There is a better way of winning new customers than pushing you and your B2B offer at them. Customers love it because they’re buying rather than being sold to. You’ll like it because it feels better than selling and you’ll get more long term business from it. Using social media well has made it even easier to do. It’s also a great way of testing new products, services and even a new business. I call it, and please if you call it this too mention me and my company, ‘BRIDGING‘.

For over 25 years my company, the Business Advisory Bureau Limited, has been helping executives go it alone as independent consultants, trainers, coaches, advisers and freelance B2B professionals. We don’t let these new micro business owners out of our grasp until they’ve learned and practised the skill set which will allow them to bridge.

No-one buys from a desperate business owner

You may have heard the story of why we came up with a process to help B2B professionals win more business and keep their customers/clients satisfied and providing referrals. It bears repeating:

As a trainer and coach I was using video cameras on a key account management (sales) programme I was running. I was demonstrating something in a role play and to my horror when I saw the playback I realised I was pushing my offer down the throat of an intimidated, and fortunately mythical, client. What had gone wrong was that my own win-win influencing skills had deserted me.

The reason they’d deserted me was that, in real life, we’d just started a new business and I was desperate, really desperate for clients. Frankly, we were only months away from not surviving. My over zealous need to get the sale in real life had spilled over to a role play in a training room.

I realised that not only hadn’t I fully understood what the client wanted and needed but I hadn’t established any credibility to allow the client to feel it was the right thing to buy from me. Seeing how bad I’d become at ‘selling’ on that TV monitor saved our business.

Alligator soup

Think of two people, you and your prospective client, at opposite sides of a rope bridge. Both you and your prospective client are safely on dry land. The bridge is wobbly and underneath is a river with alligators waiting to gobble up those that fall. What can you do to draw your prospective client to meet you in the middle of the bridge so that you exchange something they want (e.g. your service) for something you want (e.g. your fees).

Why social media and all forms of cloud communications can help you is that by the time you arrive at your side of the bridge your client should already have decided that you are credible and have the solution or can provide the opportunity that they are looking for. In other words, they’re interested in you and want to meet you. Hint: check your networking skills and your LinkedIn profile to see if you can do this.

Then when they’ve got to the bridge you’ve got to pull them to you by asking questions, listening, summarising and influencing or negotiating so that they really want to meet you in the middle. You both fall in the river if you feel or they feel that you are selling to them.

A bridge too far? Never

The art of B2B marketing, including using social media (no excuse with WinWeb in the cloud services), is to get more days in every month when you have a prospective client at the end of the bridge that you can solve a problem or provide an opportunity for. Then you need the ‘pulling’, (just don’t tell your spouse or partner that’s what you’ve been doing!), skills to win the business.

Find out more at TonyRobinsonOBE.com and join the greatest Micro Business Owner community in the world, free, at EnterpriseRockers.co.uk

Most entrepreneurs I’ve met are looking for opportunities to make money all the time. If they followed the advice on these start up websites they wouldn’t just copy stuff and they’d be too late in getting the product or service to market and the opportunity would have gone.

Look at Loubi (Christian Louboutin to you), if he hadn’t read an article about a slashed out shoe with a red line, then thousands of rich women around the world wouldn’t have fallen off his killer heels to, legs in the air, show off his signature red soles.

Dear reader and fan, I want you to take a look at the mind of an entrepreneur. Let’s take one successful one, Stefan Topfer, Editor of this Small Business Blog and one unsuccessful one, the aforementioned aberration, Tony Robinson OBE. They have two things in common; they’re both badly dressed (fleeces – urgh) and they look for business opportunities all the time.

