Tag Archive for Finding and selling to customers

Ten ways to get better at networking

By James Eder on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Networking is vital for business, exchanging details often doesn’t lead to real connection.

Finding context in an interaction, starting up conversations in everyday places and asking the right questions will work in your favour.

Saying yes and increasing your luck by increasing your interactions is key. Whatever you do, start now.

Networking is one of those things in business we often feel we should do. But the fear of awkward silences and forced conversations at events pushes most of us out of our comfort zone.

You might exchange contact details, but more often than not, you don’t follow up — and the chance for real connection that leads somewhere positive for both parties slips away.

But what if I told you there’s a much easier way to create truly meaningful moments? And that these ‘collisions’ could have a far wider-reaching impact in terms of opportunities?

It all starts with changing your mindset and applying three key principles:

Giving yourself permission to strike up a conversation

Harnessing your confidence and experience

Finding the right context

It’s a framework I have developed over more than 20 years in business and captured in The Collision Code. Here,

Read more...

Help drive holiday discovery: your guide to Amazon Ads during peak shopping season

By Partner Content on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

As the holiday shopping season approaches, Amazon Ads offers solutions to help businesses of all sizes reach customers during these peak shopping periods.

Shopping events during the holiday season like Black Friday and Cyber Monday create valuable opportunities for advertisers to connect with customers when they are actively shopping and ready to discover new brands.

Advertising during the holiday season may help brands engage audiences in the UK. During this time, customers may be actively searching for products like yours as they shop for gifts and seasonal items.

“We know when our peak season is and which products are probably going to sell in that period, but you also have to act upon different trends and volume spikes in products that you didn’t quite expect… you can utilise Amazon Ads to push those sales further,” reflects Craig Wilson, co-founder of Gardener’s Dream.

The holiday season offers unique opportunities for businesses to enhance their advertising strategies. Brands can create festive campaigns that resonate with the holiday spirit, potentially fostering deeper connections with their audience.

When it comes to the holiday season, preparation and early action can help drive success during

Read more...

Scale Globally, Advertise Locally with Amazon Ads

By Partner Content on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

In today’s interconnected world, scaling your business across borders has never been easier. With Amazon Ads, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can now effortlessly reach customers around the globe, turning international expansion from a daunting challenge into an exciting opportunity for growth. In fact, advertisers who use the full suite of Sponsored Ads products across countries saw 88 per cent of their sales growth come from outside their home country.1

The Ease of Going Global with Amazon Ads

Imagine reaching customers across the globe with just a few clicks. Amazon Ads makes this a reality with its suite of localisation features. These tools are designed to help you connect with customers in their own languages, tap into local shopping trends, and fine-tune your campaigns based on regional insights. But that’s just the beginning. Amazon Ads has recently introduced two game-changing features that take multi-country advertising to the next level: Global Sponsored Products Campaign and the Multi-Country Expansion Tool.

Global Sponsored Products Campaign lets you launch Sponsored Products campaigns across multiple countries in just a few clicks – making international expansion feel less like a complex puzzle and

Read more...

Which card payment machine should I get for my small business?

By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

You might be mulling over a new card reader – one that’s faster, has more features or has in-built fraud detection, for instance.

Here, we’ll be talking about the benefits of taking card payments along with some of the best card payment machines on the market.

You can jump straight to the section that you’re interested in using the links below:

Benefits of taking card payments

What card payment machines are out there?

Which card payment machine should I go for?

Benefits of taking card payments

Taking card payment could very well enhance your business in ways you don’t expect. Let’s consider a few.

It makes things easier

Card payments make things much simpler for both you and your customers. On a very basic level, you’re no longer having to check the authenticity of the cash and then spend time counting out the change. With a card transaction, you just type the cost into your terminal and you’re good to go. It’s even quicker if you have contactless capabilities. This allows for a much smoother transaction time between you and your customers. These types of payment also lower the need for bank visits,

Read more...

The best freelancer platforms

By Anna Jordan on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Whether you’re starting or developing your freelancer career, where do you build your client base?

Hopefully you’ll have one already, filled with clients that you’ve worked with over the course of your employed career. But if you’re moving industries or simply starting afresh, freelance platforms can be an extremely helpful tool.

We’ll be looking at what freelancer platforms are and a few of the best ones around right now. Read on for the full guide or use the navigation below to head straight to the section you want.

What is a freelance platform?

When should I use a freelance platform?

What should I be looking for in a freelancer platform?

The best freelancer platforms

What is a freelance platform?

A freelance platform lets you see jobs and projects available from companies, with the option to bid/pitch for the ones you want to go for. Depending on the site, they might provide the means to manage the project, facilitate communication and do invoicing.

When should I use a freelance platform?

If you’re savvy and organised, you could use it for regular work. If it has the functionality, it can be handy as a way of

Read more...

