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LimeMinds Small Business Marketing Support

LimeMinds have now launched a new service for Small Businesses to help them create effective marketing plans. LimeMinds can how be put to work in developing a marketing strategy for your small business in 3 ways:

1> By the Minute – Hire LimeMinds to advise your business on online and offline marketing, analyse your competition and industry.

2> Create a Marketing plan or Strategy - LimeMinds can be hired to create your business an effective marketing plan.

> Act as your virtual Marketing Director - Many small businesses would benefit from having a dedicated marketing director or manager. LimeMinds virtual Marketing Director allows your business to access to have that resource.

For more details about these and other services click here.

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How to write a Financial Forecast

For anyone writing a business plan or trying to secure investment the financials part of the plan is the often the area that can make or break a company’s future. Many business owners and entrepreneurs find creating a 3 or 5 year future P&L extremely difficult, often these predictions are made before a single sale is made and most are finger in the air jobs.

Sales and Profit forecasts tend to go one of two ways. Either the forecasts are so conservative that they fail to interest any investor to commit to the business or go completely the opposite way and claim the business will be making £50 million within 3 years and are based on nothing but complete fiction.

A few simple techniques can help when creating financial business plans …

1> Understand where you fit in the market and its actual size – Many business owners make the mistake of mis-calculating the true size of the market in which they sit. This mistake is magnified when sales projections are then based on gaining market share. Take this (fictional) example… Company A makes software to help cardiologists make early diagnosis of heart disease in their patients. Company A’s CEO believes that 5years after launch they will achieve 1% market share – 1% is a favourite of entrepreneurs andfinancial projections, we’ll discuss the fallacy of this in the next point – The software market is worth £500 billion so In year 5 Company A will turnover £5 billion – Wrong! Company A’s market is not the entire software market, nor is it even the medical software market. The CEO needs to drill down until they find their true niche and the value of that market segment. Don’t over estimate your place in the market and over state your potential value, potential investors are very quickly turned off by un-realistic valuations.

2> Don’t use the 1% rule- It is unbelievable how many times this rule is applied by entrepreneurs and small business owners, I’m sure you’ll have heard it used. The entrepreneur tries to couple the over estimation of the market (see point 1) with what seems like a conservative (and fair) market share target (1%). The problem lies around the fact that whilst 1 % of a large market looks fantastic, when you drill down to the true market value then that 1% looks a little small. The other issue is that by quoting 1% market you look a little novice and inexperienced, (which of course you might be but you don’t want be telling everyone). Quoting 1% looks like you haven’t bothered to look at your market and don’t truelyunderstand your business.

3> Look at the competition- All companies started out at one time or another and all products were new to market at some point. You can use your competitors and their products to your advantage when forecasting your potential sales performance. What did your competition achieve in sales in their first 5 years? How did new products/services they brought to market (which are similar to yours) perform? What’s happening in your market in general? Answering these questions and adding in some reasonable assumptions of your own, should create a fair assesment of where your sales could be in 3/5 years and stand up to questioning from potential investors.

4> Don’t plan for exponential final year growth – For those of you who have watched Dragon’s Den you might recognise the following sequence…

Dragon: “Can you run through your sales and profit forecast for me?”

Entrepreneur: “Of course… 1st year sales £100,000 profit £10k, 2nd year sales £350,000 profit £50k, 3rd year sales £2.5 million, profit £1 million!”

Dragon: “OK…?”

Where did that final year projection come from? Yes we all want year on year growth, yes we all would like double digit growth but come on. I guess the lesson is be confident, be optimistic, be bullish but be realistic. Far fetched predictions will be quickly dismissed by any potential investor and it is probably at this point in your proposal or pitch that you will lose them.

However you plan your financial forecast remember to know your numbers inside out and to be able to justify them, you should find that you can stand up to even the most intense questioning from investors and your thoroughness at this stage will bode well for the future health of your business.

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What does a good business plan look like?

Writing a business plan can be a challenging and lengthy process for any potential enterprise but is absolutely critical if you need to secure funding to start your business. Even those businesses who do not require start-up funding should create a business plan as this is the document that will guide you through an maintain your focus on the key issues and goals of your business.

In this the first part of our business planning series LimeMinds will take you through the basic structure of the plan and cover the important elements your plan should contain.

Writing a Business Plan is a little like writing a CV, there are many different ways to style, format, present your plan but the core contents should cover the same issues. Whilst the content is ultimately the most important part of the plan, its style and format can have a massive impact on how it is received and ultimately if anyone will invest or fund it. A successful Business Plan should contain (in our opinion) 6 main parts;

Part 1 – Position and Personnel

This section is where you will highlight the overall position of the business to date. It should describe your business idea and the people who will be involved in making it happen. Describe your product and service and the skills that you and/or your management team posses.

Part 2 – Research

This is the section in which you need to demonstrate that you understand the market you wish to operate in and the customers your business will serve. This section should also contain information on your potential competitors.

Part 3 – Business Strategy

What is your Marketing & PR strategy? What is your pricing and promotional strategy? How will you compete against other companies? This section is your opportunity to define how your business will position itself in the market.

Part 4 – Operations

How will the business be managed day to day? Considerations should include manufacturing processes, employee requirements, legal matters. You need to cover all aspects fo the business to convey how you will make your Business Strategy happen.

