The Workfare Proposal and Small Businesses

YES!

Should small and medium size businesses get involved in the recent work scheme to get our youth back on the road to work.  Absolutely.
Forget about the campaign of the workless. I am apolitical. Any work experience is good for the youth of today. In an economy where 3 out of 5 youth between the ages of 16-24 are not in employment, education or training (NEET) its outrageous when people kick against schemes like this.  The current jobless rate is 2.67m predicted to rise to 3m according to the chartered institute of personnel development.  Even if the government are doing it for the wrong reasons, the benefits are many. It's good business advice to get involved.  It's not slave labour. In fact the people who use that word for this, abuse the word slave

Micro and small businesses are giving something back to their community under this youth scheme. It's called an opportunity to experience the world of the work place. For some, this will be a first in their life. Learning good interpersonal skills, good vocational skills and the discipline of turning up on time, things you and I take for granted. The experience of being managed, taking instructions, using your own initiative, being trusted, having your confidence built, learning new admin skills, marketing skills, etc. There is a pride that comes with work and along with it an honour. Speak to any business connector and they will tell you how invaluable their mentees have found work placements. 

Yes small businesses have a thing or two to gain from the young person. An extra hand, increased capacity to deliver - depending on the existing skill set of the individual. It's not a bed of roses though managing and supervising this client group. In fact in the main, it’s tough. We should be glad if the likes of M&S, Tesco, HP, BA, etc. have joined employers in taking on clients.

Small firms should also join the ranks. This client group has great ideas that they can bring to your work place. Innovation and creativity, smartness, a different approach to problem solving, etc. you just need to spend a little time with them. Give them time and real work and you will get the best out of them. So don't join the nay Sayers out there.  There is a great benefit in the proposal for all of us. 

The negative comments only make it difficult for local businesses to support this client group. Gone are the days of near full employment. In those days you could say businesses were taking advantage of people, but today, it's an employer’s market.  There is more supply than there is demand.  Having said all of this, at best what needs to be done is provide safeguards to abuse by businesses. Of course some negative person will say this is naive and yes I know some business or two will want to abuse the advantage, but they do so at their own peril.  I wouldn’t let the bad eggs spoil it for the good ones.

That's sound Business Advice

Remi Okeshola

Managing Director

RBSS Consulting Ltd

www.rbssconsulting.com

Marketing - Words are important. 13 words that make THE difference

The words you use to communicate with your customers are very important, whether in brochures letters, advertisements email, on websites or in telephone and face to face conversations.

Below are 13 words that you should consider incorporating into all of your communications.

1. Easy Everyone wants stuff that’s easy. We want things to be easy to use, we want results to be easier to achieve, we want everything easy. If your product or service makes peoples’ lives easier, make sure you tell them.

2. You The magic word in all good copy. Using the word ‘you’ forces you to have a personal conversation with the person reading it. Don’t you agree?

3. Now There comes a point when you need to tell your customer what to do. They need to call you, or order from you or ‘click here.’ But you don’t want them doing it tomorrow or next week. You want them to do it now – so tell them.

4. Free Very powerful. People love anything that’s Free. Particularly useful to generate new sales leads

5. No Risk Anything you can do to reduce the risk for your customers will increase your sales. Your customers may not be consciously thinking about it but subconsciously they’re worrying about risking money and possibly time by doing business with you. Risk elimination is one of the most effective Marketing strategies available to you.

6. Guaranteed The ultimate risk elimination is the guarantee. Just adding a guarantee to advertisements for example will often increase sales 30% or more.

7. Yes There’s something about the word ‘Yes’ It just works wonders. When you speak to customers use it a lot. It’s equally important to avoid the word ‘no.’

8. Important It’s important to use the word important. People want to know about important things and it’s a word that grabs the reader’s attention. And that’s important!

9. Person’s Name In many contexts, the most important word you can use is the customer’s name. The more personalised your letters are, the higher the response. Email auto responders enable you to send hundreds or thousands of personalised messages at the same time.

10. Fast We all want things to happen faster. If you can do it – tell them.

11. Proven / Proof It’s often useful to assume that people reading your message do not believe what you’re telling them. It may not be the case for all of them but it’s likely that a good proportion are sceptical. Offer proof wherever you can.

12. New Everyone wants the ‘new’ thing. We may be bored with advertisements but if they promise us something ‘new’ that can get our interest.

13. Limited If there is a genuine limit to what you are offering or the number of people who can have it, it’s worth making a big deal about that. Scarcity is an important marketing tool.

Its important that you note that while nothing is guaranteed, this free advice is easy to implement, has no risk, has proven to work for millions. Yes you need to work on it fast. Its your turn now.

Remi Okeshola
Managing Director
www.rbssconsulting.com

Business Advice on Business Insurance

If you want to insure the hair on your head you can.  What kind of insurance is relevant for you especially if you are running a small or medium size enterprise.  I've outlined some necessary yet not legally required insurances below. You can investigate them further.

