Out and about helping YOU succeed

Approved Mentor Programme

2009-05-17T17:30:00.003+01:00

Great news - Our mentoring programme has been approved.

We will be publishing the programme in the next newsletter.

Also I was in the papers! I will also let you know when we have updated the info on the website.

Great news on the increased support for Manufacturers - 75% funding up to £13500 through MAS DTI

Don't forget to contact us to find out more

Carol

Funding getting to businesses

2009-02-16T20:38:00.002Z

Well not responded for a while but that's because we have been very busy accessing support and funding for businesses like yours.

There is a lot of 100% funding available for businesses less than three years old. 100% funding for professionals to come into your business and work on things like

Cash Flow management that increases your profit without needing to increase your sales
Marketing and Brand Management which will position your product and service at the right price and in the right place
Sales support
ISO consultancy support to get that accreditation you need not only to compete but to make the business more effective
Lean and six sigma - essential techniques for any business type not just manufacturers to improve efficiency and productivity - to help you to stand above the rest
And much more

All you need to do is ask

What about me I hear you ask - The business that is greater than 3 years old. Well there is still lots of funding support available for you as well.

If you want to know more contact us or at least contact your Business Link and find out much more.

If you don't you can guarantee your competition will!

Call 01943607851
profit@yorkshirebusinessservices.com

£500 Training Funding by Government!

2008-12-08T10:32:00.003Z

Do not miss out on this very important opportunity.

Attend one of our courses and the government will refund the cost of that course to you 100%. If you want to learn more then they will support you 50%.

So if you want to learn how to get more sales, improve your productivity, get the cash in faster, how to get funding ....... and many more then all you have to do is contact us and we will help you get the funded support.

If its not one or our courses we don't mind - we will help you get access to this excellent support for you from Government.

To help this we are holding a sign up day on 19th December with the Train to Gain Broker to help you get started the right way in 2009.

I know you will have lots of questions just contact us and ask.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Carol Buchan
01943 607851
profit@yorkshirebusinessservices.com

Real help for SME's

2008-11-10T10:32:00.002Z

We received excellent news today that real help for business is available now for any business with 5 or more employees.

There is government funding for you to attend our 1 Day Workshops which focus on giving you the Entrepreneurs the leadership and management skills to drive your business forward.

They will fund 100% of your direct cost (you pay the VAT which you can claim back of course). If you book for the series they will fund 66% of the cost. An incredible opportunity.

You all know the difficulties business is facing and its critical that your leadership and direction will take the business through not only to survive but to thrive.

Source: 2008 Magic Million Survey – The Directors Centre

What do highly successful businesses focus on?

Highly successful businesses consistently have a preoccupation with:

Strategy
Marketing
Teams

…… and what do the businesses that break through the elusive magic million turnover barrier focus on?

All of the above AND two additional factors – a willingness to let go of:

Financial Control – sharing ownership
Management Control – sharing the responsibility of growing the business with the TEAM (delegation) and OUTSIDE ADVISERS (taking advice).

We know we can help YOU and your business SUCCEED by following our proven methods to deliver MEASURABLE benefits in your business.

If you want to help your business be one of the winners just contact us and we will ensure you get the help you need.

Carol

Exciting news for businesses

2008-10-21T10:33:00.002+01:00

Today is very important.

We are out with a broker and four businesses to learn the process for getting funding for them.

What sort of funding. Not cash - this is important - there are capital grants for cash but most of the funding support for businesses is in the form of vouchers or funds for professional services.

What does this mean? Business research clearly demonstrates that businesses which us professional services - advisors, coaches, mentors - are significantly more likely to succeed. In this climate we mean to Survive and Thrive.

So - Funding is now available to subsidise, (get cheaper!) - greater than 50% cheaper this support.

Have a look at the link in the title or go to our funding page for a plain English description.

After today I will let you know what we have learnt to day and let you know more about how you might be able to benefit.

