Starting your own business.
Starting Your Own Business.
Focus on the important things – customers – and let the rest follow.
Starting a new business is intimidating; the financial commitment alone prevents many entrepreneurs from taking the leap. Worse still is the dizzying amount of regulation and red tape that businesses fight through just to make a living. Worrying about this now is a mistake; the most
important thing isn’t 20 years of experience or the ability to complete complex returns– it’s about customers. Only after you have sold to your very first one do we need to worry about the next most important aspect of your business; execution, or delighting your customers time after time. The rest is detail and we help our clients every step of the way.
Don’t worry – we will put you on the road to business development!
The next step in the scare tactics often aimed at the small businessperson is the statistic that 60% or 80% (or whatever) of small business fail within the first five years.
We can tell you why, not in a hundred pages or even a thousand page business manual but in a single sentence – ‘businesses are like children, whether you want them to or not, they have to grow to survive’. Standing still is seldom an option. By this we don’t mean that the new Businessperson needs complex financial projections or even the desire to set the world alight; making a great living and enjoying yourself along the way is every bit as worthy a goal as making a billion. It’s simply that your enthusiasm will only carry you so far before the mundane aspects of running your business can erode your enthusiasm – the result; ‘failed business’. Once again, this is where Contractor Unlimited comes in – helping you with the important bits and guiding you through the boring bits.
Don’t worry – we will help show you where the pitfalls in new businesses lay and help you to avoid them!
BUSINESS IS SIMPLE, IT’S ABOUT WINNING
AND SATISFYING CUSTOMERS, THE REST IS
JUST DETAIL – WE HELP TAKE CARE OF THIS
Contractor Unlimited [Edition 1, Volume 1]
STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS
For the new businessperson the worry is always not what they know, but what they don’t. Business programs like Dragon’s Den mean that most people think you need to have a brand new invention or a clever concept to be an entrepreneur – you don’t, good businesses are usually tried and tested but most importantly delight their customers and deliver what they need time after time.
ABOUT OUR BUSINESS START UP GUIDES
Focus on the important things – customers – and let the rest follow.
As a business, Contractor Unlimited helps small businesses to develop. We know what needs to be done to turn your ideas into reality so decided it might be a good idea to share some of this in some simple guides. From planning your business, through starting the thing up through to how to win and retain new customers or even how to maximise the value when you come to sell it we can help.
These guides are a starting point, no more – a few practical hints on how to get started on your personal road to whatever success looks like for you. This final destination also varies by the way – one new business might aim to earn a living for the entrepreneur, the next to allow them to spend more time with their kids, the next to be sold for £1million in five years.
Your eventual ambitions for your business are something only you can decide upon but if you start with this in mind, plot where you are at right now it is far easier to chart a course between the two.
We are just outlining our services within this document though, the real work is done after you have started your business when our team of
business specialists will be available to offer some free consultation to get you started alongside taking care of your basic Accountancy needs.
The guides will therefore cover:
- Setting up your business
- Systems and Processes
- Networking
- Business Planning
- Selling
- E-Mail Marketing
- Web based marketing and Search Engine Optimisation
Within our group of associated companies we can source specialist tax advice, legal advice, accountancy services, business development coaching, e-mail marketing services and web design.
We welcome 360 Degree feedback:
If you have any suggestions for further guides, how we can improve our existing information or require more in-depth information, then please let us know
WE PROVIDE START UP GUIDES TO SET YOU
ON YOUR WAY TO BUSINESS SUCCESS AND
A PERSONAL CONSULTANCY SERVICE TO
KEEP YOU ON TRACK
Contractor Unlimited [Edition 1, Volume 1]
SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES
Organising your business for growth
My Brother works in the motor trade. Some years ago, one site he managed was located next to a McDonalds – a new Regional Manager turned up, who it happens used to be a senior manager at McDonalds and said, looking at the restaurant next door, ‘Now there is a company’. At that time my brother worked for one of the World’s largest motor brands and was very successful in his chosen career- McDonalds made burgers, what could they teach him?