The Recycling Opportunity

So, yesterday, Robinson rang Topfer and the conversation went like this:

Robinson: I’ve just seen on the BBC News site that a scientist has proven that giant dinosaurs could have warmed the earth with their flatulence.
Topfer: Ja – I mean, so?
Robinson: Well, where is the equivalent place today where hundreds of dinosaurs, produce masses of hot air?
Topfer: In your House of Commons and House of Lords?
Robinson: Precisely and why will this supply of huge volumes of hot air continue ad infinitum?
Topfer: Would that be because it is mainly a boys club eating vast quantities of posh nosh provided by the City and the top 100 CEOs and one or two media moguls.
Robinson: Yeah that and their humongous expense accounts that they can spend on Big Macs and pasties. It makes you feel good to know that we can now recycle all that dinosaur fuel for the benefit of the people.
Topfer: Ja, I mean nein, I mean how?
Robinson: You’re fab at technology, do the math and turn Parliament into a massive great hot air heater channelling warmth into the council housing, parks, stations and shop doorways where those with no dosh to pay for heating live.

I won’t carry on – as Topfer told Robinson never to speak to him again. The point is that here are two dinosaurs discussing a business opportunity that utilises a source of natural energy that has been available for thousands of years. There’s nothing original here apart from the possible opportunity.

Stuff to ignore

So ignore the stuff on websites that is ‘conventional business guidance’. ‘How to come up with a great business idea?’, ‘How to pitch your idea to investors?’, ‘Getting finance’ ‘There’s a business in you’, ‘What needs to be in your business plan?’, ‘Get a mentor from a Bank or Corporate’ and ‘How to sell’. the enterprise essentials are much less complicated and far more common sense and natural than this guidance.

Most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve interviewed haven’t done any of the things that are regarded as ‘good business practice’. Most don’t like borrowing money, especially from banks. Their business planning is always in their head. Most of them are action rather than words people. They often copy and improve other people’s ideas and activities like crazy. The point is that time is money and opportunities come and go and they can’t be wasting time on this theoretical business stuff.

Instead, my advice to a start up, from my award winning series of entrepreneur interviews (see my book ‘Stripping for Freedom’) is:

Look for what customers want and are buying that you’d relish providing too.
Then, preferably by bootstrapping, check that you can afford to produce it as a product or service.
Then test market your product or service with its ‘twist’, like Louboutin’s red sole or, more likely, with an additional service that the competition aren’t providing.
Then from what you have learned launch your new business always remembering that you may need more products and services or even businesses to make the earnings you need to make.

Let’s Twist Again

This ‘copying and improving with a twist’ is important to the success of many entrepreneurs.

For example, the unique ‘twist’ that Stefan Topfer achieves with WinWeb is that he is absolutely passionate about beating the global competition not just by great cloud software and infrastructure but with exceptional customer service too. His customer service people are mentors. He’ll sack people that ‘sell’ his products and services as he believes in the customer buying what they choose that is absolutely right for them.

The great news is that everyone starting a business on their own can provide their own ‘twist’, a unique level of service, to support a product or service that customers already understand, want and need. Just get your offer out there as quickly as you can after testing it.

-Finis-

Option 1. using independent contractors/freelancers/other micro-businesses
Option 2. taking on partners or if you’re a limited company or social enterprise, other directors.

OK so I know that my two preferred options fly in the face of government advice, guru advice and business school advice which urges you to grow your business by taking on employees, particularly qualified business managers and leaders, but to me it is all a question of risk. My two options are risky but I believe, if negotiated and managed carefully, are not as risky as taking on a senior employee.

As my businesses have always been B2B service businesses my main worry and focus has always been winning and keeping customers. In over 26 years of starting and running my own businesses I’ve got a better track record of winning and keeping customers using my two alternative options than I have with employees, as executives and managers, however well trained. Most are fine but it’s the ones that are not fine that have proved deadly to our customers, our income, our profitability and most of all our own morale.

The main advantage of option 1 – independent contractors is that you retain total control of your business, it is flexible, it is a service agreement which is easier to manage in time and money than an employment contract with the associated regulations and it is a tap of skilled resource that you can turn on and off dependant on your workload and you don’t have all the associated on costs of employees including purchasing equipment.

