Join our Monthly Prize Draw

Olivers wine winner January
 
Throughout 2014 we are running a monthly draw. Each month all of our new and existing followers on Twitter who tweet us an interesting fact, will be entered into a monthly draw. If you are the lucky winner you will be notified and asked your preference of wine. You will also be mentioned as our winner in our newsletter that’s reaches over 2000 recipients.
If you don’t already follow us on twitter you can search for us on twitter @aprobinsonandco or click this link www.twitter.com/aprobinsonandco
Happy Tweeting





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Turn your customers into your sales people


Customer referrals can be a very effective way to grow your business and your brand awareness. Many of you might have heard or even offer referral agreements. Why not advertise this more to you clients / customer base, give them an incentive to refer you. If you run a business based on subscriptions or pay monthly services, you could offer one month half price for each referral your clients / customers bring you. There are many things you could offer, vouchers, money, a bottle of wine, a discount voucher on your products or services.  You might think you are giving things away but ultimately you are growing your business. Let’s say one of your clients spends £1000 on an annual basis on your products / services, you could offer a £100 voucher; redeemable against your products or services for each referral they bring you. If they introduce their neighbour who also brings you £1000 on an annual basis, you not only gain a new client / customer but, that £100 voucher will come back into your business, so ultimately, you have not lost anything. In some circumstances your client or customer who was awarded the £100 voucher, might love the products or service so much that they add this to their annual spend with you.

If you would like more ideas on growing your business click here to get a copy of our 57 Ways to Grow Your Business book or Contact Me to book your free meeting. We're more than just accountants, we're your business advisors who will help your business flourish. Click here for my contact details.


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The powerful interview question

 
If you are an employer, you may have gone through a number of interviews trying to find the right candidate for a position you need filling within your business.

Do you have a set number of questions you ask the candidates or do you have a specific question you always ask?

There is one question that is very powerful and can give you an opening to many more questions. You will also get a better understanding of the candidate and how they could fit in with your business and the role they are applying for.

The Question: Throughout your whole career, what would you consider your biggest achievement?
Thinking about this question in your head, what would your answer be? The candidate may take a few moments to answer but when they do you could follow on with a number of other questions like;

1. How did this achievement make you feel?
2. What job role were you in at the time?
3. What was it that you felt you achieved?
4. What were there figures or results achieved?
5. What plans did you put in place to make this achievement happen?
6. Do you think this achievement helped you better your role?
7. Looking back if you did this again, is there anything you would change or do differently?
8. Did you get any recognition from your managers?
9. Did you use any specific skills to reach this achievement?
10. How did this achievement come about, was it an idea you or someone else had, was it a project you needed do as part of your daily duties?

As you can see using that one simple question has so many follow on questions you can ask. Not only are you getting a better understanding of the candidate but, you are getting to know them as a person rather than asking tough and clever interview questions.
Sharon Rose-Bloy
















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Be clear on your products and services.

Do you have a clear view of where to position your products and services in the marketplace? A useful tool for deciding how to ‘position’ your products and services is the Porter Generic Strategy Model (developed by Michael E. Porter (1998), Harvard Business School Professor and Author of numerous texts on strategy).

If you think of Rolls Royce, they go after a niche market with a very high attention to detail and quality for a premium price. But, when you look at Asda, they use low price strategy and go after the whole market. However, quality and attention to detail is less important

Taking a look at the following companies, where would you place them in the grid?

· Easy jet
· Primark
· Prada
· Ford
· Apple
· Mercedes-Benz

Total Market Focus Niche Market Focus
Low / Modest Price
Other Differentiation


After looking at those companies, where do you feel you fit in? Which part of the grid do you want to fall into?
 
Sharon Rose-Bloy











Agree? Disagree? Do let Unknown know what you think by commenting below.

Join our monthly prize draw



Olivers wine winner January

Throughout 2014 we are running a monthly draw. Each month all of our new and existing followers on Twitter who tweet us an interesting fact, will be entered into a monthly draw. If you are the lucky winner you will be notified and asked your preference of wine. You will also be mentioned as our winner in our newsletter that’s reaches over 2000 recipients.

If you don’t already follow us on twitter you can search for us on twitter @aprobinsonandco or click this link www.twitter.com/aprobinsonandco

Happy Tweeting




Agree? Disagree? Do let Unknown know what you think by commenting below.

Is your business going in the right direction?

 

Whether you’re a new business or a long established business, you should always carry out a SWOT analysis. Conducting a SWOT analysis will give you an overview of four key areas within your business. You will be able to see the positives, negatives and areas where you can improve your business. We would recommend that you conduct a SWOT analysis on an annual basis but, you must keep it up to date in order to grow and develop your business.

When did you do your last SWOT analysis?

Carrying out a SWOT analysis will help you to identify your company’s:

· Strengths

· Weaknesses

· Opportunities

· Threats

Use your SWOT analysis to set your ‘actions for improvement’ for your business development and growth.

Some important questions you should ask yourself are:

Strengths

What are we really good at?

What are our unique skills?

Where do we outperform our competitors?

Weaknesses

What are we really poor at?

What resources are we short of?

Where are we at a competitive disadvantage?

Opportunities

How could we improve our sales?

How could we improve our efficiency?

What are the new products/services/niche markets could be added?

Threats

What regulations are changing?

What products/services are losing demand?

What resources are difficult to find?

What are our competitors doing?

To find out more tips/information, why not download a copy of our

Book “57 Ways to Grow Your Business” Here

Agree? Disagree? Do let Unknown know what you think by commenting below.