A few years later, my Brother has gone into business for himself and runs several used car lots, his first was easy (he’s a great salesman), his second difficult and the last two a nightmare. It dawned on him that the ex-McDonalds manager was right – McDonalds don’t just sell burgers, they sell a consistent experience which, love it or hate it, gives you the same coffee and the same fries in every branch. It’s all about the systems and the ability to always, always consistently deliver the same quality. He set about figuring out what worked well in the first car lot and replicating it across all of the others. Some basics such as a uniform, the absolute guarantee that all calls are returned within an hour, after sales procedures that meant that customers felt valued and kept coming back were implemented. Profits increased and more importantly the nightmares evaporated.
Businesses are usually set up by people who are very good at what they do – so they do it well. After a time the paperwork catches up and they have to rely upon others to do some part of the work. A great businessperson recognised the trap of believing that they can run a good business and continue to enjoy doing the thing they set out to do in the first place; in the case of my brother, selling cars.
Without getting to ‘Management Speak’, another trap is in failing to understand the core values of your business. What is it that makes you different and why should people do business with you? Some tradespeople have the reputation of not turning up
on time, overcharging, appearing scruffy and leaving jobs without tidying up after themselves. It may be that if you are starting a business in one of the trades that your core values are the opposite of these. If you grow to take on employees these ‘values’ are easy to communicate and ensure that your business functions well.
On the subject of employees as you grow one of the keys within a business is clearly defining what everyone does. Start with this end in mind and if you end up as a sole
trader you will do it well. If you want to become the next national franchise brand, the systems form the core of that business and prepare it for expansion.
NETWORKING
‘Word of Mouth Marketing’ is the most effective way to win new business’ (Ivan Meisner)
Networking is about building relationships with other people that you might be able to help. Notice here, I started with people you may be able to help and not people who may be able to help you – probably the largest Networking organisation (BNI) has a simple philosophy called ‘Givers Gain or in other words those you can work with are more likely to give you business! Building a group of businesspeople that you know, like and respect will be key to your success – networking or Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM) is the best place to start. As for Social Media, think of this as the amplifier that takes your voice and broadcasts it far and wide – WOM on steroids maybe.
Many business networking events are highly structured but still involve meeting new people. Often it is easy to assess who may be able to help your business, but think mutual benefit as opposed to hunting down a new client. The objective at this stage is no more than arranging a meeting over coffee to discuss what you both do. The classic analogy is that Networking is ‘farming’ and not ‘hunting’ – try not to jump on too many innocent victims with a three minute rant about how good your business is and remember not only are most people in the room as uncomfortable as you are most of them don’t want to buy what you have to sell THEY WANT YOU TO HELP THEM MEET THEIR NEED.
Nowhere is the principle ‘seek first to understand before you seek to be understood’ more true than with the brand new contacts made at networking events. Think of it as speed dating and manage your expectations accordingly!
Simply put networking is based on talking to people and getting to know them – the first qualification then is the ability to talk, the second is probably an interest in other people and the final – simple good manners!
The best networking organisation swill even train you to work their ‘systems’. Once more my favourite is Business Networking International. The structure and concept are often coped but their training is excellent (and cheap) – as a new business person remember not to neglect the development of your biggest asset, you.
Networkers may win contacts, leads or even new business. This should not be expected or particularly even targeted – after all after one meeting how good is the quality of the referral really going to be? The idea is that this is a long term thing – building a trusted network of individuals that you can work with on the basis of mutual respect and trust. There are many, many businesses that could not exist without it – I have written elsewhere in our guides that ‘coldcalling is dead’ and was always painful anyway networking is the replacement.
Where to look for networking events:
- Business Networking International (BNI)
- Business Referral Exchange (BRE)
- Local Chamber of Commerce
- Fresh Networking
- www.findnetworkingevents.com
BUSINESS PLANNING
‘Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail’.