Because most contractors/micro businesses want to continue being contracted in the future I find they become like partners of our business and we grow our businesses together. For example I have worked with the same contract trainers and the same designers and developers of learning media for over 20 years. We all pay each other on time too – as soon as we possibly can.

The main disadvantage of this option is that it can play havoc with your margin. However if you go for a very high quality and unique service you may be able to ensure the price you charge covers using contractors and remains competitive.

The main advantage of option 2 – taking on partners/directors – is that it is bootstrapping par excellence. Let me explain; I recently entered a business ‘to what do you owe the secret of your success?’ competition. My answer was ‘my business partner of 26 years, Clare Francis’.

We both invested time and money in our business, we’ll work whatever hours, whenever, in order to succeed. When times were hard we didn’t take money out of the business. We never needed status perks like employees ask for.

We are equally passionate about our customers and our offer to these customers, so much so than many are now friends too. We have complementary but different skills and most of all we trust each other – so implicitly that we don’t have to waste time overseeing each other.

I just love successful business partnerships and believe they are responsible for more successful start ups growing into substantial micro businesses than any other single factor.

My business partner Clare and her husband, Charles, also managed a very successful family business. Indeed, many of my successful micro business owner friends, who say they are going it alone aren’t really. They often, have a spouse or partner, beavering away in the background supporting the business and often holding down a job in the early stages of the start up in order to bring in family income.

Partnerships are my preferred option but it is as tough and careful a decision as deciding to live with someone.

Trust and passion is everything, in my opinion, to success in your own enterprise. This total trust and passion is there with my co-founder of the Enterprise Rockers, Tina Boden, and all the wonderful band leaders of our movement.

We trust each other so much and share the same passion that we’re all putting our own biz money and time, for no return yet, into making it all work.

So, before you do as the gurus recommend and take on a senior employee, do consider whether you’d be better using independent contractors or taking on a partner.

There is a better way of getting help than from Government and Big Company funded start up and micro business support programmes. That’s not to say we don’t want their help and a lot of these free offers of help are good and needed.

Many of my friends and colleagues that are excellent micro business advisers and mentors give their time free to help on many of these programmes. However, whether you get one of these excellent advisers and mentors is a lottery.

Not all help is good for you and your business.

It shouldn’t be pot luck as to whether you get good help or not. In fact some of the help on offer, sadly, should carry a health and wealth warning.

UK examples of stuff that may be ‘Hot or Not’

For example, in the UK we’ve got a plethora of government backed initiatives, often with Big Company offers, designed to help start-ups and small businesses, such as ‘There’s a Business in You’; ‘Start Up Britain’; ‘LEPs’; ‘College start up courses ’; ‘Business Link’; ‘Mentorsme’ and ‘Self-employment programmes through A4e and other major welfare to work providers’.

On top of this there are lots of awards and business pitch competitions sponsored by Big Companies where the winner will get money plus help from a corporate executive or TV celebrity entrepreneur as part of the ‘prize’.

Beware The Know It All Executive

For 26 years now, along with hundreds of other business owners, I’ve warned against the many advisers that think because they’ve been in a senior management job and had some training in coaching, advising, consulting or mentoring that they possess the know how to support start-ups and micro-business owners.

Starting and running your own micro enterprise is not, primarily, about formal research, planning, loans and management skills. Indeed, most corporate managers are lost without a formal business plan, a budget with money to spend already there and some staff.

Worse still, many of the people that design the start-up or micro business owner support programme or competition, that these corporate executives will act as advisers or mentors for, have no experience of starting or running their own micro enterprise.

Blind Alleys

It is the blind leading the blind as no-one knows, including the prospective or existing micro business owner, whether it is useful or dangerous help being offered. Even the big company product and service discounts that are part of the support or prize package may be stuff that you don’t need and may be very unhelpful to getting on with the business of winning and keeping customers.

