General

Clicks and mortar – why the online and pop up approach could work

12th February 2017 by Alan Leave a Comment

Pop up shops are popping up everywhere, from the streets of the capital to back waters of hill and sale. Sounds almost over-dramatic but the pop up shop revolution has shown no sign of slowing down, stopping or disappearing.

Its sticking power has given rise to much musing about the state of the economy, the high street and so on, as well as discussions about how we shop, where we shop and how city and town centres across the UK will look like in the future.

Flick on the TV and you will come across various shows that (un)helpfully tell or show us where, as business owners, we are going wrong; from chipped paint in your hotel bedrooms to not organising your goods in the shop window in the right way is affecting how your business is doing. Get the basics right, we are told, and everything else will follow.

But then, there are threats and opportunities external to our business that can make and break it, it seems, almost simultaneously. The Internet is a many faced beast; friend and foe, it is the life blood of many a business and yet, some say, it has been a drain on the high street, changing how it will look, forever.

Add to this the tumble and turns of the economy and you have a recipe for both disaster and growth, winners and losers.

Then along came pop up shops

The idea that the centre of a city or town is no longer just for shopping, but recreation and socialising too, is slowly catching on but despite consumers searching and finding bargains online, their dismay at seeing row upon row of empty shops is palpable. And so, someone, somewhere came up with the idea of renting a shop on a short term basis and shift a load of stock.

Bingo! A new business model was born and the buying public quite enjoyed the experience. It caught on and thus, several years later, pop up shops are still popping up all over the place.

The concept is simple… it is about renting a space for the short term, to offers your goods and services to a grateful public.

But, its simplicity is deceptive. Although you can think that this is an easy ride, without marketing and an experience, you are missing the point.

And so, if you are shimmying on the precipice of taking the pop up shop plunge with your online business, you will want to know what this ‘clicks and mortar’ approach could bring your business, if successful…

Your brand – A New Audience

An on street/shopping mall/high street presence will allow you to effectively extend your audience from the offline world, to the ‘real’ world too. Brand awareness is something you do need to be taking seriously, expanding your brand psyche in the minds of your buying public.

Boost sales (possibly)

Nothing is guaranteed, and unless you do take on the advertising and marketing challenges of a pop up shop, then you may be more than disappointed that you did not have the bumper sales you thought you would. However, with advertising and marketing, you can increase sales.

Hype

Call it what you will, but when there is a hint of trendiness, buzz or hype about you, your products and services then business can become a whole lot easier. Pop up shops, by their temporary nature, can be the spring board to this buzz. Tell people you really are only there for a short period of time and, as the old saying goes, when it is gone – and you are gone – so are the deals.

Interaction and a PR vehicle

However, pop up shops for the online business is a little more than clearing space in the warehouse. It is an opportunity to connect and interact with your customers but, you can still get them to talk about you online. Tap in to your social media presence – run a competition! Anything! – that sparks interested online. The pop up shop can be a powerful, freewheeling PR vehicle.

Love your customer!

As if interacting with them isn’t enough, possibly schmoozing with your customer is a great way to find out more about your customer base. What do they like or not like? What causes them hassle? What would they like that is different? How can you solve this problem? In essence, this is how a pop up shop differs from a market stall – it is all about using every single ounce of energy you have to link and connect with your customer.

More from your budget

Every business has a budget. No business, even the very biggest corporations, have a bottomless pit of cash to throw at every little thing thus, getting more for your pound is somewhat essential. Pop up shops can be a great kick start to a marketing campaign, and with decreased rents and other overheads, it is worth considering…

Rent

In fact, low rent is something that most businesses find attractive about the pop up shop concept. The economic collapse and recession from 2008 drove many famous names to the wall, and thus, shops on the high street were left sad, bedraggled and empty. Every landlord would rather have 3 months of rent – even if it is reduced – than 3 months of no rent.

A look to the future

No business can stand still. Repositioning and rebranding is something that many businesses, from web designers to fashion designers, are constantly looking to do as they grow and evolve. Rather than just using pop up shops for the same old, same old ‘shift surplus stock’, why not tap into this lucrative market for product development or a pre-launch?

