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Learn business math basics and how to deploy them in Excel. Are you using Excel to maximise your forcasting and exercise more control in your business? Maybe this article will help. Click here to read more. #formulas #businessdata #staffordshiremoorlands 
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 The skills shortage affects many companies and the issues around Brexit may make it more difficult to attract overseas talent. Is the solution to hire from outside your industry?
Read the full article here #recruitment #skills #staffordshiremoorlands The cloud is a key enabler of business transformation. IT leaders, business executives and digital transformation architects are migrating to the cloud to modernize operations enterprise-wide. Big data/analytics – how companies can turn data into insights and revenue growth using the cloud, analytics and other toolsWorkplace transformation – how technology is improving employee engagement & productivity Customer-centricity – the role IT and supporting technologies such as cloud should play in helping organizations improve the customer experience across all touchpoints Data privacy – implications for businesses attempting to build and maintain higher levels of trust with their customers The next wave of digital disruption – Internet of Things, machine learning, etc. – and its impact on business  To read the full article by leading digital analyst Brian Solis please click here
#staffordshiremoorlands #staffordshirebusiness Striking it out on your own and going the route of an entrepreneur can reap incredible rewards. This includes fortune, fame, being the head of huge company, and the satisfaction of executing your own ideas. It’s little wonder that it’s the dream for so many people.  That being said, the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur is fraught with difficulty. You risk losing the comfort and convenience of a regular paycheck, and you’re faced with the challenge of generating a livelihood for yourself, and your family. It can be a tough, lonely road.
To read more of this article click here #staffordshiremoorlands #staffordshirebusiness According to the HMRC’s latest figures, small business across the UK are missing out on potential funding due to a lack of awareness surrounding tax relief available for those investing in innovation and development. Since launching the scheme in 2000, over £26.9bn has been claimed by qualifying businesses.  “Only one in five small businesses in certain industry sectors, such as engineering, who have valid claims are applying for this tax relief,” See the full story here #taxrelief #staffordshirebusiness Up to £30 million to set up flagship centres supporting the manufacturing supply chain in the latest power electronics, machines and drives.  The UK government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge is an £80 million investment in the development of supply chains in the UK that support manufacturing in these new technologies. To read the full story click here. #staffordshiremoorlands #staffordshirebusiness New Enterprise Allowance, a fund for jobseekers with a business idea, has helped launch over 200 businesses a week by benefit claimants since 2017.  The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) scheme has helped launch 203 businesses by unemployed benefit claimants on average each week in the UK, since 2017. Older claimants and people in the North West in particular have shown entrepreneurial skills.Click here to see the full story.
#staffordshiremoorlands #staffordshirebusiness  It is easy to follow the mainstream and compete with existing products and services with your USP but what about breaking free from the mainstream with a divergent offering. Something that goes against the grain. Because let's face it, the mainstream is crowded, full of competitors and essentially has already been done and maybe on the downward curve anyway. Don't chase the hot thing! Looking at your business, what is there that could go against the mainstream and appeal to a niche group of potential customers that could be aimed at personalisation or being customised to suit a particular niche group. This may include products aimed at status, offering a product of very high value where certain groups desire luxury and notoriety. There may be a range of standard products (or service) out there but what about seriously upgrading your product to aim at the say, top 5% of potential customers who will pay for exclusivity. If you want some ideas on how to market a high end product click here  Red Bull: Not just another drink!
To see how divergence thinking can be a real winner in your business just take a look at Red Bull. Let's face it it doesn't taste great. It is not cheap either, intentionally to separate it from the major brands like Coke. It was also marketed as slightly mysterious. It wasn't aimed at a certain demographic, it was marketed to "a state of mind" It was also linked to rumours as to where the ingredients came from. (A certain part of a bull!) this appealed to individuals who saw themselves as macho testosterone charged males. It was sold as "an efficiency product" "to boost endurance, concentration and reaction time" aimed at certain lifestyles. But it still tasted awful and was high-priced. However the drink was marketed as non-conformist which had a rebellious edge to it and appealed to groups who saw themselves as just that. And the slogan "Red Bull gives you wings" added to the perception that this was the drink you needed if you wanted to be non-conformist and part of a unique group. Authorities in the US were trying to ban it which only added to the intrigue and only fueled the brand and enhanced it's appeal. The example of the Red Bull story illustrates that your product/service doesn't need to be perfect if you employ courageous postioning. In the case of Red Bull the awful taste and high price helped to play to the drink's purported near-medicinal quality. and not least it tapped into people's desire to be different. Choosing to ignore a well-beaten path may just spark a new lucrative business idea outside of a crowded space. #divergence #innovation  Change in business doesn't come easy of course. However change is sometimes forced upon a business all too quickly. Whether by economic pressures, trends, new legislation etc, any of which may force the business to look for new opportunities to maintain its market position or in some cases to survive. However adversity can provide opportunities to look beyond what has worked so well in the past and become an insatiable driver in the desire for something new. Convergence Convergence thinking allows the business to consider what opportunities exist by combining multiple products/services or trends. For example, you may have a product range which is not yet fully immersed into the massive issue of global warming and climate change. What opportunities are there for you to re-invent your products using eco-friendly ingredients and re-designed packaging to reflect care for the environment, so that your business is perceived as being more socially responsible and part of the ecology movement. Combining products/services with an issue like climate change is a clear example of convergence thinking.  Help! Zombies are after me! Well not right now but the multidimensional running experience Zombies, Run! is a perfect example of how convergence can create a new trend and business. The combination of GPS, running and the zombie threat created an iPhone app and within two years of its launch nearly a million runners were fleeing zombies!
Can you weave multiple products or services with a current trend? This does not mean to just go out and compete with another business or product/service on price or maybe a perceived USP. You need to see how/if your products/services can add to that already successful cluster of what is in the marketplace. If there is something in the marketplace that is really successful the last thing you want to do is to join the crowd, because it’s already happening. However what has your business got to offer that will allow you to jump on board and ride a successful wave of the trend/emotion/movement/social etc. that is happening, with something that is still within the successful cluster of products/services, but new. What is it about that cluster of products that when you look at your business will inspire you to new ideas? #convergence #innovation #ideas #staffordshiremoorlands In a business world of rapid change, globalisation, AI, chaos and disruption it is vital that businesses have a strategic focus on how they can ward off the threats of new technology and innovative ideas that may have a severe damaging effect on their business or even force closure. How many businesses in recent times, some seemingly unassailable like Nokia, Kodak and numerous other "majors" have fallen victim to complaceny because they were "doing well" Doing what they have always done! In this digital and disruptive age its no longer good enough to be "the farmer" continuing to grow the same crop every year, you need to be "the hunter" searching out opportunities that will propel your business ahead of the competition. To innovate and be prepared to destroy what has gone before. In his book Jeremy Gutsche illustrates and provides the "six patterns of opportunity" to enable you to shortcut your way to innovate and implent divergence in your business. If you are a business owner in the Staffordshire Moorlands I urge you to take a look at this book.  |
AuthorFormer MD.Passionate about supporting SME's and helping them to grow their business using a practical hands-on approach. Archives
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