Blue Eyed Sun

Blue Eyed Sun - gorgeous greetings cards

Business Tips

  • The secret to successful marketing

    The Secret To Successful Marketing

    It can seem quite daunting marketing a small business in retail or publishing, can’t it? With so many ways to market your products, where do you even start? 

    According to Kevin Kelly’s viral essay, ‘1,000 True Fans’, successful marketing does not need to be complicated. Simply start by making 1,000 people very, very happy.

    You Don’t need Millions

    For successful marketing, you don’t need millions of dollars, customers, clients or fans. To make a living as a creator you just need 1,000 true fans. These are people who will buy anything you produce. If you have roughly this number of super fans then you can have a decent income. 

    To do this you need two criteria. First, you need to create enough each year that you can earn, on average, £100 profit per true fan. For some endeavours, this is easier to do than for others. What makes this work well is that is easier (and cheaper) to sell to existing fans than to find new fans. 

    Secondly, you must have a direct relationship with your fans. If they pay you directly and you can keep the full £100 profit from each true fan then you will earn £100,000 per year. This would put you in the 97th percentile for annual UK income. To match the median annual UK income, you only need £29 profit per 1,000 true fans per year.

    1,000 true fans is an achievable goal. More realistic than aiming for millions and the goal itself opens up distinct possibilities in a massive array of niches. One way to get to this number is to add one true fan per day for three years and you’re there.

    A Day’s Wages

    Of course the number 1,000 is not absolute. To be your own boss and match the UK median annual income, you could have 500 fans each generating you £58 profit a year. Achievable as a retailer. Alternatively, you could be a card publisher chasing £290 profit per customer with 100 true fan retailers each year to generate the same income.

    Another way to measure the support of true fans is to see if you can please them enough to earn the value of one day’s labour from them. Pleasing your true fans is much more pleasurable than trying to appease the masses. Super fans tend to value and appreciate your uniqueness and authenticity.

    Not every fan will be a super fan. For each true fan you may have 2-3 regular fans. Like layers of an onion, you will have an inner circle that is surrounded by further layers of fans and customers. The processes that you develop to please your true fans will nurture peripheral fans too. Even though they don’t purchase as often, they may still add another 50% in profits to your business.

    From Small Acorns

    Everything big starts small and focussed. Whilst the 1,000 true fans makes a key point of suggesting that size isn’t everything, this approach is also how you create best sellers that can lead to break out hits. 

    Being laser focussed helps to build the loyal fan bases that leverage your work onto bigger things. Starting the other way (with size in mind) means that you may compromise by trying to please everyone and ultimately pleasing nobody. Not only do your loyal fan base tell you what works, they are also pretty vocal about what doesn’t, which can be helpful for staying on track with your niche vision. 

    Remember that size isn’t everything. Do you really want to be running large company? It’s not always fun and can become an all consuming task master the runs your life instead of you running it. Small, niche and profitable can be more enjoyable for most.

    Repeat custom

    One of the key points to remember about successful marketing from the 1,000 true fans essay is that these fans buy anything you produce. There are three key ways to grow your sales and true fans help with all of them. First, is grow more fans (by referrals). Second, is sell more to those fans (by increasing price or volume). The third is to sell to them more often (by releasing more products). 

    Jeffrey Ingold is a Mariah Carey super fan who’s spent over £8,000 on her music in his life time. He even owns multiple versions of the same albums. He buys everything and he raves about her music to others.

    Your Marketing Force

    Focus on your true fans, because they will also tend to be the primary driving force of recommendations, referrals and marketing. Their enthusiasm tends to increase the patronage of regular fans.

    To be really effective with your marketing you need to maintain close relationships with these true fans. Have a good CRM or database of who they are, what they like and how they like to buy. Having a direct relationship with true fans, wasn’t always possible. The internet and software systems make this all much easier and more efficient. It also means less fans are needed to maintain the same levels of profit.

    Technology now also helps total sales of lower selling obscure items to rival sales of best sellers. Called ‘the long tail’ by Chris Anderson, this effect can really benefit your bottom line. For example, Blue Eyed Sun has hundreds of older designs on our website that continue to generate ongoing sales, despite newer ranges dominating orders from our sales agents who tend to favour new.

