Christmas Wishes!

Wishing all my SME colleagues a very Merry Christmas! 

I'll be offline from Friday 14th until the 7th of January 2013, but you can drop me an email or leave me a contact request via my website should you wish to get in touch.  Keep an eye out for the January edition of Irish Tatler where you'll find a little post from me on the benefits of stretching your ambition muscle in the New Year.

Thanks to all of you for your custom, interaction and support in 2012!

How You Say What You Say... and Where You Say It!

Image Copyright - TweakYourBiz [originally published November 5th 2012]

Elevator pitches / Marketing materials / Introductions / Business cards / Proposals / Letters / Websites / Social media

What do all these things have in common?

They all represent you and your business. They act as a calling card, a reference, a reminder, a point of contact for people to connect with and contact you.  Get your messaging right and you’re memorable, appropriately tailored and connected to the right audience.  Get it wrong and you’re simply wasting your time and money.  If you’re a little sketchy on this detail, then listen up [or, more accurately, read on!].

Start afresh

Sometimes we can become very entrenched in our businesses [a touch of the 'woods-for-the-trees' syndrome].  It’s perfectly natural, business is personal – it’s our creation and betimes it can be hard to distance ourselves from what we think we should be saying about what we do as opposed to what we actually should.

Take a step back from your business; does your messaging succinctly and clearly illustrate your value-add? Do you convert a strong message to the right segments? Which marketing channels do you use to convert that message?  Do you use the right mix of media? Or are you hanging around the wrong places trying to attract the right clients?

A simple equation

Want a simple way to remember effective marketing practice?

Segment + Message + Channel = Sales Output

It’s fair to say that there is some groundwork required in getting to the point of this equation however the key is in remembering it and constantly evaluating whether it is being used.   Successful messaging and marketing requires targeting, clarity and customer intelligence.  It also requires strategy and a long-term view.  Don’t be short-termistic in your approach as you’ll suffer poor results and  frustration [and plunder budgets too!].

Are you fishing where the fishes are?

Be brutal with your marketing strategy.  Are you fishing where the fishes are? Or codding yourself [see what I did there?] by toying with a marketing mix which is not in any way tailored to your market segments? In the same way that you must audit your business’s finance and operational successes and failures, your marketing requires just as much attention.  That’s why target and focus play such significant roles.

How you say what you say… focus on your NOSE

Pitching and introducing your offering can often feel like a painful experience, not least because many business people aren’t exactly radiating joy when asked ‘what they do’.  The reality? If you can’t succinctly communicate your offering – the what, the why and the how, don’t expect to generate any interest from your target  audience.  It all comes down to your NOSE… Or Needs, Outcomes, Solutions and Evidence.  A helpful view: what do I do? Why would it be beneficial to xx customer [being your target customer] and how it is beneficial / useful/ a solutions-provider? Don’t forget to illustrate with evidence or examples… we all like validation.

Is your business sending the right message?

The ultimate question you have to ask yourself [following the other steps], is whether your business really is sending the right message to the right people in the right places. It might sound like a simplification of sorts, but ultimately, if you can’t stand over your market positioning and the types of marketing communications methods you’re using, then you are probably going to continue wasting time and money on a strategy which just doesn’t work. Full stop.

Make time to evaluate what your marketing activities are producing – remember marketing’s role is to make selling [more-or-less] superfluous, so at the very least you should be able to validate and monitor what is working. More importantly, it’s key to understand what isn’t working and quickly reassess its worth.

Don’t make your messaging a casualty of no-review paralysis; review it regularly and ensure your business is sending the right message.

VIDEO: European Commission & Galway Chamber - "Empowering Entrepreneurial Success"

Want to see the video of this fantastic panel debate? Head over here.

What Strategy Means to the #SMECommunity

Image Link : idealway.tumblr.com

A few weeks ago, I asked the SME Community, through Twitter and LinkedIn, what they felt 'Strategy' meant to them.  The reality, as I understand it, is that strategy, like synergy and collaboration [and many other buzz words] has become something of a 'non-entity'.  It has developed an unfortunate role as a word bandied about at meetings and conferences, with very little actual meaning or outcomes attributed to it. 

The responses I received were interesting, though not entirely surprising.  For many SMEs, strategy connotes corporate lingo or jargonistic terminology which has no real basis or factual application for their business.  Others see it as a route-map or execution plan underpinned by a business plan; some think 'I don't have time for strategy - I'm busy surviving'.