The ‘shopping season’

If your product or service has its own season – gifts for Christmas, fashion for summer etc. – then a pop up shop could be a great way of shifting last year’s stock, introducing this years’ and just generally creating a hub-bub around your product and brand.

The pop up shop is an exciting concept that many brands have already used – just look at Google. Is it something you could use?

The ‘basics’ of rebranding a business successfully

21st November 2016 by Alan Leave a Comment

Nothing stays the same forever.

As much as we love the status quo, there is an interesting visual that shows our comfort zone as being a tiny bubble in the bottom left hand corner of a page but, the sphere where we evolve, grow and create is way beyond this.

You cannot run your company the same way, doing the same thing, over and over again, forever. Times change. People change. Your customers change. You grow.

The boundaries that were once so comforting, are now restricting you. Time has come for change.

For many businesses, this growth means re-branding but before you think this an expensive, potentially disastrous foray in which you will sink without a trace, there is, as always, ways and means of going about such a transformation – and doing so successfully.

Many brands have re-branded and revitalised themselves; take Burberry for example. Once dismissed as gang wear, the likes of Emily Watson now wear the instantly recognisable tartan pattern wear. With many other example of successful re-brands, if the time has come for your business to change, how do you go about it? What have the successful examples and the not-so-successful examples of rebranding taught us?

#1 Be ready for change

If you are in business, there will come a point where something has to give – it either grows, or it starts to retract. What was one perfect, is now changing to something different and this inevitably starts with what your market place is demanding. Society changes, as well as needs, demands and expectations and your business, in order to stay a viable business, may need to leap with both hands and grab on to this change.

#2 Determine a new or revamped mission

You need the bigger picture, not just a snapshot view; don’t forget the song that tells us we can only see a piece of sky through a window and that stepping outside expands our view. There is no time like the present to get to grips with a SWOT analysis of your business – what are its strengths and weakness, the opportunities and threats?

#3 Talk to people

If you are rebranding, the likelihood is you have a successful business on your hands, with customers and suppliers with whom you have a great relationship. Talk to them; ask them what they do and don’t like? What’s missing? What do you do well that could be expanded?

You need a mix of qualitative and quantitative market research…

#4 Your market

Rebranding essentially means branching out and thus, your portion of the market should be bigger but, within your current confines you will only be looking at a small section of it. Take a leaf from the book of Pepsi – considered by some as the poor relation to Coca Cola, Pepsi has quietly and stealthily buying soft drinks companies that not only diversifies it operations, but increases it market share too. The key question you need to answer is, how has your industry and market changed?

#5 Competition and allies

Every company has competition. Every company has allies. The best example of this is the rebranding by Seattle’s Best Coffee, part of the Starbucks brand.

They realised their industry was cluttered, with hundreds of names and logos in which their company was lost. They realised they needed to break out from the crowd and this is where they formed alliances with similar, but not direct competitors.

In the US, Seattle’s Best Coffee is now sold in many different outlets and franchises, including big names such as Subway, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Border’s Bookstores and so on. Their new logo made them stand out as a fun company, appealing to a new clientele.

#6 Re-thinking your customer base

Rebranding means re-targeting your view of customers. It is not about ditching the old ones, but appealing to new ones too. You may offering very similar services or products, just vamped up and with a wider scope. Don’t forget, even tried and tested customers will look for new, innovative products and delivery.

#7 The plunge!

Do you remember those first heady years of business, where you took the plunge and laid everything on the line? You are going to do it again and, like jumping off that top diving board feet in the air, if you think about it, you will never leap.

Once you have the suggestions you need, have realistically studied the market and impact, you need to make the decision – reposition your business or re-brand? And if you decide rebrand, don’t hesitate… But, now is the time for internal business analysis…

#8 Plan of action

Like a business plan that strategizes where you are going and why, you need to strategize your rebranding. What is wrong and why does it need fixing? Do you have all the facts? Are you making an informed choice? How are you going to do it? Is everybody on board?

#9 Communication

Rebranding is just as much an exercise in communication as it is anything else. People need to know you are changing and what this means for them. Harness new ideas – why not create a YouTube clip that explains the new look business? – and stay on with social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook in your current form, whilst creating a crossover to the new brand.

