Your Consultant: Finding the Right Combination

SMEs frequently reach flash-points, or impasses where they require expertise not within their own remit. Don't panic! This is part of the entrepreneurial life-cycle.

What should you do? Simple: look at your area of shortfall.

Are you about to launch a new product-line? Feel your business needs a marketing / branding face-lift? Look at what you need, what specialisms you require and go on the look-out.

Needless to say, there is an abundance of consultants available to every business, however, you will know (it's instinct, believe me!) whether you can work with someone after the first meeting.

Every consultant has a different methodology or way of working - find the one that works for you.

Finally - there are three key attributes your consultant should exhibit:

• Attention to your ideas and implementation;
• Listens to you and answers your questions;
• Keeps you in check: ensures you stick to your actions and commitments.

Feedback please!

Hello blog fans!

Firstly, I must explain why I haven't written a blog in two weeks... well, it's because I've been... really busy! Yippee!

Tomorrow marks, more or less, end of week ten for Irish Business Intelligence and it has been an interesting trip thus far. We've had a decent drip-feed of consultancy business and I now look to the next arm of our portfolio, in the area of building associations, and providing training.

Thanks to some very kind suggestions from colleagues in the various enterprise-related organisations, I am gradually collecting names of people and businesses who may provide positive associations (however I am open to hearing from others also!). The rationale behind this is simply that by building associations with complimentary businesses, we can collectively work to secure and develop more business.

Now... I have three questions I would like to put to all of you in business, entrepreneurs or SME-owners:

1. What are your top five biggest challenges every day?
2. What, do you think, would help you overcome them?
3. How would you like to receive this help?

I'd really appreciate honest feedback on this folks, it's completely confidential and you can simply email it through to me (olwen@irishbusinessintelligence.com), tweet it (@IrishBizIntel) or comment below. By answering these questions, you're helping me to examine the current (broad) needs of businesses, and in so-doing, help provide some answers!

Until next time...

What's your story? PR-ing your SME

There is a common SME misconception that a) PR = Advertising, and sometimes b) PR = waste of time. OK; I'll concede one point, which is that PR when you don't know what you're doing is a waste of time.

Firstly, PR does not = advertising. Advertising is part of your marketing strategy which can include PR also, but they are not one and the same.

Some would say that positive PR coverage is better for sales than advertising; for what it's worth I would recommend (if you have the spend) having a strong and cohesive PR and Marketing plan which includes a varied mix of media.

However, very few small businesses have access to a large PR/Marketing budget, so creativity is key in getting their business in the media.

Why is it important to PR your SME? Put simply - if you don't, you can lose out hugely. Think of the companies you recognise most - those who stand out from the crowd - apart from their brand and marketing, what else do they do that keeps you interested in them?

They tell their story all the time.

A new product, successes, staff stories... pretty much anything that will attract attention. Plus, they are creative. Depending on their industry or business style, successfully PR'd businesses come up with witty, fun, attractive and engaging ways to tell their story.

Do you know what your story is?

What's all the fuss about Internal Comms?

Internal Communications is not one singular item. It's a combination of various different mechanisms which link together (nice tie-in to photo above!) - the ultimate aim being how you tell people what you are doing ... and in the case of staff, why and how you are doing it and how it affects them.

This may sound a little convoluted, but bear in mind that communication impacts our business directly everyday, and furthermore, if you don't get it right, there can be huge costs involved.

Communication tells our employees what we expect of them, and what our business stands for. It's a cultural landmark in business as it sets the tone and expectation for employees as well as other stakeholders.

To discuss all the elements of Internal Comms, we would need more than a blog, however bear this in mind: how your business communicates is defined entirely by your business's identity and, moreover, its strategy. How you communicate must reflect your strategy and vice-versa, if they jar, you will have problems.

Most of all, it's extremely important to remember that consistency is key.

If you offer coffee at your staff meetings, you'll always have to... and if you decide to stop, remember, you need to communicate why!

Believers are definitely Achievers!

Hello loyal blog-readers!

I'm afraid it has been just over a month since my last post and I do feel most remiss in not writing for so long.

On Friday I attended the Network Ireland conference in Galway; it was truly inspiring. Not only because of its calibre and content (including fantastic speakers such as Veronica Canning, Deirdre Bounds and Jack Black... plus the inimitable Senator David Norris), but the innovative, brave, fascinating people I met.

As so many of the speakers on the day commented, it is a hard time to remain motivated and positive, with non-stop negative news saturation, and the heightening feeling of frustration towards our current government. There are few antidotes as effective as the indefatigable force of human spirit in times like these, and I, for one, am thoroughly delighted to have had access to a plethora of it in the last few days and weeks.

Until next time...

Have you got a Big Audacious Aim?

This weeks' topic was inspired by the very-insightful and thought-provoking speaker, Veronica Canning, who last week introduced me to the concept of a 'Big Audacious Aim'.

Firstly, I must advise any of you who have the opportunity to go to one of Veronica's events, make sure you do! As a start-up, it was music to my ears to receive practical, helpful advice to help me thrive and not just survive.

The constant barrage of bad news, economic despair and political unease doesn't make it easy for anyone, however, as a new entrepreneur, one could feel like throwing ones' hands up and saying 'what's the point?'.

The point is: why you're doing 'this' (whatever your business is) in the first place. What was your aim? Without one, you have a hard (well, impossible) job trying to remain motivated, which creates all sorts of other problems...

Build on your aim so that you have a broader long-term vision and always remember this simple equation:

Aim + Motivation + Long Term Goals = Vision = The road to success...

Until next week :)

The Basics of Social Networking

(image copyright: purepursuitintelnetwork.com)

Undoubtedly a subject of the moment, social networking is not exclusively for personal use and is proving itself to be an excellent form of communication for business.

It is a key way to generate brand awareness, create a following and interact with customers / clients.

However... there are pitfalls. Many of which relate to:

• Understanding of what social networking can accomplish;
• Fundamental set-up and usage of pages.

Though it is not impossible to get it right, (pretty much) first time, by following a few simple rules, many businesses give up their usage or become despondent simply because they don't know what they're doing!

1. Audience: Following last weeks' post, remember that you need to be mindful of who your audience is - e.g. demographic, interests etc;
2. Set-up: This applies mainly to Facebook pages, it is key that your page is set up correctly as appearing as a 'person' instead of a business is firstly, unprofessional, and secondly, likely to be closed off by the moderators of the site in the long-term. This means that all your hard work and followers will be lost!
3. Posting: Relevance and type of posting is key - try to put yourself in the mind of the customer you want to reach. Would they want to know the latest product or service you now offer? Yes. Do they want to know what you had for dinner on Saturday night? Probably not... unless you're a chef! Don't be a post-pest; constant and irrelevant posting can turn people off your page and business.

This is just a bite-sized taster of social media for business... remember how helpful it can be and more importantly, doing it right can really help your business.