Traditionally, the quiet time between Christmas and the New Year is one of the few opportunities the busy entrepreneur has for reflection on the past year and planning for the new year about to start. I have been doing this myself even whilst out shopping with the family yesterday! I secreted myself away in the cafe at Bhs and drank some yukky lattes whilst putting notes into my notebook (remember that from the Recession Busting Tips Report?) about planning. Last night, whilst the family watched TV I half wrote the report and finished it this morning. My eldest son, Chris, proof read it and so it is available just over 24 hours from first thought to finished product. A new record for me!

Have you been thinking similar thoughts? Or like most, slumped in front of the TV?

Your business will appreciate you spending some quiet time on it and I hope the planning report will help you define your direction for 2009.

Don’t forget to let me know what plans you are making, and then we can look back this time next year and see how you have done. Are you confident enough to commit your goals to a comment right here for eternity? and then strong enough to compare your actual performance over the year back here in a years time?

Lets see…

~Ray

So I had to take it down right away.

I can’t believe it was exactly a month to the day since I finished the report that the 1,000th copy had been downloaded.

Congratulations to those who got their free copy! I sincerely hope it helps you and your business as we go into the new year.

For those who didn’t get a free copy, the report is now only for sale at £15.97+VAT.

I am currently working on a time management report and aim to give this away around 31st December 2008. I do not expect this will have the same appeal but it is a fact that managing the limited amount of time we have is one of the biggest challenges everyone faces today in our busy, busy world.

I hope everyone has had a good rest over the holiday and is raring to get back to work next week.

We will speak again very soon.

~Ray

I have put this down to the loss of the subscriber box on the sidebar. Although the new theme has various options to opt in, it seems that the box is very important in helping people decide.

So, I have installed a series of very clever little scripts that (hopefully) appear only until a visitor subscribes and then never appear again.

What this means though, is that they will appear for everyone until the name and email have been filled in and the button clicked on.

Even for those of you who have already subscribed.

So I am sorry if this change is annoying, but I hope the long term benefits will outweigh the short term hassles. If you do fill in the form, it doesn’t mean you will get several copies of the notices, I trust Aweber, who handles the list, will just send you an error message stating you are already subscribed.

The major difference with these new methods is that you are not taken away from the page you are on, whereas before you were taken through the Aweber system, now you stay exactly where you are. That in itself is a major help.

It also means the box on the sidebar will not be seen once you have used it. A really clever piece of coding. We will see just how clever - depending on the results over xmas!!

Please let me know if you experience anything odd or un-necessary when you fill in the box.

May I just apologize again for the hassle this change will cause.

~Ray

I was a bit mad so I rang the company and said I seemed to have written the cheque out a little prematurely as the patio is starting to fall apart already. Anyway, about 9.15pm last night the phone rang and it was the MD of the patio firm. He was gutted about the problem we were having and promised to be round next day (today) to have a look. He turned up first thing this morning and confirmed that the frost had damaged the pointing and that they will repoint the entire patio as soon as possible. He also said one of the workers will be round later today to clear all the horrible bits of cement away to clean it up in the meantime. Guess what? 3.15pm and the chap has just arrived to start sweeping and clearing.

I call that excellent customer service.

All my initial trepidation about the standard of care we would get after we paid the bill has proved unfounded. What a refreshing change!

Only recently I have been commenting to people around here that “Is it just me or are shop assistants getting more stroppy and sour faced by the day?” I had thought customer service was about dead. The local Chinese Takeaway is the only other place I have experienced excellent service and attention, and I wrote about that in my recession busting tips report.

Generally, businesses I deal with that provide some of our services here are good examples of how not to make friends and influence people. They are grumpy, sour faced, off-hand, un-caring, un-helpful and generally don’t want to know about a sale, let alone any questions or issues I may have.

Do you find this around your area?

How often do we have a job done in our own homes, such as a patio, double glazing, plumbing, electrical stuff, carpet cleaning, building work, fencing etc… but never hear from these companies again?

Sometimes it is honestly a blessed relief because the experience was so painful at the time we wouldn’t want to use that firm, or person, again. But occasionally, wouldn’t it be good for us as customers, to be remembered and valued for our contribution to the sales of that business?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were contacted periodically and thanked for the opportunity of allowing that company to work for us, and being given a voucher or special offer for another of their products or services?