Whatever your position, don't be fooled - strategy is essential.  It offers you with clarity, precision, timing and resources / capacity to deliver your business's vision and plan.  It's somewhat military in its essence [hence the abundance of Sun Tzu quotes in most strategy-related articles!] - in that it defines the how and who of actualising or delivering a business vision.  It's clear, succinct and above all, focused.

The reality of being a micro or SME? We're all different.  Our visions, financial and human resources are all, also different.  The other reality? This doesn't mean you 'opt out' of strategic planning.  The key to strategy is in the understanding of your relationship to strategy: it applies to you, whether your business is just you or others are involved.  The other reality? Your strategy may change but your vision should stay as concrete as possible.  Resources, timing and regular measurement should also be to the fore of your strategy.

Still not sure? Have a read of this... and remember, as Sun Tzu said "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."

The Cheese Mall: The Perfect Hors D'oeuvre to Starting Up

‘Starting up is hard to do’ is how the song should have gone – as indeed, getting started in business can be very testing.  However, help is at hand for those of you considering, or commencing the start-up phase.  

As an SME and enterprise development consultant, I am well-acquainted with the trials and tribulations of enterprise start-up and development.  The individual barriers people encounter when it comes to getting a handle on their offering, the research and planning involved and their own fears about the perceived reality of business.  

“The Cheese Mall” is a perfect antidote to allay all these worries and provides a practical, no-nonsense approach to getting going.  Don’t be fooled by the fun, charming title and its two characters though – this book means business when it comes to the reality of the work involved and how, at times, it can be a little scary for those involved.

Matthew and Millie, our two entrepreneurs, have braved the recession and redundancy [like so many], and in so-doing, identified a perceived niche in the market... all they have to do now is test its potential and commercialise it.  Oh, and get the all-important business plan compiled for Mr. Grudge at the Mouse People’s Bank.  

I can hear the cogs in some readers’ brains turning – considering this to be ‘something I don’t need to read’ – sorry, folks, you do.  While “The Cheese Mall” provides an endearing backdrop and two wise mice to narrate the story – it also provides a step-by-step of starting up in a clear, concise manner.  Matthew and Millie act as two entrepreneurs who the author, Bernie Tracey and I, would regularly see for advice.  Frequently these candidates are overwhelmed by the task involved, unsure of where to go next and most worryingly, likely to give up on an idea before they even find out whether it’s viable.

“The Cheese Mall” is a must-read for would-be entrepreneurs or those currently running micro and SMEs; as while a step-by-step features for all those considering a new market offering, there is also some serious reality-checking for business-owners on what they’re doing or not doing as the case may be.

Rural Enterprise: Limbering Up in the Wake of the Tiger

Image: Blog. Eogn.Com

This topic has arisen on several occasions recently in conversation with colleagues around the country.  When I talk about rural enterprise, in terms of the SME and start-up businesses I support, and the rural enterprise development agencies I work with - there is often either a] a nod of feigned-appreciation or b]a quizzical expression, intimating total lack of comprehension.

On the odd occasion [c] a convivial conversation takes place, extolling the virtues of enterprise development projects, and how they can make a difference.  However, that doesn't happen all that much.

Rural enterprise is different.  Why? Well, for many reasons, not least because it is an area which has been hugely impacted by the recession, though this is not always mentioned in dispatches.

Over the last year, I have spent quite a bit of time on the road, travelling from county to county and taking in the devastation the 'Tiger' has left in its wake.  Not so much Tiger's roar, as Tiger's detritus.  It has struck me, immensely, that villages have been left bereft, barren as a result of the recession - small towns that once bustled with markets, local shops and pubs now find themselves boarded-up and grey.  It's a hugely depressing vista.

One such example is in a town I drove through on the way home from a meeting.  Realising I needed to pull in and turn around to get on the right road, I drove into what I thought was a functioning hotel's drive-way, only to be presented with overgrown weeds and the view of a plush foyer adorned with brand-new furniture, but shut-tight.  It was a truly shattering sight.

Clearly, in challenges, we find opportunity.  There are realities to the times we live in and there are, very definitely, economic and social issues which will take time to ameliorate.  However, it is fair to say that some green shoots are determinedly making their way to the surface and hopefully, showing others what can be done in more arduous times.

So, why is rural enterprise different, and what can be done to encourage those aforementioned green shoots?

