Questions and Answers

A blog does help to generate new content which can result in a better ranking but its not required.

The bottom line is that you should always seek advice at an early stage as there are potentially huge benefits in seeking professional advice. There are many business mentors/ coaches from all walks of life who have been there, done it and have grey hairs to show for it!

Why would you not want to learn from other peoples mistakes? If you can find out in a few weeks or months what it has taken others a life time to learn; you can gain a massive advantage.

Generally speaking there are three main areas where business owners tend to fall down; 1) a lack of understanding as to how cash flows through their business, 2) they have insufficient capital to meet their commitments, and 3)  a reluctance to ask for help until it’s too late.

The structure should be around any normal story, it should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you have told them.

You need to stand in the audiences shoes; understand why they are there and what they expect from the presentation. It should never be your agenda, always theirs.

Stories or anecdotes help people to relate and always feature in a good presentation.

Get the audience involved wherever possible. Ask them questions, get them to work in small groups to solve problems etc.

There are many mistakes but the most common we find are:-

• 1) They hide their phone numbers away making it difficult for you to be contacted;
• 2) Too much text and insufficient calls to arms to make people buy from you;
• 3) There is a lack of data collection. Databases are extremely valuable and you must try and gather peoples contact details every time they land on your site;
• 4) Make it personal, people still prefer to buy from people and so make a video introducing yourself and your products;
• 5) A lack of benefits to the consumer. Most sites have plenty of features but say very little about what the benefits are of using their product or service.

A USP is a Unique Selling Point. It is all about what makes you different from the competition.

Without a USP your customers will only ever be able to compare your prices, and when they do, your margin always suffers!

Find out what you are famous for and make sure you tell everyone, the more USP's you have the more you can charge for your product.

You probably aren't going to like this answer I'm afraid.

Successful entrepreneurs expect, anticipate and create change. You only have to look on the High Street for evidence of what happens to business that don't embrace change - Woolworth is just one example!

To be successful you always need to have one eye on the future and trying to anticipate what might come next; what opportunities exist to…etc. etc. Therefore, you have to move with the times and develop your business and so I'm afraid the short answer is you can't (assuming you want to be successful).

Great business owners do come in all shapes and sizes but in terms of attitudes and behaviours I guess the following are common threads that they all share:-

1) Self starting
2) Never accept "no" for an answer
3) Always make informed decisions in a timely manner
4) Embrace change
5) Tend to be perfectionists
6) Always asking; why?
7) They are tough on themselves and others
8) They work hard and play hard
9) Are physically and mentally fit
10) They follow-up 

Firstly there could be many reasons why people are not buying from your website but here are a few of our best practices.

You need to understand why people are not buying from you. Study carefully your data from your site. Where are people landing/ where are they staying/ at which point do they leave the site? The answers to these questions should give you valuable information as to why people are not buying from you.

Understanding the demographics of your customers and prospects is all well and good but understanding why people will buy your product or service is dynamite in the digital world in which we now all live.

Most people buy the least risky option and so you need to also understand, from a customers point of view, what the risks are in buying from your website. Once you have done this you can then start to develop a strategy to minimise or remove those risks altogether.

You also have to make it easy for them to buy and so having as many subtle sales prompts as possible is essential. It is also important that the actual mechanics of buying are quick, simple and easy to use.

Yes you should! The main advantage of PR is that it’s usually free and if it is written well the article is normally viewed as an impartial recommendation of your product or service.

It has to be easier to sell to someone who has read or heard positive things about your product or service. 

It must always though be undertaken alongside other marketing initiatives and never used as a stand alone marketing campaign. 

Our unique, cutting-edge business diagnostic tool allows business owners like you the opportunity to get a powerful and incisive snapshot of your business when benchmarked against the following business-critical performance drivers; drivers that are the cornerstone for any thriving organisation. They are… 

1. 1) Strategy: the future plans and direction of your business; 

2. 2) Financial: the profitability of your business;
3. 3) Partnerships: how your business interacts with external stakeholders and customers;
4. 4) Processes: the efficiency of your internal systems and procedures; and
5. 5) People: the effective management and performance of your staff.
7. Within the diagnostic tool each of these five areas are then split into 4 sub-sections. You drag the slider to reveal the 5 statements that are contained within each of the sub-sections; leaving the slider on the statement that best reflects the current position within your business.

3. Based on the information you’ve supplied, the business diagnostic tool provides you with a feedback report that highlights both the areas of strength and (potential) areas for development within your business. The feedback report prioritises the 20 (5 main categories all with 4 sub-sections) areas based on the answers you gave, their commercial significance, potential for impact and the overall benefit to your business.

Finally, the feedback report will provide you with a small sample of the available Top Ten Tips and free templates available to you as a member. Depending on which membership package you have chosen, you can then go to our Products page and download the material that you feel will best assist you in overcoming your challenges.

Better Business Expert has created an extensive resource library which includes over 100 of our exclusive Top Ten Tips. These are not just 10 random, unrelated points; they are a series of well-defined incremental stages, giving you a step by step guide on how to improve in each of the topics. 

In our experience, many people spend far too much of their valuable time and money guessing how to develop their business. In an effort to find a silver bullet, they often turn to research and can spend hours, even days searching for help and support that is relevant to their circumstances. 

If you do find what you are looking for it can take you days to get to grips with; weeks to analyse and then months to translate the knowledge into a workable solution for you and your business. 

The beauty of our Top Ten Tips is that we have done all the hard work for you and brought together under one roof an abundance of dynamic help and support that gives you the right knowledge, in the right format to enable you to quickly digest, interpret and implement into your business.

They are packed full of practical, commercially proven and easy to implement best practices, tools, and techniques to help you quickly and effectively plan how and where you can successfully address those key business "pinch points". 

For example, experience has shown us that many business owners struggle to get consistency in their cash-flow. If this is an issue for your business, then our Top Ten Tip on cash-flow will help you understand why you are experiencing cashflow difficulties and how you can potentially generate more cash from within your business. 

All the Top Ten Tips include a series of smart, ‘no-nonsense’ ideas that you can implement simply and speedily to effectively improve your business.

For any business, the control of your finances is critical to your survival, growth and long term sustainability. This is because without accurate, up to date and timely financial information it is almost impossible for business owners to take good management decisions.  

In order to complete our Financial Health Check you will be asked to enter various financial information taken from your last three years financial accounts, as well as your latest management information. The report will then analyse your historical financial performance and provide commentary on aspects of financial performance such as:-

1)      Profitability;

2)      Efficiency;

3)      Stability; and

4)      Cash generation.

Based on the information you entered, you will be provided with a tailored report highlighting the financial stability of your business. The report will include a series of easy to understand ratios and explanations, along with detailed recommendations and action points.

Then you will have the opportunity to have one of our BBE Consultants discuss these findings with you during your 45 minute one to one session. This will ensure that you understand all the findings contained within the report, significantly aiding the implementation of the recommendations.

The Free Resource Vault contains a wealth of resource material which is divided into six categories. These categories are Quick Wins, Templates, Questionnaires, Economic Reviews, 'How to' videos and Reviews; all designed to provide you and your business with a range of proven, practical tips, techniques and ideas to help you successfully develop and grow your business.