The Kiss Business too (2)

Combined Snippets 2

As indicated in my earlier post I’m re-shuffling my order of recommended books to read once again, after reading several other good and lesser books since December last year (time flies when you’re having fun, it’s February already!) I’m sure it will not be the last time, many more books on my wish list.

I’m basing the ‘new order’ on a different idea now: foundation blocks and building blocks.
With foundation I mean those essential blocks (i.e. knowledge, facts, principles, attitudes) in starting, growing any business you can’t go without (or end up on that big pile where 4 out of 5 start-ups find themselves within the first 5 years of trading).

• Still my ‘old-time’ best is "Good to Great" - Jim Collins and Co
• Followed hot on the heels by: "Hard Facts, Half-Truths and Total Nonsense" – Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
• Then read “First break all the rules” - Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman to enhance some of the practices preached in the two above.
• Followed by “Kick Start Your Business” – Robert Craven (*1) for more essential business blocks
• And finish your foundation works with “The Goal” - Eliyahu Goldratt for hard facts on logistics and systems.

Building blocks I consider those ideas, principles that once your foundation is firm helps you to grow your business in this modern time with its modern marketing facts and new media.

• "The Long Tail" – Chris Anderson will tell you that you don’t have to be a block-buster to be successful, there are niche-markets a plenty.
• "The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing" – George Silverman includes the importance of shortening the decision cycle for your prospects.
• "Citizen Marketers" - Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba teaches you the increasing power of individuals and to embrace these 1%-ers into your marketing strategy.
• Then you can take your pick from
• "The Tipping Point" – Malcolm Gladwell
• "Unleashing the Ideavirus" – Seth Godin
• "Permission Marketing" – Seth Godin
• in no particular order.

Visualised brings the following structure:

(*1 There you go Robert, in my top 4 now ;-))

Book review: Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense – Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert I. Sutton

Finished reading “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense” this week. PS 9
Although for me (not American and English being my second language) it was sometimes difficult to follow various phrases; it was nonetheless a joy to read and very useful as reference guide for the future.

This book was recommended to me by Kent Blumberg who has posted an excellent outline of the book and also highlighted the main points of the final chapter.
I can’t better his posts in that respect, so I feel free to highlight those items that will stick with me most.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I Sutton believe strongly that all businesses should be run with “the attitude of wisdom” - the ability to act with knowledge while doubting what you know. IMHO a healthy base for any venture.

On the subject of tackling/embracing changes they do a much better job than Seth Godin in his “Survival is not enough”. While Seth and others are focusing on the change process itself and how to survive; Hard Facts concentrates on knowing and establishing the right reasons for having to change by asking yourself in those situations the following big questions:

• Is the new practice better than what you are doing now?
• Is the change really worth the time, disruption and money?
• Is it best to make only symbolic changes instead of core changes?
• Is doing the change good for you, but bad for the company?
• Do you have enough power to make the change happen?
• Are people already overwhelmed by too many changes?
• Will people be able to learn and update as the change unfolds?
• Will you be able to pull the plug?

Or in other words: do you change for change sake, or even to follow the ‘change-trend’? Or is this change essential to survive as business in this fast changing modern world? Stop and think before you start.

Chapter nine finishes with a heartfelt opinion on leadership: “…we saw leaders who continually asked questions of themselves and others, who were always inquiring, who never left well enough alone, and constantly pressed to impart this spirit of learning, curiosity and inquiry throughout their companies. Leaders don’t have to know everything, nor can they. Their job is to create a place where people constantly learn and teach new things, where people keep discovering what works and what doesn’t and to keep nudging their people to think intensely and face the hard facts along the way.”

My thoughts exactly.
So, once again I’ve learned and will have to change my own personal recommendation on which business books to read in which order. Feel free to disagree of course.

Building on success, with a female 'touch'

From the Burns Waring newsroom:

The U.K. government has plans to recruit successful business women to encourage and mentor more women to become entrepreneurs.

