PR Campaign Tricks for SMEs to Improve Start-up Business March 26, 2012

The prime reason behind most new businesses to fail is their poor marketing strategy. This realization has motivated many enterprises to divert their efforts into developing a strong public relations (PR) campaign, which can help them promote & advertise their business on a wider scale.

A public relations campaign can compose of many different channels including, promotional offers, broadcasting media, print media, etc. However, you must choose a public relations outlet that can best suit your kind of business.

Here are few important steps entrepreneurs may follow to help them choose the most profitable PR channel to promote their business:

Know Your Target Audience – Before you can actually go about developing a public relations campaign, you must first define your target audience. Depending upon the types of services & products of your company in relation to your target audience, you can then tailor your marketing campaign accordingly.

Identify Competitors – A subsequently important step is to define your competitors. There is bound to be strong competition in every business & in order to be able to outdo this competition, you must first have a thorough knowledge of the opposition. Identifying your opponents and seeking details like, their pricing, marketing strategies, etc can be instrumental in planning your own marketing strategy.

Calculate Advertising Budget – Once you have defined your target audience & identified your competitors, the next step is to look for means to promote your business. However, it must be noted that advertising a start-up can be a costly endeavour. For this you must have prior planning as to how much amount you can afford to spend for marketing strategy.

Self vs. Hired Promoters – Once you have your advertising budget ready, you can then make a decision as to whether you would require a public relations specialist or have the promotions done through other cheaper alternatives like, blogs, newspaper advertisements, etc. The only thing to remember here is that, while the cheaper means of promotions may not be very effective, on the other hand a skilled public relations specialist can help you in implementing more aggressive means of promotion.

If you can spend ample time on each of these steps, you are sure to have a marketing campaign that can easily outshine the campaigns of your competitors.

If you need any assistance in PR email us on media@smejoinup.com

Tips for SMEs to Handle Online Crisis February 20, 2012

Every online company whether big or small have to face an online crisis like situation some or the other time. At such times, what comes to their rescue is a sound crisis communication.

Studies indicate that no matter what kind of an online business you are involved in, when caught in the midst of a crisis situation, the response typically follows a similar path – acknowledgement of the crisis situation, looking for ways to overcome your fears, informing relevant people, taking a decision & implementing it, optimizing the outputs and modifying your business strategies to ensure that the situation doesn’t arise again.

The only problem here is that, not every company can get all of these steps right due to the lack of enough information. As a result, most often they fail to make a worthy & profitable decision. This consequently worsens the situation and there is not much then that the company can do.

For all such companies, here are a few essential tips on how to face a crisis situation:

Take Initiative – A great advantage for online companies is the available access to internet – the fastest information sharing platform. While even a small blunder can instantly instigate negative response from consumers & stakeholders, the trick is to keep a track of these responses and be the first to come up with a rapid positive response. This helps to stop the negative conversations right on their track as well as provides companies with the opportunity to actually own the conversation.

Be Honest – There is no shame in accepting the fact that anyone can make mistakes. However, as responsible entrepreneurs, it is your duty to let your consumers know about the crisis situation as soon as you become aware of it. While most companies fail to do so due to lack of organized communication, it is always advisable to take a transparent approach & be honest about the facts of the crisis. This not just drives in credibility for you but also associates a trust factor with your company.

Be Transparent – A major disadvantage of online medium is that, rumours can spread like wild fire. At such times, consumers are on the lookout for businesses they can trust. For this it is important for you to be absolutely transparent and build credibility to ensure that your consumers trust you. Responses are powerful when they tend to come from a senior official. Thus, take care to call down your topmost official to handle crisis situations.

Finally, the basic aim behind this complete exercise is to not just overcome the crisis situation but also ensure that the same is not repeated in the near future!

Working Capital Financing – Quickest, Easiest & Safest Finance Solution for SMEs February 10, 2012

For the small & medium enterprises to function smoothly and have a constant growth in future, there is a need for continuous organized finance, that too from a reliable source. While it is a known fact that risks & speculations will always be an integral part of a growing business, successful entrepreneurs are those who keep funds available to back their strategies in order to undertake such risks.

Business experts indicate that, in order for your company to grow beyond defined boundaries, forecast the trends of future markets, create a commendable infrastructure, run successful marketing & promotional campaigns and simply pay off debts, dependable working capital finance is required.

Given the present business scenario, the key to a growing & successful business is to align it with the latest technologies. However, while applying techno-friendly strategies would accelerate the productivity & work flow of the company & help it get an edge over its competitors, incorporating these technicalities would also require a considerable amount of investment on your part and for that, what you require is a working capital boost.

