Planet Pots

 

I've been inspired by many things this year while battling with a serious health condition. If nothing else it proves that one can still be active creatively. I hope I have also proved to people that though many are ill and disabled it doesn't mean that we lose any ability to give moral support or that we loose any knowledge of things that we have learned whether in paid employment or not.

Once a healthcare worker, you don't suddenly forget how to save a life following the correct procedures. Similarly for teaching, admin, ops management, technical skills or any other trade or profession. The one constant of all our lives must surely be... learning.

Far from being idle while ill, I find I have achieved a lot on no income besides benefits from simply using what I already had and budgeting hard for things like a pottery course for the things I wanted to so. I have had to sell many, many things to achieve my dreams; save hard and pick wisely to accomplish every single one of these goals. I have not had to accept handouts this year which has been an improvement and throughout it all I have not ever been tempted to break any law, (although I might have parked in a few places longer than I should have when I got my second hand old banger of a car - fines have been paid).

The result? Well, aside from the team effort of 'The Tourist Guide to An Un-United Kingdom' I have self-published my 'Accounts of an Allotment' and been returning to pottery to prepare for a few more books on that subject.

Coming up next year I hope to release a second collaborative effort with Mindwalking called 'Shrinking' which is at the editing stage. Early 2015 I hope to be securing a couple of part-time work placements in admin once my health has improved enough to allow me to safely, and most of all start delivering Art workshops to the most disadvantaged groups to aid their recovery to enable and empower them to integrate with our broader community. I never forget what it takes, nor how many lovely people it takes to both keep a person healthy or aid recovery following any misfortune.

None of us should.

Already displayed on Pinterest and elsewhere... I hope I inspire you to try something creative with some of my pottery achievements of 2014.

Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a much healthier and calmer 2015 and beyond!

Mel Dixon

Operations File: A priority planning trick

Apologies for this being so late... the fact is that things are rather busy for me at the moment and my priorities have meant that I have had to put making plans and projects work before blogging. Both should always be possible when you are not a solo worker though!

So, here's my simply aid to helping plan according to priorities. I say mine but it was taught to me by an exceptionally talented former boss of mine, and the beauty of it is, it's simple. Just draw one of these...

Because this is a visual aid it makes it easier to spot what things need doing as a priority - from this you can go into all manner of detail for each task if it’s really warranted.

The first row are ‘musts’ i.e. they have to happen no matter what but non-urgent might be delaying paying a creditor that morning and postponing it to the following day. Don't do it with you staff though, as you run the risk of them downing tools!

As the 'NON-URGENT' column and 'DESIRABLE' row should not be forgotten it is vital to include them. It can be urgent but only desirable to include graphics for a presentation pitch - nice to have if you can manage it but not essential so long as you have facts in place and can present them another way e.g. with a flip chart where you can draw a graph anyway for meetings with only a couple of people at least. Much depends on your salesmanship skills.

The only box which can be put on almost indefinite hold is NON-URGENT and DESIRABLE (bottom right). It's handy to have a catch-all box for things that don't fit elsewhere when one is under pressure. It is a useful box of goodies though, as it can act as a wish list or as a target and for future development plans e.g. next time we'll make sure we have the time to draw the graphs properly for the next sales pitch.

You will find that items in each box will move around as, in any busy working environment, new things nearly always come along to scupper original plans, but of paramount importance are your customers and their needs... if they end up listed in the bottom right hand box I suggest you give up now. Without them, you would be in business so it's only fair for them to be firmly in the IMPORTANT row at all times.
The hope is that everything listed will eventually be transferring toward the top left IMPORTANT and URGENT box in turn. Those bills will need to be a top priority at some point.

It is well worth taking 5-10 minutes out to list all tasks properly because when we don’t we tend to keep reminding ourselves of the most urgent tasks repeatedly, making it seem as if we have more work than we actually do. Keep this check list up to date albeit daily or weekly depending upon your workload. It is recommended to use it more often the busier you become rather than less. 

What to test drive it, then read my previous blog post and sort out what you would put where from the exercise there. Handy too for when one is moving office or home I might add - it worked for me! 

One final tip, don't use a computer to use this tool - some things are still more quickly achieved with pen and pencil - yes use a pencil, it's easier to rub out!

Operations File: Budgetary basics

Back in the early 1980s I indulged in a course on budget planning for business, and the single most important message I took from that course was never to spend unless you have to. The principle may seem obvious but I've found it's seldom adhered to as much as it used to be. 

