Preparing For That First Business Convention

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Convention|Preparing For That First Business ConventionAs a firm, many milestones come your way. Your first five employees show the start of something promising while surviving your first financial year shows that you have some merit behind what you’re doing. Additionally, framing the first dollar you have ever received in a revenue context can help you tremendously.

But there’s almost nothing as big as that first business convention. For many firms, this can make them as nervous as can be, almost as if the company was a shy entity preparing for its first date. This is because not only does a firm wish to impress, but they will be in the presence of industry leaders whom they may wish to network with.

Of course, the public visibility of such an event is often something that holds additional merit, because we wish to show everyone that we have what it takes to stand with the big boys. To that end, let us consider how to appropriately prepare for your first business convention. With the following words, you’re sure to hit it out of the park:

Hire A Visible Lot

When it comes to booking your expo space, most event halls will ask that you hire an allotment of space. Within this, you may be assigned a booth, or you may be allowed to construct your own display feature yourself. It’s important that you invest in one that will be visible and also gain traffic from passers-by walking the event. In some cases, larger space is preferable to visible traction, and vice versa depending on your goals.

For product demonstrations, it might be worth erecting a large indoor tent for people to walk in and engage with your demonstration rather than watching it behind a large crowd. Additionally, if engagement and ensuring people sign up to follow your social media accounts is your goal, a smaller space may be preferable. It all depends on what you hope to achieve, and if you think that’s a realistic goal or not.

Regardless, it’s essential to consider what your needs are before booking the space, because you need to understand what your budget is going to look like. Additionally, hiring out space on a main stage for a large product demonstration may cost a little more. It’s important to be on top of your planning for this and plan your presence to a T.

Promote Your Attendance

It’s important to promote your attendance thoroughly if you hope for people to come and visit. You might not be a massive attraction at this stage, so it can be worthwhile to promote the event above all things. This is an easier sell, because it shows potential visitors that they have the chance to come, maybe see you, but also have a great day or weekend at said show. Using the event’s social media kit, you may align your marketing with theirs. But if you hope to use their licensed work for anything you may need to discuss this with the event organizers and gain express permission for this. If it’s solely to benefit the event, there may be some room for negotiations.

Craft Your Merchandise

Merchandise is an essential part of running a competent trade show event. If you cater to this carefully, you can market yourself with considerable weight. Consider the practical items you may give out as freebies. For example, if it’s in the middle of summer, a branded baseball cap can be a great idea. If you book an event space near the entrance of the convention center and you hand out a branded tote bag to each visitor, you have managed to give said visitors a place to store all of their other belongings and merch they are given when walking around the event. When all of the competition’s branded merch is hidden within your large branded bag, you can see who the victor of the public imaging war will be.

Merch is a great way to help those who do not know of your presence come to check out your stall, especially if you’re giving away great items such as hooded sweatshirts for engaging with a product demonstration. Everyone likes free stuff, and if the first memory a potential expo-goer has of your firm is something quality, practical and complimentary? You can be sure they’re going to give you that second look later on down the line.

With this advice, you’re certain to prepare well for that first business convention.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 3 – An Interview with Forrest Breyfogle, author of Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume I – The Basics

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag posts on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 3 – An Interview with Forrest Breyfogle, author of Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume I – The Basics explores how to achieve organizational performance improvements through the use of the Integrated Enterprise Excellence system. During our discussion, Forrest Breyfogle, author of Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume I – The Basics: Golfing Buddies Go Beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard and CEO of Smarter Solutions, a global management coaching and consulting firm specializing in the design and application of innovative enterprise-wide performance measures and business solutions, shares his insights regarding:

  • the importance of an integrated approach to organizational performance improvement
  • how using the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) model at the enterprise and project levels can drive performance improvement
  • acquisition of critical option value insights through the use of the Design of Experiments (DOE) approach
  • how other business management approaches such as Total Quality Management (TQM), the Theory of Constraints (TOC), SMART goals, and ISO 9000 are related to the Integrated Enterprise Excellence system

Additional Information

Complimenting the outstanding insights Forrest shares in Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume I – The Basics and this special edition podcast, are the organizational performance improvement materials and resources found on his website, Smarter Solutions (www.SmarterSolutions.com). Forrest also offers free one-day seminars throughout the United States. For additional information regarding these seminars, click here.

