Entrepreneur | Teik Oh

Beat Competition with a Niche!

Oct 13 2015

It’s been bad before but it’s got worse!

What am I talking about? Competition, that’s what!

Once upon a time, all you had to do was hang up a sign, know what you were doing, smile, and start selling, right?

Yeah right! It’s NEVER been that easy because as soon as Cavewoman Jane started her pelt scraping business for all those people too busy hunting Woolly Mammoths to clean their own pelts, Caveman Joe next door started in competition. And once those two were showing signs of success every Tom, Dick and Hairy decided they would open their pelt-scraping businesses too!

However it has become increasingly difficult to get your business out there and differentiated in today’s social-media world. What is true is that once, you may have been able to develop brand leadership. The leather bags you made and sold may have competed with others, but you could distinguish yourself by better quality or the extra service, perhaps offering free leather renovation every 5 years. Today however it is hard to be heard above the noise that comes from increased competition, better trained entrepreneurs competing, cheap social media advertising and marketing – disruption is in the marketplace. Read More

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The A C D B’s of Business

Oct 06 2015

It came to me in a cone of light.

Business is as easy as A C D B!

As you know I have spent my consulting career synthesising my learning and experience into procedures that you can use in your business. Why reinvent the wheel when you can use tried and tested practical experience backed up by academic study in proven processes?

Recently it struck me how all of these processes – marketing, customer service, brand development, business planning – followed a big-picture model. And this model is as simple as a mixed up alphabet – A C D B!

Once you work it out, every business moves along the same path.

You first have to Acquire leads. Then you have to Convert those leads into warm customers. Having customers you need to Deliver your product or service. Then as your customer makes their first purchases you need to Build relationships so that they keep buying.

The acquisition of leads is all about marketing. You need to know about your sales funnel and the difference between broadcasting to potential customers who may not yet be aware of you or your product and the act of screening and targeting those potential customers. Acquisition involves knowing your product as well as your customer.

What do I mean by that? Read More

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Mentors and Values

Sep 29 2015

The small business entrepreneur is a special creature. Not only must he or she learn about strategy, sales, and numbers, they must also have a great deal of self-belief, energy, and be a source of inspiration and leadership. A lot to ask for!

That is why when people ask me what they should know about being in business, I say that first, they need to know themselves, then they need to know how not to be themselves!

Let me explain.

It takes a special psychology to be an entrepreneur. It takes a psychology that contains determination and self-belief within a shell of self-awareness. You need to know what you want to do; you need to believe you can do it; and at the same time you need to see your faults and weaknesses without believing in your self-hype. In this way, knowing yourself, you can identify the traits that are not “helpful” and work on them to become something you are not without being a hypocrite. In my journey, I found the works of people like Stephen Covey, Jack Canfield and Anthony Robbins immensely helpful. Read More

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Teamwork needs Agreement!

Sep 22 2015

The more I help clients grow their businesses, the more I see how “teamwork” is not a natural thang!

Sure people like to belong, and people like to help in a common endeavour, but people are different and they have different values, habits and personalities. Ask your team to define “a job well done” and you will get a variety of different answers.

This may not sound like a significant problem, but what if their different definitions of a job well done mean that they approach the joint task differently? To you, it might be okay to call out at team meetings discussing how to do something, and voice your ideas. To someone else, they might want to think through the problem and think that your calling out is just self-aggrandisement, and just plain rude. There may be a raft of other differences that can cause team members to be frustrated at each other and the way the team works.

In a more formal structure, I have helped clients create team “charters” which outline what the team was formed to do, its objectives and scope, and its authority in doing the task. Read More

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Do you use LACE when you communicate?

Sep 15 2015

Like anything else in life, communication is the key in business.

Whatever your business is, whatever you sell, you will need to communicate clearly so that your team understands what your business stands for and what their instructions are, you will need to communicate effectively with customers so that they understand exactly what it is you are selling and telling them, and you need to communicate with suppliers to ensure you are both on the same page.

Whether you are staring a change management initiative or trying to provide better customer service, good, clear, effective and efficient communication is vital.

How many times have you told someone what to do, and when it is done, comes out different from what you expected? Is it their fault that they did not listen to you, or is it yours for not being clear?

How many times have you listened to a customer ask for something, and when you gave them what they asked for they tell you that wasn’t what they were after? Was it their fault for not explaining clearly what they wanted, or was it yours for not listening closely enough?

More often or not it is both parties’ fault, but “fault” is probably a bad word to use. It’s more like it’s both parties’ nature to misunderstand!

What do I mean by that?

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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...

Category - Entrepreneur

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Beat Competition with a Niche!

The A C D B’s of Business

Mentors and Values

Teamwork needs Agreement!

Do you use LACE when you communicate?