20 May 2011

Why do many of our businesses stay small?

Clearly the financial downturn is a major contributor.  But I think there is one more important and pretty simple factor at work.

PeerSolutions provides such an opportunity.  Two groups are currently operating with considerable success comprising 15 different businesses.  Check out the attachment - I'd be delighted to talk to you if you are interested.  My strong belief is that interconnected entrepreneurs and peer support networks are amongst the simple most important things we can be doing to grow businesses within Port Macquarie-Hastings.

PeerSolutions Flyer 

How do you do this? A good start is to talk to others with experience and to test your ideas.

If small businesses want to grow they need to find new customers. Obviously finding new customers means entering into new markets.  This means getting out of your comfort zone and becoming aggressive.

Apathy is the enemy

Expressways is a spare parts dealer - potentially boring, mundane and uncompetitive. They are anything but, Expressway Spares is constantly striving to maintain a competitive edge over their rivals and Patrick obviously aims to keep it that way.

Patrick also spoke about the importance of customer relationships and in so doing recounted his services at his preferred restaurant where he tells me that he is always acknowledged by name and treated as quite special. This is a bit different to the grunt I received today at the local sandwich shop.

Out & About

Rebecca Schacke & John Vanderveer own and operate the Milkbar Town Beach Cafe in Clarence Street, Port Macquarie.  John is a guy who I met some 10 years ago when he and his partner at the time produced the most fantastic bread and fresh pasta which he market tested at the Hastings Farmers Market.  They were such a success that they mostly sold out very early in the morning. Testing a product in a low risk situation is of course the real purpose of the Hastings Farmers Market.  John's test was amazingly successful and led to a number of other ventures - including the Lighthouse Cafe.  John & Rebecca have owned and operated the Milkbar Town Beach Cafe for 18 months and is a great example of how a business can grow attention to outstanding Customer Care.  In fact their business was so full the morning I turned up that we had to grab a table next door, courtesy of a friendly neighbour.

Some other businesses that have used the Hastings Farmers Market as a test for their ideas include Tony & Carol Sarks from Ricardoes Tomatoes & Strawberries and Monica & Eric Robinson from The Other Chef Fine Foods.

Worthy of a mention

While this email is not intended to be a noticeboard for other events, the following ones are worthy of special mention:

1. A comprehensive information session about the Mid Coast Uni Portal and initiatives to enhance higher education on the Mid North Coast will be held at the Port Macquarie Library Meeting Room, Grant Street, Port Macquarie.

Date: Thursday 26 May 2011 - 12.00pm - 1.30pm (light lunch supplied)

Attracting a tangible university presence to this area is possibly the single most important economic and social project that we can be doing.

Please RSVP to Emmy Graham by phone 6581 8207 or email

emmy.graham@pmhc.nsw.gov.au by Monday 23 May 2011

http://www.ncinnovationfestival.org.au/mid-coast-uni-portal-and-higher-education-project-innovative-initiatives-tertiary-education-1

2. The Port Macquarie Chamber of Commerce is undertaking a survey of business confidence.  Ultimately trends will be very useful in shaping the future of our economic development programs.  Please click on the link below to complete this survey.

www.portchamber.com.au  

 

By not staying ahead of your competitors, you risk being swamped. A good example is to think of encyclopaedias.  Encyclopaedia Britannica dominated the information field for two centuries until Microsoft launched Encarta. 15 years later Encarta was made redundant, replaced by Wikipedia. This is despite the fact that Microsoft had more money than many small countries and the very best people but still couldn't hold onto the lead. 

The moral of the story is to keep your blinkers off and to constantly review what you are doing and what your customer is expecting you to do.

It's not good enough to be fairly good at some things.  You have to stay ahead by constantly reviewing your business and how you are meeting your customers ever- changing demands.

