PostsBlogger for Business... 1st December 2014 11:06 AM Does anyone else Blog? But the intention of me starting to blog was to help our SEO thingie... Family Business Survey - Key Findings 1st December 2014 9:34 AM It all depends what the word 'Family' means. We are family - or at least like family. We are now at a stage where the trust (In this business) is so deep, even if someone did something wrong, we would work with them to resolve it. (Pretty much like a family should). Family businesses can be very stinted - with people expecting positions, promotion, and raises based on relationship over performance. I personally feel it is best to treat everyone as though they were family, but to never directly employ family - unless they have direct ownership with you. Familiarity can breed contempt. This differs when you 'need a hand', cleaning, making brews, catering, painting, shifting, etc. Family is great for this. Anyways, I'm being cryptic. To answer your question, and the above stats, I can easily believe them. Proffesionalising the Business - has to be leader led, with group co-operation. If the leader isn't trying to achieve this, and one of the juniors is, it can all fall to bits or be undone rapidly. For example. Dad took the business over from his Dad, and now the youngest son wants to brand the company. But, this proffesionalism isn't wanted by Dad, because he's within his comfort zone and doesn't like change. There needs to be a mutiny of sorts. Conflict Management - The times I've walked into a husband and wife business and you can cut the atmosphere with a knife is unreal. The angst can be taken straight home. Conflict Management is something we've only needed to address with outsiders here - being we've built a compassionate and caring environment to work in. When the conflict comes from the outside, there's a lot of support from the team. If someones having a grotty day inside these walls, instead of it turning into an argument, it just gets 'hugged out'. There's no way I could manage conflict if my parents worked with me. Growth - Unless you're procreating your staff, this means bringing in outsiders. That can bring trust issues. Growth from just family means you cannot possibly have the best staff on board. Company Succession - If the company is a great place to work, then why not pass it on to the future generation. But, I think some people may not want to lose control - it is a marker to say you're getting old, so Succession may be delayed, or not forthcoming.
I once went to a meeting within a family run company, in which their one and only employee was about to be slaughtered by the owners (Both brothers). I was there as an advisor, on the employees desperate request, because he felt they wanted to get rid of him. It was two hours of the brothers contradicting each other, and the stronger personality name calling us 3 others in the room. (I got called 'Spekky' and 'Four Eyes'). The long and the short of it was their business wasn't going so well, they wanted to get rid of this member of staff to save £1000 a month, and they couldn't do it effectively, so were trying to get him to resign. In this instance, this was a company run by two brothers, which they had inherited from their dad. It looked a mess, the brothers were not good communicators, or managers, even though they lavished in the titles of 'CEO' and 'Director of Finance', and here we were in this quagmire of chaos which could have been resolved by having the right leadership. If family business works, it works well. But, there are added disadvantages. It would be interesting to see the opposing statistics for non family run businesses with their plans for the above projections.