    With the right website and emailing campaigns some customers can end up buying more from you directly, with higher average orders and more often than they do with agents or other marketing approaches.

    Discoverable Niches

    Before the internet, obscure items were much harder to track down. Remember Fly Fishing by JR Hartley? Now you don’t even need the Yellow Pages. Search engines help us to find almost anything. No matter where you are. Got something that only one in a million will like? No problem. There are still 7,500 people on the planet that will still like it. 

    You just need to have them find you. With social media and the internet it has never been easier to draw them to you and to keep them close. The good news is that big corporations aren’t interested in these niches and are not set up to service them. You can be.

    One way to build your audience is through crowd funding. With over 2,000 different such platforms now available, raising money through crowd funding campaigns is within all of our grasp. A friend of mine does over a million a year in online training courses and he still test new projects with kickstarter campaigns to build his core fan base before launching.

    Building your base

    Cultivating your fan base can be time consuming and hard work. Like business building, it’s not for everyone. Some should just create and others should market and sell. That’s why publishers and retailers exist and work so well as routes to market for some designers and creatives. They can add value to the equation. 

    On social media, micro-influencers who have built small bases of 1,000+ true fans can be a great way off getting your business out there and growing your own fan base. It can also work well for the influencer by adding value to their loyal followers. We have done several successful BambooCup promotions with such influencers who have boosted our sales, given their fans a fun competition with prizes and increased goodwill with the influencer and their true fans. A win-win for all.

    You can combine your 1,000 true fans with other approaches, like licensing and distribution deals. For example, Doodle Girl has a loyal fan base online and the brand benefits from our extensive greeting card distribution by licensing their designs with Blue Eyed Sun on cards. The right partnerships can increase the size of your fan base.

    The ultimate goal is build this base into one of genuine and true appreciation. You don’t have to have millions of followers, just an achievable number of true fans that you delight with your work. That’s the secret to successful marketing.

    How to get started with digital marketing

    How marketing has changed in recent years

    A sweet and simple marketing idea

  • How to go the Distance in Business

    Going The Distance In Business

    Ten years ago I ran my first 26.2 mile race in the inaugural Brighton marathon. Since then, I’ve taken part in several events including London, Paris, Berlin and Edinburgh marathons along with many halves and 10ks. Then, three years ago my life changed and I stopped running. 

    Last month I returned to the Brighton marathon for a second time. Even though I love to run, it felt like starting over. Worse still, my training was disrupted by two separate injuries, a busy work schedule and a short illness. All of these meant I was frustratingly ill prepared. The race was incredibly challenging, messy and nowhere near any previous time I’ve completed other marathons in. Having said that it was fun, energising, life affirming and a reminder of the tenacity that we can have to triumph in the face of adversity. 

    Running a marathon is lot like being in business. There are moments when it feels like a breeze and others, when no matter how hard you try, you don’t seem to be getting anywhere. There are times when have no idea where your energy comes from. Sometimes things don’t go to plan and you feel like giving up.

    Time is Man Made

    One of the best ways to ruin a run is to get hung up on time. It’s the same with your business. It’s important to remember that the numbers are just measurements. They are not who you are nor are they an indicator of your value or self-worth. Time doesn’t exist outside of human kind. It is literally man-made, as is its meaning. 

    It was near mile eighteen when everything inside me screamed “STOP!” My energy was gone, my inadequately trained legs were struggling and all I could think about was ducking through the barriers and walking the short 500 metres to my home.

    As in business, you have to accept the reality of your situation. Especially when it feels hard. You then have to decide to to stop or keep on going. If you choose the latter, you need to be realistic and reassess. I realised that I had to forget about achieving a time based goal. I simply had to focus on completing the race.

    Accepting my fatigue, I thought about how I’d feel quitting and then how I’d feel completing the race, regardless of time. I decided to stick it out and began to walk for 50 steps and run for 100. Counting the steps kept me focussed on a very simple task: each step. That was it. For you, it might be counting the sales you make. One by one.

    Keep it Fun

    One of the things that’s wonderful about marathons like Brighton is the number of families out on the streets offering sweets, orange slices and fruit to the runners. When you run a marathon your glycogen (sugar) stores deplete after 2-3 hours. If your training has gone well your body will have learned to burn fat at a rate that holds this off for as long as possible. 

