Boost Business Coaching » wellington business coach

Why most small businesses in New Zealand really suck at marketing themselves and what to do about it

Jeff — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:03:47 +0000

Small Business in New Zealand make one fundamental marketing mistake. They don’t systemise and treat their marketing like a well tested and well oiled machine

They don’t have a strategy.

To them marketing is the activities that surround random placed advertising. Usually this is poorly planned often carried out on a spur of the moment decision or a ‘once only’ offer through their local paper or radio ad salespeople.

These businesses may or may not know who their target market is but they don’t show it in their advertising message. They don’t follow the true tested Problem+Solution+Target Market formula and therefore throw away a lot of their resources and advertising budget.

They are generally all over the place with their medium, method and message instead of being focused on one target market and one problem and one solution at a time

They don’t know that advertising is not marketing

Yes I know Mr. Marketing Student 101 the 4ps are Pricing, Promotion, Product and Place. However promotion is only one element of the so called 4ps marketing mix. The reason that a lot of New Zealand small businesses concentrate on the advertising and gimmickry is because it’s the ‘sexy’ side of marketing.

They don’t have a big picture view of marketing and don’t start with the basics first i.e They don’t look at their positioning and targeting strategies based on their product or service and ideal customers. This way they don’t let that direct their pricing, promotion, and distribution strategies.

They are not different on purpose

Many New Zealand small businesses copy the same old rubbish that everyone else uses. This way they are guaranteed to get the same bad results. Even if the marketing is good for one business, it’s probably not going to be that great for their businesses. These businesses forget that they are not the same business so their goals, objectives, target audience, capabilities, etc. are not the same. Secondly – ‘me too marketing’ – does nothing to distinguish their businesses from their competitors. Why would someone buy from them if they are no different than their competitors?

Most New Zealand small businesses forget to give their customers compelling reasons to buy, by not demonstrating that they have something that their competitor does not. Be different on purpose. (Otherwise start the price battle!)

They are amateurs and DIYers

Small New Zealand business people are good at their craft. They are great plumbers, doctors, lawyers, store owners, beauticians, chefs, dry cleaners, accountants. Most of them don’t know anything about marketing- and don’t have the time or patience to learn. And that’s ok. It would cost them more to learn and do it themselves than it would to pay someone competent to do it for them. I don’t want to fix my own broken pipes, or operate on my own heart. I’m no good at it. But other businesses are. That’s why I pay them to do it for me. However, most Kiwi Businesses insist ion doing it them selves. They don’t learn the basics of marketing and don’t start with understanding their marketplace, or find a profitable niche, or define their product or service to serve that niche.

If they did this right, they would either find themselves with no true competition or you they would stand out head and shoulders above their competitors

Small businesses think they can have the same marketing impact as Coke and Macdonalds put together

The problem is most Kiwi small businesses don’t have the money to market like the big boys. The big companies can run branding campaigns and hire expensive Ad companies to produce visually entertaining and stimulating masterpieces that make you almost drool for that new Big Mac or the latest Ford Focus.

NZ Businesses cant can’t afford to run image only ads. Funnily enough, aggressive newspaper advertising departments tell them they can. They don’t realise that their ads have to work hard to create awareness and generate sales or leads.

Unfortunately most small businesses dont market wisely and don’t test and measure to ensure that every dollar they spend is an investment that will produce a measurable return.. NZ Businesses are especially hopeless at using ads that have a call to action to spur a visit to their shops, their websites, or generate phone calls.

Most of them don’t realise until its too late that to do anything else is to risk losing money and ultimately fail in business.

Its all over the place

They are trying random things not really knowing why or they are dabbling in marketing with no real goal, process, or system. As a result their marketing strategy and tactics are not connected to each other or working together in harmony. In fact, they might even be working against each other.

For example running a discounted promotional offer to their prestige clientele using their prestigious services

Tactics must be aligned with strategies and support your goals. Every piece of marketing communication must be integrated with your brand and marketing strategies to be consistent and produce desired results.

Its all over the place part 2 – No system, no processes

Most small businesses have no system in place for marketing. There is no plan for properly evaluating the marketplace and finding profitable niches. There is no system to help position or reposition their products or services to serve those niches. This is especially devastating when their marketplace is changing at a hundred miles an hour every day.

