Play to win

Friday, August 28, 2009

Many companies only ‘play to win’ when times are good. When things get tough they ‘play not to lose’, but treading water in a recession isn’t usually good enough and businesses can go under.

Playing to win means you have to be bold, confident and positive. Here’s how:
  • view the current financial climate as a time of opportunity,
  • be pro-active, take a bit of risk,
  • keep an eye on your competitors and make sure your company shines out,
  • polish up your product offerings,
  • ‘wow’ your customers with your attitude, your understanding of their needs and your service,
  • keep your staff upbeat and motivated,
  • keep up the momentum and continue to do everything you can to make your business grow.
We're really keen to hear your thoughts – comment and you’ll be in to win a $1000 Prezzy Card*. Don’t forget to enter your email address in the space provided, before you submit your comment. Thanks!

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 30 October 2009.

Invest in your company

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Cutting costs in a downturn is sensible but don’t get carried away. If you cut budgets and scale back too much – on staff, marketing, team building or networking – you could jeopardise the growth of your company and find yourself in trouble when things start to pick up again.

Remember the recession is real but it won’t last forever so stripping your business back to the bone is only a short term solution.

Instead, think about the road ahead:
  • spend your money wisely,
  • maximise every opportunity where you have to spend,
  • make sure you get ‘value’ for your money – don’t just go for the ‘cheaper’ alternative,
  • adopt the buying for ‘necessity’ rather than ‘luxury’ approach,
  • be vigilant but DON’T put the growth of your company on hold for the sake of a small saving.

Tomorrow: play to win.

We're really keen to hear your thoughts – comment and you’ll be in to win a $1000 Prezzy Card*. Don’t forget to enter your email address in the space provided, before you submit your comment. Thanks!

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 30 October 2009.

Keep your customers coming back. A satisfied customer who comes back again and again is one of the most vital assets of any smart business. You know yourself if a company’s products and services continue to meet your needs you will remain a customer. But needs change.

In a recession buying habits and decision making criteria alter. People become more cost-conscious and their main motivation for buying becomes ‘necessity’ rather than ‘luxury’ - even for the wealthy. They also go for ‘safe’, ‘low-risk’ options.

There’s a great marketing opportunity here:
  • analyse your sales figures, find out what’s selling and what’s not,
  • reposition your products and services as ‘necessary’,
  • offer ‘safe’ or ‘low risk’ options, and
  • promote the ’value’ and ‘affordability’ of your goods.

And if you contact your customers and ask them what they want you’re half way to bringing your business in line with the current financial climate.

Tomorrow: spend wisely but don’t stop investing in your company.

We're really keen to hear your thoughts – comment and you’ll be in to win a $1000 Prezzy Card*. Don’t forget to enter your email address in the space provided, before you submit your comment. Thanks!

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 30 October 2009.

Value your customers

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Profit comes from customers, not sales. And it’s easier (and cheaper, by four to seven times) to sell more to existing customers than advertising and selling to new ones. (Source: The Find ‘Em Keep ‘Em Toolkit by Phil Slater.)

Release this profit potential:
  • make your customers feel valued,
  • recognise them as individuals,
  • understand the kinds of products they want and,
  • give them a personal service.
Talk to your customers. Go through your database and get in touch with each and every one of them. Ask them what they like about your service, send them information about new products, give them a discount voucher or thank them for their recent purchase.

Your communication must be polite, personal and relevant. And always include a facility for your customers to update their contact details. Correct addressing is essential to keeping your database clean.

Tomorrow: realise the marketing potential of a recession.

We're really keen to hear your thoughts – comment and you’ll be in to win a $1000 Prezzy Card*. Don’t forget to enter your email address in the space provided, before you submit your comment. Thanks!

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 30 October 2009.

Raring to grow

Monday, August 24, 2009

There’s an economic crisis going on out there but you want to push your business forward.

Each day this week we will post information to help you nurture your business and make it grow. We will look at how to:
We're really keen to hear your thoughts – comment and you’ll be in to win a $1000 Prezzy Card*. Don’t forget to enter your email address in the space provided, before you submit your comment. Thanks!

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 30 October 2009.

New redline™ competitions

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Win a $1000 Prezzy Card

Give us your opinion by commenting on a redline article, and go in the draw to win a $1,000 Prezzy Card*. We want to hear it all - the good and the bad of running an independent business, so the more you comment, the more chance you have of winning. You’ll go into the draw time EVERY time you submit a comment.

Don’t forget to enter your email address in the space provided, before you submit your comment, so we can let you know if you are the winner.

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 30 October 2009.

Win FREE advertising space for your business in our next issue*

Ray Simms of Labtec Ltd gave us this feedback and won advertising for his business in issue 6 of redline™ magazine. He said:

“redline™ is a quick easy read that quickly gets to the heart of the matter. It covers topics of interest to most SMEs and gets the inspiration flowing again after a hard week. I know I’m a particularly sad case but it’s perfect weekend reading material for me.”

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 23 October 2009.

Win 1 of 5 copies of Tribes*, Seth Godin’s latest business book

Seth Godin has authored ten books that have been bestsellers around the world, and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work.

Read a review of his latest book below, or if you want to catch more of Seth check out his blog.

Business book review:
Tribes – the latest book by Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur and agent of change – is short, small and succinctly put together. It argues that leadership is the best marketing tactic for any organisation whether it’s a big corporation, a small company, or a lone individual simply looking for a job.

Affordable and easy to read, Tribes is full of common sense ideas (you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of them yourself) and modern proverbs, such as: ‘…it's clearly more fun to make the rules than to follow them, and for the first time, it's also profitable, powerful, and productive to do just that’.

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 23 October 2009.

Grab yourself a copy of the 2009 Export & Trade Handbook*

Be quick, we have just a few left!

*Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 23 October 2009.

New mobile Track and Trace

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Running a business is time consuming. We know that you are constantly on the move and don’t always have access to your pc to search for information immediately.

That’s why we are trialling a mobile site for one of your favourite tools – Track and Trace. Go to www.nzpost.co.nz/mobile using your mobile phone to test our beta service before it goes live.

We're really keen to hear your feedback. Let us know how well this tool worked for you - it would help if you could include the make and model of your mobile phone.
Tell us what you think of this new tool by commenting on this article and you’ll be in to win a $1000 Prezzy Card*. Don’t forget to enter your email address in the space provided, before you submit your comment. Thanks!

Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes 30 October 2009.
From today, the 70mm thickness restriction on ParcelPost™ Postage Included Envelopes is removed, allowing you to send bulky items through the post.
As long as your item fits in the envelope and is under the weight restriction you can send anything you like.*

*Standard New Zealand Post terms and conditions apply.

Subscribe for your free redline™ magazine

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Issue 6 of redline™ magazine will be in the post from 20 August so subscribe today to make sure your business receives its free copy.

redline™ is designed to give independent businesses relevant information to make life easier. If you enjoy reading redline™ make sure you recommend us to other businesses.

Subscribe now.