Small Business Development Blog

Business Strategy–Improve Your Business Model–Business Model Ladder-Level 3

What are the important factors to consider when improving your business model ...

The whole idea of improving your business model sounds almost obvious. Of course you, as a small or medium business owner, want to improve your business model, right? Improve the business model and get improved business results which yields improved owner benefits. That's the thinking, right? Well, it should be. If you own or manage a business, it has a business model, whether it is defined or not is the key. As we previously discussed, define your business model first, then you can work on improving it. But once you've defined it, we can then rightly ask... 'what are the important aspects involved in the improvement process?' Enter, the Key Factors to Improve Your Business Model;

The Key Factors to Improve Your Business Model 

Using the mimosaPLANET 6 element growth cycle as a format to follow;

1. Learn: Ignorance maybe bliss, but knowledge is power. The more knowledge you have the easier and clearer getting better and improved outcomes will be for you. Read more on business!
1. To Do - Buy a business book in a related topic about business strategy and/or read more articles online and/or attend in person events/seminars, etc.
2. Discover:
1. Review Answers: Revisit answers you completed when defining your business model. Re-read your answers. 
1. To Do - Note down any obvious improvements you know can be made, improvements that instantly come to mind.
2. Review Financial Results: Bring up your current financial results, view as monthly and/or quarterly results (Statement of Financial Performance, also called Profit & Loss Report). Focus on reviewing the Gross Profit from each different main Revenue Activity or Department (e.g. Service A vs Service B vs Product E etc...). To do this your financial reporting will need to be detailed enough to have this level of separation, if it is not (typically in SMEs it is not) you will have to get someone in your team or yourself to manually calculate this detail (Gross Profit per Revenue Activity) by going through the invoices. Manually calc = nightmare!!!
   
   To overcome this nightmare, setup your reports so you have better information, the better info you have the easier it is to improve EVERYTHING in your business, including the Business Model. Information makes it more obvious what you should do. You may get some semi-ok information from sales reports, but normally you can't see the GP, only total revenue.
   
   
1. To Do - What is really going on in your business what activities make you all the profit and what just costs you money and forces you to resource up (employ extra staff and have a bigger premise) to handle it?
2. To Do - Sort out your reporting. Be honest, it's just not up to scratch, is it?!
3. Plan:
1. Questions to Answer:
1. What are our goals with this development/enhancement we are doing?
2. How will we know if it is a success or failure?
3. Does it indeed ‘improve' the business model?
4. Describe success, what does that look like? Describe failure, what does that look like?
5. What are the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) for this? i.e How do we measure success or failure? What are the tangible metrics? (I think we ultimately should use the 3 original goals we first talked about in the overview article in this series on business models, 1) Net Profit Target per Mth, 2) Weekly Working Hours Target, 3) Location Flexibility & Business Owner Dependence Target)
6. The Action Plan:
1. What needs to change?
2. What specific things are we going to change?
3. Overall - When by & Who by?
4. What needs to be ‘created'? i.e. a new form, or checklist, or target suspect list for new revenue stream, etc.
5. Map out a Creation Schedule.
6. Once ‘created' what does implementing or rolling out this Plan entail?
7. Map out a Implementation Schedule
4. Create:
1. Execute the Creation Schedule
5. Implement:
1. Execute the Implementation Schedule
6. Record & Report:
1. Recording System Check: Do we have good enough systems or processes to automatically or manually record the information we need to know whether or not our changes have been a success or not?
2. Reporting System Check: How will we report? How often? On what dates? Who is responsible? Who need a copy?
   

Action Points

The thing is, you could very easily read this and say "Oh, I can't do this yet, as my reporting is not good enough. I'll get my reporting up to scratch first, then I'll focus on this process". Well, I'd say, start doing it anyway! Yes, you'll see your reporting may need to improve, but in my experience if you wait to get the report first, without even starting to improve your business model, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN FOR MONTHS OR YEARS! Get started now, and even if you only improve a little, it will help. You'll also build a greater level of frustration with your reporting and you will therefore be MUCH more likely to follow through and indeed improve your reporting. The bigger your pain and understanding about the value quality reporting will bring you, the more invested you will be in getting them sorted and fast!

Go for it!

 

 

Visual On Page SEO Examples

Visual examples of On Page SEO terms:

Note:  See how this page is clearly targeting the keyword phrase "Small Business Consulting Services", and that the;

1. Page Title,
2. URL Address, and
3. H1 Heading

... are all inline with each other not at odds with each other.

 

How to use SEO to Market your Small Business on the Internet

If you're reading this article you'll likely be looking at how to use SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in marketing your small business. It doesn't have to be a mystery, it's not rocket science. Yes, like all things there are different levels and depths of knowledge but if you're a small business owner and you want to use SEO for marketing purposes... you really just need three things;

1. An SEO Process, (a simple and concise step by step process that can be followed and implemented, designed with small businesses in mind).
2. A website with a CMS that anyone can edit the SEO factors for each individual page, (CMS stands for content management system, it is the access you have the back end of your website to make changes).
3. Someone to actually do it, (in theory anyone can do it, the question comes down to; Is it better to implement yourself or have a professional do it to save you time and hassle and keep you focused on your main business activities?).

