You’ll be familiar with the reciprocity principle in marketing if you’ve ever received a free sample, a gift from a charity, or been accosted by Scientologists / Hare Krishnas / Jehovah’s Witnesses. All of these people want to give you something, whether it’s a free pen, a flower or a copy of their magazine.
I was cruising on Twitter the other day and came across a mini rant by Andy Budd from Brighton company Clearleft. Andy started by imploring people not to give their work away for free.
We’re looking at when you should give stuff away for free in order to encourage people to buy from you. We’ve looked at the free taste/sample, and investigated the reciprocity principle and “first bag is free” ideas, and now I want to talk about freemium.
One of the things I’m always advising my retail clients on is the importance of getting people through the door in the first place. This is one of the most important parts of any retail business. In fact, it’s one of the most important parts of any business, even if your door is a virtual door.
Many of the business owners I advise are sponges – and I encourage you all to mop up less.
You might want to give someone shares in your business because they’re going to invest money. You might want to give someone equity because you want them to work in your business, or to motivate someone who already works there. Getting an equity investment is a great way to get money into your business, because it helps cash flow.
I’ve been doing quite a lot of work recently for clients who want to get some investment into their companies, and the question of EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) has come up with a couple of people, so I thought I’d share some practical advice with you.
One of the charming commentators on my blog in the Argus said that I was jargon ridden. I looked over some of my blog posts and couldn’t see any, so I thought I’d put some in here to keep him happy. So here are some of the juicy words I’ve noticed myself recently, with what they mean in plain English for real people who happen to run businesses.
The Joy of Business