What is essential to remember is how to prioritise. Depending on the type of business you are involved in priorities will vary and handling a budget is not the exclusive domain of company directors, CEOs or finance managers as departmental heads and project managers also have such responsibilities.

Thirty years ago the advice was (as an ideal) never to buy new equipment unless and until your current equipment is being used 24/7. The maxim was not so much "if it works, don't fix it", more "if it works, why replace it?" It is not necessary to have the newest gadget in order to deliver a good if not impressive service that will secure business. I personally think it particularly unwise to be swayed into such purchases just because a competitor may have invested in such a way. What competitors have by way of equipment, facilities or staff is no proof at all of a better service. 

However with modern technologies it can be difficult to keep pace with demand if machinery and devices are ten years out of date. Perhaps the most prudent way of approaching purchasing of any kind is to think about how you could continue without that purchase i.e. can you still function/operate? If so the next question to ask is why is this purchase being considered at all? Not that I'm mean, but it is all too tempting to be seduced into thinking you can have everything you want that's on your wish list. A wish list is should always be of lower priority to a needs list. Wish list items should only be considered if you have managed to come in under budget with your needs list. Even then wish list items should be prioritised according to business development needs, not according to what you personally happen to fancy playing with!

Important questions to ask include:

• Is it really going to be useful?
• Is it going to increase efficiency?
• Is it going to help increase profits?
• Is it going to save time? 
• If it's a replacement item, what's it's projected useful life span? (e.g. Spreadsheets are often more enduring for their ease of use and common understanding than many a more sophisticated programme which are constantly evolving). 

Operational finances

Licenses, insurances, building costs, utilities, communications and staffing (to name but a few) have to be covered, but so too are the basics of any business e.g. stationery, refuse collection and something in the kitty for marketing one would hope. Start-up companies are keenly aware of these expenses, sadly once a business is established it is not uncommon for some things to get taken for granted and forgotten such as an increase in utility bills, or rent when it comes to projecting financial figures. Do not assume anything will reduce in price, instead always assume it will increase by between 10-20% every year as that way you should be covered for most contingencies. All this is before you begin to look at the figures for staff and training (usually the first casualty of lean times), materials for production and departmental budgets (if applicable).

It can get confusing if you are not careful about who is responsible for which bit of finance and can lead to both things being duplicated and/or vital costs being missed completely. This is why ensuring you have a contingency pot on the side is a wise precaution. Such an allocation of funds should not just be seen as for emergencies and lean times, but also for such errors as like it or not, they happen from time to time.

Finance departments have a responsibility to ensure that all figures are clear and accurate at all times. In their communications it is essential that those they are communicating with comprehensively understand what information is being imparted. I say this because I have come across finance departments that haven't been heeded by managing directors when they have been trying to warn them that finances are extremely precarious. The moral of the tale being that both parties need to agree on how finances are presented so that those who need to know can understand them. Sounds obvious, and that's precisely the point - it needs to be. 

Even when 'sub' budgets to departments heads or project managers are concerned this applys. Budget holders at this level may not be privy to the whole of the company's finances but, they will need to know their limits and ideally not go over them. All too often the assumption is that if they push hard enough, funds will miraculously be found only to find themselves with a rude awakening, if not a dismissal!

The money that's in the kitty should always be changing, hopefully in your favour because of new and profitable business, but awareness of when funds are running low or are likely to (e.g. the pay day), all helps to manage the finances as a whole. 

We assume we all know how to budget effectively and efficiently, until we hit the unforeseen. Perhaps the best people to manage finances (and negotiate with creditors) are those who have been unemployed and on benefits simply because with limited funds they somehow have to be able to juggle everything that many workers take for granted. On average they have £65 per week to pay bills, feed and clothe themselves and that's before you consider communication necessities such as postage, phone and internet connection, if not travel to interviews to secure work. It only takes a repair to their home to throw all their budgets out. Such an example I hope illustrates and drives home the importance of contingency funds where at all possible and those contingencies also apply when it comes to project management.

Another examples is a capital funded project that I was involved in. I was given a set figure to work to, did my research for best value and not only managed to fulfil the remit but saw the whole thing through under that budget and on time. Unfortunately though the contingency fund was required because another department had to also sign off the work and thereby had to charge our department for their involvement in the project. News to my boss at the time! Something obviously went awry in the communication chain for this not have been apparent at the outset. Check and re-check with everyone if you are working in a large organisation!