Keep watching - Any questions drop us a line or give us a call

Carol Buchan - 07956027738

Business Network or Business Community

2008-09-18T12:20:00.006+01:00

Last night I spoke with a group of 38 small business owners at a local event we held in the grounds of a beautiful, rural business park. Half of the room were people I knew and had worked with before, helping them with low-cost high-impact marketing. The others were a collection of recent readers of newsletter and blog material and who had come to learn more.

We started with refreshments and some food so that people could meet and mingle, introduce them selves and learn more about each other. Then we had four speakers sharing different ideas on the themes of Cracking the Credit Crunch. So we had Iain Buchan from Direct Cash Flow Solutions sharing about the need for a credit control system within your business. Nic Taylor from Patro Chartered Accountants treated us to some brilliant insights on effective treatment of your business tax burden, and Carol from Yorkshire Business Services hosted a talk about the importance of being part of your business community.

To what extent was the evening about networking, versus building a sense of community? For me as part of the hosting team it was a fine line, but I have to veer towards the community aspect. It is relatively easy to network if this means saying hello and exchangeing contact details, and thinking to yourself "Will they buy my goods?" However, this is a very one sided argument and is unlikely to lead to any new business being written on either side.

The community perspective however is much more all embracing and suggests that there is a scope and potential for each of us to consider the person we speak with, wanting us to actually make a real connection that is about being in contact on an ongoing basis rather than for the few minutes we stand before each other.

When you attend such an event are you listening for the broader community that you reach though the person who speaks with you and you with them? Are you just there for yourself? Is it possible that in being there for the broader business community first and foremost, you could actually be there for yourself anyway? I think so. Try it.

Thank you to all at the Event last night

2008-09-18T10:18:00.002+01:00

I want to thank everyone for making the event last night a success.

An excellent turnout and full venue. The Utopia venue is very special but the people, the enthusiasm and the speakers made the night.

Our event "Making your money work harder" hit the right note with a lot of the businesses who were given a great deal to look at and think about.

I want to thank the speakers - Iain Buchan, Direct Cashflow Solutions and Nic Taylor, Patro Ltd for excellent presentations which hit home and provided real ideas and benefits. A lot was covered and all attendees will receive copies of the presentations.

I also want to thank Nick Sturgeon as always for hosting and presenting. But I particularly want to thank Simon Andrews from Exemplas who made the effort in his very busy diary to come and speak but more importantly to give away money!!! - Yes thats right.

To find out more watch this blog and contact us on profit@yorkshirebusinessservices.com

College Leavers seek Enterprise Opportunities

2008-07-23T17:02:00.004+01:00

Working with our local sixth form college in Bradford (am I allowed to call them sixth form colleges any more?) this week has been an insight into the way communication methods have changed for the better and a reminder that life shifts at speed.

In designing our contribution to the Freshers' Week for September, we have been looking at the best way to connect with those who seek to leave college at the age of 18 and instead of going into employment, will seek to become enterprising and start their own ventures. It will be good to then stay in touch with them via mentoring support as they and their business progress.

Our contribution to the week will be to have two separate stalls, one for those wanting help finding jobs through our recruitment processes with local registered companies eeking new staff and who will want to take the best and ignore the rest - and why not? The other stall will be more interesting from a Small Business Big Profit perspective given that we will be looking to provide a signposting service to Enterprise activities and engagements.

When you end your full-time education at 18 where do you look for Small Business ideas and guidance? the local Enterprise Agency will be helpful so make contact. The Business Link organisation can provide some very useful contacts and general guidance for most, before passing you on to specialist advisers who will help with technical and legal enquiries.

But the chance for a young adult to be around an existing entrepreneur, around someone who already has that experience to share and that opportunity to promote is a valuable connection to make. With this in mind we are creating connections between Owner-Managers of SMEs who are willing to take someone on for a couple of days to follow them or shadow them in a couple of typical days. This provides an insight into everything from the importance of Skills with people; the need to understand and be capable at negotiating; the means for establishing rapport quickly; to be able to summarise and confirm what is discussed and agreed at a meeting; and the ability to identify and validate the financial opportunities to come from each meeting or transaction.

