Start ups | Teik Oh

Three Lessons For A Small Business In A Competitive Market

Jan 10 2017

It’s a tough world for small business out there right now. When you see global interest rates at record lows, you know the world economy ain’t exactly “booming”!

So if you own a small business and you see customers saving money and choosing wisely about how, where and when they spend their money, what can you do?

Well luckily we have three lessons we can learn from previous tough times.

The first lesson is how to cope with disruption. We know that whenever political, economic social, technological, legislative and environmental changes take place, old business models get disrupted. Take the old manufacturers of camera films – their business was being disrupted, so what did they do…or not do?

Then there’s the lesson about how people talking about you can carve a niche for your business. Early Apple computers became beloved by early-adopters because they “heard” so much about them.

Finally, what about the lesson from being able to provide customers with certainty. How many remember Coca Cola’s foray into “new” taste?

In a tough business world you have to innovate, stay relevant, and make sure people remember you – and you have to do it over and over again.

In a disrupted competitive market, small players can win if they offer a better customer experience.

Social media, depending on your small business, can be multiple times more effective than traditional advertising.

Find the right balance between flexibility and having established processes so that customers experience certainty, but also have a tailored experience.

Why don’t you go over to teikoh.com to check out more tips, tools, and resources to create powerful strategies, show leadership, and grow your business? Sign up by giving me your name and email and I’ll send these free ideas to your inbox every week. And trust me – I hate spam so I will never trade your details to anyone else!

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Contents of a Business Plan

Jan 03 2017

People often ask me “what should I put into my Business Plan?”

I thought I’d deal with that this week and talk about the contents of a Business Plan.

This video is part of my online course “How To Start Your Own Business”.

If you are a startup entrepreneur, or someone who is good at what you do and while working for someone else you think that you can “do it better” it’s useful to understands the steps you have to take in starting your own business.

Of course, once you have worked out your personal strengths and weaknesses, tested the feasibility of your idea and designed the right business model for you, you will need to prepare a Business Plan. Your Business Plan clarifies for you what you have to do to get to your ultimate goal, and it shows others (financiers, supporters) how you have thought through the business-building process.

If you are interested in finding our more about my online course “How To Start Your Own Business” click here.

Even if you already have a business, I think you will find a couple of nuggets there that you can use, like how to design the right Business Model for you, and the questions you ask before you choose your accountant, lawyer or IT professional.

I give weekly tips and tools to grow your business from my blog, so if you don;t want to miss out, why don’t you go to teikoh.com and sign up to get these free ideas delivered directly to your inbox.

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How To Keep Innovating

Dec 20 2016

“We need to innovate to thrive.”

“Business has to be agile these days.”

“The cheese has moved.”

“Every market sector will face disruption.”

We’ve all heard these phrases haven’t we? “Innovate” and “agile” and “disruption”, what do these trendy words mean?

Well, believe it or not, there’s nothing new under the sun. All these trendy sayings mean something that businesses have had to do for centuries – we all need to move with the times. If you settle, you go the way of Kodak and Blackberry, and in the sense of industries, you face the challenges of the taxi industry in the face of Uber or of the hotel industry when Air BnB is out there.

So you have to innovate. You have to be aware of what is happening around you, to your business, to your customers, to your industry, to your market, and find new ways of doing things or new ways to serve. Yet business success is a game of inches, not Eureka moments.

If you expect miracles, you set up your mindset for the BIG new thing to invent. This makes people feel nervous because they will find it hard to innovate at such a big leap. So they react by working on what they know, and innovation? Nothing.

You need to shift mindsets – yours and those of your team. Believe that innovation is possible but you do it through small improvements. If people are allowed to change their world with small improvements, then they are not afraid to fail because if they do fail, it’s small. When a good attempt has not succeeded, don’t label it a failure – accept that an experiment has given you a result and ask “what did we learn to do/not to do?”

And remember to measure. Take simple measurements like time saved, or cost saved – feel the progress and celebrate, then look for more.