The Watchers... committing them to act, convincing them to buy... 28th November 2014 4:06 PM Haha! There's only one me... and you're not getting my DNA! Learn these dance moves... 28th November 2014 2:59 PM This is what my co-workers do on pay day. I, on the other hand sit in my office, usually under my desk, in the foetal position and cry myself to sleep. The Watchers... committing them to act, convincing them to buy... 28th November 2014 2:15 PM Yes, absolutely Steve. Surely people realise the benefit in business to holding a non controversial opinion in print, or the sharing of knowledge or thought? The mad thing is, people sometimes do respond better to nonsense. Nonsense doesn't make money. (Unless you profit from Youtube) It's all about making people feeling loved, and giving them incentive to come, and keep coming, and to input their own mental media. If we can harvest that ability, we would be very wealthy! In this forum, there is no reason why people shouldn't have a large input. It benefits them net wise, It's a friendly place, it's easy to navigate etc etc. Perhaps a big stick with a feather on the end is needed to tickle people into action? I love it. I can ramble on and on and on, and I'm quite happy knowing someone may comment next year. More so, someone may find the info in 3 years, and it could help them. That's so good for Karma! The Watchers... committing them to act, convincing them to buy... 28th November 2014 9:59 AM In this article, we're going to look at 1 phenomena in 2 examples. 1.) Retail Watchers Both examples are real, and can be found in every facet of life, this applies as much to the the non business world, as it does to us traders. So, what is a 'Watcher'. Well, they are on this forum, they show up in my analytics for my business websites, they walk by my retail businesses and peer in through the window. They are people who show an slight interest, or do something, but don't commit to anything beneficial to either party. They don't enter the premises properly, they don't engage in any conversation, they ignore the bait as if it didn't exist. Is it a problem? I am not sure, but it's on the increase I believe, and it can really neg you out, especially if your time is taken up with analysing traffic online, or sitting in a quiet shop, looking at the window, as people look in at you. 1.) Retail Watcher Don't confuse this with window shopping, or someone browsing your window display, this is trying to get an insight to the store, without physically entering. It is bizarre, and, I once started to get very paranoid over it, until I realised every retail business has them. I have spent a year or so trying to figure out how to deal with this - and I think I may have found a partial solution. Firstly, we increased the lighting inside our stores, making sure there were no dark spots, addressing potential subconscious fears of being eaten by a coat monster. Secondly we obscured window display areas, so, by looking into the window, all you can see is the display, and nothing within the store. This means, the display shows you some products we hold, but if you want to see more, you must enter through the doors. The doors are clear glass, and you can see into the store, with larger items at the furthest point of vision - but standing there causes the doors to open, and an air curtain warms you up, inviting you in. We don't appear to have the retail watchers any more... or perhaps we just don't see them. 2.) Internet Watcher In an online store setting, it's so important to know where your potential customers came from, how they got there, what they looked at whilst they were on your site, and where they exited. Online store wise, we tweaked constantly. Do not confuse bots, - they aren't shoppers. Also, the people who spend 10 seconds on your site - I reckon they are there by mistake. Don't worry about them. But the people who search for your product, find it online, enter your site, then don't purchase... who are they?, and why don't they buy? Understanding their thinking is key. We noted a lot of abandoned shopping carts. People added products to the cart, and then dropped off before entering their details. We rectified this by offering more payment options (Paypal, Cheque, COD, as well as a good Bank merchant account). We then also make our shipping charges clearer from the start, offering free shipping on orders over £60. This increased incidental purchases, and also decreased the amount of abandoned carts. We identified some shoppers just didn't have the revenue available to make the purchase for the items they want - so, we did something quite cool. Wherever possible, we have 2 products that both more or less give the same function. One is your Rolls Royce, the other is your Fiat Uno. The only item in the physical store is the Rolls Royce Product. Now, both budgets and needs are met. We offered Christmas clubs and the such (This isn't credit - never give credit unless it's underwritten by an authorised company - never allow debt!). This worked a treat. But how about Forums, Blogs, Twitter and Facebook posts? Now this is frustrating, especially for admins. You spend hours creating a masterpiece on Youtube, you upload it, it gets 200 views... but no one clicks like, and no one comments. One day, someone clicks 'Dislike'. Your head spins out, and you delete your channel. Firstly, with youtube, assuming the keywords are correct, potentially, the subject you are presenting is so specialist, that only certain people are attracted to it. Others may float by. No views is for a reason. This doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. If you stick a video up with a title of "Cat causes Postman Fail" you'll get millions of shares and likes, and around 3000 dislikes, and a few people commenting on the poor cat. If you stick a video up with a controversial subject, (Politics, Religion, Crime) you'll start a troll and comment war in the comments section. If your video has 3 hits, no likes, and 3 months after posting it gets a dislike.. you've either got a troll shuffling by, or a competitor. Dont worry about it. You write a really engaging article, you pose a call to action at the end of it (An open question). You get hundreds of views, but no one comments. It's a numbers game, and there are so many factors at play. If on Facebook, you have 1 follower, then only 1 person if ever going to do anything (Probably nothing). So, no interaction is insufficient numbers in the audience. As with a youtube video, your topic may be quite specific, and thus doesn't attract the masses. The time to be concerned is when you have a specifically purposed environment - lets say 'A Forum about Cheese Making', you have a lot of members, but no one does anything... they just sit there... 1/100th view posts, 0 post responses. What a complete and utter waste of time. All your work down the drain. Not quite. The information you produce is a legacy, and one day, it may become engaging, and whatever your intention for producing that information was is eventually rewarded. But, how about making it engaging now? Address why people joined in the first place. Think why they may no longer visit. People, in general, need to feel cared for, and respected. They need value in their lives. I learnt some time ago the power of appropriate human contact, a hand on a shoulder, an embrace, a firm handshake. Wherever it is appropriate, contact is made. We can't do this physically online, so we must do it in words, pictures, and videos. This is engaging content. Engaging people with the many things that they may find interesting, such as competitions, advice pods, meet ups, conference calls, audible downloads, and a tonne of freebies is truly a key to success. Make them feel valued and welcome, and cover a wide broad range of topics.