There’s no F.U.

Many Kiwi small businesses, have leads that go un-nurtured and un-converted. Not because they are bad leads but because they don’t follow up. Chances are, if the lead was not ready to buy right then or at least have a sales person talk or visit with him right then, the lead was pushed to the back burner and evaporated into space. Or the customer that visited their store once, or even purchased once, never returned and was never contacted with any type of follow up marketing by the business.

Kiwi Businesses don’t realise that if their business relies on generating leads to turn into clients/customers, then they need to have an automated follow up system in place. Most of them haven’t implemented a system to capture their contact information to send them follow up emails and newsletters and contact them by phone or in person to keep in touch with them and nurture their relationship.

Hard Work – Not automation!

Kiwi Businesses are terrible at making sure that their marketing tactics are not automated where they can be automated. This makes sure that marketing is a drag, a bore, and a chore and pretty soon business owners get so busy following up there is not enough time for doing and managing the rest of the business. These business owners are probably not taking the time to measure the results of their marketing so they don’t know what, results their marketing produces.

They get frustrated, anxious and wonder if marketing is really helping their business at all. They start questioning their time and effort spent on marketing and pretty soon they are doing no marketing at all. Which virtually guarantees their business will not grow- and makes it highly probably that it will not survive for very long.

Conclusion – New Zealand small Businesses

Tools are available along with the simple skills and rules in marketing to turn your marketing effort from a chore into an automatic measured series of tactics. Don’t delay, educate yourself today or get professional help with a business coach or marketing consultant. Invest wisely and get an ongoing return on your investment

Check out Wellington Business Advice

Want to talk to a business coach without the long term commitment – try our $299 business coaching lite programme. Benefits Here

Yes – I want to trial BOOST – pay for the $299 Business coach here

Questions Call Jeff Smith BOOST NZ Master Franchisee 021 – 566 – 535

Wellington Business Advice

Jeff — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:43:21 +0000

Its amazing how many businesses we come across that dont have the most common financial knowledge when it comes to cashflow, profit, equity and income or measuring these.

Wellington Business Advice

One skill we get out of the way early on is the ability to Budget in a business. Even our $299 BOOST lite programme provides our clients with the skills and tools (on a USB stick) to enalbe them to put in place very easy a

Simple Cashflow forecasts

Forecast Profit tools

Cashbook Templates

Break – Even analysis

Often we can get these out of the way within two hours.

The article below is written by a Business Coach from the USA. She writes about the case for Budgeting. Its funny but the most crucial things we need to do in business are often the most boring and monotonous.

I insist with my Wellington Business Advice clients that they demonstrate skills in these areas before allowing them to outsource any of this work. That way my Wellington Business clients have a firm understanding of these basic Business foundations. Its only after this that my clients get to experience the exciting stuff like BOOSTing results and doing the job more efficiently

Wellington Business Advice

There are many resources out there for small business owners to teach them to market or to use social media or to develop a brand. These are good practices to have but I’d argue that the top business best practice is not marketing or social media usage or branding. It’s budgeting.

Don’t get me wrong: marketing, sales, branding, positioning… they’re all critical to business! But a business that brings in lots of money, but loses the money because it doesn’t know where the cash is going, won’t be in business long. I like to use the example of a bucket: Sales and marketing are meant to increase the amount of water that will flow into your bucket. However, if there are several holes in your bucket then all the water in the world isn’t going to help. Budgeting plugs those holes and helps you to keep track of your money, essentially keeping more of it in the business.

Although budgeting can seem like a drag, especially when you consider the fun and highly creative marketing tasks that need to be done, it’s no wonder that business owners avoid this activity!

Setting a business budget should be a priority. One area where many small business owners get into trouble is with taxes. Thus, when you’re setting up your budget, the first thing you should do is take a percentage of everything you make and put it into an account specifically for taxes. Then, when you get to the end of the year and that dreaded tax bill is due, you won’t be scrambling to figure out how to pay it.

