Introduction
Welcome back to Biz Tips and more useful information tips and anecdotes for the world of small business.

At the offices of Impact our team has expanded and we offer a warm welcome to Ciara and Arron.

As the recession starts to bite and affect most businesses in some way or another, your strategic planning becomes even more important to business success, so that will be our focus for this issue.

Your feedback is valued and if there are items or subjects that you would like more information on please call and let us know.

Biztips is completely complimentary and I hope you find the content here both useful and informative. If you haven't already done so then please subscribe and feel free to send it to a business colleague, friend, client or even supplier, by using the link here or in the right hand margin

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Have a website? What's the point?

No, I’m not knocking the concept of web sites at all! In fact, it’s one of the best strategies I adopted in my early years of business. Just one introduction from the ether (someone I never would have met in the course of my normal business activities) paid for every investment that I have made in this form of technology based marketing. Moreover that one converted lead has also provided a decent profit over and above.
That’s the point of course - getting the World Wide Web to become the High Street (the busiest on the planet by a miles of course!) upon which your shop window (your website) exists, to lure people to the point of sale for your products and services.

Now of course in the physical business world the retailer knows full well, that he or she needs to adopt strategies to intice customers into their shop. Adverts, announcements, PR and networking are just a few examples of how this can be achieved. Of course the equivalent of these activities in the cyber sense would be to ensure that the search engine activity of prospective customers is working positively for the business.

So, if you have a web presence what exactly is the point? Now you may argue that it's a source of information and that’s as sound a strategy as any. But perhaps you should ask yourself 'What more could it do for me'. I have a strong belief that if I am going to invest in a platform such as web site it might as well do as much for my business as it can. This includes sales and your web should be an ongoing and profitable investment in my opinion.

Some businesses design their web sites specifically to produce sales but are disappointed with the outcomes. That is generally because the job is only half done. By that I mean the design and functionality are good but the web site itself is not optimised for search engine (Google, Yahoo etc) activity. I guess it amounts to building and opening a shop in the middle of nowhere, without easy access or signage and then being disappointed with your retail sales!

If you want to discover how your website is performing in this respect, then please register for a new and unique tracking service by emailing me or calling the office.

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Feature: What are you focused upon?

This is not a question that I imagine you ask yourself too often. The subject matter in this piece is not limited to business, it applies to all areas of life and the rules of getting outstanding results are universal, so apply them to most things that you do.

Focusing on what you want is the key here. A business owner who is focused on ‘not failing’ will unconsciously find the most convenient path to failure itself. Just as water will always find the path of least resistance the unconscious mind operates to find best opportunities to create what you are asking of it.

If you catch yourself expressing negatives in your thought process (or internal dialogue) I’m afraid you will soon find yourself on the wrong path. Unfortunately the unconscious cannot process the negative (or the don’t/not etc). This is a ‘truism’ and the way to combat this is to reframe your thoughts with a little self critique.

For more intro call me or email me at the office.

In fact, one of the reasons that writing down objectives and goals for your business (and life for that matter!), works so well, is that once these are considered well formed and written, they become positively (towards) motivated and will help focus your mind positively.

Q. How many short medium and long term objectives are written down about for your business?

A. If the answer has taken more than 3 seconds to formulate in your mind then check out our Strategic Plan – See our new web based offering below.

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Strategic Business Planning for 2009 and beyond - Gain control of your business with an unbelievable offer.

I am excited to announce that Impact have created an outstanding on-line DIY strategic business plan for business owners to focus their strategic business development looking forward five years. We have tried to assist business owners by giving them access to a user friendly software based platform so that they can complete their five year success blueprint within a decent timescale and more.

Systematic completion of easy to use input screens will collate your goals, aspirations, and strategic objectives and even tabulate the next steps as a time based action plan for you and your business to follow. An organizational chart, click through population and key financials collate all the key business information that might be required by a third party review. The output pages will formulate into a 38 page business plan that can be printed and bound for any number of uses (raising finance, attracting investment but perhaps more importantly for running your business with partners and key people).

To find out more about what’s contained in the planning software please click here Imapct Strategic Business Plan.

How much does it cost? Just £39 (+Vat) – for this you will have access to the software for two months at which point you can save it to a PDF document as a complete plan.

We believe that this planning product represents the best value combines the best planning platform with a systematic software design for a great planning experience.

It gets better! - With each plan purchased you will have an opportunity to engage in a complimentary thirty minute remote session with one of our business coaches to develop your ideas and strategies or just to complete your plan. That’s an offer that can’t be beaten!

The plans are available from our site from 2nd February and you can pre register your interest by emailing us today by clicking this link.

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Business Reviews

As usual we are offering our Business Review (a two to three hour review session with one of our consultants entirely at our expense) to the first three businesses who reply to this edition. Give us a call at the offices on 020 8642 1919 now to reserve yours.

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Thanks for reading, I hope you found this month's offerings useful and please consider the questions in this month's feature carefully. I urge you towards unprecedented success!

 

Phil Wells
Business Success Coach
www.impact-corporate.co.uk

I will only bring you items and information that I believe will benefit your business.

 

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