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Being Serious With Success At Trade Shows

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A business is always going to be hard work, no bones about it. If you’re not working hard to realize your business vision and create a successful business, you’re letting yourself down. All aspects of your business are going to require painstaking hard work, and you know what? If you’re not promoting this hard work, all your efforts might be going to waste. Without marketing your business, it’s going to go unnoticed – you don’t want that, right? Not at all!

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There have been plenty of advances in marketing theory and promotional tools via technology – and promoting a company via the internet is something that most businesses do – but they don’t exactly stand out without a bit of spice – creativity. Despite the focus on the digital world and all of the tools that it offers, maintaining a physical presence and physically promoting your business are just as important as anything else. To attract funds, to make sales, to generate leads and to find collaborators, you’re going to have to make an impact with physical promotion.

Physical promotion? It’s usually limited to networking, billboards, and leaflets – but it’s what you do with these tools that counts. This is the rule for everything. Your creativity in these areas do not go unnoticed. One of the biggest tools at your disposal is the business event -a trade show, an industry convention or an exhibition. Whatever it’s called, and whatever the purpose behind it is, an event that is attended, or even hosted by your business is a great way to market your business within the real world.

How do you make the most of an event in which your business is involved? Well, it involves more hard work. Running your own stall at a trade show or a convention is tiring – and it’s very physical and can involve a fair bit of manual labor. It’s very hard to enjoy most of the running of stall or platform – as it involves constant work, and even the most ardent workaholic will find it difficult to get to grips with exhibition work. Working a stall is difficult, no matter if it is at a large show, or something smaller for a localized event. You need to stay charismatic and approachable throughout the event, no matter what is going on. You also need to be alert and on your toes. You need to be a worker bee and as helpful as possible. You’ll also need to be incredibly happy and positive towards everyone you speak to, no matter what you’re actually feeling. An exhibition can really test you. Trade shows usually cost a bit of money to attend, but think of it as an investment, because if you make the most of your time at the trade show, it will heavily benefit your business.

First things first – make sure you have some kind of actual presence at an event that isn’t just posters, stickers and banners. Get there and get your team there. An event, especially one taking place over a number of days is hard work. It could be harder work than you’ve ever known. It’s a full-time role on top of your full-time job. This means that you need to be on hand to answer all sorts of questions throughout the duration of the event. Your stall can never be left unattended either – but naturally, an event will drag you elsewhere. This is why you need to bring a team with you. You cannot make the most of an event alone. If you have a team, you can rotate between operations and actually give yourself a bit of a break. Simply put, do whatever you can to ensure you are not running your stall alone, and to ensure that the stand is never left-attended. This can be a bit tricky if you’re a sole-trader, but you can work it with friends and family. You might even look into hiring professional spokesmodels who can run your stall and work the stand for you. You could just hire part-time assistants as well. Working with others will make the exhibition a little bit easier for you, and anything that can make your exhibition a bit easier is a bonus.

Bringing some sort of a team to the event means that you can actually work the event. Get involved and don’t be afraid to meet other businesses and get talking. Your neighbors are going to be busy, but they can help you out – especially in a pinch. Let them know who you are, find out who they are and see if you can’t work together in the future. Making friends and leads is what these are about. Don’t be afraid to refer people to other stands, because people might just repay your favor. The event is there for you to market, but not just that; you can make relationships to help your business out in the future, beyond the event.

Make sure you track what’s happening though, you might not be scared to say hi, but if you can’t keep track of who you are meeting and what they offer – what happens in Vegas might just stay in Vegas. This is very important if you’ve found leads or prospects to work on in the future. Depending on your goals, this may differ as some business types are suited to one-off there and then deals, while other businesses like suppliers might heavily value repeat business – regardless, you want to remember people who show heavy interest in your business – and you need to capture their details. Collect business cards and jot down details throughout the exhibition. This is where having a team can help, so the stall can keep on running while you work on maintaining contacts and jotting down information.

People come back from conventions with all sorts of tat – caps, hats, shirts, banners, posters and pens. This sort of stuff keeps a lead going because it reminds people of your business. Give this stuff out for free and see what it can do for your business. It’s better to give out something small for free than nothing at all. A phone call might be made off the back of a pen to you in future, so don’t underestimate the impact of the mere freebie,

The hard work doesn’t end when the trade show is over though – you’ve got a lot of catch up to do. The more successful your event was, the more you’ve got to do. It never ends, but don’t be discouraged – this is the important work! When you get to back to work, you’ve still got to follow up on your exhibition in a manner of ways to ensure you’ve made the most of it. Remember all that info that you jotted down? Now’s the time to use it and make good use of it. You’ve made leads and contacts, now’s the time to see if those leads will turn into business and sales. Start calling and emailing – you’ve got a lot of relationships to build.

