Small business tips Archives

Setting up and running your own business can be one of the most exhilarating experiences and yet also many will agree one of the most stressful. You will experience major highs to major lows every week, but it’s important to stay positive.

So take a look at a few our tips and let us, and others, know if you have any of your own…

Focus on solving a problem, not just what you like to do.

It’s often preached that to be successful you have to really love what you do. This is more than a fair point. If you are truly passionate about what you do every day then you’re bound to work harder, because it is something you absolutely love and look forward to getting up for every single day.

However, this is by no means the key to a business’s success, and often it can be a contributing factor in the failure of a business. Too often new business owners, or entrepreneurs, focus solely on what they like and what they enjoy best in their business, rather than focusing on solving a problem or even developing the original idea to create the very best product that customers will want.

Idea: Take a look at many of the failed presentations on the TV show Dragon’s Den, where the aspiring business owner loves their idea, but the Dragon’s tear it to shreds as the owner has failed to show a market or profit for their product or idea.

Make sure you don’t get caught up in how passionate you are about an idea, mistaking how much other people may be passionate about it and how much real success it can have.

Custom Business Cards — Don’t forget traditional marketing items like Business Cards

Don’t forget the traditional marketing methods

With the birth of the internet and the spectacle which is the ever growing social networks like Facebook and Twitter it is very easy to get caught up in the idea that online marketing is the only place to spend your money. This is far from the truth! The more traditional marketing methods like business cards, banners, radio and your local directories are some of the strongest areas, and in today’s digitalised social media frenzied age also some of the most respected now, for reaching and securing your target market.

Of course we’re not saying that you entirely ignore the twitter and Google + accounts. There are strong connections to be made there and they can be great for managing customer service or simple enquiries, but it’s too simple to side-line traditional marketing methods for Google Ads and it’s important to find the right mixture for your business.

Learn from your mistakes

It goes without saying that every new business owner will make mistakes. You’re working on a tight budget, and will inevitably want to protect your idea. You’ll also come across hundreds of issues during your business launch most of which you wouldn’t have thought of beforehand. It’s important that you learn from these problems, redeem the errors and make the failure just a mere measure of your strength and success by putting into practice what you’ve learnt.

Tip: Never put your head in the sand hoping nobody notices your mistakes, be open, truthful and you’re far more likely to succeed.

Complaints are money waiting to be made

They say that a customer who has had a good experience with a business will, on average tell one person, but someone who has had a bad experience will tell seven. Although this sounds extremely negative, it becomes immediately more positive when you learn that a customer who originally had a bad experience will tell more people about how good your service is, if you redeem your mistake and transform their experience into a positive one.

It’s important to remember that everybody wants to feel important and at the same time everyone wants to feel like they got a good deal. If you go out of your way to make a customer feel cared for and give them an extra special deal, they are far more likely to tell people about how good your eventual service was, rather than focus on the original bad service and experience. Complaints are also a great opportunity for you learn what can make your business better.

Tip: Have you’re ear to ground, please disgruntled customers and learn from what your customers are saying.

Get ready for the weight of responsibility

If it hasn’t fully dawned on you already, let me reiterate that you are about to take on a massive responsibility. Not just to yourself, your family and social life. But when that opening day comes around, you’ll find yourself leading a staff meeting and suddenly you’ll find 10 faces looking back you; all of them willing to give you, and your business venture, a chance and stake their livelihoods to depend on the success or failure of your business. It may make you feel like running a mile…

Tip: Embrace the challenge and you will go from strength to strength.

Here at 123Print UK we’re massive fans of small businesses. After all – you’re the backbone of our business and the backbone of our country! Because of this we’ve decided to dedicate part of our blog to you; giving you the chance to talk about your business and tell others how you got started and what makes you great.

This week in the 123Print UK small business spotlight is Dewlay Cheesemakers, a 3^rd generation family run business who’ve became famous for having a passion for traditional handmade Lancashire cheese. Read on as we meet Conor Daunt, Commercial Director at Dewlay, who talks us through what makes Dewlay Cheesemakers such a fantastic small British business.

Conor, how did you get started with your business?

Dewlay was set up in 1957 by George Kenyon, grandfather of the current owners, to produce Lancashire cheese to sell to local cheese markets and independent cheese shops. The name came from the French terms “Du Lait” meaning “of milk” or “from milk”. In due course, George handed the reins to his son Neil who moved the business from its original site in Garstang, to a modern facility outside the town. The business is now headed up by Nick & Richard Kenyon, grandsons of the founder George.

What are some challenges you faced in starting and growing your business?

Like all companies, every day brings challenges, but then again each day brings great opportunities. Key challenges including balancing investment plans with time pressures, and always keeping an eye on the “big picture”, and ensuring that the cost base is managed correctly. Margins tend to be tight in the cheesemaking industry so keeping a close eye on all aspects of the business is critical.

What has been the proudest moment this year?

We’ve had an amazing year here at Dewlay. Our on-site cheese shop & viewing gallery is fast becoming a real foodie destination and we’ve been busy all year with tour groups, schools and individuals coming to see how we make cheese. We’ve had a great year with cheese awards too, and our proudest moment was winning four prestigious cheese trophies at the Nantwich International Cheese Awards this year, including best Lancashire cheese, and best Cheshire cheese! We also picked up 5 Gold Awards and 6 other medals for our range of cheese. To receive such accolades from our industry peers and hearing the feedback from so many happy customers drives us to continue to produce cheese of the highest quality and bring our range to new customers here in the UK and around the world.

Dewlay Cheesemakers — The Famous Garstang Blue

What methods of online marketing have you found successful?

Over the past few years we’ve embraced social media tools such as Twitter & Facebook, and used our own website as a means to promote news, events & offers, and found these to be extremely helpful in keeping in contact with new and existing customers.

What other marketing materials do you use to promote your business?

As a business we use everything from flyers and catalogues, online and print advertising, special offers, recipe blogs and so on. What we’ve found is that different materials can be used to attract the same customers, but the important thing is to know who your target market is – and realise that some of your products may have different target markets!

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?

My overall advice would be to just do it, and don’t be put off by the many hurdles – many completely unexpected – that will come your way. Make sure you really enjoy the business that you want to get into as very soon you will be living and breathing it! Get a good team of people behind you as to be successful, you will need to be able to delegate responsibility to ensure all parts of the business work efficiently and successfully.

Here at 123Print UK, we also want to provide real, useful information from the mouths of people who’ve created great businesses and transfer that information to people who will one day want to make a great business themselves. If you want to star in our small business spotlight then please contact us via our Facebook Page or comment below and we’ll get in touch.

Tag Archives: Small business tips

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Small Business Spotlight – Dewlay Cheesemakers