Apply now & get up to £2,000 towards Strategic Business Advice

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Starting a small business nowadays can be a daunting prospect. Often, people have great ideas, the passion to succeed and enough capital to get them going. However, best laid plans can sometimes fail to come to fruition due to a lack of strategic advice and many SMEs find themselves struggling to grow.

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Growth is important for every business but especially SMEs that are just starting out

This is a problem that the UK government has recognised and, in an attempt to address it, the £30 million Growth Vouchers programme has been introduced this year.

So what is the Growth Vouchers scheme?

First announced by the Chancellor in his 2013 Budget, the scheme aims to subsidise strategic business advice and connect SMEs with advisor’s in the following five categories:

  • finance and cash flow
  • recruiting and developing staff
  • improving leadership and management skills
  • marketing, attracting and keeping customers
  • making the most of digital technology

The aim is to accelerate growth for thousands of small businesses at the most crucial stage of development. It is thought that this critical growth will lead to long-term sustainability.

Why was the scheme introduced?

As previously mentioned, the government recognised the importance to SMEs of strategic advice during their important growth phase. However, it has never been established just how crucial this advice is and, until now, it has never been measured.

The Growth Vouchers scheme will run for 15 months and allow the government to scientifically determine exactly what advice small businesses really value. This will also enable state-backed business support to be shaped in accordance with business needs.

Furthermore, it has also been highlighted that the advice SMEs receive at present is often sporadic and varies greatly. Under the scheme, advisor’s’ credentials will be established from the outset and business experiences will be recorded via a feedback system for everyone to see.

How does the scheme work?

Businesses seeking advice can apply to the Growth Voucher programme online and will then be asked to complete an online questionnaire or face-to-face assessment. Some businesses will then be randomly chosen to receive a growth voucher up to £2000 towards the cost of business advice in one of the specialist areas.

The Growth Vouchers scheme is designed to subsidise the advice that businesses receive and will cover up to 50 per cent of the total spend. So, in other words, you can spend up to £2,000 on advice and the government will match it – therefore a total spend of £4,000 is possible. Anything above this figure will need to be funded by your business.

The Growth Vouchers need to be redeemed through the Enterprise Nation Marketplace and SMEs can select the appropriate advisor for their business issue. Payment for the advice will be made by the business direct to the supplier and subsequently claimed back (up to £2,000) from the government.

Finally, who’s eligible?

Well I successfully applied to the scheme and was awarded up to £2,000 to spend on strategic advice, which is proof that it is definitely worth your time.

The scheme is available to small businesses in England who:

  • have been trading for at least one year
  • have less than 50 employees
  • have not sought strategic business advice in the last three years

Anyone considering applying or who simply wants more information should check out the scheme’s full terms and conditions.

Pinterest for Business – Are You Embracing The Visual Revolution?

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I don’t know about you, but when Pinterest was first released it had me intrigued. Maybe it was the initial invitation-only registration process or the fact that it promised to offer something innovative when it came to visual content.

Then again, I thought to myself, there’s only so much longevity in pinning things to boards – maybe it won’t really catch on. That was four years ago and it’s safe to say that Pinterest has definitely caught on! And, like all great social networks, it has coined its own verb: pinning.

For those of you who aren’t that familiar with Pinterest, it’s promoted as a visual discovery tool that allows people to create visual collections (boards) and visual bookmarks (pins), containing all the things that they like or that inspire them. These can then be shared and ultimately appear in other users’ Pinterest feeds.

So what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that Pinterest is now huge and fast becoming much more than just a visual discovery tool. In fact, it’s being lauded as a budding ecommerce leader, which could end up rivalling Google in terms of product search – interested now? Imagine the potential that Pinterest holds for your business.

Pinterest Google image for blog

It’s no wonder then that a price tag of $3.8 billion was placed on Pinterest towards the end of last year. The social network is growing and your business needs to embrace its visual revolution. But how?

Become pin friendly

Much like Facebook’s ‘like’ button, Pinterest’s ‘pin it’ feature allows people to pin your content directly to their Pinterest boards. Start by making all of the content on your website and blog pin friendly by adding an on hover pin it button to your images. There are detailed steps on how to do this on the main Pinterest site.

By adding this functionality, you will inevitably increase the chances of people sharing your business’s content on their `pinboards’. In turn, you will start to see what types of content your customers engage with the most and look to focus on more specific visual marketing campaigns going forward.

Organise your content

One of the great things about Pinterest is that you can organise your content into themed boards, thus making it easier for people to find more of the stuff that interests them.

