Business Plan - Define your unique selling Proposition                                                                                                                                                                          

Why should any perspective customer buy your product or service rather than your competitions?

This is a question we could ask ourselves. However, I would propose that you should consider the customers view. In other words, you need for the customer to be thinking “why buy from anyone else”.

In this article, the fifth in the business planning series of 10, I will propose a process for articulating what makes your product or service unique, different or just plain better value for money and how you communicate this to your market place.

If we consider the customer experience of dealing with your business we need to think wider than just the product or service its self. How did the customer find out about you, how easy was it for them to contact you, what was their buying experience, what is their ownership experience and after sales service like?      

OK, a lot to think about so let’s make a start at getting your unique selling proposition statement sorted. There are just 7 steps to consider: -

Research your competition

(see article “Know Your Competition”)

Knowing what your competition can and cannot do is one key ingredient for you to be able to articulate your uniqueness. In my previous article I discussed a process for doing just this.

It is not just about knowing who your competition is and what they do, it’s also important to understand their strengths and weaknesses as well as your own.

Write down what is different, special or unique about your product or service

This is not just about your product or service. You need to consider the whole process from initial contact to after sales service. How easy is it for the customer find out about you, how easy is it for them to contact you, what will their buying experience be, what will their ownership experience and after sales service be like?               

Define these points in terms of advantages for the prospective customer

For each of the above points consider “what’s in it for the customer”. What is the advantage to the customer and will they value that?

Write a brief statement

In no more than 30 words write a brief statement that that explains what you do including the points you have now articulated above. This statement should focus on what you do and what is unique about your business, products of service.

Sanity Check

For each “claim” you make, make sure that you have processes in place so that you can actually deliver.

Get feedback

Get feedback from those critical friends (you know, those friends or business colleague that are only too willing to tell you which way is up!). What do they interpret from your statement, does it engage them, and does it get them to ask more questions about your business offer?

Refine the statement and then publish

Having received the feedback, modify your statement and, after verifying the revised statement, it is now ready to publish.

Remember, this statement must tell your prospective customer enough to get their interest in you and your business and for them to want to know more.

Of course, your short statement is not the full story of your unique selling proposition (USP). Your USP is the whole service you provide from making contact to the after sales service and experience in every detail. So, you need to be able to use your short statement to engage the customer, this is the headline.

A word of advice, avoid using vague statements like “flexible service”, “no job too small”, “unbeatable prices”, unless you can be specific. Vague statements can be off-putting and appear rather cliché to prospective customers.

Still To Come

There are just a few more articles that will be published over the next two weeks: -

• Establishing Your Sales Plan

• Establishing Your Marketing Plan

• Establishing Your Business Costs

• Defining Your Business Processes

• Plan-do-Check-Act - Keep The Plan Alive.

With these articles are free templates for you to download and use towards your final business plan.

Graham Cripps

Results Consortium Ltd

www.resultsresesults.co.uk

Business Plan - Know your competition

Introduction

In this fourth publication in the business planning series of 10 articles, I want to talk about your competition and why you need to know about your competition and not just from your own perspective.

It’s one thing knowing who your competion is and what they do, you also need to understand how they are perceived by their customers. From the moment the customers sees your competitions advert, marketing materials or have any sort of contact with your competition, what is the customer experience?

Analysising Your Competition

OK, do you do your weekly food shopping predominantly at one supermarket? Stop and think why. Is it purely price, convenience or is it the whole shopping experience that takes you back there week after week. Obviously I don’t know, however, your prospective customers “shop” for your product or service in a similar way. So, what is it that will make them come to you? Ask the question “what’s in it for them?”

Example of a customer’s choice – “I buy most of my fresh meat from a local butcher. Yes he is more expensive than the local supermarkets, yes I do have to make the effort and, yes I do have to pay car park fees every time I go there. For me, I am prepared to suffer these incidentals to know I will get exactly the cut of meat I require, the advice on preparing and cooking it and the knowledge that I am getting a “good deal”. This is their value for money deal.

So, why not use a supermarket. Some of them have a butchery department, in the main the meat is of good quality, fresh and well displayed. However, for this customer, they like that little extra they get from their local butcher.

So, how do your customers view your competition, what is your competition good at and what are they not so good at. What do they offer that you don’t, what do you offer that they don’t. What are their prices like compared to yours………….. the list goes on.

So, what do you need to find out? For this we use a tool called SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

(To learn more about SWOT analysis click on the SWOT analysis button at the end of this article)

Traditionaly SWOT analysis is used as an internal analysis of your business. However, I have found that this tool to be a usefull framework for this and other applications. As you will see from our brief explanation and free template (avialable to you if you click on the button below), the Results template requires for commitment to action. As previously mentioned, action planning is an important emlement in planning for your business.

Strengths:  what are they good at?

• What is their profile (advertising, marketing, web site etc.)?

• What are they good at doing/providing?

• What is their market coverage in your chosen areas?

• What do they do that you do not or cannot?

• Pricing and what packages do they offer?