1. Public liability
2. Professional indemnity
3. Employers liability
4. Loss of earnings caused by an insured incident
5. Business from home insurance
6. Tradesman insurance
7. Commercial or residential landlord insurance

What to look out for when purchasing business insurance

1. Compare the market for different quotes and don't get stung
2. Can your insurance be tailor made so you are not paying for what you don't need
3. What exactly is covered and by how much
4. What are the excesses on the insurance
5. Do they have a 24hr legal service or help line
6. What is it going to cost and what is the service, i.e do they provide a dedicated claims officer
7.  If in doubt, use an independent agent and still ask the questions

Business Advice from the MD at RBSS Consulting Ltd.  For more information contact RBSS Consulting at info@rbssconsulting.com or 0844 3577 643


Remi Okeshola
Managing Director
www.rbssconsulting.com

Good Business Advice on Business Planning

1. There's a huge difference between cash and profit.  You can be profitable but still run out of cash and in essence have no business. So concentrate on the cash flow in your planning and not only profitability.  Remember you don't pay your bills with your profit.

2. Limit the priorities in you plan.  More than 5 means you don't have priorities

3. A plan without the detail is a waste of time

4. Whats more important to you.  The planning or the business plan.  The former I hope. Don't lose site of that.

5. Get a grip and understand your expenses.  Don't go forecasting high profits without understanding where every penny needs to go first

6. Know how you will actually make sales and how to make money in doing so.

7. Just do it.

Remi Okeshola
Managing Director
www.rbssconsulting.com

3 more ways to run your business

1. Add new sources of value - Consider what new services your existing customers would value.  Ones that you can leverage from your existing service to them that will bring further solutions to them and add to their bottom line. Services that are drawn from your core competencies as a business.  This is back to innovation again

2. Delivering rapid sustainable success to clients is better than searching for perfection.  The quickest route to a better solution will set you apart from your rivals that end up providing medicine after death.

3. Really start getting introductions to other potential buyers of your service or product from the same organisation.  Offer incentives for doing this, let the referrer know their is something in it for them as well.  Know what motivates your customer and give them a compelling reason to want to refer you to another organisation.

For further business advice, please visit us at www.rbssconsulting.com

Remi Okeshola
Managing Director
www.rbssconsulting.com

3 Tips to Growing Your Start Up Business

You've taken that bold step and started the business.  Great.  Realities of running a business start to hit home.  The excitement, the exhilaration, the sales and the exchange of services or products for money.  Its 6 months later and you remember you haven't looked at your business plan since you started. 

TIP 1.  Revisit your business plan.  That's where it all started. Your vision and dreams for the business.  The planning and research and the results of the research. Your SWOT analysis and PESTLE and the answers you gave to solving the problems you foresaw, etc. Your marketing plan and cash flow analysis and all the things you said you were going to do.  GO BACK TO THAT PLAN.  Implement what you can or may have forgotten about and change what needs changing.  You need to learn to crawl before you start to run. Growth comes from having a strong foundation.  Operate well and you will grow.

TIP 2. Focus on relationships.  In my years of experience, you don't win new business cold. Recommendations, a track record of quality delivery, relationships and close networks is how its done. Professional services are built on relationships. Spend more time with real customers, not just those who simply show an interest in what you do.  The more you understand your customer (their problems, barriers to success, goals and objectives), the more you are able to provide real business solutions and the more likely you are to grow. BECOME A MORE TRUSTED PARTNER AS SOMEONE WHO CAN HELP THEM GROW THEIR BUSINESS.


TIP 3. Retention.  You should seek to reduce the number of customers that stop buying your products or using your services.  The bottom line is you will grow you business faster and have a more robust business if you retain as many profitable clients as possible.  Deal with client issues quickly, have a system to connect with clients who have not been in touch for a while.  TREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE AS A MARKETING COMPONENT.  Treat people like royalty at the purchasing process and after they have made the purchase.  Account manage each customer.

Whilst these are not exhaustive, being consistent in applying these principles will lead to inevitable organic growth to your business.

Remi Okeshola
Managing Director
www.rbssconsulting.com

3 tips to Self Employment

Self Employment is as profitable if not more profitable than being employed.  The qualities you need are Determination, Desire to Succeed, Self motivated, be Willing to Learn, Be Responsible and have an Open Mind.

Don't believe people who make it sound nearly impossible but please take guidance and plan.  Failing to plan is truly planning to fail. 3 tips to starting your own business are:

1. Seek a Business Adviser\Consultant.  Most good ones have your interest at heart, are independent and your success is their success.  So their lies their motivation - seeing you succeed

2. Plan. A Business Plan (BP) is a tool that helps you get down on paper in a structured manner a lot of the things you have in your brain.  It then enables you in a step by step manner plot your path to putting the pieces of the puzzle together by combining external and internal information you have gathered.  You can then see the full picture. After all if you can't do it on paper (theory) then how do you plan to do it in practice.

3. Don't procrastinate.  This is where most people fall down.  All is set, a plan is in place, money is not a big obstacle, or alternatives have been found but then they begin to continue to work on the BP.  The make the BP the business and continue to fine tune it, carve it, polish it, chopping and changing it, instead of beginning to implement it.  Just do it.

Of course there is more to starting a business than just this, but get this right and you are on your way.

See www.rbssconsulting.com for further practical help.


Remi Okeshola
Managing Director
www.rbssconsulting.com