SEO is about one very simple idea.... Helping those looking online (searching) for your product, services, solutions, profession, and general information about your industry... helping them to find your company! GIVE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT! The more people that you help to find you and your company online the more quality visitors you will receive to your website, which in turn should turn into leads and enquiries and sales. Which the whole point, right?!

SEO Process for Small Businesses

The SEO Process has 4 parts;

1) Keyword Selection
2) On Page SEO
3) Off Page SEO
4) Recording & Reporting

1 Keyword Selection

This is covered in the article how to research and select keywords

2 On Page SEO

2.1 Learn - Build Knowledge & Understanding

Each page in your website needs to be setup in an optimal way that assists search engines (google) to understand what is on that page. Why is this important? Google is the gate way. When people search for information they use google, so it is google who people trust to ‘understand' all the web pages online. HELP GOOGLE understand what is on your page by following a few simple rules. It is important to note (as we discussed in how to research and select keywords) that each individual page on your website should target a different exact keyword phrase... e.g. the Home page might be targeting "Photographer London", where as the main Services page might target "Photography Services", etc.

2.2 Create - Visible On Page SEO

On each page repeat the same specific / targeted keywords for the following...

• Page Title (see very top left of screen... e.g. "Small Business Consulting Services - Window Internet Explorer")
• Clean URLs (e.g. "http://mimosaplanet.com/small-business-consulting-service" ) 
• H1,H2,H3 tags (Heading Text e.g. "Small Business Consulting Services")
• Page Text
  • Bold (e.g. "mimosaPLANET are a Small Business Consulting Services firm that ...")
  • First or Second Sentence (i.e. use the keyword phrase in either the first or second sentence of copy if possible. Note; do not ‘stuff' the keyword phrase in to the copy so that it sounds wrong, or over ‘stuff' the keyword phrase throughout the copy, you will be penalised, just write normally)

For visual examples of On Page SEO

2.3 Create - Invisible ON Page SEO

On each page repeat the same specific / targeted keywords for the following...

• Description (Won't help with Ranking but will help with CTR (click through rate))
• Meta Keywords: no more than 5-7 keyword phrase words (again unlikely to help with google very much but may still help with other search engines, so no real harm done including it)
• Image File Name (seems to improve google image search results)
• H1, H2, H3, H4 heading text directly above an Image (seems to improve google image search results)
• Alt text on images

Now, to do these On Page SEO steps requires a CMS (Content Management System) that allows you to change each of the points we listed above. There are many different CMS in use today. If your website was setup a while ago it is possible that you will not be able to change all these factors for each individual page. If that is true, I would recommend getting a new website setup that has the ability in the CMS (the back end of your website) to edit all these factors. Without this ability (that is, the ability of you or member of staff or an outside professional to adjust and edit your website in terms of on-page SEO best practice), you'll never achieve massive success in SEO.

3 Off Page SEO

3.1 Learn - Build Knowledge & Understanding

• Page Rank
  • Your Website's Importance in the the eyes of Google
  • Represented by a 0-10 Scale (Note: if you are ranked 4 out of 10 it might be 3 times as hard to go to a 5 out of 10, but to go to a 6 out of 10 it could be another 10 times as hard again.) The higher the better.
• Links
  • Web pages that link to you
  • Generally speaking the more links the better
  • Links are probably 75% of the total importance to your over all Page Rank and individual keyword phrase Search Rankings
• Link Anchor Text
  • The text that is in the link to you
  • Use keywords in that text
• Link Quality or Weight
  • Not all links are equal in value to you
  • Links with Anchor text are more valuable and useful that those without
  • Links from websites with higher Page Rank are more valuable (so much so that 1 link from a website with a very high Page Rank of 9, could be worth 1000 different links from website with a Page Rank of 1)

3.2 Create - Link Building:

• Directories (use directories that have high traffic and are quality only)
  • Worldwide Directories (Yahoo.com, Business.com, etc)
  • Local Directories (local.google.com, local yellow pages equivalent, etc)
  • Industry Specific Directories 
  • Blog Directories (for blogs)
• Content Publishing (people link to great content)
  • Blog (have a blog on your website and publish regular articles)
  • Create a tool (People will link to a useful / interesting Tool, i.e. Mortgage Calculator)
  • Viral videos, photos (again people also like and there for link to cool stuff)
• Press Releases
  • Have a link back to your site using Anchor text
• Social Media
  • LinkedIn 
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • FourSquare
    
    At the very least you should setup profiles for each of the above social media sites, even if you don't have the time or resources yet to actively enage in each community fully.
    
    
• Forums & Wikis
  • Wikipedia
  • Yahoo Answers
  • Industry Specific Forums
• Partners
  • Strategic Partners
  • Referral Partners
  • Event Sponsors

We actually have a more extensive process our consultants use to implement Off-Page SEO with clients, far too long to place on a blog article. But this gives a good overview of the basics.

4 Recording and Reporting

This will be covered in another article. Recording and Reporting for SEO.

* A special thanks to HubSpot and Marketing Experiments for providing many of the ideas and methodology behind this overall process.

