Small Business Consultants Edinburgh

Having spent out over the Christmas period you may well be interested in anything that will save you money – so here are four ideas you can use to increase business and income.

Talk to your Customers

Call your 40 best customers and talk to them one to one. A novel idea? Or maybe you do this all the time. But this time enter into the conversation with a few simple questions – and an open mind.

Ask them what they need. What do they need from you and what do they need to make their business more effective or to help them make more profit.

For high profile, big spending customers go and see them – ask them whether you are doing a good job and what you could do to improve. Ask them if they are happy with the service your company is providing – and if they say yes make sure you ask for referrals and more business. If they say no, listen and go back to them with a plan for how you will improve.

If you don’t have 40 customers – try the same type of approach with prospects or business contacts. Talking to people costs nothing and can generate some instant results.

Speak in Public

Put yourself forward as an expert on a particular subject and see if you can get a speaking slot at a relevant business or consumer event. This is a great way to raise your personal profile but also the profile of your business. It’s also a good way to demonstrate what you do and how you operate. Of course public speaking isn’t for the uninitiated and you must prepare well. As with anything however there are a few simple rules to follow – and if you abide by them you won’t go far wrong. Firstly – find out as much as you can about the audience you will be speaking to and ask yourself what they’ll be interested in. If you are speaking to CEOs of large companies they’ll have a very different interest than the personnel managers of similar companies. Likewise if you are speaking to small business owners there’s no point talking about issues that interest only major plcs. Get to know your audience and tailor your presentation to their needs.

Secondly keep it brief but provide examples and case studies. Don’t go into immense amounts of technical detail but do make your point come alive with stories and examples that your audience can relate to.

Avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’, that is hundreds of slides with detailed text that you simply read out. My rule of thumb is to keep slide content brief – never have whole paragraphs of text. Use the slides to sign post where you are taking your audience and to keep them engaged. If you have a complicated idea to get across illustrate it in some way with a picture, diagram or chart. Bear in mind different people take in information in different ways so whilst some will listen intently to what you have to say others will need the slide content to aid their comprehension. 

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