Event Archive

January 2012

Rugby Lessons you can use in your business!
A different way to look at your sales

The development of selling ideas and methods is constantly changing, reflecting the changing world of business and communications. Without marketing you would not have prospects or leads to follow up with, but you need a good sales technique and strategy to get the results you want.

Our expert speaker is Garrett Ramsay of GWR Consulting, spoke about the Fat Mans Track to ensure you are more focused and getting better. He talked about really knowing your customers to understand not only when they will be purchasing  but what they will be purchasing. (www.gwrconsulting.co.uk) .

The second half of the event was for networking and a discussion  on a business scenario which showed members experiences and skills and gernerated many useful suggestions and ideas for members.

November 2011

Promoting your Business Differently to get Better Results

So what's a business to do about it’s in a  recessionary economy?  Go gently into that good night? Of course not!  Now is the time for growth and gaining competitive advantage; now is the time to do something different.
If you are truly insightful in how you view your customers and creative in the kinds of information you gather, you are bound to look at marketing differently in the future.

Our expert speaker was Mike Stevenson MD of Thinktastic, a Communications agency, voted Scottish Small Company of Year 2008 and acclaimed for its unique approaches to marketing.  Mike has an ability to create excitement and common purpose around the customer experience. He certainly got us all thinking differently about our businesses and what we can do in the future
Our entrepreneurial speaker was Peter Taylor from the Town Collection and owner of the Blythswood Square Hotel. Peter is a well known hotelier, who showed bravery in refurbishing such a large hotel in the current economic climate. He shared his knowledge and experiences, good and not so good.

Quotes from those attending
“First event – was really good – more relaxed and better than expected”.“2 Excellent speakers”

October 2011

Using LinkedIn and other social media networks to generate business for your business, followed by Table Networking

Tuesday 25th October – Using LinkedIn and other social media networks to generate business for your business, followed by Table Networking
As people and businesses spend more time engaging on social media networks, such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, or blogs, it is important to be able to develop relationships on these platforms and have your brand appearing prominently.

Our Speaker Gavin Ward of Moore Legal Technology, explained how businesses can achieve greater results from social media marketing, including enhanced brand loyalty, increased website traffic, greater online presence and, ultimately, the generation of more, relevant business.
From the comments LinkedIn is being used more and more for resourcing people for potential work and contact.
Glasgow West Business club have set up a group on linkedIn and tweets @gwbusclub

September 2011

Inspiring Entrepreneurs

This event on the 27th September was in Kimble’s  Cafe, Deli and Chocolate shop in the St Enoch Centre, hosted by Ivanhoe Cambridge.
What makes an Entrepreneur?. They can be determined, confident, action-orientated, a people person, risk taker, opportunity spotter and a financial thinker. Our speakers showed what can be achieved when you are determined and innovative.

John Kimble of Kimble's Café, Deli and Chocolate Shop opened on 1st June 2010 in St. Enoch Centre. The company was founded by John and Joyce Kimble in 2002, and later to be joined by their son Christopher. This family business has gone from strength to strength and John talked about the challenges the business faced, the long hours and hard work as it expanded.

Giovanni Benedetti came to Scotland from Italy at the age of 10 and at the age of 17 purchased a small Dry Cleaning Shop which expanded within 10 years to the largest Dry Cleaning Company in the UK employing 600 people in Scotland. .Today Giovanni is Chairman and major shareholder of Benedetti International plc, which comprises 2 companies, Wallace Cameron and Wrap Film Systems, with a projected turnover of £60m.Gio is an inspiring speaker and showed how innovating, thinking differently helped him turn around faily companies to be major players within their markets.