If you don’t do this, you might have wasted all the time and money spent at the show. You’re going to get back to work after a weekend at show without rest, but if you do not follow up on the leads (and you may have hundreds) you’re not making business off the back of an exhibition. If you’ve got nothing to say to your leads, or nothing to do for your leads – you might have wasted all your hard work. At the very least keep the stove on and ensure that interest is still real and warm. If you lose your leads, you’ve lost all your hard work. A real shame.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article

Exhibitions aren’t for free – so wasting your leads will cost you. This experience could put you off attending future events, which isn’t right. Trade shows are a key part of business. However, you must think about costs. If trade shows are not working for you, you’re wasting money until you can find out how to make them work for you. Only head to trade shows if they are worth it for your business. Costly errors at trade shows mean you will only waste money, and that’s not great for business.

There’s not an exact formula to succeeding at trade shows, but it’s not exactly rocket science either. You can succeed with trade shows if you’re willing to put in some seriously hard work. You need to plan hard, look good, meet and greet, take details and follow up. If you don’t do this, you are simply wasting a lot of time and effort – which could be better spent elsewhere than wasting your time at a trade show. If you’re serious about success, you’ll be willing to take on the load at an exhibition and get to work at a trade show. If you aren’t, don’t bother with it – it won’t work out for you. For those prepared, an exhibition could be a great boost to business and could create some long lasting business relationships.

Make a Small Business Feel Much Bigger

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So you own a small business. And when you say “small business”, you mean small. Real small. Small enough to be intimidated by the much larger business sharks out there. Maybe you’re just a small group of people working from home on the same project. Maybe you’re even one or two people running the entire thing from a bedroom! However small your small business is, there are things you can do to increase your stature.

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Photo courtesy of David Mulder via flickr

Just because you’re not a massive company with vast riches, it doesn’t mean you can’t sit at the same table. You can get many of the same opportunities if you play your cards right. The best thing to do, if you’re a little anxious about the size of your company, is to make it look bigger. It’s true that some prospective clients or partners will be reluctant to work with really small businesses. So here are some tips that will help your company seem much bigger than it is.

Build an amazing website

A surefire way of detecting a really small business is by looking at their website. If the design is basic, haphazard or messy, then it can be a dead giveaway. The fact is that your website is how many people are going to be introduced to your business. It can’t look like something a newbie to Geocities or Freewebs might have come with.

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Look at the websites that bigger companies are using. They’re sleek, modern, easy-to-use, innovative. You want to spend time on them just because they’re a pleasure to visit. Consider working with a web design agency to ensure a professional look.

Get a prestigious address

A company that works in the heart of big business city is going to look more attractive to potential customers. If your office address is in the middle of some suburb on the outskirts of town, then people will know you’re pretty small fry. That, of course, shouldn’t reflect on the quality of your service. But people may make their judgements nonetheless. This is why you should consider working with commercial movers such as myBekins. If you can get your business into the big commercial cities of your country, then you’re going to have a lot more prestige to work with!

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If you don’t have the resources for a direct move, you can use a virtual address. This is an address in a desired business location that you can use as your official address.

Become incorporated

Incorporation is the process of officially forming a company with the government. Of course, you will have had to have declared yourself as a company to your national revenue service in order to get taxed correctly. This isn’t all there is to do, though.

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If you get your company registered officially as a limited company, this can make all the difference. You will officially be a company, with the ‘LTD’ tag and everything! This can help your business look a lot stronger on your website and other relevant copy. This can affect the amount of tax you’re paying, though. It will usually affect it for the better, but you might want to consult an accountant before taking this step.

Golden Rules for Maintaining a Healthy Cash Flow

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Photo courtesy of Nicholas Youngson of NYPhotographic (Title CC BY-SA 3.0 NY)

You have, no doubt, heard the saying ‘cash is king,’ and it may be cliché, but it is definitely the truth. No business can survive without any cash. It is the fuel that keeps the engine running. This is why all companies, especially SMEs, need to have a strategy in place for maintaining a healthy cash flow and dealing with any potential related problems that may arise.

Have a clear process in place…

Businesses run efficiently when they have clear procedures in place, and this is definitely the case when it comes to maintaining a healthy cash flow. You need to have a straightforward procedure for dealing with invoices and collecting payments. Don’t forget to practice what you preach; you need to send out invoices promptly if you are to be paid on time. How can you demand efficiency if you are not operating efficiently yourself? There are plenty of great tools available today to assist with sending invoices out and tracking them. By automating this part of your business, you can ensure everything runs more smoothly and quickly.

Don’t accept defeat…

One of the worst things you can do is simply assume that there is nothing you can do about late payments. Many business owners assume that it is out of their hands. After all, they cannot literally force the client to pay on time. You need to get rid of this defeatist attitude. No matter what frustrating business problem you are faced with, there is always a solution. Of course, you can improve your internal practices, but if this does not solve anything, there are other options. Working with a cash flow finance company is highly recommended. If you get an indication that a client is not going to pay on time, a finance firm will pay on their behalf. The client will then pay the lender instead.

