Building a great Marketing strategy top tips

by Liane Oomrigar

“For a business not to Market is like winking in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does.” – Stuart H. Britt

Having a great Marketing strategy in place is key to any business growing and tends to be one of the things that challenges business owners the most. So, what makes for a good Marketing strategy?…here are my top tips:

1. Have at least 10 strategies running in your business at any one time
You can build this up slowly over time, but aim to have a diverse set of strategies running so that if one is not working the others continue to bring you leads.

2. Patience
Marketing takes time, patience and can be trial and error. If something is not working try doing it differently or adding to your strategy before stopping it.

3. Marketing should be an investment not an expense
Make sure you are getting a good return in terms of sales v investment in Marketing.

4. Test and measure!
Always know your numbers! It’s key that you track the number of Leads, clients and Marketing investment for each strategy.

5. Know your target market
Marketing is all about educating and communicating, understand who your potential customers are and what they need and tailor your marketing to them.

For more information or a gifted coaching session to see how you can start to put together a great marketing plan for business please contact me on lianeoomrigar@actioncoach.com.

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Top tips to successfully manage your Cashflow

When I speak to businesses owners, financials tend to be the one thing they are most worried about in their business.

The place to start is always with putting in place a great Cashflow forecast and it doesn’t need to be complicated.  I see financials as the window to your company, the facts and figures show us exactly where the business is and where it is headed.

This then helps us to manage and deal upfront with any issues, measure growth and build a successful and stable business.  Wherever your finances are these are my top tips for getting started:

1. Simply put a Cashflow measures the money coming in and out of your business bank account on a monthly basis.  When putting a Cashflow together consider what income you have received from sales and what you have paid out of the company that month for expenses.

2. Use the Cashflow forecast as a tool to make sound financial decisions in your business.  It should allow you to instantly see if your business can support that extra member of staff or product purchase.

3. Get some simple to use bookkeeping software to help you manage your books and save you time.  There are great programs like Xero, QuickBooks and Sage Cloud.

4. Don’t be afraid – facts are better than fiction, get a real picture of where your sales are coming from and what your business expenses are and know that there are so many strategies, we can use to manage them, so understanding them is the key to improving them.

5. Review and update your Cashflow each month so that you have an accurate and up to date picture of where the business is and where it is headed.

For more information or a gifted coaching session to see how you can start to put together a set of financials for your business please contact me on lianeoomrigar@actioncoach.com.

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The successful leader Leading a team can be tricky – especially in the current environment where we are often doing this virtually. There are some really simple tools you can use to help you improve your leadership skills which result in a more motivated and productive team: 1. Set targets – give your team clear objectives so they know what they need to do and what’s expect of them.  If they don’t meet these objectives, check that you have made them clear first, before talking to them about what the challenges are that’s preventing them from achieving their goals. 2. Share points of culture – make sure your team understands the business’s points of culture.  Points of culture or values outline the key ways we expect everyone to behave in our business. 3. Give constructive and continuous feedback – it’s really important to give continuous feedback to your team, and ask for it in return, create a no-blame culture whereby you work together to identify and solve issues. 4. Regular meetings – where appropriate make sure you have regular 121’s with team members that focus on achievements & challenges.  This forges a culture of going over and above and shows them you are interested in them.  It also allows you to pick up and resolve issues quickly. 5. Lead by example – this is one of the most important aspects of leadership.  Your team will ultimately absorb your behaviours so be aware of how you react to busy times, stressful situations, and wins in the team.  They are looking to you to stay calm, guide them on a way forward, and celebrate with them when they do well! For more information or a gifted coaching session to see how you can start to put together a great leardership strategy for your business please contact me on lianeoomrigar@actioncoach.com. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Business planning for success Have you been putting off writing a formal business plan? The task can seem pretty daunting, resulting in many entrepreneurs simply skipping it altogether. Now is more important than ever to have great business plans in place so you can start the year off with a new focus and great actions which will result in a successful start to the year! The process doesn’t need to be as challenging as it sounds, here are my top tips for successful business planning. Top tips for business planning 1. Start with the end in mind and set your 12-month goals, these should be 5-6 high-level goals that outline what you want to achieve during the year.  You should also consider the actions you need to take to achieve these goals, and most importantly write them down. 2. Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound), you will be far more likely to meet them if they follow these criteria. 3. 90-day plans – once you have completed your 12 month goals, break this down into more manageable chunks and identify which of your goals and actions you are going to complete in the next 90 days. 4. Aim to get your business plans for next year completed before the December holidays, that way you will have a defined action plan that you can hit the ground running with in January. 5. Make sure that you include a good range of goals and targets including Financial or Marketing/sales targets. It’s important that you are focused on the key metrics you need to target as a business and that you communicate these targets to your team. For more information or a gifted coaching session to see how you can start to put together a great leardership strategy for your business please contact me on lianeoomrigar@actioncoach.com.