For any startup business to reach out to its target audience & create a long-lasting impact, an effective promotional and marketing campaign is a must. The thing to note hear is that, even if you have been in the business for a long time, still in order to ensure that you do not take a backseat in the minds of people, it is important for you to continue with your promotional campaigns. Since, most of these campaigns are expensive; you again require a continuous working capital.

A part & parcel of every business whether new or old, is Debt Management. In order to ensure that you are not overburdened with debts at any point of time, it is important that you repay your debts at regular intervals. This ideally would require a continuous cash flow.

These are some business demands & needs that are bound to spring-up irrespective of the fact that you are a startup or an established company. This is where Working Capital Financing proves extremely useful for the entrepreneurs. Quick finance for meeting all these demands can easily be availed within 72 hours of application, that too without any application fee or collateral or any personal guarantee.

The most interesting thing about working capital finance however is its repayment scheme. Unlike other kinds of capital finances, working capital finance does not follow a fixed repayment schedule. It is only when a sale is made, that a certain amount automatically gets deducted from it as the repayment of the capital. For the loyal customers who are regular with their repayments, there are special programs & incentives.

Thus, in case you are looking for a spry financing option to meet the demands of your business, do not forget to consider working capital financing as the easiest & safest finance option and send  a request on https://docs.google.com/a/smejoinup.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dERxVkQ5YjJtbWRueEowMURWTmZqOHc6MQ#gid=0 or email us on getmoney@smejoinup.com 

Setting Up Offshore Company – A Brilliant Tax Buster Solution for SMEs February 3, 2012

Although setting up an offshore company may sound a little weird to many, given the recent market trends, there has been an excessive increase in the success rate of companies opting to start their businesses offshore.

Starting an offshore company is not quite as tedious a work as many find it to be, in fact it may take even less than 24hours if all your resources are ready. However, an important thing to consider before setting-up an offshore company, is to carefully analyze all the pros & cons associated with the establishment of the company along with the benefits that you’ll reap from this deal. This is because, there are endless legal & financial benefits that make the option of an offshore company feasible.

Highlighting Benefits of an Offshore Company

• Minimized burden of personal taxation

• Most offshore companies are taxed low or exempted from taxes

• As long as an offshore company restricts itself from entering another business, it can easily exempt itself from most local taxation.

It is for this very reason that, establishing an offshore company can be of great help in reducing the tax burden of a company. Consequently, the routine operations of the company are also simplified & a great amount of time & energy that is usually required for filing of records & account auditing, is also saved. This automatically helps you cut down on the overhead costs & offers you additional time & energy to look into other vital elements of your business.

Another major advantage that comes with the establishment of an offshore company is that, since the setting up of such a company comes with extreme confidentiality rules, automatically steps are undertaken whereby all details of the company are kept out of public vigil.

Thus, for every business looking for ways to lessen their taxation burden, the best & safest option is to setup an offshore company. A similar kind of tax shelter is provided by the offshore banking. However, irrespective of whether you choose to setup an offshore company or bank offshore, take care to receive professional aid so that the legal procedures of the respective jurisdiction can be carried out smoothly.

Does Your Branding & Marketing Align with your Business Figure? December 31, 2011

Most small and medium enterprises especially the growing ones and start-ups, seem to spend a large amount of their time trying to figure out how to position their business in the crowded & competitive business world, who is the target audience, what messages are to be conveyed to their target audience, how the messages would be carried across and so on.

However, how many SMEs have really tried to take a break, sit back & figure out that – How your message is going to be heard? How will it be interpreted by your target audience? Whether or not your audience will be able to understand exactly what you are trying to convey? What would it mean to the person who is listening?

The main point of interest behind such elaborate question and answer is to make you realize the fact that, it is not always what you say or do that necessarily counts but mostly the way it is received, understood and interpreted by your target audience that matters more. Unless and until your message sent = message received + interpreted, you cannot say for sure that you have hit the bull’s eye.

A good way to ensure that whether or not your message is getting conveyed & interpreted the way you want it to be is, to get a feedback from your customers as well as from your network. Customers because, their perspective of your business as well as you is very important & significant. They are mostly the ones to carry forward your message. And network because, this normally includes people you have always known but have never worked with.