#10 Be bold and brave

Change is invigorating. Rebranding your business, and growing it to the next level, is a courageous step and one which can reap huge benefits. There are many details to be ironed out, a lot of work to be done but with the right information driving it, a careful thought out strategy, your business can rebrand successfully.

Have you considered rebranding your business?

Why going to work is a waste of time…

25th March 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

Work is something that fills our lives. Or so it feels, sometimes.

Just as we sign off from another hectic day, in a blink of an eye and dream-filled 7 hours of shut eye, the time has come to head back to the office. Again.

And then we came across an article that suggested out of a 45 hour week, only 17 hours were actually ‘productive’ or useful. It goes on to suggest that the reason why people drift in the working week is because they don’t really know what they should be doing, what the common goals are and so on.

It got us thinking…

When you run your own business, it can feel like all you do is work. The business sucks everything, life, body and soul. As other people are off out enjoying themselves, you are either still slaving away over your website, adding content, sourcing goods or packing orders.

If anything, trying to make the day more productive, squashing more in to the 24 hours we have, is something that, if we ever found the solution, we could bottle and make millions.

Time has a habit of running away with us but being productive is important. Setting limits – ‘today, I won’t work past 6pm’ we hear you cry! – is one thing, but do you really make best use of the time you do have?

The first 10 minutes

Inspiration can come from the most unlikely of sources. Anthony Bourdain, a legendary chef, is well known within fine-dining circles. Frankly, putting the kettle on in the first 10 minutes of being in his kitchen is a no-no.

Mise-en-place – heard of it?

It is a French phrase that means ‘putting in place’, as in setting everything up. It is a phrase commonly applied in the professional kitchen.

It is about the organising, the arranging, and the chopping and so on of ingredients. The preparation, as much as is possible, of food items ready for when the head chef shouts ‘check on!’, meaning an order has arrived. It can include the par-boiling of items, spices ready to hand and all this others ‘bits and bobs’ that could devastate a dish if they are not correct.

But why is this mise-en-place important in your line of work? Not all of us work in a kitchen, par-boiling potatoes or chopping veg.

It is the essence behind it that is important. The meticulous planning of what will happen; as many a professional chef will tell you, mise-en-place is not a quaint, jolly practice of chopping and boiling; it is a state of mind, an extensive of your nervous system – we jest not.

Where the original application of the mise-en-place principal applies to the professional kitchen, why not apply this principal to your work station?

What is your work station?

Is it the board room or, like many people, a desk with a PC, phone, mobile and other electronic gadgetry that we cannot survive without. At the end of another long day, do you switch the desk lamp off and limp home to a microwave meal for one?

Do you walk back in the next morning, with no idea of what the day will hold? Probably. In other words, in your day, do you spend time planning your next day?

Do you need to embark on an intellectual mise-en-place?

To look forward, we need to reflect

What can happen is that we are so very busy, that we sometimes get to the end of the day and, as we stare into the abyss of yet another ready meal (who can be bothered to cook at 8pm?), we can feel that we have…

Achieved nothing
Achieved only a small fraction of what we wanted to
Achieved nothing of any great importance

Make a list (groan!)

We all love making lists; they can go on for ever and actually show you what you have not achieved, in some respects. However, from this, you could create a plan of attack that could see you end up with rather a natty list of ‘goals for today’.

However, instead of this…

x Do Monday’s presentation

… which is far too much of a general, broad action, do this – start every ‘to do’ job with a verb, a doing word. Now we are really honing in on the task.

So, back to Monday’s presentation, what is it exactly you need to do for it?

Collect sales figures
Draft slides
Add images

See? You have ‘doing words’ that actually tell you the action that needs to be done. The more specific you are in what you are trying to achieve, the more chances you have of success. Mapping these steps out in advance will also help with the focus you need to make something happen, without it dragging on, becoming essentially, a rather large millstone around the neck.

When you have this list, prioritise it. After all, you cannot draft a report or slides for your presentation if you don’t have the information to put in it.

When the willpower starts to weaken during the day – the phone keeps ringing, Facebook was looking exciting or you enter the post-lunch lull – this prioritised list from your intellectual mise-en-place can help focus that thinking back to where it should be.

Need extra help?