There are two philosophies behind business planning; you need one or you don’t. To expand on not having a business plan – if you don’t need to borrow from the bank (which is more difficult than it used to be) then a business plan should be a simple outline of what you need to do to achieve your goals and in what order you are going to do them. Taking this a little further, unless you understand and can forecast based on experience your plan needs to start fairly loose and develop as you do. The technical term for this is ‘iterative’ – you continually adjust small elements of your service until you hit the perfect formula.
Looking then at what should be in your plan you need to understand the following:
- Expenses for the new business (keep them small and regular – don’t sign up for a twenty year leese)
- Your income requirements (assuming you are starting as a one man band!)
- Number of customers you need to meet both of these and the rate at which you will pick these customers up (and how you will do this)
The last of these points is more of a Marketing Plan than a traditional business plan but with this information you can plot a really simple graph that looks like the one to the right. This shows the maximum amount of cash that you will need to get to a position in which you will break even. It looks complicated but isn’t really – it shows three things:
- The cumulative costs; these are the amount of money you will have to spend to run your business and includes your income – bottom line.
- Cumulative Income; this adds up the amount of turnover that you are generating – top line.
- Cash Flow forecast – add one line to the other and this shows you when you are likely to break even (month 11.5 in this example)
This is all theoretical and based on best- guess, but with our help you can play with these assumptions to target the number of clients you need to win to break even before you run out of cash – simple.
We don’t expect you to do this on your own; we have the systems which will allow us to tailor your business plan to help you decide if the business you want to go into is workable. We can use this to generate targets – so you know if you are on track and doing well or not and can adjust your business plan to maximise your profit. Once again you get on with winning the clients, we will help with the stuff you don’t yet know!
SELLING
Selling is not a dark art, it’s nothing more than finding out what the customer wants and explaining how you will deliver it – then asking for the business
Every business must sell – no sales, no customers. There are far too many systems, structures, philosophies and training sessions to decide which might work for you (let alone learn them). So here we will write about what selling really is, understanding your customer, communicating your ideas and asking for the business – closing.
I will start with the last of these; closing. This is a form of words at the end of a ‘sales presentation’ in which you ask for the business. I will give you two practical examples:
- Should we go ahead and do that for you then (direct close)
- Would you like to take option A or option B (alternative close)
Even the best of salespeople frequently don’t ask for the work though. Why not? They are scared of being answered ‘No’. Imagine a polished, suited and slick salesman delivering a superb presentation – he is probably enjoying himself and proud of how well he is putting his ideas across. In short he is having fun and very comfortable, the client’s answer to either of the above questions can in an instant put an end to this comfort, so, they don’t ask. When the worst thing that can happen is someone says ‘no’, is it really that bad? Ask for the business!
The close should never be the end of the sales process however and here I am going to give you a very simple sentence to re-work and ask of every client you do business with – ‘Thank you very much for the business/work, many of our customers who
agree that our service has been of use to them agree to introduce us to their friends/colleagues so they too can enjoy what we do’. Ask for the business and then ask for the referral… SIMPLE!
OK so back to the beginning of the process and, as discussed elsewhere within our guides, I am going to quote the famous phrase ‘seek first to understand, before you seek to be understood’. What we mean by this is that if you understand exactly what the potential customer wants you can talk to them about how what you do meets their needs. If you have built
a successful business around plumbing and gas engineering – time spent explaining how world class your boiler installation is to a man who needs a new tap is going to do little more than bore the prospect. Find out what they need and tell them a story about how you are going to solve that need – that’s selling, the rest is detail. You can spend years polishing and perfecting sales skills but, very basically, get as interested as you can in the needs of the clients you meet and tell them a good story – the rest will follow.
WHEN THE WORST THING THAT CAN
HAPPEN WHEN YOU ASK FOR THE WORK IS
THAT SOMEONE SAYS ‘NO’, IS IT REALLY
THAT BAD? ASK FOR THE BUSINESS!
Tony McKenna,
Director
Contractor Unlimited Suite 9, Newspaper House, Tannery Lane, Penketh, Warrington, WA5 2UD
Johny Locksmith, Johny Lane, Johnytown,