August 2011

Finance and Taxes - What you should know to help your Business Grow

John Jackson Partner of Chartered Accountants KKMJ. our expert speaker talked about the current tax legislation and the powers of the taxman when it comes to an inspection  visit. Our members learnt about what to be aware of and ensuring they meet current requirements for tax

Philip Johnston, Chief Executive, S3 Interactive Ltd spoke about how he has grown his business to be on to the Sunday Times Tech Track list of the UK's top 100 fastest growing companies. Philip founded S3i in 2003 and has grown the company into a £20 million business employing around 100 people in the UK and the Netherlands. He showed his determination, vision and ethos and those attending found him very interesting and inspirational.

June 2011

Sales and what it means to your Business

Selling is a wide subject, covering many selling methods, sales theories, models and sales training methods.

The advent of the internet and globalization during the 1990s meant that old styles of selling, based on one-way persuasion and control theories were finally obsolete for all mainstream business activities. The development of selling ideas and methods is progressive. Selling inevitably reflects the changing world of business and communications.

Our Expert speaker was Alan Mackie of Sandler Training. Alan has twenty-two years of experience selling in the computer industry, working for both very small and very large companies, most recently, 11 years in IBM, looking after the largest accounts in Scotland. Alan showed us a new way of looking at sales to ensure a better response and the feedback from everyone there was extremely good.

The second half of the evening was table networking with an opportunity to tell other business about who you are, what your business offers and makes some new contacts. As always this was very successive and lots of new contacts made.

May 2011

Customer Care and Clients Relationships

Customer service is the cornerstone of a solid, thriving business. It costs six to thirty times more to get a new customer than it does to service and maintain the satisfaction and loyalty of an existing customer. Companies struggle to cut costs without realizing that customer attrition might be the single largest cost they have.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are directly tied to the quality of your customer relationship management. The customer has to feel good about doing business with you.

Our expert speaker was founder and director Donna Bryson of Clearwater Brookes, who provide specialist HR solutions for a wide range of industries. Building strong partnerships is fundamental to the values of the company in order to provide first class human resource services to all clients. Donna spoke about the DNA of clients, how best to retain clients and what is your customer care diamond.

Our Entrepreneur speaker was Ryan James, chef-patron of the Two Fat Ladies group. He took over the chair of the Glasgow Restaurant Association earlier this year and at the Scottish Restaurant Awards 2011 - Two Fat Ladies at The Buttery won the Best Customer Service award. Ryan was very passionate about his business and customer care is lead through the ethos of the whole company. Most of his clients come from repeat visitors and recommendations so he ensures all the experience in his restaurants is good.

April 2011

April Event.- Growing Your Business

Growing a business — any business — is a labor of love. Only the most dedicated, most committed, most action-oriented people succeed.. You can grow your business organically buy working with others, by franchising or by takeovers.

Our expert speaker was Sarah Deas of Co-operative Scotland, which was set up in 2006 to increase the contribution of co-operative enterprises to the Scottish Economy. She spoke about businesses joining together as consortiums and gaining new work and being able to tender for larger pieces of work. There was a considerable amount of interest in this from the businesses present.

Our Entrepreneur was Angus Ferguson of Demijohn. He has grown his business to 3 branches Edinburgh, Glasgow and York. He talked about how it grew his business, the challenges he faced and what he learnt along the way. He was inspiring and very honest in the challenges he had to overcome, the rhubarb vodka samole was excellent too.

March 2011

Making Sense of marketing

Marketing can be many things and it is not surprising businesses get confused and unsure if they getting it right. Ruth Webber of Webber Marketing, who is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Chartered Marketer, talked about how important it is to know who your customers are and how to plan and evaluate what you are doing.

Our members Gary Wroe of Drain Doctor and Joanne Casey of Mactaggart & Mickel Homes, spoke about what worked for their business and shared what they had learnt. Gillian Kynoch, Head of Development and Innovation, at Albert Bartlett spoke about branding potatoes in a very competitive sector. Their creativity, innovation and drive has made Rooster potatoes and their other brands one of the leading potatoes in the supermarkets.