The day is full of distractions, and sometimes a little discipline can go a long way. Studies of entrepreneurial habits have shown that it is this sense of discipline that helps people achieve and accomplish things in a productive way; try these…

Check emails at pre-determined times in the day, responding only to those immediately that warrant such a response; delete others that are of no use. For all other non-essential emails have two slots in the day when these are responded to – once in the morning, the other near close of play for the day

FACT – emails take up 28% of an ‘average workers’ day; in a 7 hour day (that is around about 2 hours a day…)

Phone calls to voicemail is something that your business may or may not be able to stomach; clearly, if the majority of your work comes via the phone, it would be sheer folly to not answer it. However, if you can, the suggestion is to batch your calls, like you do emails; let the phone ring, and then twice a day, clear the messages, responding as necessary
Social media is important but it also has a nasty habit of sucking your time, with many of us being rather embarrassed to admit the true amount of time we spend on Facebook or Twitter! As you would expect, there are online programs and apps that can help track time…
Keep an eye out for time wasting too; we all know what these are… the faffing about with fonts, formatting, colour coding files… the list could go on. Getting caught up in these time wasting jobs is doing nothing more than procrastinating.

Instead of staring in a ready meal for one, you could be part of family meal times, with productive hours behind you, accomplishment in the blood and a plan of action for tomorrow.

Is the principal of mise-en-place something that you could apply to your work? What do you do already that helps you plan your day or week… if anything at all?

Late payments and lost payments

17th February 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

And online tools that can help!

As we research topics that could be interest to our clients, we do occasionally come across something that really makes us think. Only a few days ago, we came across a post from October 2014 that we could relate to and, we are sure, so can many of our customers.

Time is of the essence

Tempus fugit (time flies), as the famous Latin saying goes and it is certainly true when it comes invoicing for the work completed by business on behalf of other businesses.

Increasingly, small and online businesses are realising the potential of email their invoices to companies, ready for payment. Some larger businesses, perhaps more cumbersome and lumbering in their accounting procedures, may send out paper invoices. Before this paper invoice is generated and mailed to clients, the hoops that have been jumped through and the swings that have been swung in order to generate it will have been fairly gargantuan.

Keeping track of these paper invoices can be an entirely separate task in itself and, in larger organisations, it is. Once one section has produced the invoice, another section within accounting is responsible for chasing and securing payment. For corporations, this is a huge task…

The 30, 60 or 90 day rule that could be preventing businesses from growing

But, it is not just the time spent in chasing payments that is the issue here; for suppliers, there is a far more pressing concern. How many times have you completed work for someone, submitted your invoice only to be told that the company has a 30, 60 or, worse still, a 90 day payment window?

Although irritating, these payment windows and slow payments from companies have never really been challenged… until now and it is the power of cloud based accounting that is really beginning to push the boundaries of what is an acceptable time lapse between submitting an invoice and being paid.

What is an acceptable time frame between invoice and payment? The answer is… there isn’t. In order for commerce to flow, and for small businesses to manage their cash flow (as well as the larger organisations too), the time has come to kick the 30, 60 or 90 payment period in to touch.

Cloud based invoicing, claim some experts, is introducing transparency, ease of administration and speed to both invoicing and payments, excellent news for the small and local businesses out there trying to manage a cash flow.

A cruel reality

Running a business is about taking a degree of acceptable risk; someone likes your products or services. You may charge a small deposit but, in most cases, businesses will complete the work before payment.

The invoice is submitted and then you must wait… and wait… and possibly wait a little longer. In all this time, you are attempting to manage a cash flow that may have dwindled to nothing, or very little. Late payments, the cruel reality in many a case, are responsible for driving many businesses to the wall.

And, if you think it only affects you, think again. One global insurance company estimates that there is around $2 trillion locked into late payments at any one time across the globe.

And the solution is…

As well-being clear about YOUR payment terms – payment due on receipt is a nice way of saying ‘pay now’ – there are other tricks too…

Discounts – before you all faint at such a ridiculous suggestion, experts suggest turning the ‘fines’ for late payments on its head. Include a payment fee, they suggest, on the invoice amount (adding 20% for example) but, if payment is received within xx number of days (you set the time), this 20% is automatically deducted.
Get a 3^rd party to do it… and chase – some businesses are also realising that investing in their cash flow is important and thus, outsource their invoicing and chasing payments to a third company. For those of us who ‘hate asking for money’, this is a perfect way of completing the transaction.