As Lord Alan Sugar says ‘The last thing you want is government interfering in business because they don’t know what they’re doing. What you want is for them to create a level playing field’

The Better Way

So, recognising that many start-ups may not be able to pay for micro business owner friendly, professional advice what is my better way.

Only allow yourself to be advised, coached, trained or mentored by someone that other micro business owners can vouch for.

Always ask the adviser or mentor at the very first meeting what experience they have of starting and running a micro business (0-9 employees) and if you’re not convinced ask for someone else to help you that other micro business owners can also vouch for.

The Rocking Better Way

As you may know, I’m a co-founder of what will be the biggest self-help community of micro business owners in the world – the Enterprise Rockers.

We help each other to, as Lord Sugar recommends Government should do, level the playing field. No obstacles to our opportunity to succeed. We also trade with each other and help each identify what does help us and what doesn’t.

If you’ve started and registered your business -join our movement and ask other micro business owners what and who is best to help you to survive and thrive. You’ll find that the best helpers are Enterprise Rockers too.

In addition and coming soon , if you can afford to pay for professional advice, the Enterprise Rockers are creating a directory of micro business friendly, proven, practical, professionals. They’ve all started and run their own micro businesses. Our directory will be called SpeedBizSolutions and it takes the risk out of those times you’re looking for an independent professional to help you and your business.

There’ll be free help too if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. See you in the Rockers!

Whatever makes you money now has to be prioritized over anything that has the promise of money in the future:

• If you can send an invoice today, don’t wait until tomorrow.
• If you can call the client today for the next order, do it.
• Make sure your accounts department is aware of these priorities.

There is a real ‘Need For Speed’, when it comes to getting your money in. It is easy to do all the exiting things first and get into the habit of letting the admin side, especially your cash-flow management, slip.

Once the cash is gone, so is the business.

To bring the concept to life I asked if anyone had gone to a restaurant, as an example, and

1. Had a bad enough experience that they complained; and
2. Had an experience that was not quite bad enough to complain but they vowed to themselves they would never go back again.

A few people  put their hand up to the first option but everyone put their hand up to the second. They also said that in both cases they would tell all of their friends about their experience.

Talk about punching a hole in your marketing efforts.

Most companies are ready to respond to complaints, some are good at it but only a few really go looking for these ‘silent’ complaints.

The ones that do are particularly open to feedback from everyone everywhere and are tenacious in their pursuit of the silence.

They do this via clever emails, web feedback tools, letters, postcards and timely phone calls.

In doing this, there is no guarantee that your ‘silent’ complainers will talk to you but if you do going looking there are three things that will happen:

1. You’ll show that you really care about your business and your customers
2. You will find some ‘silent’ complaints that you can then put right; and
3. You’ll reduce some of the negative word of mouth that exists about your business that normally you would have known nothing about.

Are you ready to pursue the silence?

Even if that was the reality then, jobs for life do not exist anymore today!

So here is the question I keep asking myself, what is the attraction of getting a job? Why not start your own business – even if you are only planning a micro-business, like becoming a freelancer?

The way I see it, you will work for more than one employer in your lifetime. You can do it in sequence or in parallel – that is really the only choice you have.

Start working for more than one company from day one is the best option. If one company ends your contract, you still have the others. You keep on building your network all your life, not for your employer, but for yourself.

Today – if you want a job for life, start your own business.

Do you have an up-to-date business plan?
A business plan is essential if you’re planning on raising any kind of finance (venture, angel, bank etc.) and an up-to-date one including cash flow projections and other financials (see below) is essential.

Do you have up-to-date and detailed financial forecasts for your business over the next 3-5 years?
As part of your business plan you will definitely need detailed financial forecasts for your business over the next 3-5 years if you are serious about securing external investment. Investors will want to see exactly when they can expect a return on investment (normally within this time-frame) so if you can’t demonstrate that through your financials you may need to go back to the drawing board on your business model. As a starting point for putting these types of financials together, make sure the figures are backed up with solid, reliable research on projected growth of your company, future demand of your product/service, and current and future growth of your target market.

