“Stickier” products and services are not the only way to Grow Business…
Interesting there’s no mention of growth via buying a business…
CUSTOMER relationships and business diversification have topped the list of growth strategies for Australia’s small and medium enterprises this year.
Despite a volatile economy, a MYOB survey of more than 1000 SME owners found the most common objectives for Australian business owners in 2012 in terms of clients and revenue were to strengthen customer relationships and expand business development activity.
MYOB found in its most recent Business Monitor research that 49% of owners were aiming for client/revenue growth in 2012 (an increase of three percentage points on the prior year).
A total of 32% hope to simply maintain their current levels and 13% are focused on minimising losses in these areas. The remainder are unsure of their goal.
“Customers will understandably remain the core focus for Australian SMEs in maintaining and strengthening their business health in 2012, with our research finding more than one-third of businesses are set to increase activity around attracting customers’ attention and building their loyalty,” MYOB CEO Tim Reed said.
“What I found especially interesting was the insight we received into the importance SMEs place on driving growth through diversification.”
“It makes sense for today’s business owners, many of whom face increasingly financially conservative consumers, to foster a ‘stickier’ customer by providing more products or services to whet their appetite. For many it will be the key to their survival in a two-speed economy.”
The survey also found businesswomen were more focused on growing client numbers and business revenues, with 54% of females surveyed having this objective compared with 45% of males.
“It also makes sense for SMEs to broaden their horizons into new markets, and to compete on a global scale where possible, providing their business with access to larger, more diverse audiences,” Mr Reed said.
“This is something the internet and cloud computing easily facilitate if business owners have the right tools and resources at their disposal. We’re seeing more and more operators benefit from getting their business online with a website.
“Our research shows those with a website generated 6% more revenue in the previous 12 months than those without. The key is getting online, being found, communicating well to your online audience and in doing so getting solid access to the digital economy.”
►Case study
Founder of unique Sunshine Coast business Yin Health, Tsu Shan Chambers, will enact just about all of the growth strategies outlined in the MYOB research in her integrative wellness centre in 2012.
The holistic Birtinya East-meets-West centre, which offers anything from yoga, dance and self empowerment classes to optometrists, GPs, psychologists and physios, is just over a year old.
It is diversifying this year by adding extra practitioners, offering part of its premises for community lease and examining a future partnership with the GP superclinic once the new private hospital is built at Kawana.
It is building its customer relationships by rewarding customers who refer new clients with either a gift or a dollar amount towards a loyalty card that earns them $15 cash back once they spend $360
Ms Chambers said she had already been sending out birthday cards and emails with discounts and specials, as well as cards and gifts to the many pregnant clients when they have their babies.
She launched an online shop and completed a full overhaul of her website at the end of last year.
“It is fully SEO optimised and can take bookings and payments, plus we do Twitter and Facebook,” she said.
“My centre is the only business so far that uses a GP-based software program adapted to include allied health and retail sales.”
She admitted all these measures did take time and money.
“It’s a bit of a stimulus for my business and when times are tougher, you need to be active and innovative, otherwise you’ll be stagnant. I do feel it will definitely be a better year.
“I have done a lot of learning over the past 12 months and I am now very clear in terms of what we’re about and what we want to achieve.”
Ms Chambers is a council regional health ambassador and was a finalist in three of the region’s premier business awards programs last year.
MYOB Business Monitor top 10 focal points for 2012
1 Focus on customer retention strategies – 39% of respondents
2. Focus on customer acquisition strategies – 34%
3. Business activity in new markets – 33%
4. Number of products/services offered by the business – 29%
5. Amount paid to staff – 24%
6. Sale of products/services online – 24%
7. Sales of products/services offline – 23%
8. Number of sales promotions conducted over the year – 22%
9. Number of part-time or casual staff in the business – 21%
10. Dollar value of spending on marketing and advertising the business online – 21%
Make Social Media Sell—NOW
“The ‘social media revolution’ is over-hyped nonsense. The real business opportunity is to become more relevant and meaningful to customers in ways that create sales.
