Little Fluffy Clouds

As our minds turn towards holidays, we might be considering how we could work remotely more effectively. A term that has been around for a while now is 'cloud computing' and Tailored Time has been exploring what this means, what is out there and the pros and cons of working this way for the entrepreneur/business owner.

According to the big dictionary in the sky ' Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet'. You may already be doing it... we all use remote mail servers, hosted webspace, google mail, hotmail, survey monkey, constant contacts, salesforce.com... we have embraced it and it means that it is easy to work with colleagues who are no longer sitting in your office. However, along with the highs that we experience on working this way, there are also some downsides to consider...

Some highs

• you can access them anywhere you have internet access
• you can share documents easily
• it is often free (hooray!)

Some lows

• If your connection is slow, working on your cloud will be slooooowww... very frustrating with things like salesforce.com if you are used to working on a CRM hosted on your machine
• You are dependent on someone else for your technology and just like we have learnt to hate Microsoft, we could soon feel the same about the likes of Google....
• With google applications and others that are free it is very tempting but beware... you can get hooked and though it may be free now, we are sure it won't be free for long...

Some apps that are tried and tested by us:
www.surveymonkey.com - surveys online
www.google.com - document sharing and lots of other functionality
www.salesforce.com - CRM system
www.freecrm.com - CRM system
www.officelive.com - document sharing and lots of other functionality
www.ymlp.com - newsletter software
www.constantcontact.com - newsletter software

We would love to know your thoughts, good applications to use and useful stuff like that so get commenting!

What ingredients do you need for a successful telemarketing project?

Telemarketing gets a bad rap. We have all had experience of someone calling, uninvited, reading from a script, hammering through until finally you get a change to say NOOOOOOO Im not interested... even if you might have been considering changing your current gas supplier or whatever. We just don't like to be sold to that way. We are approaching market saturation, we are being overloaded with advertising and BUY BUY BUY messages and enough is enough.

Not all telemarketing campaigns have to be that way though. We have had a pow wow and have come up with a short list of must do's to consider before you embark on your own telemarketing campaign:

Targeted list
This is crucial to the success of the calls. Make sure it is TPS checked too (telephone preference service) for more info http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/. Even if your service might be suitable for everyone, narrow it down otherwise you wont be able to judge whether your campaign has been a success.

Specific messaging
Get working on that pitch and make it perfect. If you work with an outsource company they can often help you put together a killer pitch but remember it is often a work in progress and will need to be adjusted according to the feedback you get from each caller. Are you turning them off or turning them on. And also, remember don't immediately bang on about your features and benefits... think what pains are you solving... think why your customers will buy from you. We buy emotionally and then back it up intellectually, not the other way round.

Clear objectives
Set out with the end in mind. Think about what you want from this campaign - how many appointments, how many cleaned leads, how many hot leads, how many confirmed attendees at an event. It is quite clear to see whether your campaign is working when you specify your results. And make sure you share them with your team too!

Inhouse or outsource?
If you are thinking about or already have a killer sales team is their time best spent on the phones warming up cold leads or are they best placed closing those leads. It is a different job and requires different skills to do it. Sometimes it works to mix it up a bit - use an outsource solution to trial a campaign and if they do a good job and drum up the revenue you can cost the options to take the team in house. There is also the concern that an external team wont have the 'experience' or the 'knowledge'. However, sometimes it is actually a benefit that the initial call isnt made 'by the expert' as then they won't spill all their knowledge and put the potential customer off. It swings in round abouts.

Open mind
If this is a new project, never been tried, be prepared to tweak the message, tweak the list and treat it as research. Not everything works but if you choose the right team or supplier who has come with good references then you have done everything you can to make the project a success.

These are our top tips of the moment. Do let us know if you have more!

Finding your sweet spot

Every business has its sweet spot. The questions is. Have you found yours? This is an interest question that we have been musing on and consequently learning all about. You imagine in big companies they have teams devoted to researching and analysing data to find out how to hone their products to a niche market.

But what if you don't have a big team at your disposal? You have to do it yourself. Tailored Time has been investing time (ha ha) into finding and developing our sweet spot (s) and this is our suggestions of how to go about it:

1. Review what you do for your clients - check out your spreadsheets, it may reveal a pattern. If you dont have a main pot of data... sort it out

2. Contact your top clients (the ones that love you and have been with you for a while) - ask them some questions around what service you provide and what they love and what they are possibly missing from your current service/product

3. Check out the competition - check in with your competitors, find out which markets they play to... what are you missing out on?

4. What markets are particularly successful at the moment - check out the stocks and shares, read the business press, ask fellow entrepreneurs......

5. Put your findings together of the above and you should see a pattern starting to emerge, namely a target group who need your product which is the centre of your sweet spot.

These five points make it sound very easy, where as in fact it can be highly frustrating and take a good chunk of time to work it out. But, it will not be time wasted because by going through this process you will become a bit leaner and a bit fitter which is an all important thing in the ever evolving world of business.

mmm yum. we love a sweet spot.

