When Times Get Tough, Get LEAN & Mean

A version of this article appeared in The Business Day just after the 9/11 disaster in New York... it holds true for today's global financial crisis:

In the US, business entrepreneurs are battening down the hatches in expectation of a serious recession… and the rest of the world had better sit up and take notice.

The ripple effect on local business will be marked if local entrepreneurs don’t begin to take immediate steps to plan positively for tough times.

When times get tough, savvy business entrepreneurs trim the fat and get back to basics.

Here are 10 steps for developing a strategy to survive tough times.

1. Be Prepared. Recognise that a global recession brings the likelihood of lower consumer demand, slowing sales, fewer customers and longer sales purchasing cycles.

2. Be Optimistic. It’s not the end of the world. Business does not stop. It just slows down.

3. Understand Your Challenge. Business is, first and foremost, about making profit. There are only two ways for a business to profit: Increase Revenue and/or Reduce Costs.

4. Redefine Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Identify what makes your business, product, service, uniquely different to all the other businesses in your market and broader… and state it clearly for consumers to see. Remember that all industries compete for your prospective customer’s Rand. How do you stand out above ALL offers bombarding your target market?

5. Increase Revenue. Results-oriented Sales and Marketing efforts become critical. Marketing efforts need to generate maximum impact, response and profit. Results inspire confidence. Confidence inspires sales.

Sales generate cash flow. Cash is king in tough times. New sales in slowing markets lead to an increase in market-share and a squeezing out of your competitors.

6. Be Marketing Focused. Businesses that are not seriously marketing-driven will struggle to survive. Research and redefine your target market. Target those decision-makers who desire your product and make the benefits of doing business with you massively irresistible.

Test every marketing effort, advert, headline copy, pricing, for maximum response performance. Use direct-response mechanisms to determine what advertising message works… and what fails. Demand a specific response from every advert.

7. Be Proactive. Network with positive business entrepreneurs with similar target markets and conduct joint promotions. Reach out to target communities, associations, schools and target key centres-of-influence. Provide education and information via all media to inspire confidence in consumers.

8. Develop Residual Income Back-End Products. Understand the ‘residual value’ of your current satisfied client and past client list to leverage off up-front sales and develop back-end sales of new offers, upgrades, enhancements or maintenance programs. Get to understand and calculate ‘The Lifetime Value of Your Customer’! The back-end is critical to any business!

9. Build Your Most Important Business Asset. Your customer list - past, present, and future - is your business! Without it your business has almost zero value to a purchaser.

10. Reduce Costs. Trim unproductive overheads and excess stock that do not actively encourage profits. Every individual, from receptionist to accountant must become a part of your ‘Increase Revenue’ strategy. Idle, non-productive employees are a luxury. Every square meter of office space, every piece of office equipment, all communication technology, every kilometer traveled or meeting attended must have a profit-motive.

Trevor Nel is a Business Development Specialist – 705-2790 (011)

Possible Headline Copy:
1. How To Grow Your Business In a Recession
2. How To Recession-Proof Your Business
3. 10 Steps To Surviving Tough Times

10 Questions To Help FIRE UP Your Business

Fourth article in Entrepreneur series - by Trevor Nel - in The Star Workplace:



Original submission:

Is your business a little tired, stagnant, in trouble? Perhaps it’s time to get someone to take a fresh look.

Someone other than you. You are too attached, too emotional, too concerned, too set in your ways to take an objective view of how your business fits into the big picture. In short, you are tired too!

This is where you need to turn to your ‘Board of Advisers’ - people that you can look up to and trust as successful business entrepreneurs in their own right. No business owner can afford to be without these critical ‘sounding boards’ who have felt your pain in reaching their own heights of success.

They are all around you, in your community, in your church, in your local business forum, in your accounting firm… successful people doing their little bit to put something back into the lives of others. Get to meet them. Get to know them. See how you can help them! One day you’ll need their advice… and they’ll be there for you.

Or, then again, you can call on a business turnaround specialist - a professional consultant who brings fresh analysis and ideas to your business for a fee or for an equity stake in your business recovery. But don’t leave this step to the last minute because even a team of 30 of the world’s best professional divers can’t save a sinking ‘Titanic’ when it is on its way to the bottom.

Regardless of whom you choose, there are 10 simple strategic questions that an adviser should ask and formulate into a turnaround solution.

1. What motivated you to start your business? Recapture the initial excitement, motivation, underlying factors and drive that led you to opening the doors of your business on your first day.

2. How did you attract your first customers? Revisit your initial marketing and sales processes. Review your original messages on your original advertising and brochure material.

3. Why did these customers buy from you then? Reflect back to your perception and excitement of those first sales and support your reasoning with testimonials from satisfied clients.

4. Why do customers buy from you today? Review the perception and feelings you have on current sales and support with current testimonials or comments. Conduct some basic market research questioning of your last 20 to 300 customers.

5. What marketing methods do you currently utilize? List the different methods being used and allocate the percentage of business being derived from each.