February 2011

Growing your bottom line

Duncan Tannahill of Altitude Business Coaching Ltd was our speaker at the February event. He showed us how to grow our bottom line by looking at various parts of the business. He showed how small increases in any one of these such as leads generation, conversion rate, prices can have a massive effect on the final profit. Everyone went away learning something they can put into effect with their own business.

The second half of the evening was taken with structure networking. This was a great opportunity to get to know the other businesses present and was very popular with our members.

January 2011

Goals and Business Strategies

Our January event looked at your goals and business strategy for 2011 with speaker Debi Beattie, from the Power of Positivity. Debi helps Entrepreneurs and Business leaders get more of what they want from life personally, professionally and in business. Entrepreneur Shaf Rasul said “she was the best motivator I have met.” Debi ensured we start 2011 focusing on what we want to achieve and how to get it even when times are tough.

November 2010

Websites: Ensuring they work for you

Even if you're not planning on selling online, a well-crafted site is essential for any business. The Web is the most comprehensive, cost effective communication tool there has ever been, but what is a 'good' website. The beauty of the Web is that it allows everyone to have a voice, but this means there are millions of voices all competing to be heard.

Heather Alexander of Clearsight Consulting talked about how to look good on the web with examples of bad and good websites and what to think about when designing a new website or redesigning a current one. Expert advice that members could use.

Chris van der Kuyl of Brightsolid talked about changes on the web, new technology and the current trends in communication. His knowledge and experience ensured this was an very inspiring event and there were many questions for the speakerts at the end of the event.

Rob Pryce of GWRA and speaker Chris van der Kuyl both supports the Prostate Cancer campaign in November.

October 2010

Communication: Speaking in Public

Our October event was on the theme of Communication, from conversations, meetings and presentations. You are not alone if the thought of SPEAKING IN PUBLIC concerns you. Giving a presentation is worrying for most people. Presenting or speaking to an audience regularly tops the list in surveys of people's top fears - more than heights, flying or dying.

Our expert speaker was Jill Simpson who specialises in developing people's communication skills. Since setting up DEVA, now in its 15th year of business, she has worked with organisations as far apart as Shetland and St Vincent & the Grenadines. Jill believes that good communication lies at the heart of good business practice. Jill showed us how to ensure we are clear about what we wanted from a meeting or conversation, what the outcome should be and that all partners are listened to and agree further actions.

Bill McFarlan, our entrepreneur speaker is co-owner of The Broadcasting Business, previously working as a presenter for BBC and Scottish Television. The highlight of his Broadcasting Business career - which has taken him all over the world - has been leading the Presentation Skills training that concluded in Glasgow winning the Commonwealth Games for the city in 2014. His experiences and knowledge was invaluable. We learnt about turning jargon into pictures, not using watering down words and to be careful of saying what we cannot do. There were some very amusing examples of bad presentations and quotes in the press by politicians. We all went away thinking about our communication skills and how to make changes.

September 2010

Entrepreneurs and Celebrating

Our September event was a night of celebration as the Glasgow West Business Club celebrated the start of its second year at Slumdog Bar and Kitchen. We were also celebrating Entrepreneurship with two outstanding speakers.

There are many descriptions of what is an entrepreneur. Some say it is someone who has the ability to dream big. They are the ones who create ideas, unique opportunities & concepts and with their energy and positive attitude, work ethic and desire to succeed, their businesses thrive.
Charan Gill our speaker who was the mastermind behind the hugely successful Glasgow based Harlequin Restaurant Group, the largest Indian restaurant chain in the UK.

Often revered as ‘Scotland’s Curry King’ by the media, Charan turned the Glaswegian passion for curry into a thriving empire of 17 restaurants across Scotland. In 1998, Charan was awarded an MBE for his outstanding contribution to the Food and Catering industry. His talk was inspiring and showed he is a true entrepreneur with his passion and drive.

Our second speaker was John Anderson. John is a well known specialist in entrepreneurship and new venture creation in Scotland, John brings considerable experience of emerging and high growth companies to his role as Chief Executive of The Entrepreneurial Exchange. His experiences and thoughts on entrepreneurship in America and Scotland plus the initiatives he been involved with made a very interesting and thought provoking talk.