Weaknesses: what are they not so good at?

• What don’t they do that you do?

• What are they not so good at?

• What is their reputation like?

• Are their prices too high compared with yours (and what the market rate is generally)?

• Where do they not cover in terms of area, clients etc.

Opportunities: are there any opportunities for your business arising from their weaknesses?

• For each of your competitions strengths or weaknesses, what could your business do to take advantage of these and become even more competitive?

Threats: what could your completion do to take advantage of your weaknesses?

• For each of your businesses strengths determine if your competition could outperform you in any way

• For each of your weaknesses consider if your competition could take advantage of these and what you could do to improve your current offering

• What developments could your competition consider to improve their market position?

Once you have data and clear evidence of all of the above, the next step is to put in place an action plan for your business to improve your probability of winning business.

Like any competitive analysis, this is only as accurate as the effort that you put into gathering the information. Remember, the analysis is only a snap-shot in time, you need to have an action to revisit this on a regular basis. Remember, your competition will be looking to improving their position also.

Graham Cripps

Results Consortium Ltd

www.resultsresults.co.uk

Business Plan - Define your customer groups

Introduction

Hello and thanks for taking time out of your busy day once again to read this article.

This is the third publication in the 10 part series I will outline why it is important to identify the differences between your customer groups as how this will have a direct impact how you market, and ultimately sell, to these customer groups.

Customer Groups

Business owners often get confused as to who their customers are. For instance, a mobile hairdresser might say that their potential customers are “anyone who has hair”.

OK, this is true, but this is their total customer group. The fact is that within their market place, a mobile hair dresser may have a number of potential customer groups. For example:

• Parents of who want their children’s hair cut or even styled

• Young adults who want their hair cut and styled

• Women who want their hair cut, coloured and blow dried

• Retired person who has a busy social life but has some mobility needs and wants a hairdressing services at home

• And so on………………………………..

I am no hair expert as you will have seen from my photo, however I do know that each of these customers will have specific needs and that a “one size fits all” approach does not work. We need to engage with our customers on an emotional level. To do this we need to understand their likely behaviours. So using this example, our hair dresser needs to establish the likely behaviours of the parent as opposed to the retired person. Of course there will be some common ground, they all want a service from a mobile hair dresser.

So how can we identify behaviours? Well, there’s no easy answer but a good starting point is to use the term “these are people who……..”

E.g. For parents this could be – “these are people who work and engage mobile hair dressing services for their children and themselves outside of school hours.”

There are a few important points that can be derived from this statement and the group itself:-

• Punctuality will be important

• Flexible working hours will need to fit around school hours

• Younger style preferences will need to be in the hair dresser portfolio

• Consideration will need to be given to working with young children and young adults (CRB etc.)

• The appointment may need to allow for 2, 3 or 4 clients at a time (parent and 2 or three children)

• Consideration will need to be given to skin sensitivity of younger clients in term of products used

All of the above could be included for in any information offered as part of the hair dressers’ advertising and marketing materials.

So if we were to compare the needs of say a retired person, they are likely to be quite different.

Here are some examples for new business start-ups I have worked with recently: -

• LOGISTICS COMPANY – Carriers (DHL etc.);Post Office; Home shopping companies; Local business; general public

• DOMESTIC SERIVES – Professional people both working; sinlge parents that work; single men or women; people with mobility problems

• VEHICLE RESTORATION – Prestige classics; common classics; neo-classics; classic clubs/organisations; “pimp my ride”

• ENTERTAINMENT – Parents; corporate; social clubs; pubs and bars; holiday camps

• BUILDING SERVICES – Home owners; private landlords; letting management agents; commercial landlords; housing associations/councils

• OCCASION STATIONARY – civil partnerships (gay community); clubs; user sites (wedding planners etc.); parents; couples; service providers

For each business it is apparent that each customer group will have different needs of the services and products that these businesses offer.

They also present different challenges. So if we have a better understanding of our customer needs, we are able to better articulate our offer and plan to meet these needs.

Previous Articles

If you have missed  any of the previous articles, you can click on the links below to view them.

• A business plan is key for small businesses

• Defining your personal and business goals

• Understanding you in your business

Graham Cripps

Results Consortium Ltd

Business Plan - Understand You in Your Business

Hi, and thanks for joining me on my business planning publications.

This is the second of 10 in this series and is aimed at anyone needing to write a business plan, perhaps for the first time.

How do you feel about the challenges you face each day. How many of those challenges do you feel equipped to deal with?

You might say, well I do understand me in my business, but do you really? I would suggest that there are often disconnects between you, your character and that of your business. This is quite common.

Business skills exist at two levels, technical and personal or behavioural (sometimes referred to as soft skills).

• Technical – these are all the skills required to run a business like industry specific skills (plumbing, welding, painting, printing etc.), IT skills, book keeping, HR and sales and marketing etc. 

• Behavioural – your values and beliefs, the things that tend to dictate your core behaviours.