Do you have a clear idea as to what you will do with the money that will be invested in your business?
Sounds obvious but surprising how many businesses think it’ll be great to have £80k investment without a clear plan as to what the money will be spent on. Simply generalising that £x will be spent on  ’marketing’ or ‘product development’ is not sufficient to reassure potential investors that you’re not going to just fritter their money away or pay yourself a big fat salary! Take time to focus and think strategically about where you want your business to be and how the money will help you move towards that goal. Always research your costings and put detail on your spending plans to demonstrate a thorough and professional approach to the business.

Does your management team have credible and relevant business experience including industry knowledge where applicable?
External investors such as Business Angels and Venture Capitalists will look at your management team to work out where the strengths and weaknesses lie and whether as a team you will be able to deliver the plans and grow the business. Even though you may feel your team has good all round business experience, you may want to think about ways to add credibility, complementary experiences, industry knowledge and networks to that team through for example the appointment of a Non-Executive Director.

The other area to consider is how you articulate the entrepreneurial skills and attitudes of your team. This will be of particular interest to external investors who will always want to know more about the people who are going to be delivering the business plan.

Do you have a clear exit strategy for your business?
Venture Capitalists in particular are keen on clear exit strategies within a specific time frame. They usually look to invest in high-growth companies with a clear growth and/or exit strategy such as sale or IPO. If you are still unclear about your exit strategy then Business Angels may be a better option to explore however it is worthwhile spending time thinking about where you see the business in 3-5 years’ time, possible exit routes and what needs to be in place to achieve any of these.

Do you have experience of ‘pitching’ your business to investors?
‘Pitching’ to investors is something anyone who is seriously considering equity finance is going to have to get to grips with. I’d be lying if I said it was a piece of cake, but if you are passionate about your business, and have a solid business plan behind you then you’re halfway there. You may be put off pitching by some of the experiences you have seen on programmes such as Dragon’s Den but these are not necessarily a true reflection of live pitching, rather selective snippets of ‘reality TV’ combined with a certain amount of ‘entertainment value’. There are some excellent resources available to support and inspire you as you prepare to pitch and of course a business mentor or coach will be able to provide some short-term support in this area too.

If you’ve worked through the answers to these questions and feel that securing equity investment in your business is not for you, take time to evaluate alternatives such as the increasingly popular Crowdfunding. I’ve written more about this on an earlier post.

Disclaimer
Anyone considering Equity Finance should be aware that there are many complex legal and regulatory issues relating to raising finance in this way and professional advice should always be sought. Please be aware that content here does not constitute specific legal or business advice nor should it be taken as such and you are strongly advised to consult an appropriate professional adviser before making any decisions and/or financial commitments.

I always chuckle to myself when big companies that sponsor awards to start up and existing small business give, as part of the prize, mentoring or advice from a senior executive in their company. Perhaps it is no laughing matter.

Firstly, it’s arrogant to assume that starting and running a micro enterprise is so easy that someone without any experience of doing it, just because they’re a top corporate executive, can offer useful help. Start ups and micro enterprises are not boiled down versions of corporates!

Secondly, because the fledgling micro business owner doesn’t know what is good and what is bad support they could implement something that turns out to be the kiss of death to their business.

A colleague, Robert Craven, has just written a blog describing how a potential start up lost their redundancy money to unscrupulous ‘support’ providers. How were they to know that they were being conned? One of the reasons we founded the Enterprise Rockers movement is that we felt that a massive community, ‘the power of plenty’, of micro business owners could be self sufficient and we could sort out the wheat from the chaff.

It is important that we do sort out what’s good and valuable from the vultures and the ‘well intentioned but dangerous’. The right micro business to micro business support will lead to 80% of start ups surviving over 3 years with 6% becoming substantial, employing businesses. Essential enterprise skills and know how make all the difference to success. So, it is worth seeking help.

