Business Continuity Planning

How would your business cope with a six-hour powercut?

That's what we enjoyed yesterday. It was a relatively minor inconvenience when compared to the flooding in Cumbria and Scotland but it's reminded me of the importantance of business continuity planning.

BCP, or disaster recovery, is one of those subjects small businesses are consistently being badgered about and, in my experience, consistently ignore. Planning for problems is a good idea but it takes time, can cost money, and there's an element of "if something happens we'll manage".

Small businesses have enough to do at the moment just to survive, without worrying about what to do if the sky falls in on their heads.

But there are some basic steps you can take which don't take much time or cost much money, but will be invaluable when the unexpected happens. And don't think that disaster recovery is only about fire or flood, which are admittedly unlikely. It's also about losing one of your key staff unexpectedly, having a major customer go under or suffering a major IT failure. Most businesses face major challenges from time to time.

A simple and effective business continuity plan that I've seen one business implement comprised a small printed card which listed the phone numbers of key staff and other contacts such as the people who managed the website.  It also summarised the issues to consider in the event of an emergency of some sort.

These cards were reviewed every few months and updated if details had changed. They were kept in pockets, briefcases and glove compartments in cars. In the event of an issue staff could quickly get in touch with one another and with key suppliers. A message could quickly be posted on their website letting customers know there was problem and giving alternative contact details.

I'm writing this post on a netbook PC which forms part of my business continuity strategy.  It's a backup for my aging laptop should it fail. Other elements in my plan include a plug-in hard-drive and increased use of cloud computing - storing documents online.

My business continuity plan is not a strategy that's been formed through hours of planning. It's a loose collection of ideas and hardware that I'm confident will work for me.

Whatever approach you take to business continuity planning, I recommend you avoid making the mistake of doing nothing.

If your business is flooded and your stock ruined your options are probably limited. But if you lose power in your premises you may still be able to do business, if you've planned ahead.

Successful Marketing - Make it Really Easy To Get Through

Is it easy for customers to respond to your marketing material?

Marketing is about a call to action. You deliver a message that requires response. Order this widget now! Take advantage of this special offer today! Don't delay!

You must make it simple for the customer to act on the message. If you're selling a product then you want them to place an order immediately. If you're promoting an event or a concept you want them to inquire further.

Every obstacle you put in their way, however insignificant, will cut the response rate. It's a basic principle of sales - the longer it takes for the customer to commit, the more likely they'll walk away. There are precious few products which are so important that the customer will make every effort to secure them.

Telephone numbers are a great way to get a quick reaction. 0800 numbers are ideal as the caller knows it will cost them nothing but time. But people are becoming wary of other non-geographic numbers such as 0845, because the true cost of calling is often unclear.

However, you need to make sure that the caller gets more than an automated message telling them your office is closed, or a menu system they can't immediately comprehend.

If your marketing material is online, such as a website or email, you have more choice over instant response paths. Some people prefer to use the phone so keep that option open where possible. Embedded links are another great way of making access really easy.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen statements saying 'if you want to do this get in touch with us' on a website or email, without the words being used as a link to a contact form. Instead the reader is expected to hunt down contact information from elsewhere on the page, or worse, find it somewhere else altogether. That's a guaranteed way to lose some customers, if not all of them.

When you're putting together your marketing campaign and materials put yourself in the customer's shoes. Think about where they will be when they hear your message and what communication tools they will have available to respond. How easy can you make it for them to get through?

Andrew Knowles is a freelance copywriter and small business supporter.

Talk to a Customer Every Day

People buy from people.

It's one of those sayings that bounces around in sales training workshops, along with 'sell the benefits not the features'. A truth we all know but too often forget.

Like most pearls of wisdom it's not entirely accurate. I buy quite a lot of stuff from Amazon.com and other online retailers but I've never knowingly spoken to an Amazon employee in my life.

On the other hand I go out of my way to speak with my customers on a fairly regular basis. Why? Because I believe in the general principle - people will often choose to buy from someone they know. And you only get to know someone by communicating with them.

It's too easy for businesses, particularly in the B2B space, to take their customers for granted. But take a look at the list of accounts on your sales ledger. How many of them have been inactive for more than a year? Do you know why? How many have gone away because someone else built a better relationship with them?

When I ran a training business, as part of a global software company, I made a point of speaking to a customer daily. Okay, it didn't actually happen every single day, but it was a principle I applied as often as I could.

Can I prove that it generated more business? No I can't. But the people I called kept sending people on courses. They came to a web-based training workshop I ran and bought into online education before it was mainstream. They listened when I offered new education consulting services.

My challenge to everyone who runs a business is this: find ten minutes a day to call a customer and have a chat. How's business? Was the last delivery okay? I heard you've had cutbacks - are you alright?

Be a human, not a salesman. People buy from people.

This article expands on one of the 10 Marketing Tips for Small Business.


Andrew Knowles is a freelance writer.

10 Fuel Saving Tips

The price of oil is going up again.

It's risen by 77% in 2009. This week the International Energy Agency announced that this increase "risks derailing the recovery".

Higher fuel prices aren't good news for the thousands of businesses in the UK who run vehicles, or the millions of commuters who fill up weekly. For employees enduring pay freezes or pay cuts a hefty increase in travel costs is unwelcome. But it's happening right now.

