Small Business | Teik Oh

Three Ways To Increase Your Sales

Mar 09 2021

Have you ever set yourself a bold and challenging sales target for next year, and then in the cold light of day looked at the required increase and got the sweats?

If you have, like me in the past, you would have “reconsidered” and scaled it back a bit to a more “realistic” level.

Well, if you have, then I’m here to tell you that you can break that challenging sales target into three components that, when looked at individually, may not look that hard at all!

What are these three ways to increase your sales without scaring the pants off you?

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Small Business Leadership

Mar 02 2021

As I was tidying some old files and briefcases in my home office, I came across an old notebook that I used to carry around with me all the time (see the cover image of this post).

What was interesting is that I found some notes about leadership that I was penning in 1993 – quite a few years ago!

I remember that at the time, I had just started my business 2 years before, after working in large international accounting firms for the previous 9 years, so I was keen to develop the culture of my own firm in a way that would differentiate it from other small accounting firms.

I had attended Business Schools in the US as part of my employment with the large accounting firm I was with and some of these notes came from a book called The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner.

I thought it would be interesting to provide my notes about Leadership from 1993 and see how much I had changed in my thinking.

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Start A Helicopter View Business Plan

Feb 09 2021

If you own a small business, you need a business plan.

If you haven’t got one, it can only because you haven’t realised what benefits they can bring you, or you think you haven’t got time.

Look, I can’t fool you – it will take some time to follow a good business plan process to write your business plan.

But it is an investment in time in your business because the process will not only reveal some real truths about your business, it will clarify your way forward.

Want to build a business you can be proud of?

If so, you can’t just head off on your merry way and hope for the best, even if you think you have a clear idea of the type of business you want to build.

Just as you can’t head off on a vacation without knowing where you want to go and what you want to do there, you can’t build your business into one that you can be proud of if you don’t know what would make you proud of it and how to put it together to get there.

Lack of time is only an excuse.

You can find the time if you thought it had value.

So how about spending a couple of hours with me and let’s go through and put together a simple helicopter view of your business plan?

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What A Business Plan Can Do For You

Feb 02 2021

If you own a small business, then if you haven’t already prepared a business plan, you will have heard of them.

If you have not prepared your business plan, it’s probably because you can’t see what it can do for you.

You may think your business is too small, or that you can manage everything within the time you have, or that you can’t look too far ahead because it’s unpredictable.

You may think that it’s too much bother – you know what you want to do and you’ll just take small steps until you can afford the time or money to aim bigger.

In response to that, let me ask you this: whether you have only just started the business, or if you have been in business for a while, is the direction and progress of your business:

going exactly where you wanted to go and there have been no missteps or missed opportunities; and
proceeding in a time-scale that is how you want to progress, not too slowly for what you want and not so fast that you are overwhelmed?

I believe if you are truthful, you would have to say that often, you are overwhelmed, that sometimes you are frustrated you can’t grow faster, and sometimes, you wish you were able to make decisions about what to do next faster.

Well, if you did answer honestly, then you should be interested in why a business plan can benefit your situation.

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Take This Marketing Challenge!

Jan 26 2021

You run a business, and you know you need to do your marketing.

Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it before – if you don’t market, you don’t sell.

But come on, everyone knows small business owners are busy.

We haven’t got time to do all this Business School stuff! We market by treating our customers right, by giving them what they want, and we market by painting a big sign outside and paying for an ad in the corner of the newspaper.

Right?

Well, I’m saying to you – not only is that not true, but that’s also not the kind of marketing that will bring people to your doors.

That is not the kind of marketing that will grow your business.

In fact, that’s the type of “marketing” that keeps you in your rut and keeps you too busy to do anything to grow your business, because that’s struggle-street marketing.

That’s the kind of marketing you do when you don’t know how to market and you go back to rely on what you know best – just doing what you’re doing!

You can market more effectively.

You can find the time if you do it scientifically and here’s how.

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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 - Small Business

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Three Ways To Increase Your Sales

Small Business Leadership

Start A Helicopter View Business Plan

What A Business Plan Can Do For You

Take This Marketing Challenge!