"We can't afford not to do this. There would be three quarters of a million more businesses in the UK if we matched US levels of female entrepreneurship. Successful women throughout the country can and must mentor and inspire many more women to think, 'Yes, I can do that' and take the confident plunge to start their own business," Ms Hodge - Industry minister - said.....

That's one way to crash through the glass ceiling for women: start your own business.

Shortening the Decision Cycle - life can be simple

In January I wrote about The Secret Weapon: Decision Cycle, how by removing roadblocks, bottlenecks and friction points for any prospect you can shorten the normal time it takes for a prospect to make a decision (and mostly in your favour if done correctly.)

Don't you just love it when your life (as prospect) is being made simple by just that? Decisions, decisions, which one to make? Which options would suite me best, which product/service would accommodate my wishes near precision (and how many times do we known exactly what our wish is?).

At the moment we are looking for quotes to have leaflets, brochures and perhaps even a booklet printed (big exhibition coming up end of April and we need to be prepared!). We have two or three ideas ourselves, but not a precise one - all depends on costs also of course. Where to start on the decision cycle?

A 'chance' meeting last Wednesday (BNI) with a printer (Printing.com Ashford) promises to make our life so much easier: today we received a large envelop from this local printing company.
Filled with:

• 5 A4 letterhead samples
• 5 A5 leaflet samples
• 5 A5 show-card samples
• 7 A6 Postcard/Invitation/Promo Cards samples
• 2 Bookmark samples
• 9 Business cards samples
• All hold together in a Presentation Folder sample also containing a catalogue with all other printing options this company has

All samples have specific pricelists printed on them, all samples contain one specific sentence: This is an example of....., giving you in one instant the look, the feel and the price of every single item you might want.
I can now tell how different my printwork will look and feel on Gloss Leaflet, Silk Leaflet, Mass Marketing leaflet or Premium Recycled Leaflet.

That's life made simple, that's shortening my decision cycle, that's being able to ask for specific quotes (if needed, because the catalogue covers most of it) and knowing upfront how my marketing material will look and very importantly 'feel' like.

Secret weapon? Or just common sense, keeping it simple?

Positive businesses

From the 'Newsroom' at Burns Waring

"A separate report from Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets has found that business confidence in the UK economy actually skyrocketed in January. The number of businesses feeling optimistic about wider economic conditions increased by 19% to 54% in the month."

We vouched for that ;-)

Dragon's Den is back!

Yesterday one of my favourite programs started its new series: Dragon's Den on BBC2.

What I don't understand of some of the business persons pitching their idea/business/project is how they can get it so wrong! Sure, pitching in front of cameras  can leave you breathless (not only by having to climb a set of stairs to get there), facing 5 budding and long-term entrepreneurs sitting in front of you isn't your daily job.

One of my reasons of watching the program is to learn about pitches, to learn what business angels expect from a pitch, to learn how to present well. And the Dragons make it easy for you (well, sort of).

Over the years the program has been broadcast I've learned to following:

• A perfect sale-pitch isn't enough
• Perfect financial figures isn't enough
• Over-valuating your business is a big No No (value your business at this moment of time, not three - four years down the road)
• Stumbling during your sales-pitch is pretty ok, as long as you can recover (a deep breath and an excuse to the Dragons is a good begin to 'get back on track')
• Know your market, know your product, know your competitors, and most importantly know what you have to do next.

Of course there are more things important than my little list, but what I really don't get is why it seems that so many of businesses coming to the Dragon's Den haven't done their homework. Not in regards of their idea or product, but in regards of the Dragons themselves.
You know Peter Jones doesn't like people dressed in jeans, you know Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis are going to drill you on the valuation of your business.

Study the programs, every one of them, they give you so many clues. Use the BBC special website on the Dragon's Den, most former episodes are down-loadable.

Why re-invent the wheel? Do your homework on the program first, then your homework on your idea and product and use what you've learned from the program to finalise your pitch. Fact is you'll have a much higher success chance this way.

(Side-note: if for whatever reason - I can't see one as yet, don't think I ever will - I would stand in the Dragon's Den myself, I probably go with any offer Peter Jones would make, he's my kind of straight forward, down-to-earth business person and I know I would learn a lot from him.)