    Once your glycogen is spent, your energy levels drop and you feel like you’ve hit a wall. It’s the hardest part of running a marathon. With good training you can usually stave this off until somewhere between mile 20 and 22. This still means you have at least 30-60 minutes of running on empty and using all the will your mind can muster to reach the finish line.

    My energy had dropped off even earlier. So I stopped running past kids with bowls of sweets and began stopping to say hi and carefully choose which colour I wanted. They were delighted and it made my run a lot more pleasant. I also began to high five supporters and chat with runners around me. It feels so much better when you choose to smile and make it fun, despite it feeling tough.

    Why are you even doing your business anyway? To make money it’s easier and less stressful to get a job. If it’s your business then it's up to you to make it fun. If it doesn’t feel like it then lift your head up and look for the fun in it. There’s opportunity for wonder and delight in so many moments of our every day lives that we can miss them because we are so busy running along, caught up in our own little meaningless missions.

    I say meaningless not to be cruel, but because for the most part it is true. What’s important to us is invariably irrelevant to most other people. And yet we can’t understand why they don’t get it. Everybody enjoys a laugh and a smile though.

    On an industrial estate, halfway through mile 21 I stopped smiling as we doubled back along the seafront into an icy cold wind blasting at us for the last few miles. Yippee. Despite the earlier sun, it had been a cold start and fortunately I still had a jacket tied around my waist and a pair of gloves, both of which I slipped back on. Not long after though, I stopped jogging completely and walked steadily forward as several pace makers, carrying balloons labelled with those precious times I’d hoped to conquer, chugged past me.

    HELP!

    Back amongst supporters at mile 23 I tried to start jogging again. Big mistake. My thigh muscles pulled sharply into a tight spasm and I couldn’t move my legs without searing pain. The cold was causing me serious issues.

    I don’t know about you, but as much as I love to help other people I haven’t always been that good at asking for help from others when I need it. Not only that, but there have even been times when I haven’t paid attention to the fact that I needed to ask for help. 

    This can happen in business too. We often feel like we need to do it all on our own and somehow we are failures if we reach out to others. Perhaps we are afraid that we will look weak or vulnerable. We feel ashamed. We may also feel that our achievements won’t be our own if we do. 

    Balderdash. Sharing vulnerability is brave. Take care of yourself when you are finding it tough and ask for help when you need it. Most importantly, accept the help when it is offered. Especially if you really need it. Don’t let your pride get in the way of your well being. Caring and be cared for are two sides of the same coin.

    I spotted three people in a Brighton beach hut nearby and staggered over to them hoping to get warm. They were wonderful and offered me a seat and a blanket. I eyed the chair nervously wondering if I’d be able to get up once I sat down. My legs felt even worse when I did sit. The blanket warmed me and I enjoyed their company as my body recovered. They poured me some lemonade and I scoffed handfuls of crisps from a bowl on their table. 

    The warmth, sugar, salt and compassion all helped and five minutes later I was able to move my legs. I thanked my samaritans and ambled off towards the finish.

    Cheers!

    The support at most marathons is great, but Brighton is really special. The cheers and whoops from the crowd really pull you through the last three miles along the seafront. Soaking up the energy of the crowd is a real boost to anyone on their last legs at the end of a long race. Buoyed up, I even managed to run the last mile to the finish line.

    Every business has fans so remember to spend time enjoying their cheers whenever you can. Testimonials are a great reminder of why your business is special, as are referrals. Keep a book of compliments your business has received as a reminder. Read it when things feel challenging.

    Your business is a long distance event. It’s not a sprint. Even the biggest companies are built for the long haul. Remember it’s not just about the money. Remind yourself to keep it fun, ask for help when you need it and celebrate your victories (no matter how small). When in doubt. Just keep on running. Everything passes in the end.

    How to do things when you don't feel like it

    15 Ways Marathon Training can Help your Business

    Why facing your Fears is so Important for your Growth

  • Discovering the hidden value of Feedback

    The Hidden Value Of Feedback

    The American architect and leader in sustainable development, William McDonough, once taught me that, “Any system without a feedback loop is, by definition: stupid.” What he meant is that any system that isn’t testing the assumptions it’s founded on and then adjusting to feedback isn’t actually learning. 

