marketing planning

If you want to develop your marketing plan in a less than 60 minutes then simply answer these quick questions spending no more than two minutes on each. Don’t think too much about your answers, simply note down your first responses. You will still have time to review your plan and print it out before

Women business owner, freelancer or professional?  Want a completely new way of propelling your financial progress? If you want to improve your financial situation, whilst having fun in a sociable environment, then we think you will find our next Pinkvox event on 25 September 2014 interesting and valuable. We have just released Money Talks! What

Efffforrrt ……. Here is a fast and easy step-by-step approach to planning your business. (Remember you are planning your business not simply producing a business plan)   Step 1: Current Situation – What is your starting point? What is your current: product/service offering? market & competitors? marketing & sales methods? customer base? way of working

The financial forecasts in your business plan are your view, your best educated guess, of what the finances of your business will be in the future based on the plan you have produced. Prove to yourself your business will make money. Sales Forecast – estimate the revenue you expect to earn from sales in the

How Business Owners are Saving the World! AquaPhysio Limited owner, Wendy Skinner, is dedicated to making this incredibly effective form of treatment and exercise accessible within Merton Borough and surrounding areas both to healthcare professionals and uniquely to the general public and sports men and women. Morden based AquaPhysio has earned a place on the

How Business Owners are Saving the World! Joanna Gaudoin of Inside Out in conversation with Christine Southern What is the focus of your business and what is it you are trying to accomplish? My focus is helping individuals and organisations with image and impact: appearance, communication skills, body language. I ensure the person knows how

If you want to receive testimonials from you customers that resonate with your prospects then try suggesting the Feline Approach – C.A.T. (It will also help you write effective testimonials for others.) Why Customers Who Love You Still Have Trouble Writing Testimonials One of the common barriers to a customer writing an excellent testimonial for

Business Owners are Saving the World! Stephen Hurton of Proper Oils in conversation with Christine Southern.                            What is the focus of your business and what is it you are trying to accomplish? I am trying to prove that local is better by developing an economically sustainable business, properly, in a social and ethical

Here we celebrate your achievements and provide inspiration to others. In the UK, small and medium sized businesses employ 14.1 million people and have a combined turnover of £1,500 billion.*  At a time of austerity and financial squeeze you are the ones getting up each and every day, running your business, providing employment, paying taxes and

How Business Owners are Saving the World! Cemanthe Harries of New Media Angels   What is the focus of your business and what is it you are trying to accomplish? My focus is to improve communication and understanding of new media. I aim to help people learn how it can really be used effectively and

As a business owner you are no doubt keenly aware that you have competitors. Who are they?       How are they a threat?       How can you compete effectively? Trouble is in the day-to-day pressures of running your business you don’t always have the time to consider your position before the cold winds of competition strike. Before you know

If you have struggled to really identify your business goals and purpose, or have found it difficult to truly identify your target market, describe your customer and what they want – try the not approach. For some reason we can often better describe what we don’t want more easily than what we do. We can

In the urgency of the day-to-day, it is sometimes difficult to gauge whether we are actually making progress in the growth and development of our business. We ask ourselves what we have actually accomplished. Identifying Vital Milestones is a simple but effective way of encouraging and tracking progress. What are Vital Milestones? Identifying and monitoring

If you are struggling to get through your to-do list each day only to find that the important projects needed to really develop your business are not implemented, then I suggest focusing on Key Progress Plans. What is Key Progress Planning? Key progress planning is simply determining what you need to do, by when, to

How do you decide if you are facing an opportunity or a threat? I was speaking with someone at a networking event recently who was thinking of starting her own business based on her keen interest in baking. The problem is, she said, that baking is now so popular that there are a great many

Over time we find our inboxes crammed with emails and e-newsletters. In an attempt to gain some control over our life we often unsubscribe from as many as we can and give a huge sigh of relief as our emails thin out. A word of caution here: are you unsubscribing from potential customers or referrals?

Once upon a time there was a business owner, expert in their field, who wanted to succeed. The owner had dreams of shiny new customers hurrying towards the business, clutching bags of gold they couldn’t wait to pass over in exchange for the excellent, personal service being offered. The owner had a vague idea of

Why Do We Need a Sales Strategy? Your business plan concentrates your efforts on what you want to accomplish; it keeps you on track; provides visibility of progress; translates your ideas and intentions into clear actions and in committing to deadlines, compels you to take action. Your marketing plan is an expression of who you

Why does a small business need a mission? Clarity, Commitment and Focus You are a business owner with many demands on your time. There are a whole range of markets you could serve and products and services you could deliver. You cannot do everything. Your mission should describe, with passion, in a sentence or so,

January is such a good time for planning the future of your business. It is an opportunity to re-evaluate your challenges and achievements of 2012 and map out what you would like to achieve in 2013. However it can sometimes be hard to see the year ahead. If it seems like anything can happen, then

Planning Procrastination was the subject of my last monthly Business Support Bulletin. At a time of year when business owners are reflecting on the achievments of 2012, I thought it would be useful to publish it as a blog as well. (If you are already signed up to the monthly Bulletin this blog will be a reminder,

If Christmas is actually your quiet time of year, here are a number of suggestions for how to use the time effectively to improve your business. Replenish and “Redecorate” Your Business A quiet time in the business is useful to replenish and “redecorate” your business. This could literally mean to review your physical product lines

As the owner of a small business you rarely have enough time: the urgent often overwhelms the important and running your business can seem like snakes and ladders in a maze. Business planning, although vital for your success, seems the preserve of larger businesses, an impossible luxury for a small business. You can, however, effectively

Creating a powerful vision for a small business inspires you to consider new possibilities and helps keep you focused when the going gets tough. When attempting to describe your vision it can prove tricky to formulate in a meaningful way. Here is a quick technique (courtesy of Kipling) to get you started. I keep six

So you’ve finally found a few moments to sit down, in peace, to think about the future of your business. You ask yourself. How will I develop my business?  How will I accomplish business growth? What is the best course of action? In just 10 minutes you can start to answer those questions. Beginning with

We are bombarded daily by messages of how easy it is to find and win new customers; how simple it is to beat our competition. We are offered hot tips, easy steps and quick results. I’ll let you into a secret … it takes effort. Discover what you really need to do to increase your

“Do you have a business plan?” Response from business owner … Exasperation.  “We are a small company. We don’t need reams of unintelligible spreadsheets.” Guilt. “We did have one a few years ago but haven’t really updated it since.” Pity. “If you knew the business you’d realise things move too fast for planning.” Agrression. “Look” (the “pal” is

The challenges of being a working mum with older children are sometimes less clear than with younger children. We are often blithely told when children are young that it will get “easier”. Easier? Different maybe, but the tensions between work and the needs of your family are ever-present. Older children need a great deal of

Funding for London Business Owners.

What’s On Offer Growing SMEs in London could be eligible for a matched funding grant for coaching and mentoring, up to a maximum of £1000. At a recent briefing, Exemplas (the organisation managing the Leadership & Management Advisory Service in London on behalf of the Skills Funding Agency) outlined the offer. The aim is to provide support to