UK Small Business Blog

Hi,

 Last year I tried something new to market my business after I read an online article. I sent 20 Local businesses an xmas card. It sounds a little cheesy I know, but my rexponce rate was a whopping 50%!

I think the key was 1) That they’re noticeable, it’s more high-impact than a standard letter/brchure and I’ll bet they’re hung up witht he rest aroudn the office. 2) I didn’t use just any xmas card, I got to design the whole thing through vistaprint.co.uk .

I designed the face of the card with ym compnay name and service and said the usual merry christmas line. Inside I included a joke (humour really gets you noticed!) and a brief description of my services and I signed every one.

I’m increasing the amoutn of these carsd to 50 this year and I think it only cost me about 50p a card, 80p total when you add a stamp onto that. try it, it works very welll and there’s bound to be a few other online printing companies that ofer this service as well.

 Thanks,

Andy

Hi,

 As it’s September now you should give a little thought to new product lines for christmas, because you’ll wan tto start preparing them now. If you’re in service industries like me then christmas is probobly too far away now to do anything, you’ll basically end up planning xmas and january sales marketing in November.

Interest rates went up recently, so people will be feelng the pinch in their mortgages so keep that in mind if you’ve found business to be a little slow recently.

Thanks,

Andy

Hi,

 Google.com are now offering to process payment for business transactions online. You can soon have their paypal-like service on your website and accepting payments from your customers.

So what’s their offer? 1) You decide when to chareg the customer’s cards it’s not done automatciaaly if you don’t want it to be 2) google.com is a very trusted online entity. 3) No transaction fees until 2008!

It’s definently going to be one you’ll want to add to your other online payment methods. I think it’ll turn out well for them.

Thanks,

Andy

Hi,

You’d be surprised how many people just go about their business activities the same way every day, and don’t strive to improve them. A key element of business success is creativity. Take 10 minutes once a week just to sit at your desk (or the dinner table) with a pen and a piece of paper and ponder how to improve your current systems or gain more business.

Jot your ideas down and then play about with them, hell… even doodle! When I do this I usually focus on designing and planning a new marketing campaign for my business or a new website layout.

 Thanks,

Andy

Hi,

A lot of new businesses advertise on one of many online directories as part of their advertising campaigns. You should be aware that you probobly won’t get much traffic from these websites unless you’re advertising on a big site like www.splut.com .

Even then most of the traffic to these sites are not people looking for local businesses but rather webmasters visiting to place a link to their site. E-directories are basically a method of increasing links to your site so that your site gets ranked higher in the search engines (which people actaually use to find what they want).

Online dircetories will never replace the yellow pages or local “book” directories I’m afraid.

Andy

Hi,

There’s a few more things you should look for in a business oppertunity or idea, before you should think it could be a success.

4) How easy is it to operate? If you’re offering a product that’s heavy or bulky this means that storage may be a problem. If you’re starting the business at home heavy bulky items will take up alot of space, and then there’s the real problem with selling them on the internet - POSTAGE. Customers hate to see an item pricaed cheaply but with postage costs being expensive. People almost always think this is a con, a way for the business to make extra money while keeping the sale price on the site appear low.

5) How complex does the wbesite need to be? If you’re wanting to set up a membership website or a content based website then you’re going to need to use CSS and dynamic content management coding which means you’ll need to hire a professional website designer to do it. If the website is offering a single product or a few services then a simpler HTML site would do as there’s less content management issues and it’d be much cheaper to get up and running.

Thanks,

Andy

Hi,

 What’s the best online businesses for someone to start? Instead of doing the usual and coming up with a list of actual business ideas I’m goign to make a list of things that would make a business successful online. Then you use your own knowledge to think up a business that you can start that meets these criteria.

1) Can accept clients nationwide or internationally, as these are the people who will visit your website. You can’t really target local or regional custoers using the internet very effectivly.

2) Not a lot of competition from other similar businesses in your neiche. The ineternet is a common marketplace, if there’s too much competition it’ll be hard to start up (though not impossible). Satuarted markets include website design, online book retailers, online auctions and dating agencies.

3) The right price for your service/product. If you can’t beat or match another competitor’s price then they’ll get most of the work. Visitors will likly visit both your ite and theirs before making a purchase.

 I’ll continue this next time…

Andy

HI,

 I’d suggest you use vistaprint.co.uk for any of your stationary needs. I’m addicted to buying from them, it’s all the free offers!

I joined their email newsletter a few months ago and every week or so they do a discount promotion. To be fair, I must be cheap as I only buy from them when they say the products free lol I got 250 business cards (my own design, none of their usual website urls on it either) for like £9! I had 25 brouchures printed up for £6 and 100 postcards for like £10.

It’s really like the primark of stationary design If only stamps from the post office were as cheap. Has anyone got any other websites that provide similar deals? Post them in a reply.

Andy

Hi,

Happy New year 2007!!!

I was thinking of what to do for a direct mailing campaign to promote my small business. I thought “hey, it’s new year”, why don’t I include a free calander with my sales letters? I’ll offer a discount on my servcies as a special 2007 new year sale, and that along with a free goodie of some sort will really help boot the responce rate of my sales letters.

I managed to get my hands on some small calanders with pictures of cute puppies (for the women I’ll be mailing) and a rollercoaster view (for the guys I’ll be mailing). They’re only about the size of a postcard and quiet thin, so they won’t bump up the cost of the postage.

 I think the idea will do ok, after all if there’s one thing I know about office staff is that they love freebies! I’m bound to get a better responce rate than if I was just sending a sales letter.

Thanks,

Andy

I think it’d b a good idea for even one-man businesses to have an “office party” this year! Just grab a beer and reflect on how successful you’ve been in the last 12 months!

 For businesses with more than 1 employee then you get the best oppertunity to have areal offcie xmas party. And get drunk and photocopy your ass on the copier machine (it’s always the same person every year!…) lol

 You should also consider giving little presents to your employees and your most regular clients as it helps build personal connections and will benifit your busienss.

 Thanks,

Andy