Copycat Marketing

“I’ve done it….yes, I finally work for myself”

Remember that feeling? 

You may also remember the feeling of once being the best at what you do?

You were the best hairdresser, electrician, web designer or retail manager. You know you are that’s why you once said those magic oh so life changing words…….

“I could do this better than my boss”

You must have uttered those words once or at least something like it. You are the best at what you do and that’s why you are now doing it for yourself, and hey, so you should.

The problem most start-up businesses realize very early is that you might be the best hairdresser, electrician, web designer or retail manager, but you don’t know diddley squat about marketing!!

This is when it happens; this is when most start-ups make that first critical error,

“Let’s see what everyone else does, and copy them”. 

 If it works for them surely it will work for you, right?

Let me ask you a question,

When you sat down to write your first business plan whether it was a 10 page manuscript or on the back of a cigarette packet, did you mention that you would strive to be the same as everybody else?

That you would offer the same poor level of service as everyone else? That you would charge the same, look the same or even give yourself the same name? 

Of course you didn’t (if you did then close your business today and go get a job).

You started your business because you knew you could do it better than the rest.

We wouldn’t want to be different would we? What if somebody notices!!!

Try to be a bit different but whatever you do, don’t do nothing and bury your head in the sand.

One result I can promise you is that you will always get NOTHING from doing NOTHING. 

We don’t need fee earning Business Consultants

Business Consultants and why we hate them!!

A Business consultant will borrow your watch to tell you the time, then walk off with your watch.
If you’re just starting out in business I have some important advice for you………..
YOU DO NOT NEED A BUSINESS CONSULTANT!!!

What if you couldn't fail?

What if you couldn’t FAIL?
Just imagine, you get up in the morning with the same excitement you have every day.
You look around the office and with a smug look on you face you say to yourself “I did this”
Now imagine the possibilities without FEAR?
You have great ideas every day, you visualise the possibilities of where your business COULD go.
And then it hits you like a sledge hammer, what if I F*** it up and it all goes wrong?  What if this?  what if that?  Can I pull it off?  What will people think of me?
Now, the little voice in your head is driving you crazy because the little voice is starting to make sense, and the voice in your head is given you the biggest problem we all face…..DOUBT.
My question to you, and a simple question it is at that. WHAT WOULD YOU DIFFERENT IF YOU KNEW YOU COULDN’T FAIL?
Entrepreneur is a word that is used far too often to describe a business owner. Anyone can start a business and anyone can call them self an Entrepreneur, however the real test is how we deal with the FEAR FACTOR.
Do we
A:  Give ourselves reasons not to?
B:  Not even consider option A
Fear is merely an emotion that can be controlled

Bad News – you have a bucket list!!

The creation of a Bucket List is an admission that you failed yourself in your life.
You spend your life wanting more, wishing you had e done more and then, bad news knocks on the door. Your life expectancy stopwatch is drawing to its climax and you panic and start to have regrets.
Why wait for the Grim Reaper to give you a wakeup call, why wait, why wait, why wait. 
If you are remotely like me, and you believe that you only have one chance at life, then why would you spend half of it wishing you could have done more?
Do something NOW
Before you decide to throw caution to the wind and grab your life savings, leave your significant other and abandon your kids, STOP. You lost the chance to do things rash a long time ago.
Now you have more commitments in life you’ll need to do things slightly different!
We need to have a plan.
I know………. that all sounds a bit business consultancy like, but believe me my previous
Blog on “We don’t need fee earning Business Consultants” may explain what I think of them!!. All I mean by planning is, have a beginning, middle and the most importantly an END.
DON’T Justify the Bucket List when the time comes.

Do All Web Designers LIE?

All I seem to hear these days is SEO this and SEO that.
You need to be on the first page of Google.
Ok, I not going to tell that being first on Google isn’t important because it is.
However, this is only the beginning.
After the Web Designers have bamboozled you with the importance of great SEO they will then move onto the “Design”. This will change depending on what new trick they have learned that week.
They will show you lots of flashing moving things and “deal of the week banners” and all this to grab the attention of your potential new customers, because apparently we only have a nano-second to keep them.
Guess what? I have already clicked on your site, you already have my attention.
Now you need to engage with me?  Yes I need to know whether  you site has all the answers I’m looking for but more importantly I would love your website to tell me something I didn’t think to ask!
PLEASE PLEASE remember most web designers are what they say on the tin, they are not marketing experts and will never fully understand your business. There is only one person who understands your business the most……..you.  Make sure you have most of the input on your web design, you just need the designer to put it together.
Part of my research was assisted by Mr David Meerman Scott

My top 6 Suggestions to run your own Business

1. Commitment: - Yes…..!! I know this may sound a bit lame and obvious but without it you will fail. Along with commitment comes patience, there will be many occasions when the phone doesn’t ring and you email inbox becomes a ghost town. I started my first business in October 2008, the news was dominated by the credit crunch and I wasn’t even convinced my phone even had a ring tone as it never made a noise until February 2009.
2. Have a Plan: - No not a business plan, a business plan is fiction transcript that you write to keep the bank happy. What I mean by a plan is a vision of the future, have a picture in your mind of what your business will look like in a year from now. You need to visualize what it looks like to make it tangible, you need to have a direction at the start of your journey. To put this into laymen terms, you never get in your car and just drive to see where you end up, you’ll have a destination in your mind before you leave, sometimes you may have to change direction but eventually you will complete your journey.
3. Never have an opinion: - The only opinion that matters is the ones your customers or clients have. Your customers and clients are always right even when you believe they are wrong.
4. Self-educate:- What you don’t know now….learn. Take the time to learn new skills. Since we started in October 2008 we have learned to build our own websites and studied professional marketing, saving us £.000′s on out-sourcing.
5. Belief and faith: - This for me is the most important discipline; there is only one thing in life that you have total control over, your own thoughts. If you don’t believe in your business how can you expect anybody else too?
6. Diversity: - be prepared to change direction, if things aren’t working just working harder isn’t enough, you’ll just get nowhere quicker. To achieve a different outcome you will need to change the way you do things

Networking Nerves?

You’re sat on your chair, you can see other people standing up and one by one delivering what seems like the best 60 second pitch you have ever heard.
They then sit down one by one getting ever closer to you; your heart is now beating so hard  you look at the person next to you in the hope they can’t hear it, you smile awkwardly trying to hide the nerves.  Another quick swig of water, your mouth is so dry you feel like your chewing sand!. Then, the person next to you arises from their chair,
“OMG it’s my turn next!”
It gets worse, everybody is in ore at the inspiring 60 second "Mr networking"  is delivering.
You hope for a power cut!
Perhaps you could fake a heart attack!
No such luck, its time, it’s your time. 
“Hi my name is Colin and my company is ……………” OMG what’s my company name, what do we do?
60 seconds seems like a life time, and your pitch, seems the worst ever.
You forget how sit down, your 60 seconds is finished but you nervously carry on talking complete crap, hoping for some sort of acknowledgement from people in the room.
Finally you sit down, you reach for another sip of water, your hands still shaking from the nerves and adrenalin but thank god it’s over.
Sound familiar?
You are not alone; I can guarantee to you that 80% of the room feel just like you.
Now the bad news, experts will tell you that they can cure this.
There is no quick fix.
You need to use the same formula that works on everything else you do, PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT.
Sorry if that’s sound dull and boring but its the reality.
I have stood up more times than I can remember, to the newbies in the room I probably sound like an expert. I still haven’t cured my nerves and my hands still shake every time, however I no longer hate doing it and each time it gets easier.
And it will for you.