Action Points

SEO implementation does not have to be hard. The main point; SETUP your website to HELP GOOGLE find and understand you. This will mean google can help people that are looking for what you have find you. Determine;

1. does my website have a CMS that allows full editing by anyone of the factors listed above regarding SEO best practice? (not sure on the answer, get a consultant to check, or ask your website provider)
2. who is going to implement these changes (you, a member of staff, a consultant)?
3. set a time schedule to start implementation and allocate time each week to this implementation.

Go for it!

Business Strategy – Define Your Business Model – Business Model Ladder-Level 2

How to get better outcomes in your small business by defining your existing business model...

If you define your business model you have a much stronger chance of business success. You will identify areas for improvement in your business strategy, but more likely you'll identify a lack of defined business strategy. Which is really the first stage of improving it.

So, with knowledge of; 1) why it is important to move from undefined business model to defined model, and 2) a clear understand of where we should ultimately take this business strategy improvement project, a business model overview if you like, we can now just get straight to it. The question is; how do we do it? How do we complete level 2 on the business model ladder? How do we define your business model?

How do we define your business model?

This is simple! From the business model ladder we see that level 2 is classified as... "Level 2 - Defined: (a strong understanding of what a business model is, and a clearly defined business model)." To do this we simply document the answers to the following questions previously highlighted in the overview article...

1. The Solution
   1. what it is your business does,
   2. what value it brings to the world,
   3. what segment of the market it targets,
   4. why it is special/different/unique,
2. The Profit
   1. what revenue & margin does it & will it achieve (the current & target profit model),
   2. what are the different revenue activities, margins, & expenses that make up this target profit model,
3. The Structure
   1. what is the target business owners role at the target profit model,
   2. what time commitment is the target business owners role,
   3. what dependence level is the target business owners role,
   4. what resources are required to achieve ‘The Profit targets'& ‘The Target business owners role',
   5. what human time resources are required at targets,
   6. what is the organisational structure (org chart) at targets.

The Process

• Open a MS Word document,
• Copy and paste the above listed questions into the document,
• Start answering them!

It's not rocket science. Now, this sounds easy but many small business owners & general managers get stuck on the detail... or lack of it in my experience. They create simple one line answers without a lot of thought.

What I mean is, everyone will normally be able to give an answer, but the quality of the answer will vary massively. What makes a quality answer?.... Well... I want to say that ‘detail' does, but that is not right, it is ‘specific' answers that have been arrived at by digging up and going through all the detail. So, a long and detailed answer isn't normally a quality one, it is the simple, concise and specific answer that is a quality one. BUT, I want to stress it is normally the long detailed information that has led to the specific answer. It is not the detail that will yield results; it is the thought process that went into getting all that detail out of your head and onto paper (word doc) that eventually led to a much more refined and simplified clear message and answer to the question. If you just blurt out the first thing to enter your head (e.g. Q. which segment of the market? A. anybody 18 - 100), it is normally worthless.

So, your answers may not be perfect the first time you run through these questions, but as you revisit them you'll begin to define them in much greater clarity... which in turn will start the thunder bolts and lightening going off in your brain to jump to the next level, level 3 improving your business model. But first, here are some further resources to assist you with answering the questions;

Resources to Assist with Defining Your Business Model

The Solution
Article: Sales Positioning Statement
Article: Unique Selling Proposition | USP
The Profit
Article: Profit Goals
Article: Profit Model
The Structure
Article: Business Systemisation Process - Phase 2: Discover & Document
Article: Lifestyle Design Plan - Overview

Action Points

Remember, the goal of level 2 is to simply go from an undefined business model to a defined business model... i.e. documenting the current status quo. It's about understanding your default position. Once you've done that you'll already be seeing and thinking about how you can improve your business model and take on level 3.

Make it Happen!

 

Business Strategy - Undefined Business Model - Business Model Ladder-Level 1

What are the impacts of having an Undefined Business Model for your small or medium business?

The short answer is; the environment will push you around and you may or may not succeed based on chance.

In fact without a clearly defined business model, chances are that your business results will more likely hinge solely on your business having an exceptional product or service or uniqueness which catapults it to stardom.

Stardom; what is the chance of that? 1 in 100, 1 in 1,000, 1 in 10,000, 1 in 1m.... whatever the number I don't like it, that number isn't good enough for me, and it isn't good enough for anyone! So, tell me WHY is it that 95% of small business owners have an undefined business model?

I can feel myself getting fired up about this topic; it's something I'm passionate about! We'll have greater detail on how and what to do in a specific article for each level of the Business Model Ladder as highlighted in the Business Model Overview article, but for now I'll share some insights and impacts on the undefined model. Let's break this down into the three elements that make up a business model;1) the solution, 2) the profit, 3) the structure.

1) Undefined Business Model = Undefined Solution

Undefined Business Model = Undefined Solution = No Point of Difference = No Strategic Advantage = Same as Every Other SME = Average Results

Did the little subheading above sum it all up? Just in case that wasn't 100% clear... look at the questions that need to be asked to define your ‘Solution';

• What it is your business does?
• What value it brings to the world?
• What segment of the market it targets?
• Why it is special/different/unique?