Rural enterprise is not the same as urban business development.  For one, there are other considerations immediately on start-up that businesses commencing in urban centres don't have to even think about! Infrastructure, actual access to support organisations and technology [e.g. remoteness] and the sense that self-employment is really a feasible option.  Obviously there are more common issues too, such as access to finance and scope of market.

Those being the challenges, what can people like me, and the organisations I work with do to harness, support and develop rural enterprise potential? As the much-overused phase of Einstein's goes: "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again, and expecting different results".  Where rural enterprise is concerned, the same view should apply.  Prescriptive doesn't work, insightful does.

Based on my experience, and insights garnered from colleagues [not least, those involved in the 'Rural Alliances' INTERREG project], some key focuses and actions targeted as central to the development of rural enterprise are:

• Demystifying the challenges at start-up: a less-prescriptive approach to enterprise start-up;
• Fresh-thinking & innovation in rural communities: development of fresh attitudes to employment, including agri-diversification and social enterprise;
• Enterprise growth is not confined to rural hubs or towns: visibility of enterprise supports in rural areas, not just towns and hubs;
• Building networks and developing linkage: creation of appropriate networks and clusters to support resourcefulness, sustainable employment and community alliances;
• Encouragement of export potential: highlighting the potential of export for rural micro-enterprises and SMEs.

Obviously these steps won't work overnight but they will, with the right strategy and focus, facilitate new thinking and opportunities for people, and as such, begin the work of rebuilding from green shoots.

Gender Quotas and Binders Full of Women... the Perception Issue

Photo: International Business Times

So I reckoned that this title would generate quite a few titters of amusement, not least of all because ones' intention is not so diametrically opposed to the other as it might seem!

Over the last few years, I've been engaged in projects which - in one way or another - were focused on supporting, harnessing and developing female entrepreneurship.  Some have been voluntary; others have been in the course of my work with clients; the principal rationale which united them all? An attempt to make a difference.

Returning to my somewhat comedic blog-title, I'm consciously aware of the various bids of late by Governments at home and abroad, as well as those in the social entrepreneurship 'space' to do their bit [and it should be noted that many are making serious headway] to enhance the visibility of politics, decision-making and entrepreneurship as real career options for women.

The reality, however, is that perception is still an issue.  I don't say this as a throwaway comment, but one which I encounter every day, in conversation with colleagues I respect and admire, as well as those who I may have battled in the past.

What do I mean? Perception, as is often said, is reality.  In this instance,  perception of female-centric platforms and programmes can be held as: "YET another measure - more of the same" or "more boring on about gender equality again".  Talking to Focus SME's Kehlan Kirwan last Saturday morning for the Small Business Show, I mentioned a regular perception I come across - that female-focused programmes are often perceived as 'sexist' .  I might add, that this perception is coming from those who should know better, some are [shock-horror] women and others are entrepreneurs.

Are you not getting it folks? If we don't support the non-engaged, they never will engage? For entrepreneurship alone, women are still behind, with less than 50% of start-ups in 2010 being female-led and only 15-18% of leadership positions in entrepreneurship being held by women [Enterprise Europe Network - 2010]

The fact is, the change is still a-coming, and it's taking longer than we thought.  Last year, I wrote a short, sharp post inspired by Moira Forbes, and her view that there was a sense of "Groundhog Day" about the gender issue.  To be honest, as I sit here, 21 months later, I'm feeling a sense of déjà-vu myself.  

The other perception issue lies with our 'end users' - women who are still afraid to put their heads above the parapet for fear of many things, not least of all, not being taken seriously.  

To speak from my own experience, I certainly had many moments of absolute fear - not least of all, those moments when I realised I was doing battle on a playing field where I was about twenty years younger and a different gender to my colleagues.  Still, one must carry on regardless, even when one is absolutely terrified.  

What made me different? What gave me the steel in my spine at times when I could have bent-double? A network; role models; and most of all, an unerring need to continue on, fueled by support and belief.  

So, in sum - for those of us seeking to entice, support and develop the potential of women in politics, enterprise, decision-making or other walks - we need to remember the tenets borne-out by the European Commission [Enterprise Europe Network] in recent years:

• Visibility of role models;

• Access to tailored training and mentoring;

• Networks focused on mutual support.

.. and finally, when we've achieved that, a little cultural, attitudinal change wouldn't go amiss.  But that's a whole other story [blog post].