Please share!
As always we’d like to hear from you if you’ve either comments on this blog or tips or advice of your own to share. Post your comments below or contact our team on 0845 075 1044.

Time for some spring cleaning?

Dunno about you, but here at Tailored Time, we’ve rolled up our sleeves, donned our proverbial rubber gloves and are pretty much up to our eyes in a big old bout of business spring cleaning right now. And while this lacks a certain glamour and excitement, it shouldn’t have you running for the hills just yet. A spot of dusting off the cobwebs now can help make you into the lean mean business machine you need to be if you’re planning on having a long, hot summer. But where to begin?

Check your margins for error…
We’ve started by looking at our margins. If you’re like us, some services, set up to bring in new business at the turn of the year, may well need some revision now. First then, what are your product/ service lines and what are they doing for you? Where do you make the most and the least; and, more importantly, where does your client base sit within this? This is by no means a straight culling exercise; the latter will be key to understanding what you can afford to sustain. Also key to managing your margins will be to take into account the shifting marketplace: it could be that with such a rapidly evolving economic situation this year, some margins could actually be better than you’d realised. For example at TT, we’ve found that some of our catering suppliers’ costs have become more competitive, bringing improved margins on our events work, while demand for other services we offer has dipped meaning the economies of scale we were able to achieve, aren’t what they were. As a starting point, we’ve found this site which can help you with a proper analysis of your numbers. http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=11088

Prick up your ears
Gather some feedback: how are your clients finding what you’ve been up to so far this year? What are they looking for, in the months ahead? Send out a short questionnaire, find out what they’ve got to tell you, then use this to revise your business for the next few months.

Revisit your business plan
If you’re anything like us, you probably wrote your business plan at the end of last year, then, mission accomplished, have since left it to gather dust aboard a shelf somewhere at your mum’s. Dust it down and have a good read. If nothing else it will remind you of your macro goals for the year. Aim to tinker with rather than rewrite; it will naturally flag up areas for you to examine to see how they may need to adapt to the market shift since you produced it.

Make sure it’s legal
Is your employment/ health and safety/ tax legislation knowledge up to date? Whatever the nature of your business, don’t get caught out by being out of date. A quick web search should put paid to any oversights.

Weigh up the competition
A bit of desk research should tell you how your competitors are doing and let you know you’re not missing a trick; OR that you’re not the one step ahead you thought you were. Make this your monthly business.

Get yourself a healthcheck
We’ve taken care of our clients’ business MOTs and healthchecks a-plenty this month. Give us a call to find out how a second pair of eyes could help you pull in some loose ends and tighten up your good ship. Contact us today to find out how we can help review your business health, seek out new areas for growth and generally and see some wood for the trees. Contact our team on 0845 075 1044.

So: What kind of recession are you having?

I knew something must be seriously out of kilter when I realised BBC business editor Robert Peston’s voice was more familiar than my mum’s. And that I know, at any given moment, the latest rise or fall of the Dow Jones index. Or that off the top of my head, I could quote you the UK’s current unemployment figures, the average percentage drop in house prices and the latest turn in Toyota’s redundancies avoidance strategy.

Recession mania
With the help of the media we are becoming a nation of news-hungry recession obsessives. We’ve gone economy mad. We can’t get enough of it. It’s like Diana-fever all over again, only without the flowers and crying. Frankly it’s not healthy and it’s got to stop. So, never mind what you’re reading about, what you’re watching on the TV or having streamed into your ears from the radio as you wake up in the morning; what sort of recession are you actually having?

Whose recession is it anyway?
Chances are you are feeling recession by proxy. Like many other businesses at the moment you may have to pull your belt in a couple of notches, but in reality, unless you’re in a particularly high price ticket or luxury end of the market, your business is unlikely to have to completely grind to a halt. Indeed, where one business finds its customer stream ebbing, somewhere along the line is another that has gained new customers, thanks to some competitive customer service or pricing strategy. Discussions with our clients in recent weeks show that their business is as likely to be the latter as the former; or, more likely, somewhere in between. They may be losing a few accounts, but with lessons learned, some hindsight and planning, they’re gaining a few too. Margins may be slightly tighter but ultimately our clients are weathering the storm.

The Undercover Economist
A recent piece by the FT’s Undercover Economist, Tim Harford, investigates the theme of the personal recession experience. He expounds a theory that unless you are a particularly high earner (in the top 10 per cent), you are unlikely to truly notice much flux in your personal standard of living during a recession. For the majority, in the remaining 90 per cent of earners, studies of previous recessions show there is little or no impact on personal standards of living.
Read the article in full and more, at Mr Harford's website: http://timharford.com/ or check out the Undercover Economist archive at the Financial Times website.

Take control
The fact is, not all people’s personal recession experience is or could possibly be as bad as the news would have us believe. At a personal level for the majority the impact is most likely to be a pay freeze, therefore far from immeasurably impacting your current standards of living. So, while keeping abreast of the news is healthy, don’t get swept away on a tidal wave of gloom. On the contrary, keep your eye on the ball, watch out for new opportunities and take control of your personal recession experience.