After you have dealt with the tax issue, you should calculate what it will cost to run your business each month. If you are operating your business out of your home, your budget should include an amount for renting the office space in your home and utilities. This amount should be paid to you. Include in your budget an estimate for office supplies, such as paper, ink for your printers, etc.

Remember, it is better to overestimate and have money left over at the end of the year than to underestimate and end up in the red. You should look realistically at your business and decide what it really takes to operate it. If you entertain clients, budget for it. If you’re going to be advertising, budget for that. If you use your personal vehicle, budget for gasoline and a portion of the maintenance. Include your salary and a “catch all” category for those unplanned emergencies. Do not overlook any detail of your operating expense. After you have taken into consideration all the applicable items and prepared a budget, ask your accountant for input.

Now that you have successfully prepared a feasible budget, the biggest and most important step is to stick to it! Sometimes it is easy for a business owner to think, “I’ll make it up later in the year” and spend money that is allocated for something else. Do not fall for that! If you know you’re going to have a big purchase, start saving for it and buy it when you have the money. If you have a catastrophic event, such as your printer dies and you have to get one right now, then that comes out of your “catch all” fund.

If you adhere to your budget faithfully, there will not be any surprises when you meet with your accountant at the end of the year. Truth be told, you may be surprised at how much money you have to start the New Year.

Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heather_Villa

Wellington Business Advice - $299 BOOST lite programe

Can Business Coaching help me franchise my business?

Wellington Business Advice – Growing your own skills to grow your business

CONTACT BOOST Business Coaching for Practical, Non academic, Non fluff , non psycho theory - Wellington Business Advice

Jeff Smith - The Business Coaching Guy in Wellington

Jeff Smith - The Business Coaching Guy

Wellington Business Coach

Jeff — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:13:57 +0000

BOOST Business coaching has expanded its services to Wellington

Wellington Business Coach

The Business Coaching Guy AKA Jeff Smith master franchise BOOST Business Coaching says ‘There appears to be plenty of inquiry coming from Wellington Businesses looking for simple action oriented Business assistance’. ‘ The thing about BOOST Business Coaching is that we have a reputation for working with businesses on a practical level – in other words we tend to leave the fluff, academics and psycho theory to other business coaching companies to peddle’.

The BOOST Business Coach has been available in Wellington for the past few months however we are now looking to enhance Wellington Business Coaching by offering the BOOST system to a local provider or someone looking to join an accomplished company.

We are looking for someone who has previously been in small business and who can talk to Wellington Businesses on a one to one ‘down to earth’ level

Jeff Smith says “The Wellington master franchise is available now and we would love to talk to that special Wellington business coach who has a good track record in growing small businesses rapidly.

Wellington Businesses have been especially keen to take on our $299 BOOST Coaching Lite programme which gives small businesses a good feel what coaching can do for them and how much they are likely to profit from having a good business coach on their team.

Contact your BOOST Wellington Business Coach

‘Many small businesses tell us that having a BOOST Wellington Business Coach on board is like having a bolt on Marketing, Operations and Finance department’

If you are in Business in Wellington or anywhere in the Wellington Region give us a call and we will get your Wellington Business Coach on the job right away.

Wellington Business Coaching - $299 BOOST lite programe

Can my Wellington Business Coach help me franchise my business?

Wellington Business Coaching

Jeff — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:01:01 +0000

BOOST Business coaching has expanded its services to Wellington

Wellington Business Coaching

The BOOST Business Coaching programme has been available in Wellington for the past few months however we are now looking to enhance Wellington Business Coaching by offering the BOOST system to a local provider or someone looking to join an accomplished company.

We are looking for someone who has previously been in small business and who can talk to Wellington Businesses on a one to one ‘down to earth’ level

Jeff Smith says “The Wellington master franchise is available now and we would love to talk to that special business coach in Wellington who has a good track record in growing small businesses rapidly.

Contact BOOST Business Coaching

‘Many small businesses tell us that having BOOST Business Coaching on board is like having a bolt on Marketing, Operations and Finance department’

If you are in Business in Wellington or anywhere in the Wellington Region give us a call and we will get your Wellington Business Coach on the job right away.

Wellington Business Coaching - $299 BOOST lite programe

Can Wellington Business Coaching help me franchise my business?

