Essential Business

Clearing the path to business support

A number of years ago we were looking for information about exporting. There were lots of local organisations that we thought could help, many of which were receiving government money via Business Link contracts. The problem was, who should I speak to first? It took days to get to the right person.

That experience was far from unusual. Across the land we were positively bristling with business support agencies and organisations. The end result was duplicated effort, and confusion about who offered what for whom. Plus lots of wasted money.

I wasn't the only person who felt at that time that it could all be so much simpler. If fewer organisations delivered the support, we'd get real economies of scale and more streamlined, efficient services. In 2006 the government decided that the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) should make the system simpler and the Business Support Simplification Programme (BSSP) was born.

Sounds good so far.

However, if you reduce the number of deliverers, you also -- by default -- cause the demise of some of the long-established smaller organisations because their funding is taken away and they can no longer survive. Many of these smaller agencies are run by people with years of experience and local knowledge.

So the experience, ability and skill of the people in the organisations left standing is crucial.

It's not just whether they say they can do it (because they would say that, wouldn't they?), or whether they can produce an impressive business plan (writing a strategy is so much easier than delivering it), or even whether they can show you some impressive savings...

It's this: you are reducing the choices available to us -- please be sure that the people we are left with are up to the job.

Because the next time I'm visited by a business adviser who has never run a business in his or her life, who tells me something so basic that even my 20-year-old son would know it...

Or I'm advised, yet again, to visit the Business Link website -- and emerge from it two hours later, with reams of information, none of which answers my questions...

... then I will not be held reponsible for my actions!

Business information fatigue

I'm worried.

When I first had the idea about publishing our Essential Business Guide it was as a result of my own experience of starting and running businesses. Although technically skilled in the various ventures, I was definitely not skilled at business. That came later.

In the meantime, whilst struggling to get out of the trap of working ridiculous hours simply to make a living, I knew I had to learn to work smarter, not harder. (That old chestnut.)

Once the marketing penny dropped, and I started to get on top of this whole 'business' business, by setting up systems, managing the cash, and targeting our marketing effort more carefully, we started to make more money. And it was at that point I decided that I wanted to help other people avoid making my early mistakes. Mistakes which as so common they are almost part of the business start-up story. Hence the Guide. At that time (five years ago) there was very little information out there. Certainly nothing which had been specifically designed to be readable, and written in clear, plain language.

Since then there's been a veritable explosion of business information in the UK. Business is now the buzz word. (Sorry, not business ... the buzz word of the moment is 'entrepreneur'!) You can't turn on the TV, or download your emails without being deluged by people publishing e-books telling you how to do it, launching new website bristling with ads, telling you about new magazines full of advertorials, with invitations to yet another networking event which will transform your business life...

So why am I feeling such disquiet? Why am I not delighted that there is so much information available now?

Because so much of it is so poor. Badly written, badly designed. Just a thinly disguised attempt to get you to buy their book (and then use their foolproof -- but expensive -- system), use their website (so that they get more advertising money), read their ebook (which they've spent a few weeks writing and for which you pay through the nose), and so on.

Don't get me wrong. I know these people are in business to make money. And if the product or service they offer is excellent and worth paying for, then fine. But it's the 'jump on the bandwagon, knock the ebook out it a week' brigade that infuriate me. Our 'Before You Begin' ebook took over three months to produce, and another four weeks to get it tested in the market. And it's free for you to download.

So, a small plea from me. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And if, when you've paid for that 'brilliant e-book that will solve all your business problems', you find out it's just a lacklustre Word file with a few limp links in it, then get angry, send it back, and demand a refund!

You know you're worth it.

Retailer realities

Jane and I have just come back from three days in Birmingham. We were at the Convenience Retailing/International Forecourt Trader show at the NEC. The show's organisers, William Reed had invited us to run their Business Solutions area for the show's visitors. The area was really brilliantly laid out, with great branding and plenty of space, and the William Reed staff were fantastic. It was all very smooth-running and professional.

As well as writing and designing a special Business Solutions Guide for visitors to the show, Jane and I had work to do! On each of the three days of the show, it was my job to interview three expert retailers and magazine editors about various retail-related subjects, in front of a live audience of store owners. Jane ran daily working lunch sessions designed to inspire and inform business owners about various aspects of their marketing.

I have to confess, it wasn't the easiest task we've ever undertaken. The retailers were quieter than we'd hoped and didn't ask quite the numbers of questions we might have liked -- but what came across to us most of all was just how hard it is for independent convenience store owners to exist in the world of the big five supermarket chains. None of the retailers moaned about it -- they were simply exchanging stories and ideas. But as Jane and I listened it became more and more obvious how hard they have to work to be different; to delight their customers; to set themselves apart from such powerful competitors...

One particularly lovely guy, who had come to the UK from India in the 1960s and opened his shop here not long after, had seen his business decimated in the past two years by the arrival of a Tesco Express, which had opened just along the road from his store. He had lost almost two thirds of his turnover and told me that he was thinking that he might as well just give up. He was getting on in years and had simply lost the will to fight.

My heart went out to him and I wondered (not for the first time) what we're going to end up with in this country when all that is left is supermarket after supermarket, deciding what we should all eat and how much we should pay.

A thought-provoking three days.

Practical marketing

When I started my first business, the thing I struggled with most was marketing -- like almost every new business owner, I suspect! I had no idea what I should be doing, how to do it, or where to go for help. I would speak to business advisers about it, and mostly they trotted out the usual stuff (bearing in mind this was pre-internet!): take out ads, send out direct mail, makes sales calls. The whole thing left me completely confused.

Over the past week, I've been reading a book which would have been a godsend for me in those early days: Duct Tape Marketing, by John Jantsch. This is such a practical book. The author takes you through all the stages of developing and carrying out your marketing plan, telling why you need to research your market, how to do it, what to do with the information your gather, and so on.

My only complaint is the plain design and layout, and the paper they've used is like that of a 1930s novel! I wish publishers would remember the subliminal message given by the look and feel of a book. This book's content should have been enhanced by great design , colour print and smooth paper. OK, the publishers would have made less profit, but it would have been a lot easier to find your way around and more pleasant to read! An opportunity lost.

Luckily, the content is so good, it's worth putting up with those little niggles. (Trust a designer to winge about the design!). This one's definitely worth buying.

Duct Tape Marketing --
the World's Most Practical
Small Business Marketing Guide

Author: John Jantshch

Foreword: Michael Gerber (of EMyth fame)
Publisher: Nelson Business 
ISBN-10: 0-7852-2100-X 
ISBN-13: 978-0-7852-2100-5