We will be hosting some local business owners who have agreed to come in and speak about their motivations, about what drives them and helps them to grow and develop their businesses, about theior own personal storied of what makes them 'tick'. At the same time we will also be promoting our own podcasts, videos and blogs in order to connect with and engage our audience of many hundreds of young adults. We will use SMS text messaging to invite them to the event, and then follow this with weblinks and the blogs for the Freshers' Week experience.

No paper in sight and no brochures other than those in PDF and audio file format! A far cry from my own first college Fresher's Week some twenty plus years ago when every piece of information came in it's own envelope and computers were something like a big machine in a room that no-one but 'the few' were allowed into.

Don’t bury your head in the sand!

2008-07-17T17:16:00.001+01:00

When times become tough it is all the more important to KNOW where your business is and what it is doing.

Do you know if you are breaking even?

Do you know what your cash position and forecast are?

Do you know how you are going to get that work done over the holiday period with less staff?

How long can you survive hoping those orders are coming in?

These are just some of the Hard questions we need to ask ourselves, understand the answer and then decide the appropriate actions we need to take.

Despite all the statistics and information telling us how businesses with business plans are more successful than those without we still don’t have a plan. BUT when times get tough the slack or optimism in any of our businesses goes. It can turn very quickly into decline and we need to know what is going on and respond. The “patient” can get sick to terminal in a very short timescale without the right treatment.

This is a time when it is all the more important that you are working “ON” the business and not “IN” the business. Work out your costs and work out your forecast sales and income. BE REALISTIC. Then work it out again assuming the worst case and the lowest of all your assumptions. Take note or when it is that you start losing money and not making money. Look at what actions you need to take to slim down or address unnecessary costs and what you need to do to drive up the income.

Whatever the outcome of your review, the important thing is that you have increased KNOWLEDGE and the information upon which, to make decisions and take actions.

Your chances of survival just increased.

This is not about negative actions but positive actions. They are positive because they are proactive – thought through, in advance and considered.

If this is something you are not used to doing, unsure about how to go about it don’t hesitate – just ask us.

Carol

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851 and visit our website and learn more at www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com for more news of what is happening in your own Yorkshire business community.

Credit Crunch and the opportunity to grow by acquisition

2008-07-15T16:02:00.003+01:00

Are there opportunities in these tough market conditions? Certainly there are.

The unanimous verdict is yes and a few of the comments are;

Quoting Warren Buffett

“I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”

Vulture Funds are picking up assets at 50% of their original value - sifting diamonds from the forced disposals

The "baby and the bath water" - Anytime there are significant efforts to clean up the balance sheet good assets go out with bad. Tighter regulatory controls and more restrictive capital requirements are going to force companies to sell not only the credit asset classes but also other businesses that may be a significant drag to earnings and/or return on capital invested. Another purchase opportunity.

Any business with a sound balance sheet and / or access to cash should think about growth through acquisition. There are, or soon will be, businesses and other assets on the market and in some cases at vastly reduced asking prices when compared to a year ago.

There are other businesses suffering and being squeezed by their funders...they may not be "on the market" but they will be open to an approach now that they would have rejected.

Which side are you? Have you even thought about growth or acquisition?

Take the time to think outside the box - think of the new opportunities for your business in this market.

The unknow value of contacts

2008-06-30T12:43:00.001+01:00

How many contacts do you have?

I don’t mean the phone list on your mobile I mean in your business. Do you even know how many you have and more importantly do you realise how valuable they are?

I am always amazed when I work with businesses that they are unaware of the value each of those contacts can bring to the business.

Firstly those contacts already know you whether they are customers or suppliers. They are also contacts which you have invested time and effort getting through all your sales efforts and activities.