While most SMEs may find doing this sort of an exercise on a regular basis a little scary and time consuming, you can be assured that the exercise is definitely worth every minute and penny spent. Not only will this initiate and strengthen your relation with both your customers as well as network, but also make you clear on your marketing strategies & business goals. You will simultaneously have a clear understanding of what you are conveying through your strategies and also your target audience’s perspective over the same. You also get to know how the business world is looking at your business and is it in line with your marketing and branding strategies.

Most importantly, this exercise is the simplest answer to the question that “Are your business and marketing strategies talking about the same thing to your target audience as well as to those around you?”

For any help on branding and marketing , pls email us on media@smejoinup.com and we shall try to help you out !

7 Easy Steps for SMEs to Make Their Trade Shows Pay Off December 27, 2011

With the business world & foreign & domestic markets gaining stability, trade shows have once again started to pick up, with the number of attendees and booth sales growing each year.

In the recent past there had come a time when many businesses decided to dial down participation in such trade fairs & conferences. If you too are one of those businesses, then this is the right time to make a comeback & re-engage.

Here are few essential steps SMEs may follow, to ensure that your money & time invested in trade shows pays off into profitable leads and stronger customer bonds.

1. While most SMEs begin preparing for their shows only days beforehand, there is instead a need for long-term strategy that aligns with your company marketing.
2. The basic motive behind attending such conferences & trade shows is to be able to connect with your prospective & current customers and also to get updated on the latest technologies & products that can benefit your business. The key here is to ensure whether or not you accomplish these tasks well & how wisely you spend your time. Thus, the catch here is to first evaluate which trade shows can be of maximum profit for you. Your aim is to generate a lead for your products & marketing. A good way to do this is to become a panellist or speaker that brings for your some instant recognition & thereby generate leads.
3. Start contacting your target audience well in advance by means of attractive mailers that can tempt ample traffic to your booth.
4. Referring exhibition handbooks that are often neglected, is a cheap & useful resource for identifying key activities you may want to attend & delegates who can prove instrumental for your business. You may also call the PR of the show to get updates on high profile speakers & product launches. Think of the show as a golden opportunity to get immense recognition within an intense timeframe.
5. It would be too much of an expectation to assume the attendees to find you. Experts indicate that it is for you to devise ways & means of standing out of crowd. While some experts are of the opinion that large & bold displays are visible from across all corners of the hall, others advice to have counter-programming presentation with a personal touch for more effective results.
6. Skilled & well trained staff is a key consideration in trade shows. Remember that each & every staff member who will man a booth acts as your business ambassador. Thus, it is important for you to pen down a pitch well in advance & have it practiced with each of your staffer so that the messaging is consistent. Evaluate the results of the pitch by measuring the sales leads or script the pitch accordingly.
7. Pushing your products at your customers is not the smartest way. A better way is to instead ask questions that can help you judge the needs & temperament of your customers & then pitch your products. This ensures a longer customer relationship.

The Big Question: Why SMEs Want To Learn & Not Be Trained? December 21, 2011

The recent years have seen a constant debate on training vs learning for SMEs. One must understand though that there is a very fine line of difference between the two. While both are meant to impart knowledge, there is a willingness factor associated with the latter. It is this difference that is catalytic in the recent shift of major organizations from sophisticated training methodologies to informal learning.

Here are a few distinguishing factors that tempt SMEs to learn rather than be trained:

Development vs Change: The focus of learning is mainly to achieve a permanent change in behaviour that comes through varied opportunities to achieve these changes through practice or personal experience. The experience here is thus more challenging & long lasting. As against this, training emphasises on the acquisition & development of new skills through structured training. This reduces the challenge & the passion to explore new opportunities.

Formal vs Informal Learning: Training is a form of formal or structured learning wherein you are only a passive recipient of the imparted information. The actual responsibility is with the trainer. You only do what you are asked to. This is where informal learning takes a lead. You become the active recipient of information & the complete responsibility of the learning process is on you. This kind of informal learning gives SMEs a golden opportunity to explore new avenues & gain a first-hand & long-lasting learning experience.

Ability to Judge: Not many trainers will tell you the drawbacks or challenges of acquiring a particular skill. Thus, you are forced to develop your skills only because you have to. Unlike this, learning is more of a trial-and-error method where you don’t develop a skill just because you have to but because you want to. This willingness to learn new things gives you a greater exposure & activates your skill to differentiate between the good & bad.

Present vs Future: Training for most SMEs is meant only to impart skills for meeting current organizational requirements. Once the need is met, there is no future for the training acquired. Learning however is meant for long-lasting benefits. A lesson learnt today may prove instrumental in the future growth of the organization.