Please share!
As always we’d like to hear from you; and in particular if you’ve a recession experience of your own to share. Post your comments below or contact our team on 0845 075 1044.

Getting government business

What with everything feeling a bit at sea at the moment, it’s good to hear the government is investing to try to kick start the economy. And not just by bailing out banks. Government contracts can be lucrative and importantly are generally a safe bet, being less susceptible to the market ebbs and flows that affect private business. Once recognised as a trusted supplier, this could be your route to some dependable long term business opportunities.

Supplier rosters
For central government contracts you will often need to be on an approved suppliers’ roster. The process for applying varies by department, but is generally a pretty protracted affair. The Department of Health, for example asks new suppliers to register (for free) in the first instance, with Dun and Bradstreet (database of UK businesses) which is in itself a detailed application. There then follow several more involved, procedural hurdles to take your application to its conclusion. And then if you do get approved, there’s the business of pitching, as public spenders are required by law to have several companies pitch for a contract. The application system is character building stuff; at best laborious, not surprisingly, a real turn off for many; but if you’ve the tenacity to stick with it, a single contract can pay some serious dividends. Find out more about supplier rosters by heading to the procurement section of central offices’ websites.

Pitching direct
In the interests of fair business however, central government has pledged to make the tendering process more accessible, and government contracts worth over £100,000 must be advertised via the Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC). You can apply for these without being on a roster, though the application process will be no less arduous. An organisation called Tenders Direct extract and publish all advertised contracts published by the OJEC and can keep you in the loop with regular e-updates. You will need to pay a subscription to access Tenders Direct, however. Check out their website and run some free searches to find out whether this is for you: http://www.tendersdirect.co.uk/

Local government
Unfortunately there is no such central location for smaller, local government contracts. The good news about local government though, is that they generally operate a policy to use local business. The bad news is they may advertise their business as and where they wish and like other business, existing suppliers are often favoured. Which pretty much, like other business, makes them a bit of a slog to nail down. So how to find them?

Speak to them
A bit of old fashioned cold calling should help you unearth the best way to reach your local council. Start with their website to find out if you need to target them by individual office or if they have a procurement office, which often acts on behalf of all departments. Find out what’s coming up: are there imminent renewals? Or new business opportunities? Can you join a notification list? When’s the next good juncture to call again?

Get online
Public service spenders use the web to source their suppliers. Make sure your site is what they’re looking for - can you advertise specific deals or discounts for their business? Also, make sure you have a decent search engine profile by including the key words these buyers are seeking in your tags. A quick web search shows there are lots of sites which specifically target public sector buyers. The Buyers’ Guide is a listing site for suppliers to local government. This type of listing may have a fee attached, but it may be worth the investment if it is something regularly trawled by the procurers you want to reach. http://www.buyersguide.co.uk/get-listed.php

Network
Meeting and speaking to buyers at events and exhibitions will help you understand face to face, what they’re looking for. There are heaps of opportunities to network. By registering for free with Local Gov.co.uk, you will be able to look at government events for the year ahead: http://www.localgov.co.uk/Equally this site offers a comprehensive list of public and private sector-facing exhibitions across the UK: http://www.exhibitions.co.uk/


Please share!
As always we’d like to hear from you if you’ve either comments on this blog or tips or advice of your own to share. Post your comments below or contact our team on 0845 075 1044.

Are we a nation of budding entrepreneurs?

I have been pondering this for a while thinking as I keep coming across articles about Britain being a nation of entrpreneurs. Obviously Dragons Den and old Alan Sugar do their bit to glamourise setting up your own business and making millions (yes millions I say), but what about what is happening at a grass routes level, away from all the cameras and the hoy paloy?

I was asked to be a judge in the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards (West London finals) in March and can truely say it was the best thing I had said yes to in a long time. Young Enterprise is an initiative that has been running for 40 years inspiring children to get interested in business. The main things that struck me about Young Enterprise is that children who take part are more likely to earn more money, more likely to start up their own businesses and more likely to volunteer, just by taking part.

Children from all backgrounds, all types of schools join in and I was amazed at their effort and energy that they put into their projects; it bought a tear to my eye that they were so motivated and excited and got so much out of it. More schools should take part. I witnessed better business plans and better execution than many trading businesses that I know - amazing!

Juggling the business with other responsibilities, navigating holding meetings, chasing up suppliers and realising that they need to make things happen - these are all things that we take for granted, that we know how to handle as adults and that we have learnt along the way. Just think if you had had that experience and insight to the working world whilst you were still at school. One very excitable young Managing Director said to me 'so is this what you do EVERY day' when you run a business.... yes, I said to him, and I thought to myself that maybe I should get a bit more excited about the day to day business of being in business again.

For more info:

http://www.yelondon.com/ & http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/