Expressway Spares is a good case in point. Patrick is constantly reviewing his business and anticipating his customers future needs through regular meetings with his key staff. In discussing how he is staying in front of his competitors I had assumed that Patrick would tell me about his outstanding infrastructure, sophisticated tooling, huge gantry cranes enabling rapid completion of customer orders, be they national, international, private sector or government. I thought he would also mention his sublime business processes in immaculately clean premises and his logistically - central location both at Sancrox and also Mt Thorley in the Hunter Valley. But Patrick dismissed much of this as secondary prefering to focus on his staff, or team as he calls them, as being his Company's most important distinguishing feature - an experienced and motivated team of more than 150 specialists nurtured through a process of regular communication, a commitment to regular training, monthly progress meetings, career pathways and high levels of motivation.

3 May 2011

Tough Times Ahead for Some of our Businesses

Last week the Australian Financial Review reported that Coles is now serving between 1.5 and 2 million more customers per week than in 2007.  Bunnings (same ownership) total sales in the March quarter rose 8.1% continuing a recent trend.   This reflects the incessant inroads that the big guys are making through pricing and convenience.  It seems that customers are not only doing their weekly "big shop" but are also returning in-between times to top up for meat, fruit and vegetables and deli products.   In such a price and convenience driven future, it is difficult to see how the local butcher, the baker, the greengrocer and convenience stores can survive unless they are able to offer a genuine point of difference.  Under such circumstances,  I believe that it is more important than ever to promote 'localness' and the many benefits that this brings  The attachment has been developed for your use in this regard and can be formatted to include your own business details.  If you would like an electronic Word document, please contact Wendy Beverley, email wendy.beverley@pmhc.nsw.gov.au

Thanks for Shopping

The Drivers of our Local Economy

In order to review the Economic Development Section's Business Plan we have again looked at all 109 industry sectors in Port Macquarie-Hastings to refine our understanding of where best to concentrate our efforts. Criteria used comprised exports (sales to customers outside the area- the wealth creators), employment, value added (the value added by each industry in the local area) and backward linkages (the amount spent by industry sectors on locally sourced  goods  and/or services.   This analysis was based in the 2006 ABS Journey to Work employment census data, the most recent National Input/Output Tables (2006)  and the June 2009 ABS Gross State Product figures.

The major drivers of the Port Macquarie-Hastings economy have been identified as:

•       Retail

•       "Other' Property services (real estate, commercial property developers, etc)

•       Health Services

•       Education

•       Electricity Supply

•       Accommodation, cafes and restaurants

•       Residential building

With the exception of the important  tourism related businesses, it is notable that these are all service based industries.  It is hoped that our industry development activities in timber/ forestry, airport precinct businesses, higher education  and  transport / logistics, developed around some key infrastructure facilities,  will assist to diversify the economy away from its dependence on population growth.

Out & About

This week and last, I had the privilege of visiting 7 businesses nominated in the professional services category of the prestigious Customer Care awards.  Two judges for each of the 9 categories have been drawn from the Taskforce to individually assess the nominations including a written submission and a site-visit.  Personally I learnt  a great deal during this process and without exception each entrant had a very strong focus on service excellence in their organisation.

The Customer Care award winners will be announced at a gala dinner at Port Macquarie Panthers auditorium on the evening of Friday, 1st July 2011.  For further information please email Rachel Ross:  rachel.ross@pmhc.nsw.gov.au

Getting More Traffic to Your Website

Website traffic is valuable but targeted website traffic is worth its weight in gold.  This post lists some good strategies for getting more visits from your targeted audience. I particularly liked Point 2 - probably the hardest but most beneficial and the essence of what the Economic Development Section stands for.

http://biznik.com/articles/6-steps-to-getting-just-right-clients-to-your-website

Michael Porter's model (provided below) is helpful when talking about differentiation - narrow market (local) and quality product means higher prices but this of course is dependent on high quality 'consistent' customer service.

15 April 2011

The Most Important Things

What are the 5 most important things that you would like to knock over today.