If you don't have a point of difference, and you can't communicate that point of difference, people have no reason to choose you over your competition. You'll have no advantage, and with no advantage you will always have to fight to find good profitable business. You'll be fighting over price with the other 80-90% of business that also have no point of difference. Cutting prices and attracting disloyal price shoppers, and unless you have massive scale like Wall Mart you'll not make the profit you really wish for. Stuff that!!! Define your Solution, find a clear point of difference and USP.

2) Undefined Business Model = Undefined Profit Target

Undefined Business Model = Undefined Profit Target = No Idea of True Numbers Required = No Clear Profit Goals & Milestones = No Clear Marketing KPIs & Plan to Achieve Profit Goals & Milestones = Same as Every Other SME = Average Results

Over the years it seems to me that whenever I ask business owners ‘what are your financial targets?' I get a slightly vague look, so I try a slightly different question, ‘how much money do you want to make?', I get varying degrees of clear answers. But it is this next question which nearly always gets a ‘huh' response;

• What is the financial model of your business when you reach your goals?... you know...
• What Net Profit do you want to make?
  
• What will the total of all your Expenses be? Therefore...
• What Gross Profit do you need to hit? And based on your Margins on the 1, 2, 3 etc difference main Revenue Activities you have...
• What is the total Revenue you need to hit your Net Profit Target?... Oh, and therefore, based on your average sale value...
• How many units do you need to sell?

Too many people run blind into the future without a clear understanding of what the end picture will be. DO NOT chase revenue for revenue sake! STOP, and do the maths. But this is the key point... do the numbers from the Bottom of the Statement of Financial Performance (Profit & Loss Sheet) up. i.e. decide a Net Profit target then work out what Revenue will be required to achieve that. Do not set a Revenue target and see how much profit you'll make!

3) Undefined Business Model = Undefined Structure Target

Undefined Business Model = Undefined Structure Target = No Advantage = Same as Every Other SME = Average Results = Slave to Business = Most Stressful Job in the World = The Average Business Owner

Ok, by now I think you'll be getting the point, being average sucks, why? We have all heard the stats... 80% of all businesses fail in the first 5 years. Now, who knows what the true % is, but if it is vaguely true then that means that a MASSIVE number of business are struggling, they are just above the breadline. Don't be average and get average results, be exceptional and get a better return on your efforts.

With regards to the structure... well, let me put it this way, Do you want a Job or a Business? If you want a Job that's fine, but owning a business; that you HAVE to be at for 50 out of 52 weeks a year for fear it will fall over (when normal employees take 4, 5 or 6 weeks holiday a year), that you HAVE to work 60 hrs a week for a normal salary, that you HAVE to stress about making payroll if you have a bad month, etc etc and all the other brain damage that comes with business ownership, owning a business like that has got to be the most stressful job in the world, you're a prisoner. If you don't want that, then I recommend mapping out;

• What the Business Structure needs to be? That means...
  
• What the Organisational chart will look like?
• What the Roles within your organisation will be?
• What the KPIs for each Role are? These all have the purpose to define...
• What would the business look like to achieve you Profit targets?

And most importantly mapping out your role in the target structure;

• How many holidays will you be able to take and for how long?
• How many hours per week will you work?
  
• How dependent is the business on you on a daily basis or can it run itself? Therefore based on your answers to all the above questions,
• How will the business look in order for you to be able to do that?
  
  

Do this and you'll be way ahead of the pack!

Action Points

Make the conscious decision to NOT be like everyone else, to NOT be average getting average results. You don't 'HAVE' to do anything, by not defining your business model you're in affect CHOOSING to let the environment determine your outcomes and results. CHOOSE your business strategy and CHOOSE to define your business model. Set aside 2 hours each week for the next 4 weeks... time to work ON your business, time to define your business model. If you don't put the time aside, other stuff which you think is important will push it way and you'll never implement this important development, and therefore never get any benefits! Go for it!

 

How to Research and Select Keywords for Marketing your Small Business on the Internet

One element of successful inbound internet marketing strategy is to research and select the right keywords or keyword phrases. The obvious question that comes up from many in small businesses is how do we do this quickly and effectively. Well... you need a keyword selection process.

Why a Keyword Selection Process?

This is important because; in old world marketing speak, it's really just about 'profiling & selecting the right target market'.

The keyword selection process is actually part 1 of our full SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Process. The mimosaPLANET 6 Element Growth Cycle methodology states that; in an ideal world it would be best if you can invest some time to do a quick "Plan" (or Action Plan) before you try to "Create" & "Implement" the necessary pieces of a strategy or tactic. Furthermore, to build an effective "Plan" it would be best to do some "Discovery" (or Analysis) before you "Plan".

Well, if our overall strategy is to generate more leads and enquiries by executing an inbound internet marketing strategy and thus rank highly in Search results (getting found online by those actually looking for our products/services/expertise), then one of our key tactics is to use SEO. And to do SEO effectively we really need to do some research (Discovery & Analysis) of which keywords / keyword phrases people are searching for online, and then select (Plan) which keywords and keyword phrases we will target, i.e. what search terms we are aiming to rank highly in.