Project costs

Many people first learn about budgeting in the workplace through managing a project and then move onto managing a department etc. The principles are the same, all that happens is the items on the list that need to be accounted for really. Do it well and you will earn praise, respect and admiration from those around you. Get it wrong and it hurts - or so I've heard! 

I have always started with the brief and constantly remind myself of that brief so that I don't veer off track. The brief should immediately point you in the direction of your top priorities, from there all other elements slot into that. So here's three simple examples exercises of how that works - note pricing comes after research in all cases.

Exercise 1: 
The brief is you have £100 to provide food for 50 VIPs for a launch event. 

You might be lucky and already have bar or coffee facilities already provided at the venue, or you might not, so the first thing is to check. Never assume another essential requirement is already met, so also check back that you are definitely not expected to cover the costs of drinks too.

• Check who is on the VIP list, they might not be people you've heard of and you need to get a feel for the type of people that are invited.
• Check they are all attending and adjust accordingly nearer to the time - if only half will be attending it means more food possibilities!
• Check their dietary requirements, are there any allergies, vegetarians of religious requirements that need to be included or avoided. Remember that under Equality Law 2010 it is illegal to discriminate against anyone on grounds of health, religion etc
• Compare and research the possibilities of self catering or hiring a catering firm. Remember if you are thinking about catering 'in-house' you have to be already be geared up and have met the Food Safety Act and all associated legislation by law, e.g. Food Hygiene Regulations
• Consider what these VIPs might have been subjected to before and what time of day the launch is to be held
• Compare best value for price

Exercise 2:

The brief is to supply some literature for 50 VIPs at a launch event for £100.

Check what else is already being sent out and that will be there at the event. You need more detail if this is all you get as a brief. Literature to accompany a video presentation, to highlight key points from the launch about the product or service... what? Let's assume it is the latter.

• Get the list of VIPs and get information about how they like to be communicated with
• Consider options for making the take-away literature memorable and desirable to avoid the high change of it just being thrown away
• Make sure it does not say anything that isn't true, accurate and that relates to the product or service
• Ensure it includes the right contact details for orders!
• Ensure it is thoroughly proof-read before delivery!
• Research professional services for ideas as well as price
• Compare options for producing something in-house against getting it done by a professional service, there may be avenues to tag this onto another print job, but as we're talking VIPs scope of personalisation seems to be pretty important here. Check that though.

Exercise 3:
Your organisation wants to economise on postage costs so is looking to invest in in-house postal systems. The brief is to find the best value for your small operation as an alternative to buying stamps in the post office. 

You don't always get a set figure budget to budget to sometimes finances are about exploring possibilities first prior to deciding on the amount of money to be allocated. The savings here are more to do with staff time and when and where mail sent in the post is essential. 

• Enquire if there is going to be a change in marketing strategy to develop on-line resources as that could easily help reduce postage costs
• Check how much time staff use for all mail-out related activities including physically going to the post office.
• Check what is usually spent on postage every week, month and year. Are there times of the year when postage costs go up - if so, why and can they be reduced?
• Options could include one drop deliveries for promotional literature at suitable sites so long as you are convinced they won't just be dropped in the bin as soon as you leave the premises
• Check what the priorities for postage are
• Research on-line what other people do and whether or not it has helped reduce costs by talking to the service users direct NOT the companies offering products. Discussion groups in LinkedIn can help with this sort of thing or just talk to your suppliers and business clients if appropriate
• Compare options against actual known usage e.g. franking machines v Smart stamp - including printer and a set of extremely accurate scales

These exercises may seem too simple, but more complicated project and financial planning is merely a case of doing many such simple exercises for all the individual elements that are required to make up the whole plan and to keep to budget. Figures should be constantly adjusted in the light of new information throughout.

The most important point of all to remember is to never deviate from the priority aims and objectives originally set for your budgetary requirements. If they change, then abandon what you've done and forget it to start afresh with what should after all be a new brief and set of objectives.  

Research File: Three essential preparations for success in marketing

Following on from 'The lynch pins of efficiency' I thought it might be worth sharing and extolling the brilliance of a few another group of highly skilled and helpful professionals if you're budget will stretch to be able to afford the employ them. Namely marketing professionals which often double up as sales reps and customer service professionals too.

Customer Services and Marketing departments should, in my opinion at all times, be working closely together. Be aware that although there can be and often is much crossover in smaller companies the knowledge base and skills are very distinctive in what they do. Do not confuse the two disciplines. Both can increase or reduce profit margins of the best of strategic plans for any type of organisation, it all depends on whether you have selected, invested and instructed wisely. The rule of Garbage In = Garbage Out (GIGO) applies to any and all.