6. What is your personal contribution to sales? Compare your current sales activities to your original personal sales contribution at start-up.

7. What is truly UNIQUE about your product or service? Analyse what makes you proudest of your business, product or service and what differentiates it from your competitors.

8. Describe your KEY Target Consumer? Explain who they are, the lifestyle they lead, and what makes them your key target consumer.

9. Where is your KEY Target Consumer located (i.e. Demographics)? Identify the specific local, regional, and/or national locations of your current and potential consumers.

10. Where would you prefer to generate increased revenue - from new customers or existing customers - and why? This will help identify your understanding, approach and attitude to marketing strategies for recovery and growth.

Ends. (Word Count 539)

Trevor Nel: INNER Circle Business Forum – www.innercircleforum.com - 011- 705-2790

Possible Headline Copy:
1. Refresh Your Entrepreneurial Mind
2. Turnaround Business Strategies
3. Key Questions To Help Fire Up Your Business


Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - http://www.innercircleforum.com/ trevor@innercircleforum.com

simplify, Simplify, SIMPLIFY ..1 ..2 ..3

Trevor writes:

From this post - MAD 7. It Only Takes 'HALF-A-DOZEN' Things! (extract below) - I am reminded that it is all to easy to fall into the trap of adding unnecessary complexity to ideas, projects, strategies, et al, that should be as simple as ...1 ..2 ..3

Too many people look to make the simple things in life too complex to understand.

Yes, most often it takes only a few things... 1, 2, or 3 things... just a 'half-a-dozen' things to ensure success in most projects.

I am resolving to simplify every idea, project, strategy I have into a 'simple as ..1 ..2 ..3' graphic presentation.

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - www.innercircleforum.com
trevor@innercircleforum.com

Guidelines For Entrepreneurial Success

Third article in Entrepreneur series - by Trevor Nel - in The Star Workplace:



Original submission:

Business entrepreneurs have to make their living in a rapidly changing world where competition is rampant and consumers, inundated with a myriad of choices, change their buying patterns in a flash.

One of the positive spin-offs of such uncertainty is that there is always a new opportunity for savvy entrepreneurs to develop new ideas to meet new trends and market demands.

Often, the biggest profits come from the simplest ideas that make it to market and which appear so obvious to everyone after the event. Being ready to snap up these opportunities requires business entrepreneurs to be mentally prepared to understand what is needed to succeed. Here are some guidelines:

The business of business is profit. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different. The scorecard of a business is measured by the profit that it generates. Everything you do in your business should be intended to lead to profit.

Pay yourself first. You can do nothing for society by bankrupting yourself. Let creation of wealth, personal growth and development be your primary objective for you and those who are associated with your enterprise.

Be innovative. Make it your continual goal to think of ideas to change the world and add value to society, and then put them into action.

Be aware. Constantly scan international news releases, web links and industry bulletins to identify new trends and subtle twists to ‘old faithful’ income generators.

Think BIG. It takes just as much time and effort to launch a small business project as it does to work on a big project… go for the BIG idea.

Think SPEED. Speed to market is the battle cry of successful entrepreneurs in the 21st Century. Be prepared to move from idea to implementation in a matter of weeks.

Do It Now! Be ready to complete your business plan, marketing plan, test market research and produce marketing material within a matter of days.

Don’t be afraid of failure. The more you keep yourself aware of trends and on the ‘bleeding edge’ the more projects you are going to put into action. Many of them will fail. Keep trying until you find your winner. Then keep trying some more until you find your next winner. Welcome failure!

Massive action. Give every resource and commitment you have to producing significant results in 90 to 120 days.

Be inspired. Look for ways to add UNIQUE twists to commonly accepted products and services. Use simple technologies to create a ‘WOW’ affect.

Be enthusiastic. Consumers can sense your enthusiasm in delivering a quality product or service. If it is really that great, you will be really enthusiastic.

Be persistent. Set your eyes on each goal and don’t stop until you achieve what you want to achieve.

Guarantee your quality. Stand by the quality of your product or service with your personal guarantee.

Ends. (Word Count 471)

Trevor Nel: INNER Circle Business Forum – www.innercircleforum.com - 011- 705-2790

Possible Headline Copy:
1. Guidelines For Entrepreneurial Success
2. Business Success: No Flash In The Pan
3. Business Entrepreneurs Credo

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - http://www.innercircleforum.com/
trevor@innercircleforum.com

Entrepreneurs Are Not Born, They're (Self) MADE

Second article in Entrepreneurs series - by Trevor Nel - appearing in The Star Workplace:

Entrepreneurs are not born, they're (self) made

Original submission:

Forget about what the experts say is the right ‘profile’ for an entrepreneur, suggests Trevor Nel, author of Confessions of a SERIAL Entrepreneur, the reality is that entrepreneurs generally get into business because they want to… or because they have to.