Keyword Selection Process

Keyword Selection is part one of four, in the mimosaPLANET SEO process (we've researched ideas and concepts from plenty of really smart people and companies, and we're always looking for improvements. However in small business one of the keys to success is getting results fast, to ensure this happens we try to keep our processes simple. Whether it is the business owner, a team member or one of our consultants implementing and executing the process, in small & medium businesses the idea of investing 200 hours on just keyword research only is unthinkable. Get the info, get it implemented, get results = have money to invest further to become better at strategy/tactic)!

SEO Process (part 1 of 4)

1 Keyword Selection

1.1 Discover (Do some Research & Analysis)

Keyword Google Information:
1.1.1 Google Keyword Tool Search: [Profession] (e.g. "Commercial Photographer" or "Photographer" or "Business Photographer" or "Product Photographer" or "Business Profile Photographer" or "Business Portrait Photographer")
1.1.2 Google Keyword Tool Search: [Service/Product] (e.g. "Commercial Photography" or "Product Photography", etc)
1.1.3 Google Keyword Tool Search: [Profession + City/Area] (e.g. "Commercial Photographer UK" or "Business Photographer London UK" or "Product Photographer London" or "Photographer London")
1.1.4 Google Keyword Tool Search: [Service/Product + City/Area] (e.g. "Commercial Photography LA" or "Business Profile Photography Los Angeles")
1.1.5 Google Keyword Tool Search: mywebsite.com

Keyword Google Ranking Results:
1.1.6 Google Search Results: My Company Name (web results)
1.1.7 Google Search Results: My Company Name (local only results)
1.1.8 Google Search Results: [Profession/Service/Product] (web)
1.1.9 Google Search Results: [Profession/Service/Product] (local)
1.1.10 Google Search Results: [Profession/Service/Product + City/Area] (web)
1.1.11 Google Search Results: [Profession/Service/Product + City/Area] (local)

Keyword Google Information:
1.1.12 Google Keyword Tool Search: mycompetitor.com for those Ranked on 1st page of Google Search - [Profession/Service/Product]
1.1.13 Google Keyword Tool Search: mycompetitor.com for those Ranked on 1st page of Google Search - [Profession/Service/Product + City/Area]
1.1.14 Google Keyword Tool Search: Top 5-10 [Products/Services/Solutions/Enquiries/Markets]

'How To' Note: What to you do with all these individual results? I recommend exporting each of the Google Keyword Tool Search results to excel. Also perhaps, 'print screen' the normal google search results and paste into a word document and save for future reference.

1.2 Plan (Choose which words and phrases to optimize for)

1.2.1 Selection Criteria 1: Search Volume (target = high)

• Goal - Find words that have a high monthly search volume.
• Need to know - Number of people searching each term per month.
• How to find out - Google Adwords Tool or SEO Book Tool or HubSpot or similar Tool

1.2.2 Selection Criteria 2: Relevance (target = high)

• Goal - Find how many people who search a term, are likely to buy from you.
• How - Make Estimates, Track Results, Compare to PPC Ads Conv. Then Rate each keyword phrase, i.e. (1-5) or (1-10) or (1-100).

1.2.3 Selection Criteria 3: Difficulty or Competition (target = low)

• Goal - Find out the probability of getting on the first page of Google.
• How - Understand the SEO strength of existing top 10 websites. Look at google Adwords PPC competition information (the higher the price paid for clicks, the more likely your competition will be high, and thus harder to rank highly for)
• By - Page Rank of each site, Cost of Adwords for this term.

'How To' Note: With your keyword search results exported to excel, you can now; sort columns and highlight rows as you see fit. This is based on all that the information yo have now gathered and with the above selection criteria in mind. You should then select 5-20 top keywords to target, place them in a table, set the starting point.

Target Keyword Table

Use a table to record your top 5 - 20 selections.

Keyword Phrase	SC1: Monthly Search Volume	SC2: Relevance	SC3: Difficulty	Current Google Search Rank	Current Actual Monthly Visits	Target Website Page
Commercial Photographer						Home
Commercial Photography Services						Services
Product Photography						Services/ product- photography
Commercial Photography Resources						Resources
Commercial Photography Company						Company or About Us

 

Important Note:

Selecting the right keywords or keyword phrases is not limited to 1 or 2 words. Indeed, at mimosaPLANET we monitor over 1500 different keyword phrases. We use specialist internet marketing software to make this process a heap easier, the selection criteria & table above are taken from HubSpot methodology. The important point is... SEO best practice will have each individual page targeting a different keyword phrase. See how the home page target keyword in the example above is ‘Commercial Photographer' vs the services page which is ‘Commercial Photography Services', etc.

Action Points

The biggest challenge to execute any marketing tactic in a small business is the actual DOING of what is required. Following this above process (‘the actual required DOING') will give you vital information to ensure your marketing efforts get the return they should. Set aside the time for you to do it in your diary now or delegate to a member of your team now or engage a professional to do inbound internet marketing for you. Without setting a deadline for completion, it'll just become another task on the long ‘to do list' that never gets done. Run through the research process, then start by selecting the top 5 - 20 keyword phrases. Next, you'll then focus on optimising (On-Page SEO & Off-Page SEO) your current website, but that is another article. Get to it!