But most importantly of all, and this is key... never ever give up. Tweak, Change, Alter, but keep going until what you're doing works. Free Advertising... By Video! 27th November 2014 4:17 PM Ok... to get it on the TV, you really need a special cable from the computer so I'm told... So, here's the score. I'm no Steven Spielberg, and I haven't got the budget to even employ someone who knows what they're doing with a camera, but, I really really like the benefits of screen advertising. I also don't have the budget for TV. End of post. Not quite! We should all know about Youtube right? Of course, this is where we get videos of ducks playing the piano, and strangely enough... 'Cats Sitting in Circles'... I think you all know about that... But it's also used a lot for business - and more so, if the search terms are right, relative videos will show up in Google results - thus providing another link to your products... So, I set about making videos for 2 of my companies - both the public ones under the 'Centric' banner. One deals with First Aid Training, the Other deals with Research and Genealogy. Thing is, one of these companies, the First Aid side is all about education, and we do that face to face - mainly because that's how our customers get qualified, so we didn't want to make videos that could distract from our bread and butter. Literally, whenever I have some time spare, I'll make a video, of sorts, upload it, and post it to all the social media sites. They are all off the cuff, and unscripted, which isn't the best of ideas really... Now again, I'm no Presenter, I'm no Film guru, I don't have a sound engineer, or a mixing desk, and I am limited to the equipment I have (All in one Camera of all things). The quality isn't awesome, I use windows movie maker to edit, and it's all done on the same computer I'm using now. But, you know, it kinda works... and some of the slightly better ones are used on our website. If you're in ANY business that doesn't have the budget to do this, then there's surely no harm in doing it yourself. Coffee shops, B&B's, Clothes shops, Accountants, etc etc, there are so many possibilities... Take a look at two of our videos, try not to laugh too much... I actually talk like that on, and off camera! The two videos are an example, firstly of just a ramble about a piece of equipment, which is rather boring unless you're interested in the subject. The second is designed as an advert. Hop along to the channel if you like, and please thumbs up my videos if you like them. It does my morale the world of good! We are about to invest in a new premises, and at this stage, we will delete my videos and employ a local film crew to make some really good ones. I hope also to pass the baton of making the small videos to someone less camera shy, and who perhaps can present better. Video 2. Centric Genealogy and Research Advert
Does anyone else use videos? By the way, cost to me - £FREE. The best price ever, especially when money is tight! I MUST share this with you! 'One Direction without Autotune' 27th November 2014 12:40 PM Just come across this video... The Magical Journey relaunches - but this time no press! 27th November 2014 12:25 PM
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 what do you mean he isnt real - someone please tell me Centric is joking 
Of course Santa is real... they use his double though. All great dictators have a double to act for them in high risk situations. BID - Business Improvement Districts 26th November 2014 9:33 PM Does anyone know about, or have an opinion on the BID which has hit may town centres? |
