What is a manager?

By Jacqui-HoganNo Comments
Remarkably, over the past few days I have been asked no fewer than five times, “what is a manager?” Help is at hand! What is management? Before we can ask ‘what is a manager’, we need to ask ‘what is management’. The dictionary definition is “the control or administration of an organisation or group of staff.” In practice, it includes one or more of these: Coordinating internal and/or external resources to produce a complex deliverable Helping people to work together to effectively deliver stuff Helping people work together towards a common organisational goal A check on consistency of approach and expenditure, usually through agreed processes Developing individuals skills in a way that enhances their contribution both now and in the future Resolving conflicts and poor performance issues A helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect How much of each of these your organisation has (or needs) depends upon things such as size, age, sector, complexity of deliverables and culture. Benefits to an organisation of having managers Managers do the process of...
Read More

Startup marketing advice

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
Are you looking for startup marketing advice? Here is a checklist which may help you: *  Write a marketing plan. This will make you think through the key issues and your resources. *  Choose your website domain name very carefully: you will have to live with it for a long time. From an SEO perspective, if it contains relevant keywords - you will be found more easily. Here is an article on choosing a website domain name. *  Use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management system) from the outset. Here are the benefits of having a small business CRM system. *  Use the free marketing techniques which are available to you, before you spend money on promotion. *  Think about the different ways in which you will promote your business. Here is a list of 29 promotional categories *  Use social media to promote your business, i.e. Twitter. Share helpful information which is related to your business. Here are some Twitter tips. *  Spend two hours a day on marketing activities, i.e....
Read More

Top Ten Tips – Time Management

By Jacqui-Hogan1 Comment
Do you feel that you could be using your time more effectively? If answer is "yes", here are my top ten tips for time management: 1.     Write things down Always take notes. No-one’s memory is perfect. Everyone forgets stuff, especially when stressed. Write random ‘stuff’ down too. It will distract you otherwise. Use a notebook, Post It notes or a tool like Evernote:  http://evernote.com 2.     It’s normal to have days when you can’t work & days when you want to work for 12 hours Work more when you are in the zone and relax when you're not. We all have both kinds of days, so don't beat yourself up about it. 3.     Respect your time and make it respected Delegate everything you can. But remember, delegation means finding the right person, briefing them thoroughly and then (most importantly) letting them get on with the task. Do not forget to take a break occasionally. Do not always say yes. 4.     Not all tasks are created equal Prioritise the important over the...
Read More

Buying and managing business print

By Stuart1234No Comments
Do you use brochures, leaflets, flyers, postcards or stationery in your business? Printed matter is remarkably effective, no matter what size your business is.  If you're not a professional print buyer, here are some tips on how to make the whole process run more smoothly. This may sound obvious: produce written orders. So many companies still operate on word of mouth - how on earth can people remember every detail of every conversation is beyond me. Also, ensure that your written order contains an accurate and agreed upon specification, deadline, delivery address and final price (with or without VAT). In these times of email it’s easy to have dozens of communications about a single job. When it comes time for the printer (or broker) to produce the job it saves time and limits the chance for error, if you have captured ALL of the final details agreed upon right there - on the order. Even though you are super efficient, there are situations where you may...
Read More

Fear of rejection – is it holding your business back?

By Nigel Temple3 Comments
Fear is a strong emotion, isn't it? Its purpose is to protect you from harm. Fear stimulates a 'flight or fight' response, which can be difficult to control. From a business perspective, fear can set invisible parameters to your success. In business, fear of rejection can stop you from asking for help, requesting a meeting, asking for the order or even chasing payment. I have asked thousands of seminar delegates how they feel about rejection. For some business owners, the fear of rejection is so strong that they have simply stopped asking. They rationalise this behaviour by saying that they "don't want to expand their business", or that they are "quite happy with things as they are." The challenge is that a business is either growing or slipping backwards. Here is a mantra for you. More customers = more cash = more choices (which may include taking a well earned holiday, supporting a family member or donating to charity). “Failure is only a temporary...
Read More