Technical Skills

I would like you to take a moment to write down your skills and experience. Go for it, capture all of it from your first job to your last job, what have you been good at. Score yourself (6 is good and 1 is poor).

Now write down all of the skills needed to run your business. Again, think broadly, think about now and in the next 12 months.

For example, these skills might include: -

• Good communication skills

• Good with people

• Enjoy working on your own

• Good with paperwork and systems

• Good with figures and finance systems

• Broad understanding of sales and marketing techniques

• etc.

Now take this list, and score how important each skill is to the business (6 crucial and 1 is nice to have).

Now score how good you are at applying this skill, from your skills list (1 is poor and 6 is competent).

OK, if there is a mismatch, then you need to consider how you are going to acquire the skills (you can train or get someone else to help).

See the following example:

Now, be honest with yourself, how have you scored on the crucial skills, are they all 6’s? I’d be surprised if they were.

Behavioural Skills

Finally, referring to the “behavioural” values and beliefs, check if they are aligned to your business behaviours. What in your business will you always do, sometimes do or never do?

Example:

Also look to see if the business behaviours are a good fit with your own values and beliefs. If not what are you going to do to redress the situation?

In business, it is easy to get bogged down with every day challenges, but to be able to enjoy what you do and not experience unnecessary stress, make sure your business reflects what you can do every day with relative ease.

It is important to keep on top of your “things to do” so make sure you include a target completion date. You can download a free template by clicking the (Business Skills Review Template) button at the end of this blog.

The purpose of this activity is to ensure that whist you are striving to develop your business, you don’t forget your own personal development. You may not be able to do everything, that’s OK. If one of your weaker skills is say book keeping or finance, that’s OK. Get a book keeper involved with your business.

Most small businesses involve other skilled and experienced people as part of their team. Things like web site development, book keeping, marketing and IT are often supported by other team members outside of the day to day business.

This team approach is important. Think about who you have in your team, the business team may include: -

• Your bank manager

• Your landlord

• Your business network group

• Your book keeper/accountant

• Marketing specialist

• Printer

• Your suppliers

• Your family and friends

• Your customers

All of these can make a valuable contribution to your business.

Graham Cripps

Results Consortium Ltd

www.resultsresults.co.uk

Business Plan - Define Your Business and Personal Goals

This is the first in a series of 10 articles I have developed to help you define what you need to consider at each stage of the business planning process.

Following on from my article "A Business Plan is Key for Small Business", this  article will concentrate on defining your business and personal goals. Even at the  early planning stages, it is important to consider what you want to achieve for  you and your business. Not just the financials but things like work/life balance.

The most important person in your business right now is you, the owner/operator. We will look at your needs as well as those of your business, what you want from the business and what you want the business to become over time.

Before we go any further I'd like you to consider my definition of success.

Success......

Success is "achieving your goals and being happy with where your are in the knowledge that you can work to be somewhere better". For me it's about enjoying the journey towards your goals.

Whether you are a sole trader, owner of a small limited company or any other business owner, you must have goals or objectives in place. It is important to articulate these goals in terms of the business and what you want from that business.

Like any other goal or objective, they must be tangilble measure of time, quantity and quality. That way you will know how you are doing on the journey.

For example, if my goal was to "go on holiday in Cornwall", this statement alone has no measurables. Really, this is no more than a wish. To have real meaning, something you can work towards it would need to consider dates, accomodation, location and transport arrangements.

So how do we set these goals?

There are some simple "rules" that you should consider:

• Be very specific about what you want so you can clearly express it to another person and they will fully inderstand

• Put measures on it, so you know when you have got there

• Make sure that the goal is something you believe you can achieve

• Ensure that the goal is realistic (no point in setting a holiday for next week if you have to give 4 weeks notice)

• Put a and date or time by which the goal is to be achieved (you can also include interim dates, milestones)

In other words use SMART Objectives (download your ree SMART Objectives article to learn more)

I strongly recommend that you have two sets of complimentary goals. Business and personal. What you want for your business and what you want for you.

Have you ever said something like "one day I'll ...............". A plan without a date on it is just a dream". If you are to be successful in business you need a detailed plan of how you are going to ahcieve your goals, and then go on and do it. There is only one person stopping you from achieving success, and that is you.

When you have time, have a look at our facebook page www.facebook.com/NowTakeControl and see some inspirational case studies of people who have started small businesses and are already off the starting block after only a few weeks. They are passionate about their business idea, just like you.

What do you want your business to become?

Consider what you want your for your business by the end of year 1, year 3 and year 5.

• To have a turnover of £45,000 by ..............

• To have a minumum of 50 regular customers by ..............

• To employ 1 additional member of staff by .........

These are just some examples to start the thought process.

What do you want from your business?

What are your personal goals, what do you want as a result of running your own business?

• Pay off my mortgage by .......

• Be able to pay my personal bills comfortably

• Have a family holiday every year from .............

• Able to spend time with my family at weekends

What ever you want for you.

Remeber, in both cases express your goals as SMART objectives (Specific - Measureable - Ahievable - Realistic - Time Bound)