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Survey: Small Business Branding and Marketing I set up this simple survey in conjunction with Michael Cowen of Context Branding. (My marketing background is as a marketing guerilla, first with direct mailing, and then email marketing. Michael is an expert on branding, and his analysis of the results is in a PDF at the end of the report. How true are the following statements in your business?
Michael has some views on these results, but my concern is that so many of us either have a low self-image of our businesses, or simply don't know. Peter Drucker, the last century's leading business thinker said "A business exists to create clients." In order to do that we need to at least have a better than even chance of converting the folk we meet (professionally) into those clients. That's very difficult if we don't think we're getting it right. What is the primary means of your brand communication?
I guess there is nothing wrong with word of mouth since so many of us swear by it, but to me it has always seemed a bit of a copout. How do we inspire our clients to talk about us? How do we know that what they're telling their mates is what we would want them to? My concern is that most of us have little clear idea of where we're going with our marketing, and that sure shows in the dreadful mortality statistics for small business. How many full time employees are there in your business?
This number was deeply skewed with one respondent having more than 30,000 employees in other locations.
Michael Cowen offers a much more insightful analysis than my cursory overview, and his is well worth reading. You will find 10 pages of pure gold here.
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Becoming a Business Warrior is like discovering you have another family. Your regular family can talk to you about that awkward childhood moment no-one else knows about. The business warriors family can talk to you about that awkward business moment you thought no-one else knew about. It's immensely reassuring talking to people who are also crazy enough to run their own business, who are also battling the cashflow, bank, client, tax, employee (circle as applicable) monsters. More than that the website is jammed full of information to help win these battles.
Blue Cow has been a Warrior since January 2007 and can be found at www.bluecow.co.za
As a one-man or small business, you miss out on the serendipity and camaraderie of office life. The loneliness can be overwhelming at times. I have been a member of several networking groups for small business over the years in an attempt to establish a network of like-minded individuals and somewhere to bounce ideas around.
While most have helped to a greater or lesser degree, I have found that the one that I return to most regularly is BW. It has a sense of community that the others lack.
Iain Robertson has been a Warrior since October 2008 and can be found at www.ealabhan.co.za
Over the past four years, of being a Business Warrior, I found myself referring back to the Warrior forum whenever I needed help or advice on basically anything. Whether it is about what kind of cellphone to buy or how to go about applying for a homeloan. The best thing I learnt though was how to crashproof our business. We had an overdraft of R500K as well as a short term business loan of the same amount and signed sureties for it at the bank. The bank made a huge amount of profit through incredible interests whilst holding us ransom through the sureties. We have since gotten rid of this debt as well as the sureties involved. In these trying economic times we have Business Warriors and Peter Carruthers to thank for it.
Johann Joubert has been a Warrior since August 2005 and can be found at johann@booksaonline.com
Hi Peter
To be able to connect with other small business owners and share/learn from each others experiences is invaluable
The webinars turn out to be fantastic as I need to secure my cash flow for the years to come and learning how to make money on the internet is a great way to do just that!
Marc Kuster has been a Warrior since February 2009 and can be found at airwear@mweb.co.za
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