Few will question the impact social media is having on people’s lives. From assisting political revolutions to simply reconnecting us with old friends, social media is touching our lives in meaningful ways every day. But with all the stories you’re hearing about the power of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social networks, the one question you may be asking is ‘how can my business actually make money with social media?’
Continue reading the latest from ChangeThis.com byJeff Molander
“16 questions for Free Agents” by Seth Godin…
If you’re starting out as an entrepreneur or a freelancer or a project manager, the most important choice you’ll make is: what to do? As in the answer to the question, “what do you [want to] do?” Read on…
What is Your Mother of a Business Worth?
It’s important to note that any two licensed appraisers or prospective investors can read key valuation factors differently. But what is true to all business valuations is the attempt to put a dollar value on a company’s future business potential.
Startup entrepreneurs and well-established business owners should have a sophisticated appreciation of how investors and ultimately business buyers will size up their company’s potential. Sometimes these factors which can influence company valuations are referred to as “business fundamentals” or “investment fundamentals.”
Here are six fundamentals that may influence the value of your business. (For full details, read the article in its entirety here).
No. 1: Revenue predictability.
No. 2: Customer list.
No. 3: High gross margin business.
No. 4: Intellectual property advantage.
No.5: Brand strength.
No. 6: Low debt load.
…an excerpt from “What’s Your Business Worth?” by Susan Schreter for the Small Business Center.
How Resilient-Ready are You for 2012?
Tom Peters recently blogged about Flourish, the latest book by Martin Seligman, founder of the Positive Psychology Movement. Their research has shown that the building of personal strengths such as courage, optimism, work ethic, honesty and perseverance all have a positive effect on peoples’ mental wellbeing. The process of building a positive mindset is not trivial or easy, as evidenced by Seligman’s work with the US Army. However, if it piques your interest, why not try Seligman’s “Three Good Things” exercise? It sounds simple, but over time its effects can be profound.
Three Good Things Exercise
Each night before you go to sleep:
1. Think of three good things that happened today.
Anything from the most mundane to the most exalted works, as long as it seems to you like a good, positive, happy thing.
2. Write them down.
3. Reflect on why they happened.
Determining the “why” of the event is the most important part of the exercise, and can open up your mind to ways you can increase the positive experiences you have. For more information: www.authentichappiness.org
Adopting the Three Good Things habit will have personal and professional benefits. For many years, Tom has been encouraging leaders to focus on TGRs (Things Gone Right) as opposed to TGWs (Things Gone Wrong). Measure TGRs! Try discussing three TGRs at every meeting in 2012. It’s a great way to discover how to make TGRs happen more often…
… an excerpt from the latest Tom Peters Times… enjoy
The Promise of Entrepreneurship… is bigger always better?
We are made to believe that when it comes to business success, bigger is always better. In our super-sized, consumption-oriented culture, not even small business is exempt from the pressure to grow for growth’s sake. We fixate on top-line revenue growth and increasing numbers of employees and locations. We pepper entrepreneurs with questions such as, ‘What are your plans for expansion? What’s next? How many cities will you go to?’ instead of asking what their goals are or why they started their business in the first place. When talk about growth we focus on speed, not sustainability. When we talk about success we focus on size, not satisfaction.
So much so that entrepreneurs doubt their own success and skill if they aren’t pursuing the largest form of their business possible. We’ve talked with countless business owners who run profitable ventures, make a good living, enjoy what they do every day, and have significant impact in their industry—but who also hesitate to call themselves successful. Why? Because their companies could be bigger, or they decided not to open several more locations, or they don’t have the largest market share—even though these are not the things that they want.
We believe that it doesn’t have to be this way. There is an alternative that is both rewarding and attainable—it just requires rethinking things a bit…
Another gem from ChangeThis.com by Adelaide Lancaster
“The World Needs Female Entrepreneurs Now More Than Ever”…
Indeedy, it does!
The key point I’d like to point out in this fine article is this:
Becoming an Entrepreneur does not require
any shifts in corporate culture.