Secondly what I find time and time again is that these contacts are not being used to promote or to grow the business. So many businesses still work with manual or hard copy paperwork and do not use the contact information in any way.

Your customer list is valuable;

you can use that list to promote or inform your customers of your new products and services.
you can just keep in touch with them to remind them of your services
you can ask them for feedback to allow you to improve your services
you can ask them for testimonials or referrals to others who may need your services
you can thank them for their business

This is not an exhaustive list but just some of the ways you can interact with your contact base in a constructive way. How you communicate is up to you using email, direct mail, brochures or calls whatever you do its better than nothing at all.

There are many ways and services you can use and lots of people who can help if you are one of the people not using this valuable asset you have.

Let us know how you are using your contacts and if you are not why not?

Carol Buchan

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851 and visit our website and learn more at www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com for more news of what is happening in your own Yorkshire business community.

The power of collaboration

2008-06-10T17:44:00.003+01:00

I am inspired by the businesses I work with and feel privileged when I have the opportunity to help them collaborate.

The old adage of "one plus one = five" certainly applies when businesses have the foresight and vision to see the opportunity of collaborating.

What do I mean - well one companies problem of waste and the waste costing them up to 6 figures per year directly to dispose of surprisingly enough is the sort of thing another partner needs as raw material for their plant. The trick is how do you connect them together.

When we get clients asking for help it is excellent when connecting them together provides a solution that is certainly much greater than either would have expected.

In this case the bottom line problem of one actually solves a problem of another and what is more gives them the opportunity to increase profitability and generate revenue.

Its not easy - like anything it needs work, vision, certainly needs help from a third party not only to identify the opportunity but to help make the thing work.

If you have not considered it before you should - who should you be connecting with?

Carol

Are you in business or do you just have a hobby?

2008-06-09T17:24:00.004+01:00

I had the great pleasure to go along and hear Tim Campbell of apprentice fame, speak at an event in Harrogate last Thursday evening.

He is an excellent speaker and and went through his experiences and challenges and also some of the lessons learnt through the Mentors - such as Alan Sugar have shared with him and that he has experienced.

Out of this excellent session one of the messages Tim spoke about rang out loud and clear.

Are you in a business or do you just have a hobby? A business makes money and a hobby just gives you money to live on.

How many of us run our businesses as a hobby? Its not wrong or right but it is important we know what we are doing and act accordingly. If we are in it to make money and run a business then we must have a plan and clear deliverables on the way.

Which is it that you have? When you are thinking about starting up in business or working for yourself are you clear where you want to go?

If you are not sure or you cannot answer this then how do you expect to get there!

Look closely at yourself and your proposition and ask yourself these questions and be honest!

Focus on what is important and not the distractions

2008-05-20T16:28:00.001+01:00

Are you really spending your time on what is important? Do you even know where that time goes and why you never have enough?

These are common gripes and questions which come up with all the people and businesses we deal with. A lot of people have even been on “Time Management” courses to help them organise themselves even better than they did before!

We then ask, “what are you spending the time on and what did you get done today”. More often than not it is difficult to answer – “but I know I have been busy”.

My question to you is are you focussed and effective? I do not mean are you busy or well organised, I mean are you EFFECTIVE? Does what you spend time and money on deliver any measurable benefit and could you do it an easier or more effective way. For example – A door to door salesperson can be very efficient, excellent and selling door to door, BUT are they effective? They could sell much more using a better method such as e-mail or direct mail.

Let me tell you about Pareto’s law which I use all the time when working with businesses. A simple definition is ……80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. Think of it this way:

80% of the results flow from 20% of the actions

80% of the profits come from 20% of the customers

80% of the business comes from 20% of your product lines

And I could go on – most of the time its even more extreme.

Think about this in relation to what you do day by day and how much time you spend doing it. Let me give you an example: Do you check your emails every 10 minutes and break off from what you were doing? Why? Most of them are junk anyway and if you ignored the 80% of dross and concentrated on the 20% important think what would happen. Don’t let that pop up box, telling you an email has arrived, run your life. Turn it off. Check your email when you want and stop the interruptions. Its a lot easier to ignore the rubbish all in one go and then concentrate on the important.