Known vs Ambiguous Challenges: Training most often imparts knowledge for handling current challenges that the organization may be facing. Once the challenge is overcome, you may never need the training again. However, learning prepares you for an ambiguous future. You are faced with new challenges each & every day & the learning process is never-ending.

Internal vs External: Someone has rightly said that “Where there is a will there is a way”. Learning emerges out of the willingness to learn new things & make them a part of your behaviour. It is something you willingly acquire not because you need to but because you wish to. Training is something where you are forced to acquire knowledge. Since the willingness is not all yours, the effects of training die-out after a few years.

Affordability: One major difference that sets learning apart from training is money. For you to be able to learn something, you do not necessarily need to have your wallets full. However, training you cannot think about without spending some extra bucks. Besides, the returns of investment on learning if any are lifelong. However, returns on training investments are most often momentary.

These differences are explanatory to the recent paradigm shift of organizations from training to learning.

If you are keen on learning and being updated on all workshops,seminars,events,exhibitions held in India please email us on training@smejoinup.com

To list training/event/seminar etc with us to reach to SMEs mail us on training@smejoinup.com

7 Easy Ways for SMEs to Manage their Rapidly Growing Business December 19, 2011

While most start-up SMEs are working towards the growth of their business to make maximum profits, there are also those who already have a rapidly growing business & only seek ways to manage & control their growth. Following a few careful measures can surely help SMEs give their competitors a panic attack.

Included here are some quick & useful tips for managing growing businesses:

Delegation of Tasks: To keep your growing business right on track & to ensure that you work in line with the original ideas you had chalked out & do not get lost in your stride for success, there is a need for constant & timely directions. Delegation of tasks that others can manage is essential here, since it frees up your time for directing more important processes.

Ensure Staff Satisfaction: It is important for SMEs to understand that happy, passionate & motivated staff is your biggest asset, especially for a rapidly growing company. You look after them & they look after your customers ensuring long-term businesses.

Price Hike: For a rapidly growing business, there is a need to establish balance between supply & demand. While you would not want to upset relations with your reliable & longstanding clients, at the same time you also need to make sure that you are not underselling your efforts.

Have Selective Clients: In order to make sure that your business is on the growth track, you need to be very selective with your clients. It is better to have fewer valuable clients than to devote your time on businesses with false economy. There is no harm in turning down business associations as far as you are honest & not rude.

Track your Cash Flow: The reason for most growing businesses to fail is their poor management of cash flow. Most SMEs end up offering higher credit terms to clients than they get with suppliers. As a result, the cash dries up before you even have a chance to recover. Thus, a regular check on cash flow is mandatory.

Keep Outsourcing Options Open: If you can find options to have your work done at cheaper costs & yet as effectively, you can always go in for outsourcing. However, make sure that you follow up on the work to maintain a similar level of service. This way you can have ample time available for managing other areas of your business.

Shout Out Your Success: There is no harm in letting your customers, competitors & everyone else know about your business growth. In fact, customers always tend to associate with businesses which have an accelerating growth graph. Also, this gives your competitors ample reasons to be nervous!!

Contributed by Sushmita Kalashikar

For assistance in any of the above tips email us on media@smejoinup.com

Cost Effective Ways to Create Brand & Sales Leads December 16, 2011

“If you don’t put yourself in a position to be noticed, you never will be”.

This holds very true for the SMEs, especially for the start-ups, who wish to make their presence felt in a strong & influential way. With the business world becoming ever-competitive, there is a need for SMEs to generate that “X” factor. However, this is not possible unless you have a clear understanding of who your target audience is & what appeals to their buying instincts the most.

1.Social Media Strategies/E-Marketing – Referrals and viral marketing can accelerate your lead generation initiatives in a fun, fast & free way. Use sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc to develop interactive & niche groups & create a buzz about your products & services within minutes & in the most cost-effective way.

With more than 770M users on FB worldwide and a whopping 38M in India itself growing at a mnthly rate of around 8% we cannot ignore this medium for our own marketing.

2.Print and Radio Advertising – A well-crafted advertisement placed time & again in the right publication or broadcasted repeatedly on the radio is an effective way to generate leads & help build brand awareness in today’s competitive business environment.

Eg: People of all ages, regions, castes & creeds enjoy listening to radio. The youth is especially fascinated by the new-age radio channels like Mirchi, My FM, etc. This automatically turns the youth into brand ambassadors of a product or service.

3. Brand Building and Emotional Benefits – People buy benefits rather than features. What appeals to people are not just the features of a service or product but the benefits that tag along.

Eg: Taglines like – Dissolving tablets allow us to take medicine on the go.

