealth creation and build a closer, more productive relationship between business and universities.”
Jonathan Lloyd started Falling Pixel while studying at Portsmouth University in 2006 and has taken part in the NCGE’s Flying Start programme. His turnover has doubled year-on-year since launch and he’s predicting the same growth for the year ahead.
Lloyd received a £1,000 grant and visited the USA as part of a fellowship programme where he met with Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt.
He said: “I first found out about NCGE’s Flying Start Programme when I went along to a rally they were organising in Reading. There I got some fantastic start-up advice and help on developing a business plan to help get me going.”
For more information on the NCGE visit www.ngce.com
Sc: www.startups.co.uk www.ukba.co.uk
Free Resources
Marketing-Simply – A Guide to Marketing for SMEs –
Business Plan Template – Cashflow Template – Start Up Guide
Guide To Strategic Planning – Small Business Guide
www.ukba.co.uk
Posted by martinparry on June 13, 2010 under Business Planning, Finance, SME News, Start Ups, Tax |
The Government has hinted that it may be about to climb down over its proposed increase to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) from 18% to 40%. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC that no definite plan had been decided. He said Chancellor George Osborne had discussed exemptions so as not to “harm entrepreneurs”. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg added a few days later that homeowners may be protected by exempting Location Wayne Savings Community Bank financial gains made as a result of inflation. To read more on this story go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8713538.stm and: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1283427/Clegg-hints-capital-gains-tax-climbdown-insists-options-discussed.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Free Resources
Marketing-Simply – A Guide to Marketing for SMEs –
Business Plan Template – Cashflow Template – Start Up Guide
Guide To Strategic Planning – Small Business Guide
www.ukba.co.uk
Posted by martinparry on June 10, 2010 under SME News, Start Ups |
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called for greater communication between local authorities and small businesses, claiming that small firms need a stronger voice with their councils. FSB Welsh policy chairwoman Janet Jones said the FSB believes councils could improve their relationships with the local business community.
To read more on this story go to: http://www.fsb.org.uk/data/news.asp?loc=wales&rec=6313
sc: www.ukba.co.uk
Free Resources
Marketing-Simply – A Guide to Marketing for SMEs –
Business Plan Template – Cashflow Template – Start Up Guide
Guide To Strategic Planning – Small Business Guide
www.ukba.co.uk
Posted by martinparry on May 26, 2010 under Business Planning, Finance, Grants, Loans, Resources, SME News, Start Ups, Strategic Planning |
According to an article in Regen.net The Treasury has announced that England’s regional development agencies will have to save £270 million in the current financial year through “ending lower value spending”.
Setting out how the coalition government intends to save £6.2 billion in 2010/11, chief secretary to the Treasury David Laws said that RDAs will “have to cut back on spending which has the lowest economic impact”.
A document published by the Treasury following the announcement said that the budget for the RDAs would have to provide £270 million of savings in 2010/11 “from ending lower value spending”.
Laws said: “Tough decisions are being made … Quangos across government will have to make major savings in their budgets.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that no decisions had been made yet on how the cuts would be spread across England’s nine RDAs.
But speaking in Warrington last week, new business secretary Vince Cable picked out the South-East England Development Agency (Seeda) and the East of England Development Agency (Eeda) as examples of RDAs whose existence is hard to justify.
Cable was quoted by the Financial Times as saying: “It is very difficult to see the justification for RDAs in the South-East and East, prosperous regions with a large private sector.
“There are areas like the North-West, Yorkshire and the West Midlands, where there are really serious structural problems and there seems to be a broad agreement with local businesses that the RDAs are doing a good job.”
Sc: www.regen.net Sc: www.ukba.co.uk
Free Resources
Marketing-Simply – A Guide to Marketing for SMEs –
Business Plan Template – Cashflow Template – Start Up Guide
Guide To Strategic Planning – Small Business Guide
www.ukba.co.uk