 

 

Business Strategy - Business Model: An Overview for Small Business

What is a Business Model? Why does it matter for Small & Medium Businesses and their owners?

Do you have a clearly defined business model for your business? Do you know what a business model really is? Well, it's quite a vague term... What do we call a Business Model? Well, for our purposes (focused on owners and managing directors of small and medium businesses) we can SIMPLY define a Business Model as a clear understanding and definition of the following for your business;

1. The Solution
   1. what it is your business does,
   2. what value it brings to the world, 
   3. what segment of the market it targets,
   4. why it is special/different/unique, 
2. The Profit
   1. what revenue & margin does it & will it achieve (the current & target profit model),
   2. what are the different revenue activities, margins, & expenses that make up this target profit model,
3. The Structure
   1. what is the target business owners role at the target profit model,
   2. what time commitment is the target business owners role,
   3. what dependence level is the target business owners role,
   4. what resources are required to achieve ‘The Target profit' & ‘The Target business owners role',
   5. what human time resources are required at targets,
   6. what is the organisational structure (org chart) at targets.

Other MBA types may separate ‘the business model' from ‘strategy' by saying that the business model doesn't focus on shareholder value, it should just focus on business value. Hey, and that's fine & strictly speaking a more accurate definition however, for owners of SMEs shareholder value is linked to everything. You see, I'm going to say that value = lifestyle for the MD of a SME. For SMEs value is not just the goodwill of the company or its dividend. So, we NEED to include the elements that make up ‘target business owners role' in your business model.

If you take away one point from this article, it is this...

Define & Design Your Ideal Business Model based on Your Ideal Lifestyle Goals!

Mind Map a visual representation of what your ideal lifestyle would be. Once you do that you can soon see how much profit the business must return you each month to live that lifestyle, and MORE importantly what time commitment and dependence the business requires from you personally to be able to live that lifestyle. This gives you the 3 dimensions of Lifestyle; Money (regular monthly income), Time (regular weekly working hours) & Freedom (ability to be anywhere for any period of time, i.e. how much the Time dimension is dependent on your physical presence thus trapping you to a single location).

Only once you have done this can you open your eyes to the fact that your business is not your JOB! The old 9-5 rules DO NOT apply, if you don't want them to. And now you can design a Business Model that delivers you the return on your effort a business should. Remember, as a business owner, you've likely risked more than 90% of the population, invested more, worked more, and created jobs, created value for the community, the economy & the country. It's time to start using your head more, and get a better return on that effort.

The higher up ‘The Business Model Ladder' you go the more value you get in return from your business. Where do you sit on the business model ladder?

The Business Model Ladder

Level 6 - Revolution: (totally re-inventing the industry, making a game changing innovation to your business model and indeed the market/world)
Level 5 - Innovation: (taking a big jump forward by innovating a new product or service or way to deliver that product or service, a big innovation in your business model)
Level 4 - Kaizen: (the famous Japanese theory of constant never ending improvement in everything, in this case a culture of constant never ending improvement for the business model)
Level 3 - Improved: (moving on from the current defined business model and seeking and implementing improvements to fine tune outcomes)
Level 2 - Defined: (a strong understanding of what a business model is, and a clearly defined business model)
Level 1 - Undefined: (letting the environment push you around, no clearly define business model)

 

Action Points

1) Define your personal lifestyle goals.
2) Quantify the 3 dimensions of lifestyle; Money, Time, Freedom.
3) Set a date to achieve these goals by (3mths, 6mths, 1yr, 2yrs, 3yrs, whatever).
4) Now start making progress on the Business Model Ladder. Start defining!

 

9 Steps to Twitter Success – Simple Twitter Process for Small Business

Wouldn't it be easier to cut the clutter and follow a simple process designed for small and medium businesses to get twitter success? For small business owners and managing directors of SMEs, Twitter and the world of social media can seem like a foreign language. I've been monitoring this area for some time however, I only recently started to actively pursue a Twitter Strategy, the main excuse I was hanging on to ... "I don't want to invest the time until I can be sure I can invest the time consistently for a sustained period".

I got over that one, and so can you. Like many things in business, you need to ask questions on ROI. If a project or strategy in your business passes the ROI test, then off you go. Twitter has now passed my own ROI test, if it passes yours, go for it.

So, I've now started and I thought I'd share my simple Twitter Process, specifically designed for small and medium businesses to get the outcome they want.

Twitter Process

1. SETUP TWITTER:
   Setup twitter account. http://twitter.com
   
   
2. ENHANCE TWITTER PROFILE:
   Complete and enhance your Twitter Profile, with this question in mind... What are my ultimate online business goals? e.g. 1) increase visitors to xyz website landing page, 2) increase landing conversion rate to generate leads. example @jamesMcooper (this is me, follow me, shameless plug!)
   
   
3. MANAGE TWITTER:
   Setup TweetDeck App - http://www.tweetdeck.com . Add multiple twitter accounts (business + personal), linkedin profile, facebook account, facebook business account, etc. The more you use twitter the greater the value and understanding of what the different columns in tweetdeck can provide you. In short, it should help you manage your online marketing systems in relation to social media accounts.
   