August 2010

Branding- how to build and develop a brand

An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

Our speakers for the evening certainly helped us to understand more about Branding. Iain McGregor of Bootlace Creative has helped companies increase their value and improve their marketing through branding and communications strategy. He gave us ideas, suggestions and what to look out for when it comes to branding. Here are a few tips from Iain if you did not make the event.

Our second speaker was Boyd Tunnock of Tunnock’s. Tunnocks are celebrating 120 years in business this year, with a very strong brand that has been little changed over the years and is sold all over the world. Boyd kept us enthralled and entertained with his stories about the company and its growth. He really is inspiring and as expected there were plenty of questions for him.

With over 50 at the event there was also plenty of networking during the buffet.

June 2010

Getting Your Business in the Press

One of the most effective marketing tactics available to businesses is public relations. Media outlets, editors and journalists, receive hundreds and even thousands, of press releases every day. Yet the vast majority of press releases, by some estimates as much as 97 percent, never produce a result. It is important therefore to get the media's attention, if PR is to be a brilliant choice for your business.

Our expert speaker Paul Murricane, founded Axis Media Group in 2000, following a 20 year career in television and radio journalism as a local and network TV reporter, business correspondent, current affairs producer, and network documentary producer for Dispatches and Equinox on Channel 4. He had plenty of advice for us, such as linking your news to what is happening in the world or economy, have a human interest story or perhaps some good photos.

Our entrepreneur speaker was Jonathan Engels of Pincer Vodka. The idea of launching a vodka began in 2004 and the first bottle rolled of the production line in October 2008, competing against other well known brands. His vodka is sold across the world and drunk by the rich and famous. He believed in being different from the rest and got coverage in many papers and magazines.

Both of our speaker s gave us many ideas and showed how PR really can work when done well.

May 2010

Social Media – Making it work for your business

Social media is a term used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online and has been modernized to reach consumers through the internet, enlarging businesses marketing potential.. Social media have become
appealing to big and small businesses.

Credible brands are utilizing social media to reach customers and to build or maintain reputation. As social media continue to grow, the ability to reach more consumers globally has also increased. Twitter, for example has expanded its global reach to Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico, among others. This means that brands are now able to advertise in multiple languages and therefore reach a broader range of consumers. Social media have become the new "tool" for effective business marketing and sales. Popular networking sites including Myspace, Facebook and Twitter are social media’s most commonly used medium for connecting friends, relatives, and employees.

This latest form of interaction can seem daunting and confusing but our speakers Jill MacRae of Blether Media and Kenny Wallace of Wellbeing-Solutions told us how it can be done. Jill spoke about the ways to use these new marketing tools, to make sure people were talking about you, giving you recommendations and spreading the word for you. Kenny spoke about how it actually worked for him and that he no longer uses the tradition marketing avenues, saving money and getting more business.

The event created so much interest everyone was talking about ideas for their businesses well after the speakers finished..

Blether Media www.BletherMedia.com
Wellbeing- Solutions www.wellbeing-solutions.co.uk

April 2010

Relationship Building and Joint Ventures to
achieve Market Growth

Businesses look to forming alliances and working on joint ventures to access new markets and increase sales. Strength can come from joining forces with people to share knowledge and resources.

Stewart Whyte, a Corporate Partner with McClure Naismith, spoke about the legal implications of joining forces with another business, the issues to consider at the outset, the pitfalls and problems to be aware of and how best to protect your business. Joint ventures and collabouration can take many forms but Stewart advised that you need to be trusting, willing to share and time spent in the beginning planning, will help ensure a better understanding for all involved.

Oli Norman of Dada founder and managing director of the award winning DADA, Scotland’s fastest growing marketing, PR and Events Company. Based here in Glasgow, DADA is a marketing agency with a difference, entering joint ventures with its clients, which include the Hilton, Domino’s, Whyte and Mackay and the BBC, often approaching them with unusual concepts. He was an inspiring speaker, speaking about how he started his company and interestingly how he has used partnerships to grow his business and add assets to the company.