As mentioned in the podcast, Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume I – The Basics, is just one of four books in the Integrated Enterprise Excellence series which includes:

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Forrest W. Breyfogle IIIForrest W. Breyfogle III, author of Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume I – The Basics, is CEO of Smarter Solutions, a global management coaching and consulting firm specializing in the design and application of innovative enterprise-wide performance measures and business solutions. For over 15 years, Forrest has advised company leaders and their teams on how to improve their organization’s performance through the use of his Integrated Enterprise Excellence system. In 2004, Forrest received the prestigious Crosby Medal from the American Society for Quality for his earlier book, Implementing Six Sigma. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the University of Texas Center for Performance Excellence. To read Forrest’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:57 — 32.9MB)

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Logistics For Your Business

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It can become somewhat of a conundrum. Working out how to get your products from the manufacturers, to the storage, and then from that warehouse to the customer. All of the logistics need to be worked out and in play pretty early on in your business planning. Setting up your website, working on getting finances sorted, they are all part and parcel of a startup too. If you are selling a physical product then you’re going to need your logistical situation setup or at least well thought out and ready to go.

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Before we take a look at the different points that go into logistics it is important to know how it will impact your business and what it actually is.

Many people get logistics confused with supply-chain. It is a part of it, but the two terms aren’t interchangeable. Logistics is the movement of goods and supply chain is that movement – however, it is also sourcing, cost of goods, relationship management and everything else.

“Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.”
 
Tom Peters – Rule #3: Leadership Is Confusing As Hell
Fast Company, March 2001

Priorities

It is something that most of the tie you don’t even think about. Because we are so used to having our deliveries the next working day, or same day. And when we go into a shop, we expect the products to be on the shelves. But behind the scenes, there are a lot of logistics in play. It has to be a well-oiled machine. When you are a customer, you get irritated when things aren’t available when you think they should be. When you are the owner – you need to make sure everything is where it should be.

Speed and cost will influence each other, and your customers too – what matters more? Speed or cost?

Planning

The whole process relies heavily on your ability to plan production and demand. You will know that you need 6 weeks for X product to arrive from China, and 3 weeks from mainland EU – so you can opt for a lower price for a longer shipping time. And you will then have a longer lead-in time for the product launch and release.

Process

You are going to want to try out a few different types of freight methods. If you have planned correctly, you can choose to have a more extended travel time, slower, but ultimately cheaper way or you have time to find the right contract logistics company for you. Your internal logistics matters here too. How fast can you process orders? Working on the basis that your initial planning has gotten products from manufacturers to your warehouse in good time, you’re ready to ship to customers.

If you are promising a specific shipping date, then you should make sure that you are 100% sure that is what you will be doing. Managing your customer’s expectations is always the aim. The whole logistics process is what will keep your business running smoothly and your customers happy.

Three Ways to Increase Business Profits

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Three Ways to Increase Business ProfitsEvery entrepreneur wants their business to grow and generate a profit. Fortunately, there are many ways to increase your chances of business success, save money on your cash flow budget, and grow a successful business.

With this in mind, here are three simple ways to increase business profits.

Invest in recruitment strategies

It’s important to keep in mind that employees are the backbone of every successful business. A productive workforce will have an obvious positive impact on your profits and overall business success. For that reason, it’s vital that you invest in recruitment and focus on strategies to attract and retain the best quality staff.

Some simple ways to attract top talent include offering job perks such as bonus schemes, generous holiday allowances, flexible working, and free gym memberships. In today’s candidate-driven market, many companies struggle in their hiring efforts. Unemployment is low and job seekers have increasingly high expectations which can make recruitment a challenge for any business.