For the purposes of this article, I will concentrate on Marketing and follow up with a separate one on Customer Services. For the small enterprise it is debatable as to which you start employing staff to do first. My advice is to go with personnel with who will cover your weakest area in skills, knowledge and interest. As ever it is pointless to employ anyone if you are then not going to trust in what they are employed to do and end up doing it yourself. So if you enjoy marketing and are less comfortable with customer service issues or simply find you don't have that much time for them employ a customer service person, and vice versa.

As a business you should already have identified your target audience for the products and services you offer. You should already have done at least some basic research on the demographics of that (client/customer base including location, ethnicity, age, gender etc), and above all have a realistic idea of what they could afford by way of price. If in that research you discover your target audience cannot afford your pricing it would suggest that you are targeting the wrong people or quite simply pricing yourself out of the market. It suggests you might be trying to promote the wrong thing entirely.

When offering community services this becomes an extremely complicated and complex equation to get right and perhaps goes some way to explain why so many private sector companies would rather steer clear of actual service delivery as the profit margins and therefore sustainability and development prospects are simply not profitable enough (if at all) to be of much interest to them. I personally think that is precisely why they shouldn't take control of such services, advice and experience though are always welcome. The private sector are when all is said and done in business to make money first and last. Products even to disadvantaged groups however are much easier for the private sector to make a profit from.

If you doubt that, just think how successful the private sector is at marketing and selling any and all household items let alone standard office materials. Be warned though... Do not be tempted to mimic their marketing campaigns if you are a small enterprise because such campaigns work precisely because they have the budget to indulge in full-blown saturation marketing techniques across all forms of media... extremely costly and skilled! That said an intelligent bit of wording and imagery makes all the difference between winning an audience or alienating them and potentially losing them forever. Know your target audience or service users inside out!

Selling ice to penguins

The most talented of marketing people could literally sell ice and snow to penguins if it wasn't for the fact that penguins are more intelligent than human beings. Penguins happen to know that ice and snow are resources freely available from nature and know where to go to find it. Indeed no other species needs money to be able to eat, rear young, educate them or house themselves which is why I often find myself getting jealous of them. Sadly, as yet I haven't found a way of becoming another species during a recession! Mind you, other species don't have the time to develop interests and hobbies as we do so I guess it evens out.

The big boys invest phenomenal amounts of time, energy and money in research not least in understanding human psychology. They use that to shape how to communicate with their target audience, which is how they end up seducing us into believing we need or must have things that actually we don't. They create interest in things that have never occurred to us, fear of things that we shouldn't be worried about at all and above all a demand from us that we have never desired before. A good example is of this is chunky bars of chocolate. The exact same chocolate can be and is used to produce a myriad of shapes and sizes and it can only ever taste the same but we are seduced into choosing how we like it presented even as far as having it segmented to make it easier to break.

Every day I try my best not to be tempted by things I don't actually need or never had an interest in, but everyday I fail! That, dear readers is what is it is to be muggle in a sophisticated, complex, dynamic, often maddening and frustrating, fascinating, developed, free market social structure. Like it our not, we all contribute to it and we all seem to have a love/hate relationship with it. If nothing else you have to give these people credit for their ingenuity. So, what lessons and tricks can a smaller enterprise learn and use from all this to help them earn a healthy crust?

Three basic marketing essentials

1. Surveys - As outlined above get to know your audience, what they like, dislike, the language they use - how they tick. We are all customers so think about what how we like to be communicated with as a starting point and this should help you avoid some of the bigger pitfalls if you do nothing else. Before starting any enterprise though you should do two forms of research the first of which is to test if your idea will be of interest to anyone at all by conducting a survey.

Top tips for customer surveys

• Remember everyone is extremely busy, so phrase questions simply  
• Keep the survey short and to the point - ask only things that you absolutely need to know and ditch any that are just too detailed, complicated or that are off the primary issues you want to find out about 
• Never have more than three priorities to enquire about in any survey. 
• Never bombard people with dozens of surveys and always provide a simple comment box at the end for your sample audience to elaborate and speak freely as learning what people hate is as valuable to you as learning what they like 
• Always make comment boxes optional and supply contact details should you strike lucky for people who might well be your first clients.

