If you’re a business owner, it won’t have taken long for you to appreciate why there is so much talk about the importance of cash flow in any business start-up books you may have read.
>>> Why Cash And Cash Flow Are Important
You’ll have found that it is easy to spend money but much more difficult to make sales and to collect the cash when it’s due to be paid.
In this article I’m going to look at:
Marketing and sales can be split into two activities:
Is this where marketing and sales divide with the marketing staff responsible for generating leads and the sales department responsible for turning the leads into money?
Sometimes it is but often a lot of conversion can be done in the marketing.
This article will focus on the conversion side of the process but if you want to first look at lead generation, I recommend the following:
>>> Understand The Customers In Your Market And Find Unexploited Opportunities
>>> How To Help Prospective Customers Find Your Business
>>> Where To Promote Your Business To Your Target Customers
>>> Reach Out To Your Target Customers
This is the fifth marketing tip in a series based on
>>> Being Good At Marketing Isn’t A Nice-If But A Must Have
If you have done your market research,
>>> Understand The Customers In Your Market And Find Unexploited Opportunities
you should be in a good position to start a proactive outreach marketing campaign to contact your target customers.
The two main direct response methods that small businesses can easily use are:
Back in 2009 I found a way of assessing how good an advertising slogan is against ten criteria. It’s a system from
http://www.adslogans.co.uk/pages/slogananalysis.html called Sloganalysis®
An advertising slogan may be your USP or Irresistible Offer in its entirety or it can b a touchstone that expresses one of more core elements of your brand that you believe are important to customers.
>>> What Is A USP?
In this article we are going to look at possibly the most important concept and key performance indicator in any business, the customer lifetime value (CLV).
You will see the concept also referred to as:
It is a KPI that explains how much a customer on average is worth to a business of its entire relationship.
You will see some people refer to it in terms of sales revenue.
This is wrong and misleading. It can cause you to make the wrong decisions about attracting and retaining customers. [continue reading…]
Before you dive into buying particular marketing media, it’s well worth thinking about where your target customers can see and hear your marketing message.
Your message will usually be some kind of direct response offer but can be brand name exposure or even something creative like a competition or survey.
You want:
Break Even Point Analysis is a very simple to understand financial model of a business which I believe every business owner should understand.
It can be quickly used to help guide business decisions that will impact on the financial performance of the business.
When I have taught this idea to business owners and managers in Finance For Non-Financial Managers courses, the people have been amazed at how the financial fog lifts and things start to make sense.
A business is said to break even when it operates at a sales level that neither makes a profit or loss.
The two big issues to focus on are:
The Break Even Point Formula which calculates the break even point is:
Fixed Costs
Contribution % or Contribution per unit [continue reading…]
This is the fourth marketing tip in a series based on
>>> Being Good At Marketing Isn’t A Nice-If But A Must Have
Ask yourself where prospective customers will look to find out more about their problem, potential solutions and possible suppliers.
How can you encourage them to call you and not your competitors?
You’ll find out when you read the rest of the article.
How can you make your advert stand out and encourage a prospect to call you? Your advert is surrounded by all your competitors, all shouting for attention so it has to connect with what your customers want. [continue reading…]
Can you make finance and accounting sexy?
Author Rhondalynn Korolak does an excellent job in her book.
This is not your average, very dry and boring finance for non-financial managers book.
As the title suggests, there is a frisson to the way she educates you on the need for more effective financial control in your business.
The training is delivered in a charming and easy to read way. [continue reading…]
Marketing Planning can be broken down into two stages:
The first stage is covered very well in a short, powerful marketing plan.
>>> The Guerrilla Marketing Plan – 7 Sentences To Marketing Clarity
The second stage is when you get specific about what you will do in your Marketing Calendar.
I was a consultant, small business coach and advisor based in Birmingham, with over 35 years business experience, including more than 20 years as self employed.
My main business qualifications are:
– Chartered Accountant
– MBA
– Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach
My main interests are in helping business owners who are stuck get unstuck by thinking more clearly about their issues and possible solutions.
I no longer provide professional business coaching but I will be sharing more ideas on my blog and will continue my popular business book reviews.
I can be contacted by email at Paul@BusinessDevelopmentAdvice.com
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