Do your research beforehand…

It pays to do a bit of research about the customer beforehand. This is especially the case for any substantial orders. Begin by acquiring their credit report. This will give you a good indication as to whether the potential client is someone to trust. If they do not make payments on time, they will have a bad score, and this should be an immediate red flag. You should also find out about the payment practices of the customer. For example, do they pay on an ad-hoc basis? Do they only pay on a certain day per month? By knowing a customer’s payment habits, you can plan more efficiently. The more you know, the stronger your position.

Set an upper limit per customer…

Finally, make sure you set a bespoke upper credit limit for each of your customers. You can use the credit check you obtained to assist you with this. Also, obtain references from other businesses that have traded with them. You need to determine the risk you are exposing your firm to when arranging any type of credit agreement. Once you have set the limit, do not budge.

Leading Your Team One Step At A Time

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If you want to get far in business, one of the primary factors that you can’t afford to ignore is ensuring that your management team are as professional as possible. They are among your most important staff members, and it is vital that you hire people you think will succeed in leading your team in however they need to be led. Of course, there are always certain characteristics which you will need to look out for if you want your team to be led well, and it is worth looking into what those are. Let’s have a look at some of the more important qualities now, so that you can help to lead your teams as well as possible.

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Confidence To Lead

People will generally have a much easier time following someone if they appear to have the confidence to lead. This is something that you can’t really overlook when you are thinking of who should lead your teams. You probably don’t want to put in charge someone who is unable to display confidence in front of groups of people. However, it is also true that sometimes less confident people have better ideas. It seems fair to try and draw a balance, and not to immediately dismiss those who might not be strongly confident in comparison to others. Confidence, after all, is something which can be learned, and it is good to give people the chance to prove themselves. Sometimes, you find real gems this way, and it favors your business massively in the long run.

Cool Head In Emergencies

Being prepared for the worst is a good idea in business generally and in leaders in particular. No matter what happens, you need to be able to know that your management team will be able to properly deal with it. It is therefore a good idea to choose managers who appear to have a cool head, and who would continue to do so in an emergency situation. There are all kinds of emergencies which can crop up in business, and preparing for as many of them as possible always puts you in a good stead. You’ll find that your managers are more adept at remaining calm particularly if you have a number of good emergency procedures in place – get business insurance online, have a risk assessment done, coincide with all safety laws. This all helps, and your management will probably appreciate it.

StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article
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Easygoing Communication

The ability to communicate well with others is always going to be paramount for your management staff. When you can communicate strongly, it means that you are more likely to get things done properly and on time, and it also means that relationships in the working culture can be developed much more easily and fluently. Make sure your managers are all the kind of people that other can talk to easily – this really does make a world of difference when it comes to getting things done on a daily basis, and creating a positive working culture.

Spend Vs Splurge: Can You Afford Not To Invest In These Areas Of Your Business?

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In business, a company owner will often take steps to try and reduce spending, but there are certain areas where cutbacks should be discouraged. Often, it is possible to reduce overheads, but lowering spending could put you at risk. Before you make any budgeting decisions, consider whether you can afford not to invest in these key areas.

Legal advice

Even if you run a very small business, it’s beneficial to have legal experts in your corner. You never know when you may need to make that call and take advantage of expert advice. Running a business isn’t always as simple as sealing deals and selling wares. There are many legal aspects that you have to take into account as a company owner. If you employ people, the last thing you want is a personal injury case brought against you because your office doesn’t comply with health and safety regulations. If you’re launching a new product, you don’t want a rival firm to rip off your idea or customers contacting you complaining about the quality of the item. If issues arise, and you need to investigate insurance fraud, take action against a competitor or find out more about compensating a customer, it’s helpful to have people in the know at the end of the phone. It is sometimes possible to handle your own legal affairs, but cases can be very complex, and if you hire a professional, you’re much more likely to achieve a positive outcome.

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Accounting

There are few things that are more important than getting to grips with the numbers when it comes to managing a company. If you own a business, you may not have the time or the expertise to manage the books, and if this is the case, it pays to join forces with an accounting firm. If you have no idea what’s going on in your accounts, you may encounter cash flow issues, and your balances may be much lower than anticipated, which could result in missed payments or failure to hit growth targets.

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Training

If you manage a team of people, investing in training can help you upskill your employees, promote health and safety and increase productivity. In the short-term, you’ll be parting with cash, but in the long-term, you’ll be adding value. Training enables your employees to develop new skills, which could prevent you from needing to hire additional workers and enable you to diversify the services you offer. Think carefully about the programs you choose for your team, and have a look around at the opportunities that are on offer. Ask your employees what kinds of courses they’d be interested in undertaking, and read some reviews to find the best training providers.

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Photo courtesy of All In One Training via flickr

When you run a business, balancing the books is key. While there are some areas where you can save money, it’s wise to invest in legal advice, accounting services, and training. This will enable you to act swiftly if legal issues arise, keep an eye on your books, and upskill your workforce.