This you can easily compile a survey manually via hardcopy/paper, but remember there's no guarantee people will mail them back especially if you are expecting them to pay for the privilege - hence incentives such as freebies can be useful but it's more expense to you. Email surveys tend to get higher levels of response, or on the spot surveys for feedback after inviting people to attend an event. There are dozens of online free to use survey programs these days, but be aware they don't usually provide the analytics (breakdown of results) so you will have to work it out for yourself. It's why even the free services are often enticers to those analytics which you then pay for. Be careful some of these links may charge from the outset.

Seven random links to online survey programs
http://www.quicksurveys.com/
http://www.keysurvey.co.uk
http://www.checkbox.com
http://fluidsurveys.com
http://en.surveyshaker.com/shaker/
http://www.sogosurvey.com
http://www.surveymonkey.com/

2. Market research - It is essential that you know your market to gain knowledge of where you will fit in and to help identify your Unique Selling Point (USP). Questions to consider asking yourself include who are your competitors or who offers similar products and services if you are a charity, public service or social enterprise.

You can do this quite simply but searching the net, saving the links so you can refer back to them and assessing if you will be duplicating (therefore in direct competition) or offering something original, new or different in style or delivery. From both your customer survey and your market research you can start to think about pricing, but never before. Even then you have a long way to go to get it right as you have to factor in costs of materials, hours worked, overheads, staff etc. 

For any new enterprise this can all seem extremely daunting and arduous, but it is vital to do this if you are to succeed. Luckily there are excellent business advisory services to help you every step of the way.

As mentioned before in previous blogposts on here, any organisation dealing with the delivery of services and products to the community should try to avoid duplicating what is already out there to provide a broader range to the community. I happen to think that's not a bad approach for private sector too as no matter what you do, we humans are determined to remain fickle so will ultimately choose from whatever the range of options happen to be available at any given time. The broader the range, the more choice we have. In a recession I think it prudent to bear in mind that diversity can only help as it could mean the difference between recovering from an economic crisis quickly or it deepening.

You can back that bit of research up with exploring what the current trends are for any given industry sector, again online and some are free er... at least initially! Most will offer a 30 day trial period to get you interested in purchasing their services, but my advice is don't until your budget can sustain such a cost comfortably and until you business is sufficiently developed to warrant it i.e. you've employed your first marketing person who should understand how to get the most out of such services.

At the end of the day, even global marketing service companies don't want to waste time and effort on customers who cannot afford to pay for their services or products. They should all be delighted for you to test drive them though as word of mouth and feedback can only help them. Expect lots of emails if you sign up to any of these things, even if you close your account. Fair warning, I feel. Most of these cover global markets, but the more precise you are when you ask your search engine (google, yahoo etc) to find something, the more of a match the results will be.

8 random links to industry trend and analysis information
http://atlasnetwork.org
http://www.gekkomarkets.com
http://trendwatching.com
http://www.bizstats.com/
http://www.businessmonitor.com/bmo/
http://www.satellitemarkets.com/
http://www.tableausoftware.com
http://www.demographicsonline.com

In addition there are countless blogsites, website, books, magazines etc on what is 'hot' and what is 'not'. It is what you will eventually need to learn about if you are successful enough to make it big, but even for the smaller business, small snippets from such sources of information can make all the difference between avoiding launching something at the wrong moment or not. Timing, in marketing can be everything. Here are three more examples of some other online resources useful for research, again at random, note that Mashable is industry sector specific therefore there is bound to be something somewhere on the net for your industry sector I would hope.

http://resources.mediatrust.org
http://mashable.com/
http://www.profitero.com/

3. Unique Selling Point (USP) - arguably the most crucial moment in launching a new enterprise, product or service. Identifying your unique selling point needs careful consideration and should not be rushed if you want to succeed. You will find, as I am right not that it will need refining as you develop. It is, if anything an evolving beast because you should always be aware of trends and changes in what your target audience likes, dislikes and develops new interests in. You might trigger those things or you might not. That in essence is the difference between success and failure - the ability to adapt and change when those two key elements do.

Three golden tips on identifying your USP

• Do not based it on price and leave it at that. Yes price matters but has been categorically proved not to be the ultimate deciding factor to winning customers and clients
• Do not base it on customer service alone. As above!
• Do look at the detail of what your are proposing to offer, the how, what, why, when, who and how as that is what will make all the difference in the world

In conclusion, I hope this will help you to understand why it is that charities, public services, community organisation and social enterprises all have such a hard time of it to just get themselves noticed in any marketplace. I hope this will help explain why so much money now has to be spent on marketing for global charities such as The British Red Cross and why what salaries are paid are actually really good value for money as they seldom reflect the skills - let alone the man hours - of those making these things happen at all.