March 2010

The Commonwealth Games 2014- Get ready to be Involved

Our speakers were Jane Gotts, Programme Director of BusinessClub Scotland and David Dougan from Glasgow City Council 2014 byer Engagement Team. With many years experience in procurement our speakers were interesting and informative.

With the building work now underway for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 this is a fantastic time to get involved. They both said that with a £200 million predicted spend and procurement starting in areas like tourism, food, digital markets and enabling technologies, every business needs to be informed and prepared. There will be opportunities for individual businesses or consortiums from a wide range of businesses to tender for work.

Jane Gotts talked about the BusinessClub Scotland, based on a similar club set up in Australia for the Sydney Games, which ensured a very high proportion of local and small to medium companies won the work. Jane wants to ensure that happens in Glasgow and continues for the future. Details on www.businessclubscotland.co.uk

David spoke about the portal to register interest in work for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the team who will be responsible for ensuring that all suppliers are correctly registered and ‘Business Ready’ to take part in these opportunities. There are currently over 7000 suppliers registered with the Portal. More details on www2.glasgow2014.com/businessportal

There were many questions, with members leaving better informed and feeling it was time to get involved.

VIEW PRESENTATION

February 2010

The Power of Positive Thinking

February’s event had only one speaker: a man described by the Scotsman as "one of the top individuals to shape our nation”: the world renowned Jack Black.

As a social worker In the East End of Glasgow in the 80s, Jack saw two colleagues destroy their health through the stress of work whilst only in their 40s. Having had a similar experience himself, Jack set out to discover how stress could be managed and how you could maintain high levels of personal energy. MindStore was the culmination of his findings and now Jack is recognised as one of the UK's leading authorities on personal development and works with international leaders in the field of performance coaching, creating leading edge approaches to organisational and personal development

Over the past decade hundreds of thousands have attended presentations or completed a MindStore System course. Jack has coached and worked closely with business leaders and directors of major British companies, men and women from all walks of life and even world champion athletes and stars from the world of entertainment

The theme for the evening was "Extraordinary Times, Demand Extraordinary Performance". Jack gave a truly inspirational talk
He told us how to lead and motivate not only our people, but also ourselves. He talked about our personal vision, and how vital it is to be clear about it especially in this time of never ending change; about the 'achievable' and 'realistic' part of the process; and how, when it comes to thinking about your mission, you should allow yourself to dream big.
Jack recommended that we make sure to write our goals down, display them somewhere we can see them regularly and often - this will help us to keep them at the forefront of our minds, reminding us what is really important. If we keep ourselves goal-focused, we will automatically make good decisions. We will apparently begin to attract people and circumstances to ourselves. In actual fact, what will be happening is that we will be recognising opportunity for what it is! Opportunity surrounds us everyday of our lives but we often fail to recognise it simply because we have not focused our minds upon what is really important to us
He talked about the importance of adopting a positive mental attitude and how to protect and guard ourselves against the negativity of others. Stress is something we all face in our everyday lives and Jack gave advice on how to manage stress. He demonstrated how a positive mental attitude and winning “can do” behaviours can achieve personal targets and goals. He also introduced the concept of whole brain thinking - the secret to improved performance through better decision making, commitment and individual drive and closed by giving members a practical toolset to apply on our interaction with customers, prospects and each other.

January 2010

Debt Management

Entrepreneurial Speaker   Ken Cairnduff, Director Cairnduff Developments Ltd

Specialist Speaker  Frank Johnstone, Partner Consumer Finance and Debt Recovery, McClure Naismith

A recent Government’s Small Business Survey highlighted the growing problem of late payments to Businesses. Businesses stated problems caused by having to chase payments and the effect this had on their cash flows was a major problem in the current financial climate. Sectors particularly badly hit were contractors, self employed and small businesses.