   
4. TIME FOR TWITTER:
   Set aside a daily Time period or block for twitter and/or social media development. i.e 20mins a day at 5:40pm. Whatever works for you. Some might be doing it all day, others are busy with customers doing whatever it is you and your business does. Remember to receive an output you must invest an input. If you can't or don't want to invest the time, outsource your internet marketing strategy .
   
   
5. TWITTER GOAL 1 - QUANTITY:
   Start following relevant industry influencers - find in http://wefollow.com and http://search.twitter.com and http://twitter.grader.com/search . Search under tags or terms that are relevant to you and your business, then start following the influencers. What about the followers of the influencers? What about who the influencers are following? You get the idea. You'll find people will soon start following you. It's basically, 'You follow me, I'll follow you' ... but keep it relevant. Follow the twitter/entrepreneur/blogger/social media experts too, you'll learn faster this way. e.g. @chrisbrogan , @GuyWawasaki etc. (PS this is an ongoing step).
   
   
6. TWITTER GOAL 2 - QUALITY:
   With some quantity achieved then use http://friendorfollow.com to unfollow those that don't follow you and have no relevance to you, or in general clean your list from spammers. Quality and relevance is important! (ps this is an ongoing step).
   
   
7. TWITTER GOAL 3 - ENGAGEMENT:
   Then, there is no point being connected to people unless you communicate and have a relationship with them. Give love/value to receive love/value. Start with RTs of valuable content, and @ messages, replies to DMs, search and interact with those that mention you, etc. If you don't know what these terms are just yet, you'll get the idea once you reach this stage.
   
   
8. TWITTER GOAL 4 - INFLUENCE:
   And ultimately, if you're a good citizen and have played nice it's likely you'll develop a level of influence with your followers, and this is how you can ultimately get value from twitter... by others having trust and interest in you, what you say and your recommendations.
   
   
9. INCREASE TWITTER ROI:
   Getting higher ROI and ROE - Test and try the tools/apps at http://oneforty.com to improve your return on investment and return on effort... make life easier for yourself by systematising. Use tools to improve management and get more valuable information by reviewing analytics. Although, be mindful you don't remove the human element that gets you meaningful engagement, as meaningful engagement directly relates to your level of influence. Through out this 9 step process I have assumed you'll already have good analytics (website stats) systems for your website / blog / conversion pages. If you don't, setup google analytics for free or invest in internet marketing software like hubspot. This way you can see the ROI directly related to visitors from each source (in this case we are interested in twitter), and the number of leads from twitter, and ultimately the number and value of clients/sales.

Action Points

At the very least protect your business name / Trade Marks and person name (if possible) by setting up a business twitter account and personal twitter account. Then if you decide you can commit to ‘TIME FOR TWITTER' then follow the process, and let me know how you go! If this all just seems too hard, then you can always get some to "do it for me".

 

Small Business Marketing Techniques and Return on Investment, ROI

How to increase your marketing ROI by recording and reporting on quality information. Then selecting the best small business marketing techniques...

Marketing has got to be right at the top of the 'wish we could get better results list' for many small businesses and their MDs. News flash... marketing is about ROI (return on investment)! If your marketing techniques do not provide you with a return on your investment, they are crap!

For SMEs it is vital that marketing techniques deliver return on investment almost immediately, because without results in month 1, 2 or 3... you will not have any money to invest in further marketing. So, I ask you...

• What is your ROI from your marketing overall?
• What is your ROI from each of your individual marketing techniques?
• What is your acquisition cost per new client or sale overall?
• What is your acquisition cost per new client or sale for each individual marketing technique?
• What is your acquisition cost per new lead or enquiry overall?
• What is your acquisition cost per new lead or enquiry for each individual marketing technique?

Don't know the answers to these questions? ... Then how the heck can you expect to get better results? Magic beans won't help.

Hey, I understand it's tough... you're running a business, you're flat out as it is, you wear 5 different hats as it is. This is just another task to add to the to do list, or the nice to have list, right?

Well, no. It is now much much easier for small business to measure return on marketing investment. There is an army of savvy people and tools out there that solve this very issue. And that in turn will lead you to much better marketing results by selecting the best performing strategies and techniques. You see, what we are after is the right information.

Why Information is the Key

If you've been in business for more than a few years it's highly likely that you've heard the old saying.. "you can't manage what you don't measure". Now, most people nod their heads in agreement, but very few have all the information they need across all areas of the business. 'Knowledge is Power', another well known saying... for business owners and MDs quality (or the right) knowledge is the key to success. Quality knowledge comes from the right information.

The better the quality of the information, the better your knowledge is, the better your decisions are, the better your actions are, the better your results, the happier everyone in your team and life will be.

I found out a long time ago that if you want to deliver better performance in any area the easiest and first place to start is by recording and reporting on it. This instantly brings no bull facts to the table and draws the attention of everyone involved to deliver better results. This simple action alone has got to be my number 1 marketing or sales technique... Implement a Recording and Reporting System.