In fact, becoming a Business Owner does not require changing any societal norms at all. It does require however a distinct shift in your own internal thinking in combination with your family’s particular circumstances.
So… why not be opportunistic and bold in 2012, and become a “3%” member? (refer last post)
You can always tap into the entrepreneurial mothers group if you need support…
3% of women-owned businesses make $1million or more a year; so why are you in your Mother of a Business?
As featured on the Ruby Connection…
A little while ago, I came across this… according to recent statistics in the Wall Street Journal from the Center for Women’s Business Research in the U.S., there is only 3% of women-owned businesses with a revenue of $1million or more in The Million-Dollar Club… (and I bet that percentage is a whole lot smaller again if being the only breadwinner for the family is also taken into account).
Only 3%, is that all I hear you say?
Given that 7-figures is the turnover my Mother of a Business was doing at time of its Sale, that put me in the category of the 3%…are you kidding? How can it be that with all the businesses started by women, only 3% manage to reach 7-figures?
Why are Businesses being built if not to serve your Lifestyle, as opposed to the other way around?
Couple that with some of the more disturbing statistics from our very own Ruby Connection “Westpac Women’s Financial Health Report, September 2011”:
- Nearly half (49%) of women agreed they felt disadvantaged in terms of the amount of superannuation they were able to save as a result of having to cut back or stop work. This view was even more likely held by Gen Y (63%) and Gen X (63%).
- After having children, 64% of women reported that it had significantly affected their ability to work continuously and impacted substantially on their working career cycle
We’re not in a very good place are we? Well, the majority of us that is.
Business gives you Lifestyle to be the Mother you long to be. No question.
In fact, it’s not just about the mothering, it’s ultimately about Lifestyle and the ability to earn what you must earn, plus a whole lot more.
Come on, join the club too…
If the notion of a 7-figure business scares you right now, you may be thinking that it must mean a whole lot of work that will take you away from your family even more? WRONG! You couldn’t be further from the truth, provided you structure properly and of course, “Start with the End in Mind”.
Just financing the family holiday is not enough of an “End” to justify all the blood, sweat and tears you will invest in your business, not to mention money…
Ladies, we’ve got some serious Business Building and Professional Development work to do…To discuss any of this further and, most importantly, to do something about it, feel free to contact me.
Successfully passing on businesses is Vital…
“Given the Herculean effort that most people put into building their businesses, it’s amazing how many of them fail to plan their exit. Serendipity often rules, with many accepting apparently flattering or friendly offers without bothering to market their businesses.”
Seems there are a number of us now saying similar things…
This most accurate comment is from an article in the Telegraph in the UK.
Successfully passing on businesses – whether publicly traded or private – to the next generation of owner-managers and entrepreneurs is vital. Yet there has also been a surge in first-time founders of double-digit turnover companies selling out too early.
Good reading to be found here…
“Great by Choice”; the next stand-out by Jim Collins…
There are smart decisions and wise decisions. One form of wisdom is to know when to let luck disrupt your plans (and when not to). Getting a high ROL (return on luck) requires a new mental muscle, beginning first with a heightened awareness to recognize when a luck event happens. Use the three tests we lay out in the book:
1) Did the event happen largely or entirely independent of your own actions?
2) Does it have a potentially significant consequence (good or bad)?
3) Did some aspect of the event happen unexpectedly?
If yes, then ask: what—if anything—should we do to get a high return on this luck event? This applies equally to good luck events and bad luck events.
One very important point about luck: it is asymmetric as a potential cause of success or failure. Good luck cannot cause a great company, but huge strikes of bad luck can terminate a company. That’s why productive paranoia that we write about in the book is so important: always preparing to endure a sequence of bad luck events that will someday hit, being able to absorb them and stay in game long enough to turn the tide in your favor…
…says Jim Collins and Morten Hansen, in their interview with The Keen Thinker. There are a number of other fabulous interviews, and book reviews, to be digested at the same place. Go to The Keen Thinker for more…