Another recent eg is that of Fast Track. The company knows that owing to their own durable watches, people would not be looking to buy another watch soon. Hence, to instigate people to buy multiple watches, they have come up with taglines like – “How Many Do You Have?” And “Move On..”

4.Direct Mail / Email / SMS Marketing – Sending out direct emails to your customers gives your strategy a personalized touch & also it is extremely cost effective. Our common human tendency is such that we enjoy reading mails & SMS’s addressed directly by our name. This tendency can easily be enchashed upon by the SMEs.

Eg: Most people must have received a birthday or anniversary wish message/card from a company at some or the other time. Such messages tug at the emotions of customers & pave the way for a strong & long-lasting customer-provider relationship.

5.Partnership Marketing/ co-branding/ strategic partnerships – Such type of swap branding can enhance the visibility of SMEs & also help strengthen identity.

Eg: An advertisement for tie on a website selling formal shirts. A customer looking to buy formals may most probably be interested in buying a tie along with the shirt. What better a deal for the customer to buy both the things through one single site.

6.Provider-driven Brand Image – This kind of branding serves to build credibility for the provider. After all, customers are always on the lookout for businesses they can blindly trust.

Eg: A punchline of Allstate’s:  “You’re in good hands,”

7.Word of Mouth – One of the most potent, viral & cost effective marketing communications is the word-of-mouth. If you can create a buzz about your products & services amongst the common man, your battle is half won.

8.Content Marketing – The use of blogs, forums, newsletters, whitepapers and e-books are some of the best cost effective ways of content marketing.

Eg: Post open end questions about your products & services on blogs & forums & let people do the talking.

9.Active Participation in Social, Community, Business events – This is the best & most cost effective way of creating leads in your niche market. Showing active participation in such events not only supports your brand image but also brings you at par with prospective co-branders.

Eg: Attend Tradefairs, Business Gatherings, etc.

10.Youtube Video for a Product – For the tech-friendly SMEs, creating innovative youtube of your products & services can enhance your brand visibility. Unlike the TV commercials, this kind of branding is absolutely free with the same or most of the times greater response than TV ads.

It is important for SMEs to remember that, “When there is an original sound in the world, it makes a hundred echoes.”  Thus, unless & until SMEs start ‘thinking out of the box’, they cannot take the lead.

 Contributed by Sushmita Kalashikar

For any of the above requirements pls send a mail to media@smejoinup.com

 

How SME’s Can Create Customer Loyalty December 5, 2011

For any business to grow, it is extremely essential to ensure that, your potential customers turn into your brand loyals. This is possible only when you offer your customers with the kind of satisfaction they are looking for.

Here are a few simple tips SME’s can follow to create & maintain customer loyalty:

1. Provide your customers with an unbeatable line & range of products & services. This ensures that your customers can get whatever they are looking for without leaving your premises.
2. A good way to tempt your customers is to offer them with incentives they hadn’t expected to gain before visiting your site. This may include, freebies, seasonal discounts, free coupons, gifts or a chance to participate and win a competition. There are several big companies relying on loyalty schemes that customers can use to earn points & redeem later as rewards.
3. Generate customer loyalty by sponsoring special groups like sports clubs or bands. This helps you create goodwill for yourself & a brand loyalty from your customers.
4. Brand loyalty depends largely on the trust you generate in the minds of your customers. Unless they can trust your reliability & loyalty, they will never come back.
5. An understatement for loyalty builders is to “do good to do well”. Think of schemes whereby you can keep your regular customers coming in while also encouraging new customers. For eg: You may offer discounts on special occasions like Children’s Day, where customers bringing in their used clothes can avail discounts on their new purchases. This way, you not only benefit your regular customers but also create goodwill by extending help to the needy.
6. Identify your gold customers & offer them the best of services since, this limited percentage of customers are the ones who work as catalysts in your sales graph. They are often instrumental in generating a mouth-to-mouth promotion for your brand.
7. This is a competitive business world where every SME wants to offer his best. Thus, to get an edge over your competitors, find out the kind of services customers are looking for & make it easier for your customers to shop with you rather than your counterparts.
8. Go in for interactive customer shopping. There is a certain class of customers who prefer to do custom shopping, like a particular colour, size, design, pattern & so on. For such people, you can offer facilities like request emails or forms, where customers can just fill in their requirements & come back whenever you have the right stuff to offer.

A loyal customer is what makes your business grow. So, if you can ensure customer satisfaction, then it is a battle half won for you!

Contributed by Sushmita Kalashikar