Thanks for coming back, if you want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

In recent weeks a number of clients have been asking me this question. Obviously it’s one of today’s ‘Hot Topic’s’ as businesses look to maximise their market penetration and grow their sales/market share in the present climate.

In a recent article I highlighted a survey – ‘The Small Business Marketing Outlook’- conducted in October of 2008 in the USA. One of the statistic’s that caught my eye was that 60% planned to spend the same in 2009 as they did in 2008 and 41% planned to spend it as they had done previously.

I’m not opposed to maintained marketing budgets, but I do not understand doing anything unless it is giving proven results! It is likely using the Pareto principle that 20% of your marketing produces 80% of your results, making it vital that you are measuring and know what that 20% activity is?

So the first stage in answering how to maximise your exposure is to meaningfully measure the performance of your marketing spend in the past. Some meaningful questions might include:

•    What is your share of the market you operate in?
•    What was it in 2007 compared to 2008 (has it grown)?
•    Have your sales grown as a result of your marketing?
•    If so which campaign was most effective?
•    How do you measure your marketing?
•    What has been most effective in the past (sales divided buy market spend).
•    What are our competitors doing that works?

And before we look at the future we need to confirm our objectives for 2009:

•    What are our budgeted sales for the coming 12 months?
•    What is our marketing plan and budget?
•    What level of exposure do we want? (Same market share as before? Increased?)
•    What are we prepared to do to achieve these targets?

So often the answer to maximising your businesses exposure lies in knowing what you have done in the past and also recognising the mistakes that you have made. Being humble enough to recognise when you are wrong and trying something new is a sign of courage!

With the financial year closing and a new business year commencing the opportunities come from knowing about your business success and near successes in as much detail as possible and becoming proactive.
In Part 2, I will attempt to provide some insights to methods to maximise your business exposure for the least spend. Follow these articles at my blog ‘Changing Times’ or follow me on ‘Twitter’ for updates of postings. Also check out the ‘Survivor Sessions’ for practical lessons in improving your business into the future.

Back in April I wrote ‘5 Ways to avoid laying off your staff today’ with examples of how businesses were cutting their wage bill without getting rid of their staff.

You will have no doubt heard that British Airways made a record £401 million ($A697m) loss in 2008 amid surging fuel prices and a collapse in high-end fare bookings.

And unsurprisingly British Airways are attempting a number of the strategies suggested with their staff. BRITISH Airways (BA) has emailed 40,000 workers in Britain this week asking them to volunteer for between one week and one month’s unpaid leave, or unpaid work, in July to improve the airline’s finances.

The salary deductions will reportedly be spread over three to six months. The group, which is desperate to dramatically reduce costs and has already, offered staff a reduction in hours. Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive, says the step is a “fight for survival”. Mr Walsh, who said last week that he would work for free in July, has set a deadline of June 24 for employees to volunteer for unpaid work.

BA denied that those staff who volunteered for unpaid work would be given preference if the airline imposes a further round of redundancies. The airline is currently negotiating pay deals and job reductions with its ground handling staff, pilots and cabin crew, who have been told that the airline needs to settle discussions by the end of the month. BA isbelieved to be seeking as many as 4000 job cuts, including 2000 voluntary redundancies among the 14,000 cabin crew.

Last week it emerged that BA pays its cabin crew and pilots up to twice as much as rival airlines. Some might say that British Airways has been slow to react to the economic situation or more importantly to look at its own business model and reason that it was running fat. Over staffing and over paying its team because – well why change if you don’t have to?

There is a lesson here for businesses to look at their costs and make the hard decisions. Never forgetting to involve their staff in the decision making progress. A recent survey found many employees’ would forgo a promotion and even consider a pay reduction to maintain their jobs! Business is about facing reality and making the hard decisions before they get made for you.

As a Business coach and Consultant I work with clients to grow their businesses. Check out the ‘Survivor Sessions’ for tips how to improve your business. And follow us on ‘Twitter’ if you want to see more tips and resources for your business.

I was reading ‘Lessons from entrepreneurs who have launched businesses in the last 18 months’ in Forbes magazine and thought it worth recording the 10 tips provided by the business start-ups interviewed.