Small business marketing techniques

There is no magic list of small business marketing techniques which work for every small business wanting to get the maximum ROI. Each business should be unique and so you'll need to develop your own "[insert your company name] Marketing System" where you select the best strategies, tactics & techniques for your business. However, I'm not a huge fan of the typical marketing consultant / business coach or consultant default cover my butt speak like "well you have to test and measure". It makes me want to say... "Ummm, what about I take £20,000 or $20,000 from your bottom line net profit and tell you its all good because we are testing and measuring?"... This is mad, why don't we learn from others all around us that are doing well and thus we minimise the expense of 'test'. So... in this spirit, here are the top techniques I currently use myself and with clients to get RESULTS and max ROI;

• Marketing Fundamentals
  • Positioning Statement and USP
  • Lead Generation Offers (No Risk & High Value Offer that has the potential customer providing their contact details in exchange for something of value to them and permission to communicate with them)
    • eBook
    • Case Studies
    • Kit
    • Report
    • Online Video
    • Whitepaper
    • Events
      • Archived Webinars
      • Live Seminars
      • Live Webinars
      • Experience Days / Evenings
  • Lead Nurturing Offers (Engage the Lead in your content, company, and the experience your company/product/service is about so that they)
    • As per lead generation offer types listed above.
• Outbound Marketing
  • Direct Methods
    • Direct to Target Market (Only to high value very targeted suspect list)
      
      • Cold Calling
      • Direct Mail
      • Direct eMail
      • Phone, eMail, Phone
      • Phone, Mail, Phone
      • Telemarketing
    • Strategic Partners or Referral Partners (Only to those with high direct influence with your target market, or those able to directly provide plenty of repeat business)
      • Cold Calling
      • Specifically approach at Networking Event
  • Mass Advertising Methods
    • Public Relations
      • Awards
      • Press Releases
    • Networking Events
• Inbound Marketing
  • Website Enhancement
  • Landing Pages and Conversion Pages
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
  • SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
  • Blogging
  • Social Media
• Permission Marketing
  • Newsletter (eMail and/or Print)
  • Direct Mail
  • Direct eMail

WARNING! This list is almost worthless! That is, unless you do 3 vital things;

1. IMPLEMENT it,
2. Implement it well (there can be a world of difference between how you execute different campaigns using the same basic marketing technique, get it right or wrong...the results will show up in your ROI. You must use best practice to produce the best results), and
3. have a Recording and Reporting System to see where to focus your limited resources (your time, your staffs time, your marketing budget).

Successful implementation is ALWAYS the hurdle that stops small businesses improving results with marketing, but one of the key ingredients to overcoming this hurdle is to have quality information and your eye focused on it. This comes by way of a recording and reporting system...

Setting up Recording & Reporting for Marketing Return on Investment (ROI)

You can do this using a range of methods to suit any budget and level of sophistication required;

• Paper base manual daily/weekly/monthly marketing & sales recording sheets. Then reporting sheet.
• Excel spreadsheet
• Accounting software
• CRM software
• Marketing software

What should you record & report?

• The Profit Funnel - # of Suspects/Visits, conversion rate 1, # of Leads, conversion rate 2, # of Opportunities, conversion rate 3, # of customers/sales, total value of customers/sales, average sale value, total gross profit, average gross profit per sale.
• Marketing ROI, Overall - direct revenue from marketing campaigns, direct gross profit from campaigns, marketing expense, ROI (gross profit - marketing expense), ROI%, acquisition cost per lead, acquisition cost per opportunity, acquisition cost per sale.
• Marketing ROI, Tactic 1 - direct revenue from marketing campaigns in tactic 1, direct gross profit from campaigns in tactic 1, tactic 1 marketing expense, tactics 1 ROI (gross profit - marketing expense), ROI%, tactic 1 acquisition cost per lead, tactic 1 acquisition cost per opportunity, tactic 1 acquisition cost per sale.
• Marketing ROI, Tactic 2 - etc

Action Points

All of this above is just a part of what makes up what should be a clear map or system for how you conduct your marketing, an Integrated Marketing & Sales System. But, if you start with this simple tactic... start recording and reporting on your marketing information, you'll get better results immediately!

List of Free Business Directories

For SEO purposes it is highly desirable to have many links to your website, and getting listed on free and paid business directories is often a good place to start Link Building. The following list is a reference resource and not a comprehensive perfect list, you should make your own judgements on the quality and suitability of each directory for your individual purposes. We'll continually add to and refine this list over time. Please feel free to contribute to the list too.

Free UK Business Directories

http://www.freeindex.co.uk
http://www.business-directory-uk.co.uk
http://www.businessgalore.co.uk
http://www.uksmallbusinessdirectory.co.uk
http://www.wwwi.co.uk
http://kyotee.co.uk
http://www.searchme4.co.uk
http://www.scoot.co.uk
http://www.mysheriff.co.uk
http://www.businesslist.co.uk  

 

Free US Business Directories

http://www.dmoz.org
www.freeindex.com
www.bizhwy.com
www.nitpickit.com
www.volta.net
www.killerstartups.com
www.hotfrog.com
www.mylocalservices.us
www.listings.local.yahoo.com
http://local.google.com

 

Free NZ Business Directories

http://www.finda.co.nz

 

Blog Directories

GetBlogs Blog Directory

Top Blog Directories listed by PageRank...

More Blog Directories listed here...