Cloud computing – does it have the answer?

The crux of the article from 2014 was simple; a clever chap had realised that the issue lay in not only generating invoices, but keeping track of them and speeding up the whole process. At the time, he was working for the Danish Government, who generated thousands of invoices per year as well as paying thousands of invoicing per year to suppliers, large and small.

Developing an online system, he not only made the whole payment system faster and more transparent, but doing business with government departments became a far easier process; local, smaller suppliers felt more confident doing business with departments, and working on larger projects too, for payment was easier and quicker to come by.

Invoicing software – generate invoices and track payments

Running a business is hard enough without worrying about generating the right invoices for the right people for the right amount… and keeping tabs on who has paid and who hasn’t. Larger businesses create their own system and for the smaller business, short on time and skills, there are many online invoicing systems that are just right for your business; some are paid for and some are free.

However, type in accounting or invoicing software and you will have a plethora of apps and programs to choose from. Your invoices and money are important, thus the issue of trust is important when it comes to such things, so exactly how do you make your choice?

Subscriptions and size

Many online invoicing systems offer a subscription service by which you buy ‘enough’ invoicing capacity for your business; this works especially well for businesses who may not generate many invoices within a monthly period, enabling you to keep costs down. The dashboard of the online application should be easy to use, self-explanatory and, if possible, offer you the features that are not superfluous to requirements. In other words, make sure it does everything you want without the fancy (expensive) extras.

For example, if you have recurring payments or send out invoices in batches, does the program offer this ability?

Security

Just like accessing your bank account online, the security for any online invoicing app should be at a high level. Also called ‘bank level security’, there should be three factors that are apparent (but you may need to read the small print to find them!):

Encryption – data needs to be encrypted to prevent it being useful to hackers
Bank level security – as we have already mentioned, any online app you use, especially where you are creating links to bank accounts or online payment systems such as PayPal should have the highest level of security
Redundancy – this refers to the storage of your data by the provider; in most cases, there will be two server sites, one a replica of the other. Should the system be hacked or compromised due to weather and other natural disasters, you should be able to still access your mirrored data from the ‘other’ site.

Billing

These invoicing apps can also be used as a billing gateway; in other words, your customer receives the invoice and they pay via online means. Again, such sites need to have all the security and data encryption expected, as you customers will expect this too. Look for online solutions that off you a range of payment gateways that are popular, such as PayPal and Google Checkout. If your online business operates globally, the more options you have for payment the better.

However, there are processing fees – either on a per transaction basis or a monthly one – from some payment providers, which can seriously cut into your profit margins. Check these fees carefully.

Ease of use

A common issue with many services of this ilk is the fact that using them requires a PhD in in Mathematical Computing. If they offer a free trial – as most online software programs do – why not opt for a dummy run, to see how easy it is to use, as well as whether the program suits your business? Many of these software programs offer brilliant features which you don’t realise how useful they are until you have them – for example, tracking sales and payments are two essential components of keeping tabs on the financial health of your business.

Scalability

You may be expecting your business to grow in the coming months and that is all fine and dandy… until you realise the online program you have been using will not scale up with your business and you are back to square one.

Those that offer a modular approach work really well; buying more chunks as you need them, as well as add-ons are a perfect of scaling up, without having to buy the ultimate package.

And finally…

Help and support are two key components of online invoicing and financial tracking programs. Many of these apps offer instant chat options, perfect if you have a quick question or query. Email support is also invaluable but, sometimes, there is no compensation for having a telephone chat…

Why do most websites fail?

30th January 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

fail, verb – “to not succeed in what you are trying to achieve or are expected to do”

You carefully selected the colours, you diligently created a brief for the designer and you carefully oversaw the site build. So why hasn’t your website achieved what you expected?

Have you got the right focus?

It’s only natural that you want an eye-catching website that looks good, and that’s why it can be all too easy to get wrapped up the creative process. But if you want to create a successful website, it’s fundamentally important to look beyond the colour, design and feel and focus on the strategy.