I recall a story of an American executive who employed a consultant to help him with his time management skills.

The consultant's response was to get the executive, at the end of each day, to do a list.

There were only two rules:

1.    The list must contain only the five most important things to be completed the next day.

2.    Each morning, the first job was to work on the first item on the list and not to move to the second until it was completed. And so on.

The activity was remarkably successful and the consultant well paid for the results.

So the morale is:

•       Not 20 things. Not the most urgent. The five most important.

•       Each task is not a whole project - but rather an achievable component.

•       Do the list at the end of each day - not in the frantic chaos at the beginning of the day.

•       Each day, Every day.

Feedback

I wanted to mention Customer Care in probably the single most important thing a business, any business, can be doing to differentiate itself from its competitors (see PC Pitstop article below).

Some say they are already doing a good job but I really wonder.  I encourage every business to implement a means of achieving impartial feedback on how their customers are being treated. Remember that a high percentage of your profit generally comes from repeat business.

A number of businesses have their own versions of 'mystery' shopping programs which are paying substantial dividends. Examples include:

Anthony Wilson, Saltwater Wine

http://www.saltwaterwine.com.au/

Neville Parsons, Holiday Coast Credit Union

http://www.hccu.com.au/

PC Pitstop

Speaking of Customer Care, this week I visited PC Pitstop - a dynamic business operating in the rapidly changing computer sales and repairs industry.

The business is owned and operated by an alert young team of Samantha Clark and Ben Waters, at two busy locations - Port Macquarie & Lake Cathie.

Ben and Samantha are  very inspiring, constantly seeking ways to set their business apart from competitors and doing it very well.  Customer Care is clearly driving their success.

I think one of the biggest problems with service firms visiting your home is that, more often than not, they don't turn up on time.  Sometimes they are not even prepared to  nominate a time. Well if PC Pitstop says 3pm, they have processes in place to ensure they are there at 3pm.  Furthermore, staff are trained to listen, analyse and paraphrase back to the customer to ensure there is no misunderstanding of the customer's requirements.  Of course, this lets the customer know they have been heard and understand.   Some good lessons for us all.  I am reminded of a quote  "Quality is what the customer says it is.  Nothing less."

http://www.pcpitstop.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=22

The University of Newcastle's Inaugural Graduation Ceremony at Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie’s Glasshouse was transformed into a sea of caps and gowns on Saturday 26 February as the University of Newcastle celebrated its first formal graduation ceremony in the region and its 100^th nursing graduate.

The ceremony marked the completion of undergraduate studies for 23 Bachelor of Teaching/Bachelor of Arts (Primary) students and 31 Bachelor of Nursing students.

University of Newcastle Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nicholas Saunders, said the ceremony was a special event, and the first formal graduation ceremony in Port Macquarie was a chance to reflect on the significant role the community played in securing tertiary education opportunities in the region.

Port Macquarie has fought long and hard for tertiary opportunities. Beginning with the Hastings College of Adult Education in 1983, community support for quality tertiary education resulted in an alliance being formed between the community, TAFE NSW - North Coast Institute and the University of Newcastle in 2002. The University joined the Institute on its Port Macquarie campus, welcoming the first students into the Bachelor of Nursing degree in 2004.

Today, the University has close to 340 students studying nursing, teaching and the tertiary preparation course Open Foundation by Distance.

Major milestones were reached at the graduation. The University conferred its 100^th nursing student and a University Medal was awarded to local student Lucas Kelly.

Drop in Consumer Credit - A bad omen for retailers?

The Australian Financial Review reports a significant decline in borrowings - including a 3.5% dip in personal loans during February. This figure has fallen for 6 out of the last 8 months.

The household savings ratio has now reached 9.7% in the December quarter which according to the AFR "was one of the highest points since 1982".

All this suggests a fairly soft trading period ahead until borrowing rates pick up.

