June 2013

When I’ve written about the idea of developing a USP in the past I have said that the letters in the acronym stand for:

• Unique Selling Proposition (the term created by Rosser Reeve in his book Reality In Advertising) and the phrase used in the USA and most of the world.
• Unique Selling Point in the United Kingdom.

I’ve said that these were effectively the same concept but due to language conventions, they are used in different countries.

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Hard hitting business advice from the author of Profits Aren’t Everything delivered by his COO George Mosca

Rule 1 – Profits Aren’t Everything, They Are The Only Thing

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If you’ve been reading my articles on my blog, you’ll have seen that I make a big issue about knowing where you are going.

I want you to have a clear vision of where you are going for your business and your personal life.

I buy into the ideas explained by Michael Gerber in his book The E Myth Revisited called the Primary Aim and Strategic Objective. They were the two big things I took from the book about living your life purposefully as a business owner:

Your Primary Aim Answers The Big Questions In Your Life

Your Strategic Objective – Design Your Business To Be Right For You

However I have been thinking and I believe there can be a problem.

A disconnect.

Your Holiday And The Different Attitudes To The Journeys [continue reading…]

Jump Start Your Business Brain: The Scientific Way To Make More Money by Doug Hall

Book Review Rating – 5 Stars

I wish I had read this book many years ago.

It gives logical, statistical, scientific support for some of my marketing ideas and theories and it’s opened my eyes to many issues about creative thinking and innovation.

The Three Laws Of Marketing Physics

The book stresses that there are three laws of marketing which together create success: [continue reading…]

My aim is to help you to survive in business and then to prosper.

Mere survival isn’t good enough for the longer term.

But to do that, sometimes we need to look at what happens if a business doesn’t survive but fails.

What happens when a business isn’t a viable going concern?

The Often Quoted Business Failure Statistics

I see a number of different statistics quoted but rarely with their source.

Things like

“80% of new businesses will fail in the first five years.”

I’ve even seen this quoted as within two years. Of course it is in the interests of business experts to scare you into buying their advice and training. [continue reading…]

How To Systematically And Consistently Attract First Rate Customers by Dov Gordon

Book Review Rating – 5 Stars

Dov Gordon is known as the Alchemist Entrepreneur and is a business coach based in Israel who specialises in helping business owners to attract better quality customers and clients.

He is also a friend of mine.

What makes Dov different from the crowd of business coaches who believe they can help you to get more customers is that he has a special focus on clear thinking. [continue reading…]

Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing: No-Nonsense Rules from the Ultimate Contrarian and Small Business Guru by George Cloutier

Business Book Review Rating – 5 Stars

There is nothing in this book that makes me think that author George Cloutier is a nice, warm, cuddly sort of man who I’d want to have a few drinks with one night for light-hearted, amusing company.

To be blunt, he’ comes across as a hard-nosed, business b*stard with ideas from 100 years ago.

He also might just be one of the few people who could rescue and restore your business to profitability if your life depended on it.

I loved the book, even if I didn’t agree with everything. It grabs you by the shoulders and gives you a good hard shake.

His views are so strident that they force you to think about why you are right and he is wrong. In doing so, you might discover that he is right and you are wrong.

I consider it as essential reading for all small business owners and entrepreneurs who are finding business success a struggle to achieve.

The Basic Message Of Profits Aren’t Everything [continue reading…]

The Stop Start More Less Process is a way to look at what you’re doing and to manage within a constraint.

In this article we will look at how it can help you to differentiate your products and services by emphasising particular elements in your customer value proposition while de-emphasising other areas.

I’ve already looked at:

Managing your time within the time constraints imposed by having a good work / life balance.

>>> The Stop Start More Less Matrix For Time Management

and managing your lead generation marketing methods within a budget:

>>> The Stop Start More Less Process For Improving Marketing Results

The Customer Value For Money Map

Nearly all markets that aren’t totally commoditised, have an economy, middle market and premium brands.

The basic rules is…

The more you pay, the better, the more desirable product you can buy. [continue reading…]

If KPI are important and the name:

• Key

• Performance

• Indicators

gives the game away, it begs the question, how do you develop KPI?

What Erica Olsen Has To Say

I thought this was a nice, short introduction video on how to develop KPI from a strategic perspective.

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