What a refreshing change it would make if these businesses cared enough to keep their name uppermost in our minds so that we don’t have to go searching through Yellow Pages or similar the next time we need a job doing.

How amazing would it be to be invited as a special guest to a seminar or charity event that company is hosting which we may find interesting.

Be honest - how often does it happen? Next to never - that’s how often!

What about your business?

Do you treat your customers/clients the way you like to be treated? Are you and your staff always courteous, friendly, helpful, smiling? Do you follow up each and every sale to gradually inform each customer/client exactly what other services/products your business can supply?

If so, how long to you do it for before you “give up” and assume that person will never buy from you again. One year, two years, six years?

If not - why not. It is your duty as the owner of a successful business to delight the customer and make it easy for them to deal with you?

Why would you ever treat a customer with distain or contempt just because you were having a bad day?

Too many businesses do exactly that and wonder why their business is always struggling.

The long christmas holiday is almost upon us and it is an excellent time for an honest, detached, look at all aspects of our businesses to see if we are failing our customers in certain areas and to decide on strategies to deal with those shortcomings as soon as possible.

~Ray

I have chosen this document so that I haven’t violated any copyrights (I hope) and it serves our purpose really well.

So, go and watch the video with the document at your side and a pencil in your hand!

Headlines

I really hope it helps those of you struggling with headlines.

As ever, I will be pleased to receive all feedback so don’t hold back…

~Ray

Well Marie, you are not alone and so I am putting together a demonstration video this weekend to PROVE how easy it really is to produce at least 100 headlines, probably more. You will see it happen right in front of your eyes. So watch this space…

The reason writing so many headlines is SO important is that only after writing a lot does your brain finally settle down into the “groove” of the idea and starts popping out some really powerful headlines. Unless you can achieve this state, your headlines will never perform as well as they could.

With such a choice of headlines you also get plenty of choices for split testing so you can test your marketplace with different options to see how your customers react. Remember that your customers are human beings too and a headline that you think is fantastic might fall totally flat and produce few responses. Unless you test - you will never know.

Having such a choice of headlines also gives you plenty of strap lines and sub-headlines, all of which help to draw your prospects in to you and gives you plenty of fodder for your marketing media.

So, I will work on this video and hopefully post it here on Monday and dispel the myth that “I can’t write 1 headline - let alone 100!”

~Ray

It made dismal reading though. Not because of the lack of substantial local news - we expect that. It was because of the adverts within it. There must be a couple of hunderd adverts in there and every single one of them was the worst kind of ineffective advert that I keep trying to get people to dump. You know the sort - the painter who is looking for work (but no outsides) - the plumber who can fix your dripping taps - the tyre firm who have tyres and exhausts for sale - and so on.

They all look tired, dull and worst of all - they look the same.

The plumber, the kitchen fitter, the tyre company, the painter, the double glazing firm, the builder, the costume hire shop - unless you read them closely - they all look the same.

OK they are different colours and different sizes, but not a single one of them stands out from the bunch. Not one has a strong call to action. Not one has a Unique headline shouting out why you would be mad not to choose this painter, or that builder. Not one will perform any more than mildly average.

It is such a shame that so many businesses are still throwing money at advertising that will not work anything like as effectively as it could for the same investment.

Are you still doing advertising that way?

If you are, because you are worried about changing it in case the trickle of new customers drys up, at least try just one advert in the way I described in my previous series of posts on writing effective adverts. If you have the nerve to try just one new style ad - watch the difference in response you get. You will see how much better the info-ad works and then you will have the confidence to dump the old ways forever.

The worst offenders at selling the “old style” ads are the telephone directory staff. However, it is proven by every person who has ever had a telephone book ad that these just don’t pull enough response to justify the costs. Have a look through your telephone directory right now - it is packed with similar style ads. The challenge is to find a single info type ad in the whole book.

Go and have a look now - and let us all know how many you find!!

~Ray

I have been trying to find a better theme and really thought I had found it with this one from woothemes. However, it isn’t the easiest theme to adapt to and I have had a lot of problems, not being a code freak, trying to get the presentation right.

I think it has settled now but all the changes mean for some reason I can’t go back into some of the older posts to edit where the image sits which means some odd looking image placeholders some distance from the images!

I am sure that now I have settled on this layout, that as new posts are added the look will become more consistant. I can hope, can’t I.

All this started because I had a complaint about the dark look of the old theme which I was quite happy with but I took the comments on board and once I started looking at it, I realized the overall look could be much brighter and cleaner.