Launching a business is hard enough-doing it during a recession takes major guts, a heck of a value proposition and a serious threshold for disappointment.

As layoffs mount, the number of start-ups is on the rise too. According to research by the University of California (on behalf of the Kauffman Foundation), an average of 3.4 million new businesses were launched on average in the U.S. each year between 1996 and 2006. In 2007, that number jumped to 3.9 million.

During 1998 to 2005, just two-thirds of new small businesses survived their first two years, while only 44% made it past the four-year mark, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

So here’s the advice from 10 successful business start-ups:

1. Everything costs twice as much and takes twice as long as you plan for. No one else will be as invested in your business as you are, so don’t expect everyone to follow through when they claim they can help you.

2. Don’t rush the process. It might take a little longer to get your business going, but be persistent. Take small steps.

3. Rather than trying to raise a million dollars and launch something huge, start small and test the demand for your product. It’s better to learn you have room to grow than have to scale back.

4. The only way to weather the storm in the early months is to have a talented, committed team. In a start-up environment, the people are everything, so get out there and recruit the best.

5. Cushion your budget. Before launching, have a year’s worth of operating capital in the bank in case all of your expectations fall by the wayside.

6. If you’re not passionate about your business, don’t launch a start-up. “[It] has to be something you love because it will cost more and require more work than you could possibly imagine,” she says.

7. Use investor networking tools. “I’ve had great results with Angelsoft.net. They streamline the application process for start-ups looking for funding, and they vet the investors for you.

8. Show your face. E-mails might seem like a great and easy way to promote your business, but nothing works as well as face-to-face contact. You have to get out there and build real relationships with potential clients

9. Be prepared for long hours and little pay.

10. Be sure to have some money in the bank as a cushion. If you’re not willing to go into debt, this probably isn’t the right time to start your own business.

The ability to gain and keep trust is a vital factor in being able to influence others. Research has shown, time and time again, that trust is always a contributing factor in the ability to influence others. The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.

People of character have integrity, honesty, sincerity, and In fact, in a Korn/Ferry and UCLA-conducted study, it was found that 71% of 1,300 surveyed senior executives said that integrity was the quality most needed to succeed in business.

Trust can be an ambiguous concept, but certain things are quite clear: You can’t get others to trust you unless you trust yourself first. Your message will not be convincing to others unless it’s convincing to you. Whenever someone tries to influence us, we ask ourselves, “Can I trust this person? Do I believe him? Is she really concerned about me?” We are less likely to be influenced if we sense that the person is driven solely by self-interest.

1. Keep your promises

2. Be reliable

3. Under-promise and over-deliver

4. Admit your failures and weaknesses

5. Use logic with your emotion

6. Exhibit true concern for and about others

7. Never assume people completely trust you

8. Always show the world you are someone to be trusted

9. Tell people only as much as they’ll believe

10. Tell the truth, even if it hurts

11. Downplay any benefits to you

Having integrity is like having a rock solid dam. People know a good, solid dam will hold and provide many benefits, such as electricity, water, and recreation. If you are perceived as lacking in integrity, however, it’s like having holes and leaks in your dam. When the leaks appear, everyone downstream abandons their trust in the old dam and seeks higher ground. Respect is lost and they place their trust in someone they believe has greater integrity.

Trust alone can cause people to accept your message. On the flip side, if people don’t trust you, all the evidence, reasoning, facts, or figures in the world won’t get them to budge.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

You may know that a major retail chain, called Woolworths, with over 200 stores in the UK closed down in the early part of the year. This company had been trading for almost 100 years and was famous for its pick and mix sweet counters and value for money goods.

But trade had been declining over the years and the recession was the final nail in the coffin. No surprise really – just another business that failed to satisfy its customer needs or keep up with changing customers’ needs?

There was a time when 95% of the success formulae was just turning up! In those days providing a good range of products or services at a reasonable price to the consumer, being reliable and consistent with delivery over a long period of time counted. And anyone who knew Woolworths would recognise that description – no surprises, value for money service and goods!

But we want extraordinary today, we want innovation and to be over delivered to! What’s more we keep on getting it. Being good just isn’t enough to stay in business these days we need to be remarkable.