Whether entering into entreprenurial business by desire or forced into survival mode by circumstance, it appears that entrepreneurs can surface in all shapes and sizes, regardless of race, colour, gender or creed, and are stimulated by very different painful experiences and/or pleasurable expectations.

‘In over 30 years of personal entrepreneurial business activity, I’ve yet to meet any two entrepreneurs who looked alike or who operated their businesses in the same manner,’ says Nel.

‘The truth is that entrepreneurs are a unique, independent-minded, innovative business breed who tend to take or make their own paths and create their own luck.’

Entrepreneurs generally have or develop the ability to:

· reduce the complex to the simple;

· to see that which others cannot see;

· to travel down roads that that others fear to tread;

· to treat every journey, twist and turn, as an adventure;

· to focus on their end goal whilst enjoying every step of the way.

The secret to entrepreneurship is recognising that business is a simple function of providing or developing a product or service that consumers want or need and who demonstrate that they are willing and able to pay for it.

Being keen life-long students of basic business principles, entrepreneurs understand that sales must generate more incoming revenue than outgoing costs, leaving a slice for the Receiver plus an acceptable after-tax profit to satisfy their personal needs and to finance their future dreams.

However, as with any new path in life, the astute entrepreneur recognises that the unexpected is waiting around every corner to sabotage every grand plan. Nothing is guaranteed in life, and neither is it in business.

Counter-intuitive to general expectation, savvy entrepreneurs tend to be extremely risk-averse in their planning and preparation. They have an intense understanding of their downside on new ventures and look to minimise their risks to a fault.

Comments Nel: ‘My advice to first-time entrepreneurs is to make certain you have enough capital in personal savings behind you, or to find a part-time job of some description, to make certain that you can feed, house and clothe your family... while you are building your business!

‘Put your family’s basic needs first.’

Young entrepreneurs therefore, between 18 to 24 years of age, who are still fortunate enough to be living at home and with little responsibility for supporting a family, have the greatest opportunity to test their skills in business by risking everything.

Ends. (Word Count 447)

by Trevor Nel – Developer: INNER Circle Business Forum – www.innercircleforum.com - 011- 705-2790

Possible Headline Copy:
1. The Makings Of An Entrepreneur
2. Entrepreneurship Made Simple
3. Entrepreneurs Defy Profiles

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - http://www.innercircleforum.com/
trevor@innercircleforum.com

Entrepreneurs - SA's New Economic Powerhouses

Well done to JonT Schoeman for pulling off a media exposure coup with The Star Workplace.

This is the first article published.

Entrepreneurs - SA's new economic powerhouses

Original submission:

The time is ripe for South African entrepreneurs to be encouraged, recognised and feted for the critical role they will have to play in growing their national economy.

Entrepreneurs the world over are positioned to become the leading economic powerhouses in their respective nations, if they are not already there.

The signs are clearly emerging that entrepreneurs are rapidly taking the initiative to drive their local, regional and national economies.

When the world leader in entrepreneurial competitiveness - the U.S. - begins to seriously look over its shoulder to see who is rapidly catching up, then the rest of the world had better take notice.

In a new Feb. 2007 report, Where America Stands: Entrepreneurship - prepared by the Council Of Competitiveness - http://www.compete.org/ - entrepreneurship is seen to drive job creation, productivity growth and innovation underpinning U.S. global competiveness. Here’s how:

· Job Creation – Entrepreneurs create most of the new jobs in the U.S.

· Productivity Growth – Entrepreneurs underpin high-growth rate U.S. companies.

· Innovation – Entrepreneurs stimulate new ideas and technologies.

The report finds that entrepreneurship is a critical driver of regional economic growth: ‘A recent study for the Small Business Administration found that the most entrepreneurial regions in the United States had 125 percent more employment growth, 58 percent more wage growth and 109 percent higher productivity than the least entrepreneurial regions.’

So why is the U.S. concerned about their global entrepreneurial competiveness?

The report reveals the U.S. concern for how the rest of the world – China, India, the European Union – are encouraging more and more people to become entrepreneurs to underpin their economies.

‘Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) are responsible for threequarters of EU employment,’ claims the report.

The reports bottom line? It warns the U.S. that their entrepreneurial leadership status is being threatened, which threatens their global economic competiveness.

It concludes: ‘The United States will need to work to maintain its leadership position – focused on strengthening the fertile environment for innovation, sustaining strong public support for productive risk-taking and entrepreneurship, and reigning in the costs of regulation and health care.’

Likewise, South African entrepreneurs and national leadership are urged to take note and proudly raise their entrepreneurial game to drive local job creation and productivity growth.

Ends. (Word Count 370)

by Trevor Nel – Developer: INNER Circle Business Forum – www.innercircleforum.com - 011- 705-2790

Possible Headline Copy:
1. Entrepreneurs: Your Country Needs You
2. Entrepreneurs: New Drivers of Leading Economies
3. Entrepreneurs: The Route To Mass Job Creation in S.A.

Regards

Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - http://www.innercircleforum.com/

trevor@innercircleforum.com