Your business is unique, so it’s crucial that any strategy definition is tailored to your specific needs. In fact, if you don’t have a strategic solution in place for your website, the cost in lost opportunities may be higher than you think. Choosing cost over value is rarely an effective way of growing a business.

Want to know how to set the right strategy? These 4-steps will guide you on the path to setting a successful website strategy.

STEP 1: IDENTIFY

What factors are vital to the continued success and growth of your business? It’s only by identifying these that you can begin to consider the purpose of your website.
What are your business drivers?
Organisations often overlook identifying and documenting their business drivers because they assume they are obvious. However, by taking an analytical approach, not only can you can add real clarity, but you can also work out any latent conflicts.

Value drivers are identified by looking at your business priorities, these then determine your business objectives. They might include:
• significant business growth,
• cost management, and
• market position.

What are your project goals?

Once you have identified your key business drivers, you can start to define the project goals and objectives.

STEP 2: REVIEW

What aspects of your business might impact the website strategy? Benchmarking the current situation is key.

What is your brand?

You need to look at your brand value and your brand proposition to fully understand how your business is currently presented to the market.

What are the constraints?

Your organisation’s current policies, situation and frameworks may put constraints upon the website’s strategy, and these will often need to be reflected in the website and content strategy. For example:

• Legal issues – Many businesses operate in specific regulatory and legal situations, so it’s important that you are up to speed on yours.

• Creative guidelines – From colour palettes to typography, and from tone of voice to photographic style, your organisation may already have pre-defined guidelines that it’s essential your website complies with.

What analytics are already in place?

A high-level review of your existing website analytics can very useful at the review stage. It will allow you to gain an understanding of both the current interaction with your website and also to create a benchmark for when you review the site again after implementation.

STEP 3: RESEARCH

Research is important. You might like the look of your website, but your favourable opinion is no guarantee of the website’s effectiveness within its target audience. That’s why it’s vital you gather the opinions of everyone associated with your website.

What do the stakeholders think?

With any project there are multiple stakeholders, from the business owners, through the management and then the end users. You can gather stakeholder input through interviews or through workshops. Workshops are particularly effective for larger numbers of stakeholders.

What do your users think?

If you already have an active website that you’re planning to redesign, it’s a great idea to find out how people currently use it. An in-depth analysis of the existing user analytics combined with user surveys could throw up some invaluable information for your strategy.

What do the experts think?

If your aim is to conduct effective and successful research, then it’s well worth seeking input and advice from experts in web marketing and web design.

What are your competitors doing?

A quick online search can offer rich pickings when it comes to finding out about your competitors’ online presence, so make sure you take the time to study them. There are more tools than search that can give a deeper insight, however the only thing they can’t tell you is how effective your competitors’ website strategies are for their business.

STEP 4: DEFINE

The final stage in creating your website strategy is to define some essential tenets that will add clarity to the process.

What is the customer journey?

How do your customers interact with you online? If you want to understand their digital behaviours, then you need to map their customer journeys, be it on Facebook, Twitter, review sites or your website.

What are the personas of your customers?

Who are the customers who visit your website? Make sure you clearly identify their personas so you can shape your website strategy around them. To do this properly, you need to go above and beyond simply identifying customer segments – you need to get down to the nitty gritty of who your potential audience is.

What is the governance of your website?

It’s a good idea to use this stage to establish exactly who is accountable for the governance and management of your website. The fact is that over time this digital asset will depreciate, so it’s crucial that you decide who has responsibility for maintaining the site’s ongoing value proposition.

What happens once your strategy is in the bag?

So, you’ve identified your business drivers, you’ve reviewed your current situation, you’ve researched what you need to do and you’ve defined your terms. What then? Well, that’s when you can move onto implementation, confident in the knowledge that everything you do is underpinned by a sound strategy. A strategy that’s guaranteed to set your website up for business success. And that’s when the fun really begins.

Although each implementation is different, all projects tend to follow a similar process made up of the following stages:

planning,
design (both content and functionality)
build (both content and functionality)
testing
accepting
implementing.

succeed, verb – “to thrive, prosper or grow; to accomplish what is intended.”

Growth Vouchers – everything you need to know!

20th January 2015 by Alan 2 Comments

Have you been looking at your website recently? Have you been thinking that it could do with a re-vamp or an upgrade?

