Welcome to SSHED

When was the last time you took a ‘good’ hard look at your branding and marketing collateral? What impression is it making?  Is it the positive one you were hoping for?  Do you consider yourself as part of your brand?

Branding is that message that comes to mind when a certain image or product is displayed.  What is your brands perception in the market place; Success, confidence, excellence, value? Statistics say that on average when a person meets you for the first time they will make up their mind about you in ¼ of a second and over the next five seconds they will go back and forth with this 11 times.  It is fair to say that you have a very short time to make that impression count in a positive way and in fact if you consider your branding and you as one then you have about 6 seconds to get your customers to want to know more or take that next step.

Based on these statics, getting your branding right should be on your top priority list. Give your customers a brand that meets their desires and expectations; make it one that gives them a ‘fully immersive’ experience from you and your employees to brochures, business cards, fan pages and blogs.  Your brand should represent what is different about you, how reliable are you; how well you influence the market and most importantly why do I want to be in a ‘customer’ relationship with you.

If you were to place all your marketing collateral on a table would it look like it came from the same brand ‘family’ or more like distant cousins?  Making sure everything is well designed and conveys your company message and values is key to getting that first impression right.  As a potential customer I need to build trust in your product or service before making that final commitment to sale.  I could be perusing your latest flyer that just arrived in my letterbox but when I go to the website it looks like a different company. I meet you at a networking event and you give me your business card and a some fact sheets but when I go to like your Facebook company page it doesn’t look like anything you gave me.  Remember, everything you use to raise the profile of your business brand including you and your staff must always look as if it was coming from ‘one’ family, this will help build brand recognition and trust levels.

On a final note, I would always encourage businesses to seek the advice of brand experts and please choose a qualified designer and get your collateral professionally printed.

 Denise Ora

SSHED Marketing Specialist/Business Advisor

Do I need to surround myself with experts?

The answer is YES. It just makes sense. I find myself continually getting frustrated with small business owners who spend a great deal of valuable time and money doing things they are not good at or have not thoroughly thought through and spending less time in or on the areas of the business they are good at and have planned for. Why? I have said on many occasions that you are not expected to be good at everything and it is imperative to work within your strengths.  It’s not rocket science, but for many business owners it is what stops them from being successful.  They think they can’t afford help or don’t have time to find help.  I know this may sound harsh but in 9 out of 10 cases it is the truth.  Lets just say your expertise as a trainer was valued at $200 an hour but you were spending more than half your working week on admin and bookkeeping.  Does that make good business sense? Wouldn’t it make more sense to pay someone $30 or even $50 an hour to free up your time so it is spent more profitably?  

There is something I would like you to do today. Just stop what you are doing and write down how much time you are spending on the following – be honest: -

1. Administrative tasks
2. Invoices/Bookkeeping
3. Database management
4. Budgeting/Planning
5. New business/prospects/ideas

Can you justify the hours? Are you spending the majority of your time on profitable hours or is it time to make some changes?  Sometimes you just need some clear direction to get you focused.  For many entrepreneurs it can be difficult doing this on their own as they find themselves drawn to ‘Shiny Things’ that come from left field.  I am not saying this is a bad thing but chances are something will be dropped or replaced.

Getting the right advice and support can be that ‘light bulb’ moment for you.  Over the years the SSHED advisory team have had the privilege of working with some amazing businesses and honoured by the feedback they have given us.  I wanted to share 10 things these business owners found valuable in the hope that getting advice may be the answer for you.

1. Forecasting/Planning: Looking at a 5-year plan, breaking it down into quarterly bite sized tasks/activities and being held accountable for completion.
2. Cash flow: Understanding the importance of focusing on increasing sales and having the cash flow to put back into the business to grow and develop.  Knowing their figures.
3. Decision-making: How to make informed decisions and not constantly being reactive.
4. Staff: Making the most of staff skill sets and knowing what role is best fit. Taking more time to hire but letting them go quickly if not right.
5. Product launch: Understanding the thought processes necessary to develop and launch new products whilst keeping focused on daily activities.
6. Focus: Concentrating on the quarter ahead and having the right tools to measure the benefit of any unplanned opportunities.
7. Available Time: How to rid yourself of ‘time sponges’
8. Making myself redundant: Putting in the right people and systems in place so their business could run without them and not being afraid to take a holiday.
9. Paying myself a wage: The importance of knowing they were not working for nothing.
10. Profit is not a bad thing:  You can be a lot more charitable if your business is successful and making a profit.

If any of the above is resonating with you then it is probably time you found yourself a business advisor, coach or mentor.  You and your business deserve it.

Denise Ora - SSHED Marketing Specialist/Business Advisor