Think about it – what is the 20% which really generates value and profit for your business and stop doing all the rest. Challenge yourself to change and become EFFECTIVE and transform your life.

Carol Buchan

Making Change Happen

2008-05-15T15:40:00.003+01:00

I have finally sorted out my blog and will be regularly reporting what is happening.

A lot has happened since my last blog but let me tell you about a company that has attended all of our Business Community events in Skipton. (More info on the website)

This person (who I will call Fred) is not a networker or familiar with such events but did come to our community event and was very quiet and concerned.

Each event he has grown in confidence and in contribution but there is more. Talking with his colleague who also comes the the event Fred has started to change his behaviour. They are focussing on what they do. Starting to measure and report on both activity as well as results and its already benefiting the business.

Progress has started to happen because they have learnt more about what the business is and what it should be doing. Measuring and understanding this has been the first part of the change and making the change happen.

They are already asking their customers for referrals from people who they believe can benefit from their service.

This is fantastic feedback for us, and also why these events and the community is so important in building success - but it only happens if people change.

What's important in your business? What is it that needs to happen and for you to focus on?

Give us a call or meet with us or attend the events - It will help and it will give you benefit.

Looking forward to hearing from you
Carol

Excellent Launch

2008-04-27T12:13:00.010+01:00

Friday was a long day. But a very good day.

I was privileged to be invited to the opening of La Stazione in Ilkley by Enzo and Jane.

This couple have moved to the area in the last year and are making there mark.

Enzo's vision has come to life - He had successful businesses in both Florence and London before this and I am sure this will be even more successful. Why because he has learnt his lessons.

Despite knowing the restaurant business very well he has planned and researched before committing to opening a new venture. He has chosen the image, the product and service to fit the location. The location and timing are also excellent. On the station - just after the opening of M&S food store which will improve and increase the footfall considerably. And its Mayday parade next weekend when thousands of tourists and visitors come to town - weather permitting - a lot by train.

I was lucky to be invited to the launch on Friday and Jane hosted and networked the event wonderfully. The food and service were superb. What was wonderful was the people invited. Family and friends of course but also the people they had worked with and met who helped make it a success. Business people and services locally. The selection of sources and suppliers carefully thought out, tested and researched. The bread selected from bakeries Enzo had researched. (Guess what, its in Otley).

Please try it out - don't rely on my version - support a business and enjoy the atmosphere, service and food.

If you want to know more email or give me a call and find out more carol@yorkshirebusinessservices.com

Carol

Starting my Blog

2008-04-24T10:11:00.005+01:00

A new discovery for me - Starting a blog. Why am I doing it - well I want to experience a blog and learn how it works but more importantly I want to connect with YOU. Yes you - anyone with the bravery to be in business, have a great idea, want to start or wish they hadn't!!

I want YOU to know about us - what we are doing - why we are doing it - and how we can help you.

Our mission is simple - We want to help all businesses to succeed.

Easy heh! No to do that we need to connect with them and then to help in whatever way makes sense for them.

Thats why I am doing this - I want you to react or respond to what is going on. I want you to learn what is out there and how your business can benefit from it.

For example:
Did you know that we have a FREE resource in Yorkshire - Halifax to be precise which is the pilot for a national programme to support businesses in understanding all that new data capture technology - you know - smart cards (the ones with the chips), barcodes (you should be familiar with them!) - RFID Tags (what are they!!!) and Biometrics (you know the stuff you see in films - fingerprints and eyes!!)

Why is it there? - Well because if you don't know about it you will not know how it can help your business and if your not doing it your competitor will!!! I will tell you lots more about it later.

Sorry went on a bit - I will try to keep these short and sweet.

If you want to know more about anything we are doing give us a call, blog, look at the website and learn more.

We want to hear from you.