4 April 2011

Mid Coast Uni Portal's First Competition

Winners of the Mid Coast Uni Portal’s first competition proudly received their prize and certificate at an award ceremony held at Port Macquarie Library in February.

Rebecca Hore, David Stone, Lisa McLaren, Michelle McCudden, Nicole Willoughby and Jenna Beaumont each received a $200 shopping voucher for their winning entries in the competition.  The competition asked for feedback in regards to ‘What do you like the most about the Mid Coast Uni Portal?’ and ‘What improvements or extra additions would you like to see on the website?’

The suggestions provided a valuable contribution to the website, helping to make the Mid Coast Uni Portal the one-stop-shop for information for students in this region.

Country Education Foundation Australia (CEFA) Launch

The beginnings of Port Macquarie-Hastings Education Fund

The launch of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Education Fund took place at Sails Resort Port Macquarie on 28 March.  CEFA CEO Jocellin Jansson and Communications & Special Projects Officer Annabel Gay presided over the first committee meeting which was held prior to the launch. The committee was formed and introduced to the assembled crowd at the launch.

The founding committee consists of Peter Cuskelly (Chairperson), Jenny Fraser (Vice Chairperson), Keiren Freeman (Secretary), Grant  Weatherby (Treasurer), Joy Corben (Public Relations), Dr Julie McLeod, Michelle Chapman, David Hamilton and Mark Youngblutt (committee members).

The launch was very successful.  With the CEFA dollar for dollar fund matching in the first year, the committee now has over $3000 on offer for grant applications. Fund-raising will continue throughout the year.   

Applications for a CEFA grant can be accessed on the website. Details of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Education Fund can be found at:   

http://www.cef.org.au/education-foundations-map-of-local-education-foundations-nsw-port-macq.html

The Thinner the Niche, the Fatter the Opportunity

The thinner your niche, the fatter the opportunity.  This statement sounds at odds, doesn't it.  It seems that if you decide to choose a very specialised niche, your number of potential customers will be reduced considerably.  Actually it seems to work in the reverse.

This week I visited a number of businesses that who appear to be successfully exploiting a very narrow niche.  Tom Benson (In Phase Productions - Ph: 6581 5742) has built a successful business involving the hire, supply and installation of sound systems, theatrical lighting and public address systems.  Tom has two very specific types of customers - schools and corporate services.

Graham & Sue Keena (Ph: 6581 0433) build kitchens but generally not for new homes.  Rather, Keena Kitchens specialise in kitchen renovations and granite transformations in a specific niche for which they are regarded as the best.

So how does it work?

You are not reducing your number of potential customers but rather those who are a poor match.  This means less time wasting and more targeted advertising.

Sure you can keep on trying to be all things to everyone, but by keeping a much more targeted niche you are cutting down on your chances of success.

Derek & James Collins (Collins W Collins, building designers, Ph: 6583 4411) offer a very specific building design service, mostly for homeowners wishing to renovate.  Very targeted, very focussed - the result is a 95% follow-through.  That is a 95% success rate of clients moving from quotation through to serious discussion.  This seems to me to represent a very high conversion rate.

PeerSolutions

There has been some excellent interest in last week's article on PeerSolutions (see attachment).  Trust and confidence between those around the table will continue to be an important success factor for PeerSolutions, so I am spending some time in ensuring the business groupings are both diverse and complementary.

If you are interested in enquiring, please contact me on 6581 8660 or email trevor.sargeant@pmhc.nsw.gov.au

21 March 2011

Peer Solutions

Experience collected over too many years to remember suggests that, in order to be successful in business, you must do something nobody else can do or something nobody else wants to do.  If you have a ‘me-too’ business you must find out what distinguishes you.

You can employ someone else to write your business plan, research opportunities endlessly and never understand the real process of successfully running your business - critical things such as meeting your wages bill, keeping up with ever changing legislation, responding to real customers and finding and keeping good employees.