For example, if you are a company that sells home décor, it would be highly beneficial to organise your pins into categorised boards like accessories, furniture and bedding.

Brand your pins

It may be more time consuming, but including your company logo on images is definitely worth the extra effort. It serves to further implant your company’s image in the mind of the reader and every `repin’ will ultimately share your logo.

It’s important, however, to be subtle when it comes to logos. A small corner logo is expected, but large watermarks can put some people off `repinning’.

Be shopper friendly

Unlike most other social networks, Pinterest users have a shopping mindset. Bear this in mind when you pin any content to your boards. For example, include useful information that the reader might want to know like product features, benefits and even price.

This ‘shopper-friendly’ information will undoubtedly increase the engagement factor and inevitably lead to more Pinterest referrals to your business’s website.

Engage your audience

Some businesses focus too highly on getting as much content out there as possible and often neglect one of the most important aspects of social networks: user engagement.

If one of your customers or potential customers asks a question about one of your products then you should furnish them with a prompt response. Failure to do so will harm your brand as people will come to think that you don’t care about your demographics.

Engagement can also come in the form of `repinning’ other people’s content; commenting on pins that are relevant to your industry; and leverage your community by forging relationships with influential pinners – those who have a lot of followers.

If you haven’t explored Pinterest yet, it is definitely time to do so. The benefits to your business are potentially huge and it should undeniably be a part of your social media strategy.

 

 

Photo Credit: MRBECK via Flickr

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Going the “Extra Mile” for your clients

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Referrals, loyalty, opportunities and increased business – that’s what going the extra mile for your clients will bring you. However, one of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is to view customer service as an unpaid, administrative burden. Especially nowadays, thinking like this is a sure-fire way to destroy client relationships and ensure that you rarely receive any repeat business; let alone referrals!

But what does ‘going the extra mile’ really mean and how can you establish yourself as a business that’s synonymous with great client service?

Let’s have a look at why you need to ‘go the extra mile’ and how you go about doing it.

Beat the Competition

In business, there’s usually two ways in which you can beat your competition: being cheaper or by providing a superior service. The former may get you customers in the beginning, but they’re not going to be particularly loyal and will inevitably jump ship when one of your competitors lowers their prices. This is why you have to focus on building a strong customer base through great service.

Time and time again, customer surveys have shown that consumers don’t mind paying a bit extra for a product if they receive excellent service during and after the purchase. Word-of-mouth advertising is worth its weight in gold and certainly a more effective form than traditional mediums. This is because people have a great deal of faith and trust in their friends, so if someone tells them that they received great service from your business, they are more inclined to believe it.

Be Proactive

Contact some of your previous customers every once in a while and see if there’s anything that your business can do for them. Perhaps you’ve got some new products or maybe you’ve introduced a new service. Either way, reaching out to your customers personally, like via the telephone, will speak volumes for your business’s reputation.

Always Follow-Up

A massive mistake that many businesses make is to introduce satisfaction surveys and suggestion boxes, but then fail to follow-up on the comments of their customers. This is even worse than not having a customer satisfaction programme in the first place. Show your clients that you genuinely care about their concerns by following up on every comment/suggestion that they make. It may be that their suggestion simply isn’t a feasible option for your business, in which case you need to advise them of that and provide the reasons why. They’ll appreciate this approach much more than if you just appear to do nothing.

Be Contactable

If one of your customers calls your business it’s because they want to speak to someone – pretty obvious right? Therefore, it’s important to have an actual person handle inbound customer interactions wherever possible. Of course, you can use an automated system to buy yourself some time and filter calls accordingly, but always ensure they are eventually fielded by a human being. Your customers will really appreciate it.

Never Break Promises

If you tell someone that you’re going to do something then do it. It might sound simple, but trust can be easily damaged through broken promises. This is why it is so important to really think about what you tell your customers in the first instance. If you know that you’re not going to be able to deliver your product or service by a certain time then be honest and advise your customer. After all, your company’s reputation hinges on what your customers say about you. Don’t give them any opportunities to paint you in a bad light.

Train Your Staff

This is crucial and yet an aspect that many businesses sometimes neglect. Your staff are the face of your organisation and the people who ultimately interact with your customers and potential customers. It’s therefore important that they know exactly how they’re supposed to deal with clients and, in particularly, their complaints. It only takes one poorly trained employee to undo all your hard work and damage your brand’s reputation. Training is a proactive way to ensure that your business is always prepared for anything that its marketplace throws at it.

Some businesses don’t even go the first mile when it comes to customer service – make sure yours isn’t one of them.

 

 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net