Building your business for the long term ...

Right now, we hear that many people are struggling, and that many business are going bust. So times are hard, theres no questioning, and we have to work harder to stand still. But perhaps that should also be working smarter.

The problem is, everyone says "work smarter, not harder" but very few actually know or understand what it means.

Many people say "build your business around systems and processes" so that you can automate your business, but again, very few people can show you how to implement that.

However, during these tough times, now is the time to really start thinking about how you can implement "systems" and allow your business to do the work for you.

Consumers these days are a savvy lot. They know what the want, usually they know the exact specification they're after.

Todays consumers are happy at self service, in fact many prefer it. Rather than queuing in a bank, they can order a new PIN number online for example. Rather than doing the shopping on a weekend, they can order it online and watch the footie on tv until the get a knock on the door and Tesco arrives with all your shopping.

These days, you can buy anything online, shop for the cheapest item using a service like Kelkoo for example, or see what 2nd hand items are available for sale on Ebay.

The internet has invaded almost every single part of your life, and yet .... and yet .... I still get people who say "no, we're going to wait a while before we get our Google adwords up and running", or "we're not going to do a newsletter just yet, we'll just place a bit more advertising in the local paper."

This is CRAZY!!

For the price of an advert (lets say �400), you could get your website optimised, or you could pay someone to setup Google Adwords (properly), either way, that money could go to something that you do ONCE and get FOREVER.

With a newspaper advert, you have to get the artwork right, find images, deal with a salesperson trying to sell you a "special package" that starts off with a couple of big adverts and then smaller adverts on a regular basis. Of course, thats their job, but they usually have no idea of what a "Brand" actually is, but they'll tell you its all about building your brand.

Perhaps you should ask them next time what a brand is, and I'll bet they'll say something like"Coca-Cola". Of course on an advertising budget of several tens of millions of pounds a year, it is possible to brand like that. But for the rest of us its pretty impossible, so we have to be more careful with our cash.

Incidentally, the advert placers (and this includes things like yellow Pages) are the same people who say its impossible for them to systemise their business. They won't allow themselves to move their business into the 21st century.

The old ways of growing a small business have changed dramatically with the internet. Thats just in say the last 5 years. What will happen in the next five years? Whats the next big thing ? Mobile Internet maybe ? We have devices built into phones these days, I myself booked a paintballing session whilst sat in The Slug and Lettuce having found them on my wireless device (I was slight drunk and it did seem like a good idea at the time!) These devices and the way in which we use them, will become more mainstream.

The problem here is that many people haven't even got their website sorted out yet, let alone allow the site to evolve into what it will need to become to make their business really work.

In my own businesses, we're now utilising Social Media Marketing via facebook, which can target people by age group, or location, or by gender, or by job, or if they like Mcfly or not, for example.

Do you think this issue about websites (or lack of) is driving me up the wall by any chance ? You see, I've just spent this weekend looking at the way one of my main businesses (my lettings agency) runs now, and how I would envisage it to run in say 12 months time if I could do everything I wanted to.

We're at a slightly different stage with this one and are just expanding the business through the use of a franchise model. But I have to say its fairly radical in the changes we're making. We're moving many of our processes online, including landlord welcome packs, tenant referencing, we're moving FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) online so that both landlords and tenants can find the info quickly, at any time of the day. We're investigatin Electronic document Management for easy storage and retrieval and remove our use of paper in the office and reduce the costs of sending mail.

We're even moving our support services online using a ticket based support service, with service level agreements.

Effectively, we're streamlining all the customer contact points and moving them online.

Now, I hear you say, most people want to speak to someone. BUT, thats just not TRUE is it ?? Most people want whatever issue or question they have resolved as quickly as possible so that it doesn't keep interrupting their lives.

The point at which you need human interaction is if there is a situation which is not covered (95% of them are, and are usually to do with things like, my boilers not working, through to how do you use the washing machine). The other 5% can be dealt with on a human level, and for most people this is fine. You will still get some folk who like to deal person to person, and thats fine, as they're few and far between and won't impact the business hugely.

Personally, when im phoning Npower - I would like to not be on hold for 15 minutes, having gone through 5 different options on their phone system simply to be put through to probably the same person (who happends to be a moron who can't help anyway). In fact, on this very point, I often end up frustrated and angry, enough to leave me with what I call "Call Centre Tourettes". (Apologies to anyone who really has tourettes - I made a joke about self harming last week, but im not going to beat myself up over it).

If I could just get the query resolved quickly without all this hassle, then that would be great.

Can you believe for example, that a company like BT, you have to write in to make a complaint. Its a Telecommunications business for goodness sake, and yet you have to physically write in to make a complaint.

Some things you can't systemise of course, and other things, you really shouldnt systemise as they may not be appropriate.

But for many people, they like being able to sort it out themselves, and understand what the processes are of how something works.

If you can give them a chance to do this, then your business can become more streamlined, you can reduce your costs and even increase customer retention.

Its a lot of work to begin with, but much better than having to resolve an problem, issue by issue and person by person.

So what should you do next then ?

Perhaps looking at how you actually physically conduct your business and how you could improve it.

What questions do you get asked by your customers? Is it worth writing them down and publishing a FAQ online? What information can you move online and then educate your customers and potential customers as to where they can find it, while also letting them know you're there to help if they can't find it.

How about establishing a vision of what you would like your company to "look like" and how you expect it to work if you could wave a magic wand. Then get that written down. Technology is a wonderful thing in the right hands and can help you streamlime many of your processes for you.

Finally - you should come to our networking events and find out more!