The third instalment of a series of marketing tactics and ideas for your business.

Are you the sort of person who shouts at Newsnight? Do you grumble at Radio 4? Swear under your breath while you’re reading the paper? I am. We’re the people who care – the people who are politically aware and want the world to be a better place.

Your politics might have nothing at all to do with your business. If you run a software company, you might think that that’s got nothing to do with your dislike of David Cameron, or that you get upset about child marriage in developing countries. You might think that you shouldn’t talk about politics in case it puts off potential customers.

But maybe you can use your passion to enhance your business.

Get A Campaign Going

Find a cause you believe in which is related to your work (even tangentially) and run a campaign around that cause. Don’t just aim to raise money – everyone does Movember (well the guys anyway). Make it into an actual campaign if you can. Your software company might want to campaign about issues of internet privacy or intellectual property. If you’re an ethical lettings agency like my client Catherine Bancroft-Rimmer, you might want to see the anti key money laws tightened up, forcing less scrupulous agencies to act more ethically.

Image by Richard Callanan

Put some thoughts on your website, write to your MP, join up with another organisation which is campaigning on the same issue. Encourage other people to do the same.

And bingo. You’ve got something to talk to your customers about, an instant way to stand out compared to all your boring competitors, a reason to get in the paper, something to write about on Twitter. And you might just have started something which could make the world a better place.

This is the second in my series of marketing tactics and ideas – suggestions for you to use in marketing your business. This one is about referrals and how to get the right ones.

If you’ve been networking for your business and meeting lots of lovely business friends who are going to sell your services for you, why not make your life easier for your referrers by telling them exactly who you would like them to recommend you to?

Make a nice clear document explaining what it is you do, and the chief characteristics of the people you would like to buy from you. If I was doing a very short version of this for the Joy of Business, I’d explain that I help people with small businesses to grow into bigger businesses by advising, mentoring and coaching. I’d like to meet people who:

• Have had a business for a while, but are ready to grow it and make some decent money.
• Want to know the best way forward, and if they’re doing the right thing.
• Want some practical support on how to develop their business from someone who has done it before.
• Have the capacity to earn at least 50k a year, and probably want to earn more than that.
• Are at a key growth stage with their business.

Once you’ve done this, get someone who knows nothing about your business to check it for you to see if it makes sense, and if you’ve put the commas in the right places. And then email it to the nice people you’ve been meeting while you’ve been networking. Print it out and take it along with you when you have a networking cake date to give to people. Personally, I’d just do it in Word with my logo on, and print it out on my cheapo printer, but if you’re more of a design/creative/fancy sort of person you could get some little books printed pretty cheaply, and then people would be more likely to keep them.

Right, I’m off to practice what I preach, and do a longer list to send out to all my networking mates. By the way, if you recognised yourself on that list of people I’d like to meet, you might want to come and have a coffee and a chat about what’s happening with your business. You never know what might happen…

This is the first in a series of posts to give you some ideas to use in your marketing. Let me know if you adopt them.

This one is suitable for creative businesses which make real things. Maybe you’re a furniture maker, a milliner, a hairdresser… Maybe you make amazing cakes like my pal Jennifer Lindsay-Clark at SheBakes.

Image by Laura Mary

Why not give real life examples of your work? Instead of (or as well as) the beautiful photos of the models with fancy haircuts, why not take photos of your real customers and what their hair looks like when you’ve finished with it. I’d be much more convinced by a series of photos of real women like me with real hair styles. Obviously, they’d be looking good – you’ve just done their hair, but they’d be people like me, not unrealistic supermodels.

Take photos of the process – I have no idea how hats or fancy suits are made, but I’m likely to pay more and appreciate it if I know more about all the work that goes into it.

You don’t have to have super photos taken by professionals; you can snap away with your digital camera or even a phone camera, because we’ve become used to sharing not so brilliant photos and videos on YouTube and Facebook. Take photos, put them on your website, stick them to the wall with Blu-Tack and change them regularly. Your customers will feel more involved, they’ll know that you’re approachable and human, and the people you take the photos of will enjoy their moment of fame, without having to audition for X Factor.

Give it a go, and let me know how you get on.

As well as my regular thoughts, tips and advice on how to grow your small business, over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be writing a series of articles with random ideas for marketing activities. Some of them won’t be right for you and your business, and some of them will be. Some of the ideas will make you think… “Well we don’t want to do that, but if we did this, that might work”.

Now of course, I’m going to advise you that you need a properly worked out marketing strategy (which you do) but you also need lots of tactical marketing ideas to get you out there quickly, and to get you into the minds of the people who want to give you money.

I’ve been doing some research, and thinking of lots of things I’ve used successfully with my business advice clients over the years, but I need your help. It would be great if you could send me ideas which have worked for you, or which have made you buy things, or just ideas you’ve admired. I’m particularly looking for specific tactics I can tell people about, so the more practical, specific and quirky/different the better. Give me your ideas so I can share them out.

This is the next instalment of a series of blog posts I’m writing about how and why you need to get some extra cash into your business, so that it can grow and flourish as a grown up business.

Image by bubbo.etsy.com

Today, I’m going to look at how to bring angel investment into the business. This is an equity investment, where you give shares to someone else in return for a wedge of cash which you then to use to grow the business. The central idea is the same – although you own a smaller share of the business, that share of the grown up business is worth much more than if you still owned 100% of a little business.

Often you’ll find that someone you know already is happy to put in 10-50k, maybe more, in return for a share of your business. This might be someone in your family, a friend, a customer, or another business person you know through networking. It’s worth asking around, even putting it on your website so that people know that you’re interested. 40% of angel investments come from people who already know the business owner.

If you don’t have any luck that way, you might try one of the organisations which broker angel investment. I’ve worked with clients who have had success through Angel’s Den and Finance South East, both of whom have courted groups of angels, and will sell the idea of investing in your business for you. Be aware though, that this is only really worth doing if you need more than 50k, as by the time that you’ve paid the broker fee, and the lawyers, you’ll have probably spent about 10k.

These are some of the areas I look at when I’m working with clients on bringing in angel investment:

• A clear business plan which shows how the investor will get back at least 3 times their initial investment.
• The recent growth of the business – don’t allow the process of seeking investment to slow down your organic expansion, as you can make a much stronger case to an investor if your business is already growing.
• Suggesting a mix of angel investment and bank finance – an investor will be much happier to invest if a bank has said they’ll lend half the money. Everyone likes to share the risk and back a horse which other people are betting on
• I’ve also been able to introduce clients directly to investors, because I’m constantly networking to find opportunities for my clients, so I have my nose to the ground with right people.

I’ve also looked at how you can persuade the banks to lend you money next time, so make sure you don’t miss out by subscribing. If your business wants to grow and you know that you need some money to develop, do feel free to get in touch for a chat about how I might be able to help.

Other articles of interest about shares and equity in your business are:

How Can I Make My Company Eligible For EIS?

How to give away shares in your business

Getting someone to invest in your business

Giving shares and equity away