Do You Market Like a Lion or a Spider?

by Dr Greg Chapman

The lion of course, is the king of the beasts. Standing there on an outcrop surveying the plains with a gentle breeze blowing in his mane. He spots a heard of antelope and climbs down and starts to make his way towards the herd.

He approaches from downwind and starts to stalk his prey. Once the herd comes within sprinting distance, he begins his chase. The herd dashes to the left and then to the right to avoid the lion. Finally the lion spots an antelope that is lagging behind and he marks his target. It is as magnificent to watch as it is brutal.

The lion has his meal. Tomorrow he will do it all again.

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How Leaky is Your Sales Pipeline?

                     by Dr Greg Chapman

Does your Sales Pipeline leak? Hopefully your answer to that question is “Yes, but just in the places it’s supposed to.” Every business’ Sales Pipeline leaks to some extent. The question is: Have you done everything you can to ensure that it does not leak excessively? Do you even know what your Sales Pipeline looks like?

Very simply, a Sales Pipeline starts with an initial enquiry and ends with a sale. While the Sales Pipeline looks different in each business, there are still some similarities between them. In all businesses, there is a need to generate enquiries. This can be done through advertising, cold calling, public relations or word of mouth. This enquiry may be a phone call in response to an ad. Or, in retail, a customer may walk in your front door attracted by your shopfront marketing. This is the first step of the Sales Pipeline for any business. However, there are usually a number of steps from receiving an enquiry to generating a sale.

The Five Pillars of Business Success: Pillar 1: The Plan

                     by Dr Greg Chapman

Last month I revealed the 5 reasons businesses stay small.

In this post I will discuss the first of the Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success: The Plan.

When I speak about plans what I see are generally business plans created when the business was first started, that read like novels, and if they were in libraries, they would be classified as science fiction. They are filled with the optimism of the inexperienced, but once exposed to the reality of the market place, these plans regularly get forgotten on the shelf gathering dust.

General Truman once said “Planning is essential but plans are useless”. Perhaps this thought was prompted by a 19th century German Field Marshall von Moltke who said “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”

Top Small Business Blogs 2021

by Dr Greg Chapman

Once again The Australian Small Business Blog has been ranked in the Top 100 Small Business Blogs Globally and in the Top 10 Small Business Blogs in Australia by the blog aggregator Feedspot.

Thanks again to the Feedspot team for the recognition.

Ad of the Month - Changing old traditions

by Dr Greg Chapman

Old traditions die hard. We do things at certain times because everyone else does it and we get used to it and even like it.

I admit I love an ice cold beer on a hot summers day. Doesn’t everyone? Well apparently not.

How much are You worth?

by Dr Greg Chapman

The past year has been difficult for everyone, except perhaps Zoom shareholders. As we start to come out the other side of this, the confidence of many has been shaken causing them question their value. If you are a business owner selling products and services, do you get what you are worth? Most people will answer no to this question. They believe that their clients do not value their services and won’t pay what they are truly worth.

Here is a calculation you can make.

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Five Reasons Businesses Stay Small

                     by Dr Greg Chapman

This is an edited extract from the best selling award winning book “The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success”

The biggest risk for most businesses, if they survive the first year, is not whether they will fail. Most won’t. The biggest risk is that they will stay small. Whether by design or not. Recent ABS data show that 98% of micro-businesses stay that way. That is, they are Micro-Stayers.

There are a number of reasons that businesses may stay in the Micro-Stayer group. It could be a lifestyle choice. Work-Life balance is becoming more and more important to many people. It may be because they don’t have the knowledge to take their business to the next level, and become frustrated Micro-Stayers. Or they may have progressed from frustrated to resigned Micro-Stayers and have adjusted lifestyle and ambition in recognition of this.

Businesses that involuntarily stay small, the Micro-Stayers, do so for five key reasons.