One way to improve your hiring strategy is by outsourcing your recruitment to a HR consultancy. For instance, London HR consulting offer expert guidance on recruitment strategies and can help you attract top talent to your business. Investing in recruitment and hiring strategies is definitely worth it in the long run, considering the many benefits of having a highly skilled and productive workforce.

Focus on your marketing efforts

Marketing is one of the key ways to increase profits in your business. Effective marketing strategies will improve brand awareness, generate more leads and conversions, and ultimately increase sales and profits in your business. For that reason, it’s vital that you invest in advertising and marketing efforts and have this as a core focus in your business plan.

Companies use a huge range of different marketing strategies and it’s important to find what works best for your individual business. One of the most effective marketing tools in the modern business world is social media. These platforms allow you to interact with your customers on a more personal level, expand your target audience and advertise your products and services to a global audience. Business owners should not overlook the power that social media can have on business profits.

According to experts at Business2Community – “Social media marketing is perhaps the most powerful brand-building tool of all – but only if it’s managed correctly.” If you’re struggling to maintain an active presence on social media, then you should consider hiring a social media expert to manage your accounts for you.

Maximize your cash flow

Cash flow is the money that goes in and out of your business. Finding ways to maximize your cash flow is a simple way to increase profits within your business. Fortunately, there are many ways to achieve this, including:

  • Focusing on increasing sales within your business and encouraging customers to pay upfront or pay deposits/repayments.
  • Establish good credit management practices which includes sending invoices out promptly, repaying any credit on time and in full, and chasing any outstanding accounts.
  • Buying stock in bulk in order to negotiate better prices and take advantage of cheap deals.

Improving Your Company Starts with You

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Improving Your Company Starts with YouMany leaders wrongly attempt to improve their companies with a bottom-up approach, focusing on the smallest issues and hoping to work their way up. And while this can work in a relatively stable organization without any significant leadership issues, it’s the wrong approach if you’ve never put any thought into your own leadership capabilities, as well as those of other people in important positions. There are many ways to make yourself a better leader, and if you’re struggling to improve the performance of your company, it may be because you’re lacking in that area yourself.

Advanced Leadership Methodologies

Leading a company is not just about giving orders and delegating tasks. You have to know how to optimize the performance of every unit of the organization, seek out opportunities for sustainable growth, and perhaps most important of all, know how to talk to your employees in a way that allows you to understand their concerns. Many of these things – and more – are described in detail in methodologies like lean and Six Sigma. If you’ve never heard of them, it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with what they have to offer. There’s a reason why experienced specialists in these fields tend to be very highly compensated.

Do You Understand Finances?

Another aspect that many leaders can often stand to improve about themselves is their ability to handle finances. Many wrongly believe that they are doing fine in this regard, when they are actually making mistake after mistake that anyone with more experience would immediately spot. Some people even go as far as to learn accounting just to be able to lead their companies better. And while it might sound like overkill, it can actually be relatively straightforward to prepare for CPA exam on the side, and obtain many useful skills that you can immediately apply to your organization in its current state.

Leading a Growing Organization

Last but not least, the other common problem that many leaders tend to face sooner or later is their inability to handle rapid growth. Even if you’re fine controlling the different branches of your company now, this will sooner or later become all but impossible if you start growing fast. And pretty much any company’s goal is to grow constantly. You should familiarize yourself with the common challenges faced by companies and their leaders in these situations, and be prepared to put a lot of work into preventing the development of major issues. Uncontrolled growth has killed many companies in the past, and yours is going to be no exception if you don’t pay attention.

If it seems like a lot of work, that’s because it is. Leading a company to success is not a straightforward task, and requires a lot of personal sacrifice. But in the end, that’s why the position of the leader is so important in any organization – because few are willing to step up to the task and do what has to be done. And if you want to comfortably retire with a nice savings account some decades from today, you need to start paving that road now.