Or, maybe you struggle with the cash flow; some days and weeks the money comes pouring in and yet other, weeks the work is there and being done, but the bank account is drier than the Sahara.

Your website might look better with a modernised logo, or maybe you would like it to be more responsive and mouldable to your changing customer base. Maybe, you would like it to feature higher in the search engine rankings but know that to achieve this, it is going to take some work and effort, all underpinned by a good dollop of time but, you just don’t have any more seconds in the busy working day to spare.

Maybe if the books were managed better, and not something tagged on to your busy day, completed at 11pm with one eye closed; if you had a system that produced invoices…

You know you can pay someone to do it, but the profits are just about starting to take shape and spending a huge amount could wipe out the small surplus you have and…

What does come first, the chicken or the egg?

It is the question to which the answer has been lost in the midst of time. But, with the business ‘chicken and the egg dilemma’, there could be some much needed financial help on the horizon, in England at least.

Growth Vouchers

The end of January 2015 will usher in a new research programme, as announced by the UK Government, and it is something that YOU, as a local, small business can take part in. And it includes financial help to spend on aspects of your business that you may need help with – and Locally could be an agency to help.

What are Growth Vouchers?

Essentially, it is a subsidised business support scheme delivered through randomly allocating Growth Vouchers to small businesses. And with £30 million in the pot, it promises to be an exciting scheme. If you receive a Growth Voucher, it covers up to 50% of the cost, covering 5 key topics that help small business grow.

But, you need to register and your business in the frame to possible receive some of these Growth Vouchers…

What kind of support could a Growth Voucher be spent on?

There are 5 main categories and all have been identified as being areas where small businesses can sometimes struggle to gain not only helpful, strategic advice but, by not being able to compete in these areas, are staying in the shadow of larger competitors.

The 5 areas are:

Managing cash flow, as well as the scourge of late payments and the tricky negotiating of additional finance
Developing skills, and employing staff
Improving leadership and management
Marketing and attracting new customers, and keeping them coming back too!
And make the most of digital technology, such as creating a website, updating your website, creating content…

Right, let’s talk money!

Growth Vouchers are up to a maximum of £2,000 BUT, the voucher match funds what you put in so…

You spend £1,000 having a new website developed, including training and with fabulous content and great blog. You would pay £500 and the Growth Voucher would match this with 50% of the cost, so £500.

Can you spend the whole £2,000?

Yes and more if you like but, the Growth Voucher maximum is £2,000. You may choose to spend £5,000 on a fandangle website, with ecommerce option and all kinds of gizmos and gadget, with the voucher covering £2,000 of the cost and you stumping up the other £3,000.

You will also need to be aware that you pay the supplier first and then claim the 50% Growth Voucher back from the Government.

So, can anyone person or agency, business, company etc. be a Growth Voucher agency?

Companies who can and do offer these kinds of services in the 5 key areas will need to register with the scheme, and show that they pass a minimum set of standards. This, of course, is the obvious solution to making sure that every small business, regardless of where they are in the country get the same high standard of advice and product.

Interested? Thought you would be…

If you are a small business looking to tap in to the scheme you will need to register and if you follow this link, you can do it right now – https://www.gov.uk/apply-growth-vouchers

You will need to have some information to hand to complete the process, such as your Unique Tax Reference if you are self-employed, or you company registration number etc.

Am I eligible?

In order to run the scheme, there needs to be a definition of ‘small business’ and, the eligibility criteria for taking part and possibly receiving a Growth Voucher are:

You must employ 249 employees or less
You must be registered in England
You must also actively sell goods and services
Be an independent company, with no more than 25% of your business owned by another company
And your turnover should also be less that £50million

IF you are selected for a Growth Voucher, you will need to find an approved supplier and the only place where you will be able to get this information is the Enterprise Nation marketplace. As the scheme gathers pace, more suppliers will comes online and you will have a wider choice.

As you can imagine, there are some big names and organisation driving this as it is a great way of making the small business market place in England a buoyant, thriving one.

The Locally Perspective

We will be keeping a close eye on the scheme, simply because any help in gaining advice and support in these 5 key areas is the key to a thriving business. We’ll keep you updated on changes too, so keep calling back.