I have found that almost invariably some of the best advice comes from your peers, ideally those  in non-competing businesses who you trust and are already operating from the trenches.

With this in mind, we have set up one such group following some tests over the last few years  – Peer Solutions (see document attached).  I am very pleased with the success of PeerSolutions  and planning to form some more.  Read the document to get a flavour of the benefits participants are receiving – their  words say it much better than I can!

Should you be interested in PeerSolutions or would like me to come around and learn more about your business, please contact me by emailing trevor.sargeant@pmhc.nsw.gov.au or phone 6581 8660.

And they are doing it already...

Recently I met with three entrepreneurs, each with their own business in the creative industries sector. Bron Purdy from Spiritual Fitness, Leanne Prussing from Prussing Art and Bruce Thompson from Port by Night Tours.

Besides their outstanding individual abilities, what really interested me was their commitment to meet every fortnight to court each others advice from another entrepreneurial point of view.  They leave each meeting with a set of goals that they agree to act upon prior to the next meeting. This is an outstanding example of businesses who are now collaborating on growth issues rather than concentrating on survival. .

Bron offers a fitness for fun program (www.spiritualfitnesswithbron.com), Leanne is an awesome artist www.leanneprussingart.blogspot.com and Bruce is a highly entertaining host and creator of Port by Night Tours.

The two legs of economic development...

One leg involves infrastructure which is the comparatively easy task as it just involves mere money.  The much tougher second leg is about building business capacity.  This rarely receives attention as the work is done at the coal face, can be intensive and rarely involves 14 point headlines. It seems to me that the very best infrastructure in the world will always be  a poor investment without  high quality businesses able to effectively use it.

I have never yet heard a politician discuss capacity building - that is, assisting businesses to become investor ready,  growth ready and the practical application of new opportunities such as we discuss in the BiG program .   Ask your candidate this week about his or her policies regarding building business capacity. …..??

8 March 2011

The importance of strategy in your business

I came across this article on the Borders Book Retailers/Angus & Robertson failure last week. It referred to the company as one that always 'followed' and never 'led' the industry despite its considerable size. When its competitors moved on-line, the company focussed on bricks and mortar sales; at the same time it made a push to sell CD's, the rest of the industry was transitioning to digital; when everyone else worked on e-readers, Angus & Robertson/Borders worked on selling through its website.

For me the moral of this story is not to 'chase' but to figure out a strategy of staying ahead of your competitors. Devote at least several hours each week to "working on" rather than "working in" your business. Stay abreast of industry trends and compare the performance of your business against industry benchmarks. We have more than a hundred benchmarks covering a range of industries available for your use. Please contact either Wendy or myself at Council. I am sure you will find a focus on strategy as an excellent investment in the future of your business.

XYZ Support

Last week I visited Zoe Pogonowski at her home-based web design business, XYZ Support in Port Macquarie.  Zoe is an accomplished mathematician and web programmer who has learnt much of her small business skills through intuition and by remaining alert to new opportunities.  She is a great case study of entrepreneurial attitude.

Four things stood out as I chatted with Zoe:

1. Her focus on the core elements of her business as defined by her Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - see suggestions below.  Zoe actively promotes her business as "Building Awesome Websites". Setting your business apart from your competitors with a succinct statement is not easy to do and this is often a hot topic for discussion in our business development courses. Using just three words, Zoe has done this very well.

2. Her focus on strategy.  Zoe mentions her desire, one day soon, to start a family.  Hence she is actively positioning her business through a process of succession planning so that, when the stork does appear,  her business will not be heavily impacted upon. 

3. Her focus on having fun in her business.  I think this probably comes easily to Zoe as she has a very bubbly personality.  This is complemented by her partner (Dennis van Mill from Solid Stairs) who, Zoe tells me, is insistent on making sure the couple regularly take time out away from their separate business commitments.