Sales commission structure for UK small business

By Timothy Adler on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

You’re a small firm that has a proven B2B product to sell and the direct website sales to prove it. You’ve even had investment from investors excited about your revenue growth projections. But how can you take your small business up to the next level, finding those buyers without having to rely on word of mouth?

The obvious answer is to take on a salesperson.

But how do you know what to pay them? Obviously, salespeople work on commission – the more they sell, the more money they make – but won’t they need a basic salary to tide them over? And what should that split be?

This is when you need to decide on a sales commission structure for your small business.

First, you need to ask yourself some questions.

What is the hunter vs farmer concept?

A simple distinction between types of salespeople is the hunter vs farmer concept. The kind of salesperson you may need depends on the type of business you are in.

Martin Knowles, co-founder of sales coaching firm Sales Untangled, co-author of the Amazon bestseller of the same name, defines hunters versus farmers as follows:

Hunters are

Read more...

5 ways to make your website more friendly for older customers

Originally written by Paul Gray on Small Business
The ongoing pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives but perhaps the most impacted has been how we as a nation shop. From our weekly groceries to smart home tech and even furniture, the changes in rules due to lockdowns has led to us having to rely more on online shopping as physical stores were forced to close.
And for some the changes will now be permanent, with well-known high street brands collapsing and being brought back as online only.
‘Many e-commerce sites are yet to consider older shoppers as a viable demographic’
While more and more older customers have embraced the internet and online shopping due to necessity, many brands and e-commerce sites are yet to consider older customers as a viable demographic.
But can brands really afford to ignore any potential shoppers right now? Especially a demographic that, pre-pandemic, was reported to account for £320bn of annual household spending and the over-50s hold over three-quarters of the nation’s financial wealth.
>See also: 7 ways to enhance your small business website in 2020
Over 65s are not just one group
The market for 65 plus is constantly changing, not only as older customers adopt technology more readily into

Read more...

5 ways to make your website more friendly for older customers

Originally written by Paul Gray on Small Business
The ongoing pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives but perhaps the most impacted has been how we as a nation shop. From our weekly groceries to smart home tech and even furniture, the changes in rules due to lockdowns has led to us having to rely more on online shopping as physical stores were forced to close.
And for some the changes will now be permanent, with well-known high street brands collapsing and being brought back as online only.
‘Many e-commerce sites are yet to consider older shoppers as a viable demographic’
While more and more older customers have embraced the internet and online shopping due to necessity, many brands and e-commerce sites are yet to consider older customers as a viable demographic.
But can brands really afford to ignore any potential shoppers right now? Especially a demographic that, pre-pandemic, was reported to account for £320bn of annual household spending and the over-50s hold over three-quarters of the nation’s financial wealth.
>See also: 7 ways to enhance your small business website in 2020
Over 65s are not just one group
The market for 65 plus is constantly changing, not only as older customers adopt technology more readily into

Read more...

How to encourage your business contacts to refer you to new clients

Originally written by Matt Simmons on Small Business
For new and growing businesses with limited marketing budgets, a personal referral can be one of the best ways to pick up new business.
A referral is a business contact telling one of their own business contacts that they would recommend you, asking that person if they would be happy to hear from you directly, then passing their details to you if they say yes.
Just to be clear, a referral is not the same thing as a lead or even a recommendation.
Online enquiries can often be described as leads, but in truth a lead is any information which might help you towards a sale. Offline, that can be something as small as a tip-off about someone who might be interested in your product or service. A recommendation could be a good review online or a passing positive remark, which is great, but doesn’t actively bring a customer to your door.
A referral, however, is a warmed-up opportunity to do business – a personal introduction to someone who has expressed a specific interest in hearing from you and is awaiting your call. Effectively, it’s a lead and a recommendation combined.
The advantages of referrals over leads or

Read more...

How to encourage your business contacts to refer you to new clients

Originally written by Matt Simmons on Small Business
For new and growing businesses with limited marketing budgets, a personal referral can be one of the best ways to pick up new business.
A referral is a business contact telling one of their own business contacts that they would recommend you, asking that person if they would be happy to hear from you directly, then passing their details to you if they say yes.
Just to be clear, a referral is not the same thing as a lead or even a recommendation.
Online enquiries can often be described as leads, but in truth a lead is any information which might help you towards a sale. Offline, that can be something as small as a tip-off about someone who might be interested in your product or service. A recommendation could be a good review online or a passing positive remark, which is great, but doesn’t actively bring a customer to your door.
A referral, however, is a warmed-up opportunity to do business – a personal introduction to someone who has expressed a specific interest in hearing from you and is awaiting your call. Effectively, it’s a lead and a recommendation combined.
The advantages of referrals over leads or

Read more...