Richard Smith – Small Business Marketing Expert

Originally posted elsewhere I thought it was worth repeating  at least in part.

No Time For Any Of This – Not Even The Loo!

At a seminar last week we broke for a coffee as you would expect, around 11am (after a 9am start) we were allowed a short break, visit to the toilet (and of course a fag break for a few) and of course a coffee. Nothing unusual here.

I toddled off to the loo and managed to get there just in time, must be my age I am sure.

Whilst standing at the urinal I was surrounded, one side by an IFA and the other by a Sales Manager (of some standing I think) none of this so far was unusual, except for one thing.

Both of them were on their Mobile Phones, one calling the office and the other a client it would seem. Now these guys are so busy making money or are they? Clearly they are not making money/doing business in a manner which is helpful long term. I think probably not personally, busy fools springs to mind, and what with being forced to attend a seminar (no doubt to keep up with CPD or something) leaving valuable time not in front of clients.

So busy in fact that they do not even have time to pee properly. One thing that really struck me was that the world has clearly gone mad when people do not even have time for the loo.

With that in mind I thought I should share a couple of tips for increasing the amount of time you have. You can of course ignore these completely or take some of them on board. You might find your life will change a little if you do. You may even have time for a wee.

So here we go:

Increase the amount of money you charge your clients, starting with a 10% increase in your fee’s. Not all will pay it, but most will. If you think your business will stand it try 15% or even 20%.

Laser focus on the type of business you want to specialise in, you should be able to tell a new client in 10 seconds what you do (e.g. I prepare Financial Plans for Nursing Home residents that are tax efficient and effective for the resident and their family) sounds a bit better than Financial Adviser.

General practitioners have been dying out for years and will continue to do so.

By focusing on limited advice area you can focus your marketing. Saving time and money. (Shockingly I have just searched google for IFA specialising in Nursing Home Fee’s and the results are a little disappointing at least for IFA’s, in fact so disappointing to be positively appalling).

Refuse to travel anywhere unless the client is paying/will pay/has paid, and do not travel more than 45 minutes, buy them lunch and get them to come to you.

Get all of the mundane, boring, repetitive work done by junior or admin staff. Consider outsourcing to a third party (ok I admit this is not always practical). You could even use software.

Consider using ‘screen sharing’ software in order to save you ever leaving the office, provided your client has a computer and an internet connection there is no need to meet ever.

Charge for everything you do, or at least put in place a process to charge for everything at least this will give you a choice.

Use a “will do list” this is the list of things that you WILL DO!

Automate as much of your marketing/customer communication as possible.

The bottom line is that it is not acceptable to have to use a loo whilst chasing customers/providers or staff.

Leaving the office for a few hours and having to spend every available moment on the phone is not ‘being in charge’ and of course some simple changes can have a profound effect, you may even make some more money out of it.