Move the Woolworths story forward a few months and a former store manager called Claire Robertson has reopened her local Woolworths in Colchester under the name of ‘Wellworths’. Not too different and the goods offered are similar to before. The difference is that this unique store is now a roaring success with higher profits than when it was trading as Woolworths!

Maybe the local customers took it for granted in its previous guise and had not appreciated the service and goods until it was gone. Or perhaps ‘Wellworths’ is seen as being innovative and extraordinary in a world missing Woolworths?

To be remarkable you need to have goods or services that your customers remark upon! It’s not sufficient to be good any more – you need to be wellworths.

 The news has been full of stories in the past few days concerning the failure of General Motors to survive. After over 101 years in business and being an icon in the industry for so long it had simply ceased to exist. I found an article by Peter Cohan to be particularly interesting as it examined the 5 reasons why General Motors had failed to survive.

I was not surprised when I read this article to see a similar pattern in other businesses that have failed to survive in the present unforgiving climate. So here is my take on the 5 lessons to be learnt by the failure of General Motors to survive;

1. Bad financial policies. I was stunned to learn that GM has been bankrupt since 2006 and has avoided a filing for years thanks to the graces of the banks and bondholders. But for years it has used cars as razors to sell consumers a monthly package of razor blades — in the form of highly profitable car loans. In 2005, GM limited its $6 billion in vehicle operating losses due to the $2.2 billion it made financing those vehicles. And the two Harvard MBAs who drove GM to bankruptcy — Rick Wagoner and Fritz Henderson — both rose up from GM’s finance division, rather than its vehicle design operation. Consider other Businesses like ABC child care centres and MFI in Australia who both went bankrupt and then were revealed to have been trading in solvently. Do you think this is limited to large corporations?

2. Uncompetitive vehicles. Compared to its toughest competitors — like Toyota Motor Co. – GM’s cars were poorly designed and built, took too long to manufacture at costs that were too high, and as a result, fewer people bought them, leaving GM with excess production capacity. People were willing to pay more for Toyota vehicles than for GM’s since Toyotas were better designed and built so they had higher quality, cost less to own, and lasted longer. GM resorted to cutting price on its inferior vehicles and it had higher costs so it was squeezed on the revenue and cost sides of its income statement. Imagine being in a business where you continued with a strategy of selling an inferior product at a higher cost price than your competitors but a lower selling price to compete.

3.  Ignoring competition. GM has been ignoring competition — with a brief interruption (Saturn in the 1980s) — for about 50 years. At its peak, in 1954, GM controlled 54% of the North American vehicle market. Last year, that figure had tumbled to 19 percent. Toyota and its peers took over that market share. In retrospect, if Roger Smith’s successors had infused the rest of GM with the Saturn culture of giving the consumer a better car buying and ownership experience than that offered by its competitors, GM probably would not be on the verge of bankruptcy today. I can think of a number of businesses who arrogantly ignore the competition and keep doing what they’ve always done.

4. Failure to innovate. Since GM was focused on profiting from finance, it did not really care that much about building better vehicles. GM’s management failed to adapt GM to changes in customer needs, upstart competitors, and new technologies. If a business ignores its customers changing tastes and technological innovations then it will fail to survive.

5. Managing in the bubble. GM rewarded people who followed the old way of doing things and those who challenged that thinking found themselves on the outs — causing them to lose opportunities for promotion. So the smart thing for those seeking promotion within GM was to praise the CEO’s wisdom and carry out his orders. What looked stupid from the perspective of customer and competitors was smart for those bucking for promotions. At the core of this managing in the bubble is a syndrome called Confirmation Bias (See Peter Cohan) the tendency of managers to filter out information that does not match up with their pre-conceived notions.

GM’s failure to survive after 101 years is an indictment of American management in general. It highlights the damage to the economy that results when finance becomes the tail that wags the economic dog. And it shows what happens to any company that fails to adapt to change.

And sadly Gm will not be the first or the last company to fold for these 5 reasons. The question is could your business be joining them or are you prepared to take an honest review of your business and make the necessary changes before the choice is taken away?