2018 | Teik Oh

The 5 Stages Of Business Planning

Nov 13 2018

I have been working with small business owners for over 35 years and I am still amazed every day that the large majority of small businesses don’t have a business plan!

Let me run through these familiar statistics again – 80% of small business startups fail within the first 5 years; statistically, the main reason these failed small business owners cite as the reason for their failure is that they did not foresee their best path forward. That’s code for “did not have a plan.”

If you are an emerging small business owner with a relatively new business, and you do not have a business plan that you are working to, every day must be an adventure!

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Make Sure Your Sales Prospects “Hear” You

Nov 06 2018

I was recently reminded that people take in information in different ways.

This has a critical impact on sales conversations you are having with sales prospects.

Have you ever been in a position where you have been trying to explain to a sales prospect how your service or product could really help them, laying out all the benefits in the way you should – and their eyes glaze over? If you have, you will know that sinking feeling that you are losing them, no matter how well you prepared your pitch, nor how well you got on with them and how you warmed them up at the beginning.

The fact that people have different preferences on how they receive information is crucial to whether or not they “hear” what you are telling them, so what can you do to make sure you give them information in the way they want it? Read More

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Business Performance Measures

Oct 30 2018

Businesses need measurements. People need measurements.

Without appropriate measurements, how do you know if your business, or your employees, are effective, successful and doing what is supposed to be done?

Determining what to measure can take a lot of consideration, and yet it will probably be only a fraction of the time required to implement the measurement system. However, this investment in time, energy and money will reward you when you can actually see if improvements in sales are caused by new strategies or changes to operations; when you receive early warning about problems from warnings in measurement reports; from understanding what drives the business and what levers to pull to get desired results.

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7 Key Skills of Business Leadership

Oct 23 2018

Let’s get down to brass tacks – as a small business owner, you are not a “manager” who organises work. You have to be a business leader, who inspires, sets agendas, and creates opportunities.

What you need to successfully grow a business today are leadership skills. You probably started your business as a subject-matter expert with those specialist skills that made you produce your product or services.

But as your business grew, and you took on employees, the role of the small business owner has to shift from “do-er” to “leader,” from specialist subject-matter expert to generalist, and from problem solver to agenda setter. You need to create strategies that find opportunities, and the transition is not easy for people who became specialists and subject-matter experts by working for someone else.

So, what are the key skills you need to be a business leader?

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4 Small Changes To Reinvigorate Yourself As A Small Business Owner

Oct 16 2018

Out of the top 5 areas that cause stress, the top two are in the areas of “Jobs and the Workplace” and “Financial Problems.”

So as a small business owner, guess which areas you spend most of your life in? In your business, in your workplace, and often wrestling with some kind of financial problem!

Small business owners work hard, often long unrewarded hours. They deal with everybody’s problems, starting from their staff to those of their customer, and including the impact of their business on their family. There is no one else to turn to because the buck in your business stops with you. It is no wonder that over stretches of time, small business owners feel jaded and feel in need of a lift. You may be tired and jaded at a time when your business most needs new ideas or a strategic direction, but a tired sleep-deprived mind isn’t able to be creative and innovative. The worse thing is, unless you have been working on your business the way I have described in this blog, you probably can’t afford to take time off for a holiday to refresh yourself – or at least you think so.

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Increase your sales through a highly focused marketing plan!

SMART Marketing: In this book, the owners of a small business are led through the SMART Marketing 7 Step Process to produce a marketing plan targeted at their most desirable customers. Any business can use these principles and in 4 to 6 weeks implement a plan to get them through the door! Find out how...

The SMART Marketing Workbook: Companion to “SMART Marketing”, this workbook sets out the SMART Marketing process in 7 workshops for you and your staff to complete questionnaires and templates that at the end, form the marketing plan you need to sell your REAL product to your REAL customer! View now...

Archive - 2018

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The 5 Stages Of Business Planning

Make Sure Your Sales Prospects “Hear” You

Business Performance Measures

7 Key Skills of Business Leadership

4 Small Changes To Reinvigorate Yourself As A Small Business Owner