We should encourage prospective and existing business owners to continue to learn and to continue to seek support.

We never know all about enterprise

Twenty four years ago when my business partner, Clare Francis, and I were nearly two years into our business we learned something that saved us from the scrap heap. It was incredibly simple and it was learned by watching videos of our influencing, selling and presenting.

Not only was our product and service offer usually wrong we were often presenting offers without having really found out what our potential clients wanted. Frankly we were desperate to make a sale and no-one wants to buy from people as desperate as we were. We weren’t unskilled. We’d both done postgraduate business courses and we’d both been at Director level in UK subsidiaries of American multinationals. We’d been superbly trained but not on how to start and succeed in our own business.

What I learned this week-end

This week-end I was at the FSB Annual Conference in Scarborough. On top of my membership fee I paid another £100 to participate in the events during the day. My prediction is that these two days were worth thousands of pounds to me in future earnings and hundreds of hours saved of wasted effort.

The three things I learned were:

1. How to improve my use of Linked In so that I can influence someone I wish to make contact with to speak to me. I learned this from the brilliant presentation of Andy Lopata.

2. How it may be worth resetting your goals in a different way if you get stuck in a rut and are not improving your performance. I learned this from the inspirational Roger Black, former Olympic silver medallist, who got silver by focussing on running his perfect race rather than seeking to beat his competitors.

3. This third one is a bit of a cheat because I didn’t learn this at the Conference. On the Saturday lunchtime, co-founder of Enterprise Rockers, Tina Boden, and I met the supremely wise, Andy Peers. Andy is one of the foremost experts in setting up and running social enterprises. I’m certain that everything he advised Tina and I to do will mean we do get over 500,000 micro business owners in our Enterprise Rockers movement. We will make Britain a fairer and better place for micro enterprise.

So, maybe we ‘get the Enterprise T shirt’ for having started and run our own business, but we never truly have fully earned it. That’s because we must keep learning from others and seeking the right kind of support in order to survive and thrive. .

It’s motivating and good fun too. Keep learning.

———- ENDS ———-

1. How much of your current business comes from existing clients and how much comes from new clients?
2. How much of your marketing efforts are focused on generating new clients and how much is focused on generating repeat business from your existing clients?

Now, I would wager that if you have an established business then the answer to question 1 will be that most of your business comes from existing clients and that the answer to question 2 is that you spend most of your marketing budget and resources on generating new clients.

Right?

This is a situation that I come across a lot when speaking to all sorts of companies. I think it’s driven by how we think we should market our businesses and, in some respects, how we are educated to run and market our businesses.

Where, for example, have you seen customer retention and loyalty taught in business education programmes even the ones at top business schools? Trust me, it’s not taught at many as you would think as I have done the research.

“But”, I hear you say, “I pick up ideas about my business from business books I read”.

Well, the same situation exists in the books that are published. Here’s the results of some quick research I have just done on Amazon. If you go there and search for marketing you’ll get around 168,000 results.

If you then search for advertising you’ll get over 57,000 results.

A search for direct marketing produces 16,000 results.

However, if you search for customer retention you’ll get around 6,000 results, whilst searching for customer loyalty produces just under 14,000 results.

But, just because customer retention or customer loyalty doesn’t get a lot of attention in the education or publishing worlds does not mean that they are less important.

In fact, looking after your existing customers, I would argue, is as important if not more so than looking for new customers.

So, if the majority of your new business comes from existing clients but you spend most of your marketing budget and resources on finding new clients don’t despair as I think it presents an opportunity.

Just think how much more business or referrals you could generate if you changed some, not all, but some of the focus of your marketing budget and resources onto your existing customers.

After all, much of your marketing spend that is focused on winning new clients will be about trying to build enough trust so that that any new customer feels like trying you out. However, when you already have a relationship with your existing customers when not leverage that relationship and trust to try and do more for them or to help them introduce you to others that they know who could benefit from your help.

Who’s for taking a new look at who they focus their marketing on?