Archive for May, 2008
Does Online & Social Media Marketing Really Work?
This may seem like a strange question coming from someone who owns a business that is marketed 100% online but given a few recent jolts of reality in the off line world, I’m wondering just how effective marketing a business online is.
Let’s get some perspective here…go out into the off line world, have a coffee [...]
This may seem like a strange question coming from someone who owns a business that is marketed 100% online but given a few recent jolts of reality in the off line world, I’m wondering just how effective marketing a business online is.
Let’s get some perspective here…go out into the off line world, have a coffee with your average Joe or Jane and ask them just what they do on the internet. I think you’ll be surprised.
Here’s what we’ve found when we do this:
How It Feels To Be Going Back To South Africa For 6 Months
If we were being really self-obsessed, we might start to think that disasters (natural or man-made) were preceding our arrivals in destinations around the world…
We go to Thailand and around 600 miles away one of the worst tropical cyclones in recent history hits Burma; we fly to HK and just a few days before a [...]
If we were being really self-obsessed, we might start to think that disasters (natural or man-made) were preceding our arrivals in destinations around the world…
We go to Thailand and around 600 miles away one of the worst tropical cyclones in recent history hits Burma; we fly to HK and just a few days before a massive earthquake hits China; we’re about to go to South Africa for 6 months and violent xenophobic attacks erupt around the country. I suppose that’s more preferable than being in a place and a bomb explodes nearby – which seems to happen every time my brother takes a trip.
But as you might imagine, we’ve been keeping a close eye on events in South Africa recently – even more so once it occurred to me that I look more like an immigrant – albeit of Asian and not African origin – than say, Jonathan does. And people keep asking us whether it’s safe, whether we’ll be ok and why we’re still going, so I thought I’d post about it…
[On a side note, I have rarely ever noticed that I am actually 'brown' whilst growing up in the UK and yet it's something I'm far more aware of as a LIP for some reason]
Are You Standing In The Way Of Your Own Business Success?
Back from the granny holiday in Torquay (pics on the travel blog soon), we’re now happily settled back at ‘home’ in Nottingham for a few days and enjoying the delights of hideously expensive organic food, a rainy British summer and the poor excuse that passes for important news in this country.
I had a couple of [...]
Back from the granny holiday in Torquay (pics on the travel blog soon), we’re now happily settled back at ‘home’ in Nottingham for a few days and enjoying the delights of hideously expensive organic food, a rainy British summer and the poor excuse that passes for important news in this country.
I had a couple of hours this morning to catch up on all my feeds, tweets and other things I keep track of and noticed a couple of things which prompted this post.
The first was a post about achieving business success and taking the next step up; the second was a post about what it takes to grow a business from a small start-up to something far bigger. The funny thing is that the posts were written by people who I believe are standing in the way of their own success.
What do I mean?
Essentially, a business can only grow if all the elements for growth are in place. These include the core components of a business (the services, products and offerings) and the resources required to deliver these offerings (people, processes, systems, tools, etc.).
When you run your own business it can be very hard to step back and assess objectively whether all of these components are in place – and more importantly, whether you’ve got the *right* ones. As many businesses find, one of the hardest resources to come by is the right mix of people (human resources).
But what if you – the business owner – are the weakest link? What if your leadership is holding the business back?
How do you know?
Being the weakest link in your business doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a lack of skill/knowledge, it may be caused by one or more of the following
- You resist implementing advice that many people have given you because you personally can’t *see* how it can really make much of a difference.
- You are a control freak and want to know absolutely everything that goes on in your business (and control it).
- You have been trying for ages to break through a certain barrier or milestone and it’s just not happening.
- Whilst you have a team of people supporting you, they’re not the *right* people and deep down you know it but won’t do anything about it.
- You know you don’t have the knowledge, skills or resources to achieve your goal but you refuse to find (and pay for) the resources which can help.
What’s the solution?
Ok, I’m not saying you have to go all Donald Trump and fire yourself, but you may want to review just how much your leadership is promoting or preventing your business from achieving its goals.
One of the best ways to do that, is this:
Imagine your business has a board of directors – whose sole purpose is to make decisions based upon the wellbeing of the business and nothing else. There’s no sentiment involved in their decisions, just a “is this good for the business or not?” type of attitude.
Every important decision that needs to be made is no longer made by you, the business owner, it has to go to the board. What would they do?
By asking yourself this, you take out any emotions or sentiment involved and focus solely on the business objective.
Think about it…
Would the board want to review your business strategy for the next few years? Absolutely.
Would the board let you get away with having no pricing strategy and just charging what you feel like? Nope.
Would the board advise you to create the right image for your business? Yes.
Would the board demand that you market the business effectively? Too right.
Would the board want to know what your goals were for this year? And whether you were on track to achieve them? You bet.