I still have to work on the header graphic at the top of the blog. The frosty looking one turned out to be way too large and was distorting the pages. So this may well change over the next few days again.

Anyway, I hope this explains all the odd-ball goings on and that you find this excellent theme tolerable, light and fresh. Please let me know what you think as I want the blog to be as readable as possible.

Back to normal posting tomorrow and I am building up to travel to London on Saturday to meet Ed Rivis and several other business growth specialists. I am sure to have some solid info to pass on next week after that!

~Ray

Anyway, please nip over to the website and get your free copy before the advert comes out next week.  I have limited the free downloads to 1,000 and after that number is reached I will remove the download facility and sell the report for £5.99 instead.  So make sure you zoom over to:-

http://recessionbustingtips.com

right now to secure your copy.  It is fully automated and (hopefully) pretty instant.

Once you have read it, please come back here and leave a comment about it - both good and bad.  The report is not set in stone (although it feels like it if you print it off!) so any extra bits or tweaks are easily incorporated into future downloads.

At least let me know if you helps you feel a little more positive that your business may now have a chance at surviving the recession.

~Ray

“I don’t see how most of the stuff in this book is relevant to my business” she told me as she handed over the book.  Emma owns a franchise locally providing pre-school activities for young children.  The franchise dictates that only  official marketing materials and flyers can be used, although Emma can personalize these a little with her own details and strap lines.

“I can’t come up with any unique head/strap lines for these flyers” she told me.  “I don’t have the brain for it although I can see they may help if could thing of any”.  “I don’t see how the letters would work though, with all the bold bits and the PS’ at the bottom - I ignore these when I receive them - doesn’t everyone else?”

The discussion wasn’t really about Paul’s book.  It was about a decision that Emma knows she is facing but is trying to avoid.  Every single marketing tactic can be applied to any business at all.  The slant may be different, the target audience will certainly be different, but essentially, the same things work whether you are selling 1p paperclips or £10 million aircraft.

I could see I was in for a difficult time to persuade Emma of the importance of promoting her business in all manner of ways, yes, including letters.  The thing is, she totally loves the work she does with the children and will enthuse about the benefits of what she offers all day long, but she doesn’t want the bother of the office work.  She just wants to be with the kids, doing what she loves.

This doesn’t sound like a problem to most people but to me it shows the turmoil that goes on inside lot’s of people that find themselves running businesses.  Emma got into this franchise because she loves children and believes that the franchise model and facilities are of immense benefit to the development of small children.  However, the only way to do the work she loves was to buy the franchise for her local area.  I don’t believe she actually wanted to run a business, she just wanted to to run the classes.

The problem is the franchise model is working against her.  If she wants to make money from her business, she has to step out of what she loves to do and become a business woman that she doesn’t want to be.  Just running her own classes though doesn’t give her enough turnover to live on.

Emma’s comments about Paul Gorman’s brilliant book are coming from the position that she knows she has to grow the business to improve her income, but she simply doesn’t want to because of all the marketing, admin, bookkeeping, payroll, finding venues, organizing classes and 101 other things that go into running a larger business.

I do see quite a few people with Emma’s predicament.  The simple truth is they have to make a choice.  They can go one of two ways.  Firstly, they can choose just to do as much as they can themselves and earn a small income which barely justifies the cost and ongoing commitment to the franchiser; Secondly, they can expand the business dramatically within their geographic area, take on people to run the classes, become a manager instead of a worker and direct operations from above without much day to day involvement with the children.

A business person in Emma’s shoes that settles for option 1 has to accept that they “own” their job.  But that’s basically all it is.  The franchiser still gets their cut from Emma so they are happy, but Emma, apart from job satisfaction, will never make a decent living.

If however, Emma embraces the idea that she can run her business as a manager, starts taking Paul Gorman’s advice about marketing tactics to grow her business; takes massive action to generate more classes; finds suitable people to run those classes along the lines Emma dictates; she will start to make some serious money from her franchise.  There is nothing written that says Emma is prohibited from running any classes ever again.  She can fill in, or set up a couple of special classes just for her to run.  But her success will be guaranteed.

She just needs to decide which way she wants to jump.

Emma knows I will help her to the best of my ability, but the main decision, whatever it is, is hers and hers alone.   Job or business Emma - it’s up to you!

~Ray