Raw 03 - November 2008 - (Page 11)

RACHEL ELNAUGH RAW a business has sales almost every other aspect of the business can easily be sorted out - whether it’s finance or accounting or logistics. But without sales you don’t have the business! Find Creative Ways to Raise Finance So many people came into the Dragons’ Den asking for seed funding who didn’t actually need any investment at all! There are almost always much more creative and effective ways to finance your business than by giving away a huge slice of equity upfront. Even if you only have a concept or a prototype it’s still possible to go out and get a deal off the back of it - which you can then trade finance. And frequently you’ll be able to find entrepreneurial suppliers who will give you early support or long credit terms to help you on your way. Banks are probably the worst places to seek support as they are probably the most risk averse of financial institutions. But there are a whole raft of other specialist lenders out there hungry for your business. The key thing you need to demonstrate is that you have contracts and deals with proven value. Which, again, is where sales come in. Outsource all your key support services until you have revenue streams to bring them in-house; start your business on a shoestring from home if you can and keep your overhead as low as possible - until the cash starts flowing to justify any extra expenditure. Your Customers Are Your Biggest Marketing Department At Red Letter Days, no matter how much advertising we did and no matter how much money we threw at various forms of marketing, even in the years when we had TV ad campaigns running, over 80% of our business consistently came from customer recommendations and word of mouth. Your customers are your cheapest form of marketing. Which means, if you consistently over-deliver and delight them, you are virtually guaranteed future success. Defend Your Energy Prepare yourself for the fact that at the start of your business journey you will be rejected, let down and disappointed at some point on virtually every single day. This can be incredibly draining and wearing if you allow it to be! Managing your own motivation and staying positive despite what ever the world throws at you is your best strategy for success. Remember, people can only get to you if you allow them to. Take your rejections, learn from them, don’t harbour grudges and quickly move on. Keep Adapting It’s extremely rare for a business to get its success formula right from day one. That means you need to keep adapting and developing your product and service offer with all the feedback you receive. Keep your business nimble and avoid over-investing in any large amounts of stock or brand collateral at the beginning of your journey. Things can quickly become obsolete as you find out what works and what doesn’t. The moment you get to the stage where your product/service offer is almost exactly aligned to your customers needs your business is sure to take off in a big way. But realise that sometimes that process can take two years or more! Never Say Die! Above all else, the one key characteristic of successful entrepreneurs was that they just kept going despite all the problems and barriers in their way. Persistence and determination are key to success. Most business failures happen simply because the founder decides to give up. By the way, persistence is not the same as relentlessly trying to push a formula that just isn’t working. Persistence is being 100% honest with yourself throughout the journey, recognising what isn’t working, rectifying it, relentlessly improving and honing everything - until it all comes together. el Elnaugh Rach Impossible uring on Million will be feat Olympia at The London Stand 245 8th, 29th art-Up show, 2 Business St of her r a book signing November fo htmares. ok, Business Nig successful bo millionimpossible.com 71 http://www.rachelelnaugh.com/biography/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 03 - November 2008

Raw 03 - November 2008 Contents Bradley Chapman Rachael Elnaugh Linda Klassen-Brown Heidi Weir Mark Asquith Emma Thompson Chris Wright

Raw 03 - November 2008

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