4. Her focus on 'benefits' rather than features. Check out Zoe's website:

http://www.xyzsupport.com.au/why-choose-us.php

which is chock full of benefits rather than technical mumbo jumbo that few of us understand or relate to.

Journey of Flavour Car Rally

52 competitors lined up for the inaugural Journey of Flavour Car Rally on Sunday, 27 February. It was a great day with a number of competitors calling in at a number of food and wine businesses over a number of hours - quite a few of whom they hadn't come across before. Click on the link below to find out more.

http://sites.google.com/site/journeyflavour/jof-annual-car-rally

 

Finding Your USP

Your Unique Selling Proposition is a statement that effectively communicates what your business is good at.

To create a compelling USP you need think about:

·      The benefits that are unique to what you have to offer. Almost every business has some uniqueness. The trick is finding it and not to assume that others know why you are special.

·      Who is the target market most interested in this benefit.

·      What USP's are already used by your major competitors in this market.

This brings to mind rent-a-car company Avis who, many years ago, were strongly challenging market leader Hertz. The USP statement they used was "we are second so we try harder". Love it!

22 February 2011

The Year Ahead

Because Government stimulus handouts to households have mostly dried up, credit (for business) still remains very tight and interest rates are on the rise,  flat conditions are likely to continue for those of you competing  solely on price in commodity sectors.   For others trading in more distinctive 'niche' areas, I believe opportunities  will continue to grow.  I say this for two reasons:

1. Over 55's control an estimated 39% of Australia's wealth and this is predicted to grow by  61% over the next ten years.  And this is our strongest age group. As for Gen X, they hold an estimated 19%. SO WHO WOULD YOU PREFER TO BE DOING BUSINESS WITH??    While this market segment is not always viewed as particularly 'sexy', it is very under-serviced.  The retired crave respect and attention - give them that and they have money to spend.  Display your Seniors Card and importantly your Customer Care and Journey of Flavour decals.

2. Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently $2.95 billion.  This is an outstanding result for a regional economy and is a very good indicator of the standard of living we enjoy together with our disposable income.   To give you an idea of how well we are going, have a look at the following comparison:

Journey of Flavour Car Rally

Don't forget to register for the car rally being held this Sunday, 27 February.  Fun and entertainment for the whole family.  This is another  event designed to promote high quality food and beverage businesses in this area.

To register call Wendy Beverley on 6581 8221 or for more information, click on the link below.

http://sites.google.com/site/journeyflavour/jof-annual-car-rally

Customer Care Frequently Asked Questions

There are some changes afoot for the Customer Care program including the proposed introduction of a nominal membership fee.   These changes are designed to substantially improve our capacity to promote member businesses.

Frequently asked questions are included on the following link:

http://sites.google.com/site/hastingscustomercare/frequently-asked-questions

GDP per person ($A)

USA                 $47,500

Australia          $39,337

PMQ/H             $39,000

Japan               $34,100

Eu                    $33,700

NZ                    $29,182

By far the greatest component of our GDP is for personal consumption.  This is because, as a retirement region, we have become good at providing most  services for our own residents.   GDP is also a good indicator of the strengths of this area  and the opportunities for future growth.

Our three (3) largest service industries are electricity supply, real estate and health, representing 36% of total GDP.  'Product' industries in Port Macquarie-Hastings are dominated by manufacturing. 

My Travels

I have spent some time working with a moderate sized firm keen to locate into this area from Sydney and  others from Gympie and Brisbane.  Two of these are particularly exciting prospects and, all things going well may commence operation later this year.   Amongst a number of other enquiries, I have also had the pleasure of working with several young entrepreneurs.  Rather than making an assessment on their ideas (which would be very presumptuous) the task of the Economic Development Section is to assess the skills of the entrepreneur in each of the critical product, marketing and finance areas.   We can then set out to match the entrepreneur with one or more 'mentors' to complement the areas of need.