Entries are currently being called for this years BRW Fast 100.  This is a great PR opportunity for growing businesses.  Our clients Lotic have been a past winner of this competition.

For details, go to www.brw.com.au/fast100

An excellent post from Seth Godin here.

We all need business plans, but I do find that at times they are created just to tick the box that it’s done.  I’ve personally found Action Plan’s more useful, but if you have to present to a bank or investors, they wont cut it.

I have written in the past about the opportunity to have a fantastic web site by using Wordpress as your engine, then adding a theme to make it visually appropriate to your purpose.  I thought I’d mention another theme provider I have come across recently who looks to have an incredible amount of professional themes.  Take a look at http://www.woothemes.com/ .

For those who missed the original post, Wordpress is a free content management system.  It was originally for blogging but these days offers a heck of a lot more.  Surf around the net a bit, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will find many sites have something like “powered by Wordpress” in the footer.  Many more of course use Wordpress and don’t acknowledge.

The significance of this strategy for business owners is the cost.  Choose a theme you like from Woothemes, or RichWP mentioned in the previous post, and you will pay only USD$70.  So to re-cap here, Wordpress, your web site engine, is free, and the theme, the look and feel of your site, costs you $70 US.  I was at a conference last week where a supposed internet marketing specialist was spruiking, and he was asked what a business should expect to pay for a web site.  This was a Self Managed Super Fund conference (SPAA), the audience was accountants, auditors and financial planners, so we are not talking web sites with online shopping and inventory management functionality here.  He answered “between $5,000 and $20,000″.  Business owners spending that sort of money on a web site need to get some counselling.  Even if you need some help installing Wordpress and getting your site live, if you can’t find someone with some IT savvy who can get that done for under $500 there is something wrong.

Hope this is helpful.  Your comments are most welcome, and as always, please keep Guidance Financial Services in mind – we specialise in the unique advice needs of business owners and the self employed.

By Jamie Cheng

An important thing to remember with website design is that the Internet has spoilt users with content and limited online attention span dramatically. The layout of a page in nearly all circumstances should be simple and intuitive. It is usually a good idea to keep the commonly accepted formats. For example text links in blue font, checkout cart on the top right, and clearly identifiable tabs.

Another key element that many often forget is using clearly visible text. Stick to an easily legible font style, a respectable font size, and an appropriate colour. Also, while the latest flash and obscure designs are great visually. Usability is the most important feature and if a user cannot use the latest innovative features of a site they will be extremely uncomfortable.

The best way in the end to improve design is testing. Simply observing a targeted user on your site with minimal influence of their actions can be imperative to improving the design. So do not tell them it is your site if possible and by going through the test you can find out how users find and navigate the site. Basically does the user find the site easily in search engines or through the website address and are the main features used.

A great resource for those interested in more information may benefit from checking out Creative Good, they have some great case study examples with before and after shots of clients. Creative Good is an original developer of the observational testing technique to improve websites for many leading companies.

jamie.k.cheng@gmail.com

I don’t know about you, but our household is being bombarded with telemarketing calls at the moment trying to sell us insulation.  We are getting up to 4 calls in a single night.  As immensely annoying as these calls are, surely the fact that they continue suggests that the businesses responsible must get sufficient results to justify the time/expense.

None the less, telemarketing is not how I would choose to promote my business.  So what other prospecting options are available to Australian businesses?

A useful article can be found here http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/13401252-1.html

The data is US based but it offers some useful insights.  I found it interesting that cold calling was almost twice as successful to businesses as it was to households.  I wonder if that is because businesses make more purchasing decisions, or perhaps are more time poor.

Not surprisingly the personal referral was the most successful method of gaining new customers, but it was interesting that when it was up to the customer to contact the supplier, the results dropped off, even though a personal referral was made.

So given referals are the most successful, here is a great article by Wendy Berry – 7 Tips for Effortless Prospecting.  Her referal book is a great idea, as much as anything just to keep the issue of asking for referrals front of mind.

Have you come accross any great prospecting tips?  Please share via the comments.

And don’t forget, Guidance Financial Services specialises in the advice needs of business owners and the self employed, so if you need any help with Key Person insurance, Self Managed Super, Income Protection, Business Expense  insurance, or any other wealth creation or protection item, give us a call on 03 9870 6544 or email. Remember, appointments can be held via Skype or phone, so we can help you wherever you are in Australia.

Winning awards is one of the best PR tools around.  BRW are now calling for entries for their Fast Starters edition to be published in April.  Details can be found here.

An interesting looking Australian blog covering items of relevance to business owners is the Emroy Post.  It has a tilt towards graphic design and communication, however some entries stray outside this field.

A good looking site, and worth supporting some local content.

As a fast growing business, we are always looking to develop relationships with people who can introduce our services to suitable clients.  Find out about our affiliate program here.

By Jamie Cheng

‘A guide to effective communication’ could be another title for Dan and Chip Heath’s book Made to Stick. It is simply brilliant at explaining the methodology behind effective communication.

One of my favourite examples in the book is a juxtaposition of two antismoking ads. An ad from the Truth campaign featured below, while the response by youth-smoking prevention was “Think. Don’t Smoke.”

‘When the survey asked kids whether they were likely to smoke a cigarette during the next year, those who were exposed to the Truth campaign were 66 percent less likely to smoke. Those who were exposed to "Think. Don’t Smoke" were 36 percent more likely to smoke! Tobacco execs must have taken the news quite hard.’

Made to Stick is more than an effective communication guide though. It is a great guide to running your business with a clear intention that prevents others from misinterpreting the direction of the business.

Employees and customers alike must be able to know what to expect from a business. The low-fare focus by Southwest Airlines is a perfect example in the book, which communicates how employees should act without constant guidance and what customers should expect.

jamie.k.cheng@gmail.com

By Jamie Cheng

Will you utilise your personality in your website?

There are many benefits from creating a website that allows your personality to shine through. One of my favourite examples of this is by the founder of Haul, Australian entrepreneur Scott Kilmartin. Haul is a company that creates many cool products out of recycled material with a humble origin and a powerful personality. The website is cluttered with Kilmartin’s personality and in my opinion gets the company great press and loyal customers.

How? Well, the Kilmartin story is simply memorable and easily told to friends, family and makes for a great piece for the media. While things like a little hidden joke about sending Chopper Read after people that have any plans to use their copyright materials is very charming. By creating a company synonymous with the founder’s personality, there is an authentic simple way to allow people to relate and appreciate the company as more than a faceless profit-seeking organisation.

By gaining support from customers there is also a very strong possibility that they will assist not only with some handy word of mouth marketing for your company but also ways to improve the business. Not to mention that they will be much more loyal and comfortable purchasing from a company where they see the founders, the reason the company exists and the mission of the company. For further information on the subject you might be interested in Rohit Bhargava’s blog or his book Personality Not Included.

jamie.k.cheng@gmail.com