Networking for Managers

By Jacqui-Hogan1 Comment
It was not until I left corporate life that I realised why networking was so important. For me, as for many managers, I was just too busy to give it much thought. However, launching myself into the world as a management consultant, I soon realised that ‘who you know’ was not only vitally important to me now, but would have greatly enhanced my career prospects had I done this sooner. Many of us start out being quite good at networking. We know that to get started in our careers, we need to make connections with lots of people. Time passes, our career takes off and we get busy and networking takes second and then third place to the pressures of day-to-day work. Complacency sets in, until we find ourselves being made redundant or languishing in a career backwater. Then we find we are back to stage one of building a network from scratch. How much better would it be, if we...
Read More

In search of improved company performance

By richard-battersby1 Comment
Do you suspect that your company performance could be better, but feel that finding a solution appears to be just out of your reach? In my role as mentor and business consultant I engage with many company directors, from various sectors of industry and commerce. Many of them describe how they seem to be working harder than ever at the moment, but still feel as if they are simply “treading water” . Very often they are not looking at the right measures, or they simply fail to measure the obvious. My advice to them is always to identify the key factors which will indicate good company performance. They should then establish simple systems to monitor these.  The purpose of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is to provide a “dashboard” with which to highlight the current performance state and to forewarn of adverse trends. Even a small drift away from target may highlight the return of a known problem, or even reveal a...
Read More

Networking tips

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
Business networking works - in terms of creating awareness and customers. However, you have to go about it the right way. Here are some networking tips, which we hope you find helpful. You are in the relationship business. If you focus on building relationships, business will come to you. When you're networking, think about what your contacts want – not just what you want. Some people turn up at networking events and only talk about themselves. They grill each person they talk to, in order to find out whether they are a prospective customer. Unsurprisingly, they soon discover that networking, somewhat strangely, does not work for them. I imagine that they go back to hitting the phones (otherwise known as ‘cold calling’). Do not expect instantaneous results. Take time to learn about other people and build trust. The more you invest in networking - the higher the returns. Networking is now an established part of business life. You can network whilst eating your breakfast...
Read More

Marketing metrics and measurement

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
As the management guru Peter Drucker said: "What gets measured, gets done." How do you know what's working and what isn't - if you don't measure outputs and response rates? Here are some of the things you can think about, with regards to marketing metrics and measurement: OUTPUTS Set targets for of all your 'marketing outputs', i.e. * Blog posts * Newsletter * Press releases * Social media connections * Talks given * Networking events attended WEBSITE * Total number of indexed pages * Unique Visitors * Bounce rate * Page impressions * Popular times of day to visit your website * Average time spent on site * Page views * Referral traffic (i.e. traffic arriving from other websites such as Facebook or Twitter) * Backlinks * Number of downloads (of, say, guides) NEWSLETTER * Subscribers, open rates, click through rates, hard bounce rates (i.e. dead email address), soft bounce rates (temporarily unavailable), spam complaints, unsubscribes SOCIAL MEDIA * Social media reach * Twitter Followers, ReTweets and other mentions * Facebook connections, Likes and Follows * LinkedIn connections, conversations, meetings MEDIA RELATIONS * Number of media contacts * Number of...
Read More

Email marketing strategy

By Nigel Temple2 Comments
I now offer MailChimp training via www.mailchimptraining.co.uk which includes open courses and in-house training. Email is a highly effective promotional technique, in terms of awareness building and response rates. Key elements include your list, copywriting ability, scheduling and metrics. Email marketing is a promotional mix category.  It includes person-to-person emails, autoresponder messages, newsletters and e-shots.  Here is a list of promotional mix categories. You should send out a monthly newsletter to customers (dormant, current and prospective), suppliers and other relevant contacts.  A newsletter (sometimes referred to as an ezine) should provide useful, helpful and interesting material about your enterprise. There should be a number of links from the newsletter to your website. MailChimp and ConstantContact are popular newsletter production platforms. They include newsletter templates and metrics, so that you can see open rates, click through rates, hard bounce rates (i.e. dead email address), soft bounce rates (temporarily unavailable), spam complaints, etc. An e-shot, on the other hand, is selling something (i.e. a product, service or seminar place). Here is a...
Read More