There's no easy answer to the problem of increasing fuel costs. But here are some fuel saving tips:

1. Drive more slowly - yes, it'll take longer to get there. But drive at 65mph rather than 75mph on the motorway and you'll save 40p per 10 miles, according to the RAC. It'll add up during the week.
2. Gentle foot action - on the accelerator and the brake. Sudden braking or acceleration pushes up consumption and increases wear and tear.
3. Close the windows - it will improve the aerodynamics and improve fuel efficiency. You'll stay warmer as well.
4. Keep air-con off - it's another fuel-gobbler you can live without during the winter.
5. Lighten the load - the heavier your car, the more fuel you use. How much stuff are you paying to transport from home to work and back again, without using it?
6. Get the pressure right - the RAC say that using tyres at the correct pressure could improve your fuel efficiency by 2%. Not a lot, but look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves, as they say.
7. Don't be idle - if you're stationary and the engine's running for more than a minute you're wasting fuel.
8. Avoid the queues - easier said than done for many commuters, but it's a way to cut costs. Is there a way to flex your day so you can travel when others aren't?
9. Regular servicing - keep the engine running at optimum efficiency.
10. Use money-off tokens wisely - the supermarkets often give token to customers, valid for a week or two. Plan your fill-ups to get the best value. Find friends with spare tokens, or share yours.

If you come across any more fuel saving tips please leave a comment or get in touch.

Know Why People Will Buy Your Product

Too often we confuse features with benefits. We sell the features when what people really want are the benefits.

If you're not sure what the difference is between features and benefits, think of Microsoft Word. What do most people use it for? Typing up documents. Simple documents like homework essays, reports, letters, and that sort of thing. It's a word-processing system.

Some features in Word are useful. But of all those buttons and options at the top of the page, how many do you use? Not many, I'd guess.

Word is packed with fancy features. Mail-merge, document review, styles, research options and loads more that I don't even know about. You can bet the new Word 2010, when it comes out, will have heaps more.

But if a good salesperson was trying to sell Word to you, they wouldn't start by listing all the wonderful things it can do. They'd start by understanding why you're looking for a word-processing system.

They would encourage you to do most of the talking, telling them what problems you hoped a word-processor would solve. You might explain, say, that writing 20 letters a day by hand was time-consuming and pained your wrist. You might be frustrated that having started a document on paper, you could not easily change the order of the word to re-phrase sentences.

The good salesperson would then explain how Word could solve those problems for you. They might mention the spell-checker and mail-merge in passing, as extra benefits that might come in useful, but most of Word's capabilities wouldn't get a mention. Their focus would be on showing how the product could solve real problems you face on a regular basis.

Of course, there's more to selling than just providing solutions to problems. There's price, quality, after-sales support, delivery times and more.

But I'm still amazed how often people say: "look, here's a cool widget, buy one!" without addressing the main issue - do I NEED the widget?

When customers are cautious, as they are now, it's more important than ever to understand why people would want your products. Until you've grasped that, selling will be an uphill struggle.

This article expands on one of the 10 Marketing Tips for Small Business.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance writer.

10 Marketing Tips for Small Business

Take a moment to skim through these 10 thoughts about marketing.

You'll probably forget 9 of them immediately. But one of them will stick with you; it'll strike a chord. You'll say "yes, I've been meaning to do that". Make a point of converting a good idea into action as soon as possible.

Every business wants to do marketing better, but there's always something 'more urgent' that needs attention first. Step outside of that cycle for minute.

Enough! Here are the 10 marketing tips:

1. Keep to budget - it's too easy for marketing expenditure to get out of control.
2. Know why people will buy your product - be clear about why people will come to you; what benefit does your product give them? Read more about the importance of understanding why people would buy your product.
3. Know who your customers are - target your marketing at people who'll buy from you.
4. Make a special offer to someone who's just bought from you - it's an opportunity to strengthen your relationship.
5. Offer a deal to all your existing customers - make them feel special by reminding them that their relationship with you has value.
6. Talk to a customer every day - it only takes a few minutes to telephone and take an interest in what they're doing. Read more about why you should talk to a customer every day.
7. Partner with other businesses - create a reciprocal agreement; you'll promote them to your customers if they'll do the same for you.
8. Issue Press Releases - your local newspaper will love them. Anniversaries, changes in key staff, new products - get creative in making news. The worst they can do is say "no", but I guarantee they'll often say "yes".
9. Use testimonials - a customer recommending your product carries much more weight than you recommending yourself.
10. Don't give up - marketing is about communicating a message. Stop doing it and people will start listening to the message from someone else.

I could write an entire post about each of those points, and perhaps at some point I will. These are all based on my own experience of marketing with various organisations, from a global IT company to a local start-up.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance copywriter.

Why Should People Buy From You?

Your business does not offer a unique service. There are loads of other people out there doing what you do. So why should anyone buy from you rather than from them?

Learn some lessons from Swedish success story, Ikea. I was in their new Southampton store the other day and it got me thinking - why do I travel over 20 miles to come here? There are other household furnishing stores much nearer to where I live so why choose Ikea?

Here are some reasons I identified:

• They make access easy - there's a big multi-storey car park with lots of walkways and lifts.
• They offer competitive prices which are clearly advertised.
• They make the buying process as easy as possible.
• It has a contemporary feel so I feel 'good' about being there.
• It's clean and tidy.

What do people think of your business?

Some of my reasons for liking Ikea are embarrassingly subjective. I don't pay any attention to trends in furniture design and my home is inhabited by a mix of cast-offs, Billy bookcases, and hand-me-downs from other people. So I've no idea why their store and products feel contemporary, but to me they do.

Their products are not always the cheapest. But they're clearly priced, easily accessible to view and handle, and they've usually plenty in stock.

Ikea have created an image that's attractive to me. What sort of image does your business have? Even if you're not selling to the general public, you're still selling to people.

Take a moment to think about the businesses that you buy from - what makes them attractive to you? Try to identify what it is they do well. Then compare them with your own business. Make an effort to find out what others think of you.

Once you've done that you'll have some new ideas for how to improve what you do. The service you offer still won't be unique, but that doesn't stop you from creating a business that stands out.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance writer

Image at the top of this entry courtesy of Ikea.