There are a number of solutions to improving credit including invoice financing and factoring. An awareness of these options and knowing your legal rights to pursue debts are an essential skill in today’s economic climate. It is essential to get tougher and tighten your credit agreements. Businesses must also be thorough in conducting due diligence on new clients. Firms facing financial pressure often seek out new suppliers when they have overextended their credits terms with their existing suppliers. If the deal looks too good to be true, it often is.

November 2009

Making Your Organisation Leaner & Fitter

In the current economic climate successful businesses will tend to be those who can adapt, ‘survival of the fittest’ in Darwinian terms. To offer an insight into how he has made the changes to remain competitive in the current marketplace we are delighted to welcome Shaf Rasul –IT and Property Entrepreneur and one of the country's wealthiest businessmen according to the Sunday Times Rich List. As well as being one of Scotland’s most successful entrepreneurs with an extensive portfolio of businesses focusing on property and technology investments, Shaf is also the latest dragon in the online version of Dragons’ Den and a columnist for the Sun newspaper. He has a wealth of experience in helping failing
businesses to identify opportunities and change their business model to turn their businesses around. Shaf has developed a venture capital investment portfolio, worth in the region of £30million, which focuses on property, asset management and internet technology.

We also are privileged to have Law at Work , one of the top employment firms, in Scotland, to provide advice on the impact of change in terms of employment law.

October 2009

Innovating Your Finances –
Loans, Grants and Equity Funding

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We were delighted to welcome Jim McColl CEO Clyde Blowers and Nelson Gray MD Firth Ventures to our “Innovating your finances-loans, grants and equity funding “ event. 

Jim gave a fascinating and inspiring account of how he took the leap into self-employment and found the £1million capital required to by 29.9% of Clyde Blowers PLC in 1992 whilst only having access to £110,000 of personal funding.  He told members how building good relationships and trust with those he has had dealings with had played a key part in his ability to find investment both now and in the past. 

His ability to spot a great deal was clear when he revealed that Clyde Blowers in 1992 was valued at £3 million but had a £5.5million property portfolio and £2.2million share portfolio.  The subsequent partial sale of these assets allowed him to pay off the initial investment made by 3I and facilitated the payment of dividends to share holders and Clyde Blower’s first acquisition under his leadership.

In 1992 Clyde Blowers had only 3% market share but had a vast global customer base.  A simple strategy of consolidation within this market resulted in Clyde Blowers gaining a 60% share in the market between 1995 and 1997.  Jim’s biggest acquisition was for a German company who had two loss making businesses which led to some funders questioning his strategy.  His secret to getting investment he told members was “positive thinking and visualisation” before every bank meeting.

“It may sound a bit whacky to some of you, but before every funding request I visualise getting the money over and over so that by the time I walk into a meeting I am very relaxed as I have already seen them saying yes to me and know that they are going to agree.”

This ability to win over investors has stood Clyde Blowers in good stead in recent years and in particular with the buyout of Weir Pumps where the Bank of Scotland agreed to a bridged deal due to their complete trust in Jims ability to always look after investor money-this having been proved over and over to the Bank with the doubling of their money month on month in earlier deals.

Jim concluded “Money is never a problem if you have a good plan.  We had a good plan in place and we needed a global platform where we could do things at a local level to ensure the business continued growth.  We have recently had lots of set backs due to the credit crunch but because of our reputation and the degree of trust our funders and sellers have in us, we have continued to grow through loan notes from the sellers.”

His advice to members was to “Get people to believe in what you are telling them; have glowing references; never worry about financing; get your vision out there and feel passionately that you will get the money from somewhere.”

Nelson agreed with Jim and after talking members through the difference between sources of equity funding from Angel Investment and Venture Capitals discussed the tools required by Businesses looking for investment. 