Finally if you are reading this on one of my social media channels, you might be missing a lot of great ideas and tools and resources to help you grow your business, create effective strategy and show leadership. Why don’t you go to my website at teikoh.com and sign up to get these free ideas sent directly to your inbox (not forgetting to mark the email from teikoh.com as safe so that it doesn’t go straight to your spam folder.

See you next week!

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Before You Sell, Start With Why

Dec 06 2016

Tell me, when you started your business, was it just to sell things?

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. I think you started your business because you had a passion. You wanted to build a better life. You believed you had a solution to a common problem. You were passionate about your ability or believed you could use your experience to help people. I’m pretty sure you didn’t start a business just because you wanted to sell something!

So why, when we talk to potential customers do we start with a “sell”? Why don’t we start with why we are doing what we are doing?

Believe me, people are attracted to a business with a purpose. People are attracted to your product or service because they believe in you. People trust you because they are attracted to the passion you show in what you believe. Customers don’t buy from you because they like the features and benefits of your product – they buy because of the passion for the solution that you see in the benefits that you offer.

Remember, if you really want to attract customers to your business, don’t start with a sales spin, start with why – why you are in your business, why you started your business.

You’re not a personal trainer because you want to sell personal training sessions. You are a personal trainer because you believe in a world where people are fit and healthy and having fun, and that you can give people that lifestyle in an effective and fun way.

You’re not a mechanic because you want to sell someone an oil change. You are a mechanic because you have a skill in making machines just hum and your passion is to make things right.

So tell your customers that. Believe me, you’ll get more customers than just telling them about an oil change.

If you want to get more free tips and tools to grow your business, go to my website teikoh.com and register your email address so that Ican deliver these weekly ideas directly to you.

And if you want to know more about attracting customers who really want what you offer, you need a targeted Marketing Plan. I have an online training and workshop that will take you through 7 simple steps and create your scheduled, focused, practical marketing plan to target and attract your ideal customers – click here to learn more.

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Organise Your Staff Before You Have Any!

Nov 01 2016

All small businesses start in a very similar way, and I’ll bet you can relate to this story.

So, Joe and Joan start their small business just by themselves. They did most things jointly – did the sales, ordered stock, stuffed the shelves, wrote parts of their website, kept the books, opened every morning and closed every evening. Then they hired a store helper, Sue. She was really keen and helpful, she mucked in and helped to do everything as well. But things were starting to get missed because they got confused about who was going to do what.

Then, one day, they ran out of stock.

“I thought you were going to do that?” asked Joe of Sue.

“No, I was busy that day, but Joan heard we needed to do it so I thought she was going to.”

“Oh no,” Joan says, “Joe always does that on Thursdays.”

Growing small businesses grow organically. They hire staff as and when they need them. But unless you get organised, things could fall between the cracks no matter how helpful and willing everyone is. Organisation means you know exactly who does what, how they do it and when, and who does it as a temporary replacement under certain, set, circumstances.

That way, there is no confusion.

Watch this video on how to organise your staff before you even have any.

That makes sense doesn’t it? Organise your business so it doesn’t fall into confusion by designing it from the start.

Draw up your “Organisation Chart” or picture of the positions (not persons) who will end up in the business when it is fully grown. Design the units or departments, or just areas of responsibility such as sales and marketing, books and administration, stocks and warehouse. Prepare Job Descriptions for each of the positions noting specifically what they are responsible for, how they are to be measured, and who they report to.

Like most small businesses, even with this Organisation Chart, you the owner will start off doing everything. Take that opportunity to write down procedures for all the tasks each position has to be responsible for.

Then, as you expand and hire people, you have ready a Job Description and a tested routine that you can just hand over.

As usual, the best happens after the story! Get over to the website teikoh.com and tell me what your experiences are about this idea. While you’re there, subscribe and I’ll send you more free tips, tools and resources every week to help you create great strategy, show leadership, and grow your business.

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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 - Start ups

Get FREE weekly ideas to grow your business

Three Lessons For A Small Business In A Competitive Market

Contents of a Business Plan

How To Keep Innovating

Before You Sell, Start With Why

Organise Your Staff Before You Have Any!