Best 60 seconds presentation (BNI week 06/2007)

Went to another buzzing BNI Ashford meeting this morning.

New week, new changes, new prices (well, new winner, same price).

Two presentations almost equal today and both containing the same items belonging to a good presentation, but only one price, so a decision had to be made (by Steve, last weeks winner).

First one up was Chris from Medash Sign with a lightweight, easy to erect large (2 by 2 meters) promotion screen: very visual and effective presentation, very clearly spoken also.

Second one up was Daryl from Promotional ID: clearly spoken, very visual and equally effective demonstration. Fleece both warm and water proof (demonstrated by pouring a glass of water over the fleece Daryl wore).

Ultimately the judge decided to give the trophy to Daryl, only because Chris had promised to erect the screen within 60 seconds and didn’t make it (85 seconds it took, because the prop was placed further away from where Chris was seated and most time was lost by walking over).

Although neither of them asked for specific referrals (i.e. names of companies, persons, trades) both demonstrations made it clear to everyone who would benefit from both products.

Best ‘catch-phrase’ of the week: Simon of Facts & Figures (IFA): "Right advice in the right place".

Another (disappointing) encounter with Sage

Over three months ago I wrote about Sage and their Sage line 50 accounting program. How it took them over two weeks to send me a 'Evaluation and Tour CD, which in the end arrived in duplo. How I tested the program, hoping it had improved since the last version I worked with (9, now Sage is on version 12) and how that failed miserably.

I stick with MYOB anytime, anywhere for my bookkeeping, management reports, profit & loss statements, balance sheets and results per job (turnover versus direct and indirect costs per order, very simply to keep track of). And for my CRM needs I'll stick with Mamut, works a treat and is already bringing in profitable results since I installed it last December.

Why then this post again on Sage? Well, two weeks ago someone from Sage called to ask what I thought of the new version, did I want to purchase a license for the program?

No, definitely not. It didn't take me three months to 'evaluate' the program, thank you very much! When asked what I didn't like about the program I had to think really hard to remember exactly what items failed the comparison with MYOB. I'm a full-time working business manager, you can't expect me to remember for three whole months all the details when I had made my decision against a specific item after 2 days, can you?
And how can you, as company, expect to 'evolve' from feedback if you wait three months to ask a prospect their opinion?

It seems Sage learned from my feedback: today a new 'Evaluation and Tour CD' of Sage Line 50 arrived in the mail. Just a box, no letter, no request to give it another try, no suggestion that if perhaps I worked with it differently I would see the advantages of it. Nothing at all.

What a waste in materials, postage and opportunity.

Hard Facts and 'givers gain'

At the moment I'm reading Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, which questions various widely accepted business 'truths' and urges businesses to use evidence-based management. (Book is gaining points on the personal score rating with every chapter I read!)

One of the 'thruths' in our trade (and I think in many others) is not to spill the beans or 'tricks of the trade' for free. This results among other things in websites lacking basic information on those items a prospect might be interested in: want to know more? You will have to give us a call, you will have to send us an email, you will have to visit our shop.

We 'profit' from the hard fact that giving extra information or even free advice (easily obtainable for the prospect also) gains trust, more emails, more phone-calls, more visitors to our showroom and more sales.

In the last few years we have become trusted advisers on various DIY-forums (DIY-not.com, E-build etc) by answering many questions on the subject we have experiences in (natural wooden flooring and installation, renovation and maintenance methods). Our own website is filled with practical information and our FAQ blog is slowly turning into a fact-based DIY installation guide (might turn it in our second free E-booklet). We wrote our first E-booklet on Benefits and Advantages of Natural Wooden Flooring, free down-loadable as PDF-file.

Again today, we had a customer (who had driven over one hour just to visit our little showroom) who felt he had benefited from our advice on the forums and from our websites. And while the product he needed is widely available in other specialised shops, he gave us his custom. And this happens almost on a weekly bases.

Givers gain, all over again. And that's a fact!