Key to getting a meeting in the first place is to prepare an excellent Elevator Pitch which is a brief summary of what your Business does and what solution it provides to its customers.  This pitch is less than one minute long and has to hook the listener immediately (before the doors open to the next floor).  The next key ingredient is the Executive Summary.  Nelson admitted that “You will possibly spend 6months preparing your Business Plan but you’ll be lucky if an angel investor spends 2minutes on it initially- your executive summary has to excite the reader immediately and show why your Business will make more money than its competitors.”  The final ingredient is the full Business Plan which for the purpose of investment should be more of a sales document than a working Business document.

As a member of the board of LINC Scotland which facilitates the development of the Business Angel marketplace in Scotland, Nelson told delegates “It’s a myth that there is no money in Scotland.  LINC deals with a third of angel investment in Scotland and has brought £10.5million into 41 companies over the last year.”However he added that the current economic climate had meant that only 11 of these companies had not been previously funded.  “There is a squeeze on investors as they have no money coming in from stocks and property but conversely there are more investors coming into the market as they are not investing in stocks and property!”

On average approximately £300,000 is spent per investment in Scotland and is provided by a small group of people each putting in between £10,000 and £50,000 each.  An investor will expect to take between 25% to 45% equity and expect at least 5 times capital growth return with a 4 to 6 year exit.

Nelson recommended that Businesses should currently offer dividends to investors in order to give investors cash flow, “It’s not always just about build and sell; offering dividends is a great alternative in the current economic climate.”  He also recommended that Businesses should look for equity first just now and then going to the bank for the balance required.

“There is no quick fix” he summarised, “It is essential to keep the business going and to optimise working capital even by reducing your sales in order to get rid of non paying customers.  If you do decide to go for investment; do your due diligence on who the investor is and what appeals to them and specifically target them.”

September 2009

Adapting Your Services To Increase Your Market And Sales
Speakers: Chris Tiso and Jane Wylie-Roberts, Fennonmcrae

Read speaker biographies

Wed 2nd September. 5.30pm-8.00pm, The Glasgow Grosvenor Hilton, 1 Grosvenor Terrace, Glasgow G12 0TA

Diversifying is key to Business survival and growth

As budgets are squeezed and the order book diminishes through the economic downturn, Businesses must look to sourcing new markets and adapting their services to cater to a wider range of customers. A recent Entrepreneurial Insight Survey which canvassed over 500 owner managers of independent businesses from a wide range of industry found that increasing their sales was the key area they are focusing their energies on to get them through the recession.

Our inaugural event was hailed as an unmitigated success by our members.

Inaugural speakers Chris Tiso Chief Executive Tiso Group and Jane Wylie-Roberts MD Stafffinders shared their extensive business experience with members focusing on the topic “Adapting your Services to Increase your Market and Sales.” The entrepreneurial speakers were joined by Marketing Strategists Fennonmcrae.

Chris told members “We initially grew our product offering in line with the development of our market. We took advantage of the opportunities we saw and grew the business organically through identifying new categories in cross over markets. However, we reached a point where we realised that if we kept pushing it and continued to increase our product offering, we were at risk of diluting ourselves and might compromise the business for our existing customers. We decided to find retail partners that held similar values to ourselves and made the decision to become a one stop shop for outdoor enthusiasts which created a wealth of cross marketing opportunities for us.”

Jane told the audience how diversification of their client base became of paramount importance in the current climate. “By ensuring that we are strong in both temporary and permanent Job Vacancies, we have ensured that we have a good cash flow in the current climate. We have also expanded our product base by offering training to job candidates which has given Stafffinders new revenue channels and provided an additional service to clients that are new to the job market.”

“Focus is the pathway to success” was the theme of Fennonmcrae’s presentation. Scot Mcrae warned that diversification could be a double edged sword. “Entrepreneurs tend to be creative but it is critical to keep focus in your business. You must ensure that you have the correct Brand for your company, one that will endorse your products and your services. Over diversification can dilute your brand and consequently make your offering look less attractive to potential customers.”