Three tips for Fathers running your own New Zealand business

Jeff — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:24:49 +0000

After years of holding down steady jobs many Fathers take the leap these days to go into business for themselves.

The reasons for this are many, set your own hours, control your destiny, get paid what you’re really worth however it would be fair to say that these days’ fathers also see spending more time with their Children as a major factor in making this decision

Self employment, on the face of it, offers fathers flexibility and time to spend with families and children. Fathers also see self employment as a way of giving them those choices about Housing, Schooling and Lifestyle aspirations.

The reality for many business people is different to this. Long hours, being at the disposal of clients, cash flow problems and the other stresses of running businesses often compete for time and ends up compromising families and relationships.

It takes a strong man to take on board all these issues and then be with their children 100% fully engaged at the end of a 12 hour day with 4 hours of book work once the children have gone to bed. But this is what we as fathers must do. Fully engage our children – that doesn’t mean going over board – but more an attitude of letting your children know that when you are with them you are fully attentive. This includes engaging with them rather than trying to make phone calls or staring at your laptop, answering questions (over and over again) and doing your fair share around home to give mum a hand.

Fathers and Business

To fulfill the important job of fatherhood there are 3 things you should be doing on a continual basis in you business

Automate the business as much as possible – What tasks can be dome automatically without you. Outsource where possible
Systemising roles, jobs, marketing, and operations – as much as you can. Make the business run without you as much as possible. Its never to early (or late) to start doing this now
Take a day off every week. Business problems and issues will wait for you

The real Business is fatherhood. Dads your business whilst important is just a means to an end. Make it enjoyable and as stress free as possible, especially while they are young and think you are pretty cool.

Try BOOST Business Coaching LITE – $299 – 200% ROI

How can a New Zealand Business Coach help your small business

Jeff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:17:39 +0000

A New Zealand business coach is one of the best returns on investment you can make today. Sportspeople use coaches to help guide them and improve their performance. Bigger companies use business consultants to help them improve their overall performance. BOOST recognises that there are consultants who are entirely inappropriate for small businesses. The usual consultant is geared towards corporate, Government and large businesses with seemingly deep pockets

How can a New Zealand Business Coach can deliver results for you?

One of the most important things a business coach will do for you is to give you an objective look at your business. Your New Zealand Business Coach will show you what is working and what is not and point out the underlying reason. Its hard to do this by yourself because you’re too close to it and too emotionally involved. As an owner you will overlook things that may be obvious to a business coach. When you try to do the same thing in the same way, you will get the same results.

An example of using a New Zealand Business Coach is: If you have cash flow problems that is a symptom. But what’s the underlying reason? Is it your debtor control, are your prices too low, are your costs too high? There can be many causes and until you fix those, you’ll never improve the cash flow. Many of our clients are good identifying cash flow problems but often work on fixes that are temporary or not fixing the underlying cause. Eg increase overdraft

A BOOST business coach will help you build systems that can help you run your small business effectively so that it doesn’t depend on you so much. That’s one of the main problems with most business owners. They’re too close to their business and spend most of their time working in the business instead of ON the business. Are you spending your time in the day to day activities of your business? That means you have a job, not a business. Is that what you wanted when you started your business? What does your business look like on the day that you exit it?

You need to rethink your marketing strategy. With fewer buyers of your product or service you have to change the way you market so that you capture your fair share of the market. Most business owners cut their marketing and advertising costs when times get tough. That’s the opposite of what you should do. Make sure you monitor the results you’re getting with your advertising systematically and religiously

Do you have a strategic plan? Do you have business goals that you want to achieve? Do you know what you have to do to reach those goals? Do your employees know what your goals are and did they buy in? Are they all on the same page? Do you have performance goals that help guide them in helping you reach your goals and objectives?

When you have your people working together and a system to measure their performance, you’ll be more successful. Many times business owners say they can’t find good people. I have found that many times it’s not the people, but the lack of systems and management that is the problem. Be objective. Think outside the box. Call your New Zealand Business Coach today – BOOST proudly 100% NZ owned and operated.

Check out our $299 BOOST Business Coaching introductory programme – 7 Steps – Guaranteed minimum 400% ROI

ASK Your BOOST Coach a Question