Part 5 – Financial

This section is where you can forecast the financial of the business. Cash Flow, P&L, Balance Sheet they should all be included and you need to be as accurate and realistic as possible. We will be discussing some potential tools and techniques that can help with this in later posts.

Part 6 -Controls

You need to demonstrate to any financier that you can manage and control all the elements of your business; sales, finance, production, etc. What processes and procedures will you put in place to keep the business running smoothly.

Those are the main 6 parts any business plan should contain, you may wish to include others such as an executive summary which pulls the plan together in the form of a one-page document, similar to a director’s report in any company’s annual report.

We will be covering each section in further detail so subscribe to our RSS feed or Email Feed to keep up to date with our releases. You can also contact LimeMinds to review and develop your business plans via email: consultants@limeminds.com

Happy Planning.

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3 Tips for Managing your Business in a Recession

With the recession in full swing and its impact being felt throughout the economy now is the time to make sure your business is ready to stand up to the test.

Whilst Small Businesses will undoubtedly feel the impact of the reduced availability of credit and a contraction in the spending of both business and consumers, there are a number of strategies or ideas which they can implement to help them through these difficult times.

Three areas which you can focus your business are:

Attitude and Agility

Whilst attitude may seem a little simplistic and maybe more a kin to the ‘PMA’ philosophies, your attitude to the business and the industry in which it operates as your company’s leader is extremely important in motivating your staff to keep driving the business forward in seemingly desperate times. As the leader of your business it is your attitude that will determine the determination and engagement of your employees.

If you are a single person enterprise a positive attitude will enable you to keep focus and maintain your alertness to new opportunities within your market.

Your agility or more specifically your business’ agility will prove invaluable in a difficult trading environment. Your advantage as a small business over your bigger competitors is the ability for your business to remain agile and to react quickly to changes in the market. You as a small business owner can make quick decisions to seize opportunities much faster than a large business which will need to mobilize great swaths of personnel and compete numerous rounds of decision making meetings in order to change cultural behaviors.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Charles Darwin

Keep alert to market changes and remain positive in your attitude to them. Allow your business to remain agile and maintain the speed at which you react to these changes. Remember to take advantage of change you don’t need to be the first or the pioneer but being part of the early minority will prove extremely rewarding.

Value

Your customers and clients are also finding times tough at the moment and they will be challenging their employees, suppliers and customers to deliver more value then ever before. If you can position your business and its products or services as one of great value then you will have a great competitive edge, but do not take value to simply imply lower prices. The businesses that will thrive in this value driven environment will be the ones that deliver value in more creative ways. Some questions to ask yourself when considering your firm’s value proposition are;

What value do we add to our customer’s business?
What value do we add to our customer’s people?
What do our products/services deliver in terms of value?

Continue reading “3 Tips for Managing your Business in a Recession” »

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Social Network Optimisation (SNO) is the new SEO!

Social networks, Blogging, Online directories, Web 2.0, micro-blogging, Online forums, are just a few of the terms you may or may not be familiar with.

The terms themselves aren’t that important its the concept which they stand for that is, and that concept is of user interaction and user generated content. The idea that today’s customers and clients live in a connected world which they can control and that includes their perception of you company, brand and services. Whilst most of are aware of the many social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc, but how many really understand the impact that forums and bloggers can have on our businesses, positive or negative?

For many small businesses online marketing and PR through social networks can be a cost effective way of reaching your audience on a global scale. Imagine finding a forum which main thread of discussion surrounds your niche market, this forum picks up on your service through appropriate marketing and within days has a long list of reviews and discussions about your products and services. Imagine how powerful that user generated commentary about your business would be to potential new customers vs the standard sales literature found on a static website on in a offline ad.

The power of SNO is credibility!

Harnessing the potential of SNO can control and negate bad press and opinion, whilst maximizing your global web presence and customer base and creating credibility around your business and brand. It’s this interaction and credibility building is the key difference why SNO is so much more powerful than simple SEO and therefore its importance can’t be understated.

We recommend any business, web based or not, should start looking at how they approach SNO and suggest the following questions to ask when looking at Social Network Marketing;

Where are potential customers discussing my industry/products/services?
What are the hot topics/issues that these bloggers/forums are raising?
What interaction does my business have with these forums and their issues?
What opportunity do we offer to both our exsiting and potential customers to feedback to us and interact with us on the internet?

Find the answers to these questions and you can be well on the way to tackling SNO and influencing more customers than you ever imagined.

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What Can LimeMinds Do For Your Business?

LimeMinds specialise in working with small businesses to help them succeed and grow profitably

Let LimeMinds work in partnership with you to…

Define your business goals and processes through planning and financial modelling

Create a best in class Marketing plan

Enhance your Web presence through online marketing and PR Strategies

Develop your personnel’s business skills through our easy to implement Business Academy

We are committed to the delivery of high quality services that will make a real difference to your business, whether you are looking to start up your business, launch a new product/service or improve an existing one.

You can contact LimeMinds about any of our client services or submit a project brief by emailing us at consultants@limeminds.com.

You can also follow our business updates and online resources by following our RSS feed or via email through our Feedburner link.

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LimeMinds Small Business Marketing Support

LimeMinds have now launched a new service for Small Businesses to help them create effective marketing plans. LimeMinds can how be put to work in developing a marketing strategy for your small business in 3 ways:

How to write a Financial Forecast

What does a good business plan look like?

3 Tips for Managing your Business in a Recession