    This was a wake up call for me at the time because, even when we have the best of intentions, if we are don’t create and pay attention to feedback loops in our businesses and in our lives, we are being stupid.

    The Map is Not the Territory

    The terrain we encounter on the ground is rarely identical to the map we use to navigate it with. Geography is not naturally grid shaped and it changes over time. Grids (like words) are our representations of reality. They are not the reality itself. Just as money is not wealth and a menu is not the food that sustains us. The plans we make for our businesses are seldom the everyday reality we face when we implement them. 

    Billionaire businessman Scott D. Cook put it in more relatable terms when he said “for every one of our failures, we had spreadsheets that looked awesome.”

    One of the main reasons for this is that our knowledge is limited. We know what we know (Jane knows she can drive a car). We know what we don’t know (Jane knows she doesn’t speak French). We don’t know what we don’t know (Jane doesn’t that there are rich oil reserves beneath her property). Being aware of the limitations of our knowledge is hugely important when it comes to recognising the value of feedback.

    The Hidden Gold

    So how do we discover what we don’t know what we don’t know? How do we tap into the hidden value of this knowledge? How do we find the gold in the ground beneath our very feet?

    It starts with recognising that you don’t know everything. Then we have to understand ourselves and how we tick. In 1902 social psychologist, Charles Cooley, identified our own internal feedback loops through his concept of the looking-glass self: “I am not who I think I am; I am not who you think I am; I am who I think you think I am.” 

    You might need to read this a couple of times for it to sink in. Essentially what Cooley is saying is that society is an interweaving and inter-working of our mental selves (a series of feedback loops). In other words, we develop our sense of self through how we believe others think about us.

    As you can imagine, this theory has grown in popularity with the rise of social media. Online you can represent different versions of yourself, receive feedback, judgements, etc based on follows, likes and so on. Most businesses miss the value of social media in this context. As Ashton Kutcher once told me at a conference: “Social Media is not a broadcast tool, it’s a conversation with a feedback loop.”

    There are two paths to the hidden gold available to you. Both start from within and both require you to step outside of your usual patterns of behaviour to find them.

    Just like navigating any jungle, first you need to stop and listen: internally and externally.

    Internal Feedback

    The body is an incredibly effective feedback loop. Most of the time it is functioning without you doing anything to it. We breath 12-20 times a minute without thought, our hearts beat 100,000 times per day pumping the equivalent of 2,000 gallons of blood through our bodies. All without your focussed conscious attention. When toxins are discovered, they are purged. When our bodies need rest, we feel tired. When hungry, our stomach rumbles reminding us to eat.

    Most of us consider our body as serving our brain, which is the area we tend to feel that our sense of self resides. But, consider for a moment the idea that our brains and the entire system of our body is actually at the bidding of our gut. 

    Did you know that 80% of the neurotransmitter serotonin (also known as the happy hormone) is produced in our guts? Serotonin regulates our mood and social behaviour, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory as well as sexual desire and function.

    What has this got to do with feedback? Well, the first thing to pay attention to the feedback is what is happening inside yourself. Shut off from all of the outside influences and listen to your body. Where is there tension? How are you feeling? What is the likely cause of these sensations?

    To do this effectively, make sure your stomach is not empty, you are in good health and you are not tired. Set aside a quiet time and space and then breath. Move beyond the thoughts you have about yourself, your business and the world around you.

    Remember that you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts and decisions come and go like hiccoughs. You are the presence behind your thoughts (if you want to go really deeply into this you are the entire cosmos - but we’ll save that for another time).

    If you take care of your health and well being, your gut will often guide you more clearly than the estimated fifty thousand plus thoughts we have each day. Nobody can dispute how you feel about things and only you know your own feelings.

    Listening to your internal feedback is the place to start when you want to consider what you know and don’t know. Sometimes your internal feedback can even take you into territory that you don’t know you don’t know. 

    Once you are in tune with your own internal feedback you can start to pay attention to the feedback from others on things that you don’t know that you don’t know as well as things you do know but have forgotten to pay attention to (you know - the ones most commonly and frustratingly identified by consultants).

    External Feedback

    From Cooley’s perspective, external feedback is really filtered by your own internal bias anyway (I am who I think you think I am). This causes people like Jane issues when she is struggling to pay his bills and she doesn’t know that there’s a deep rich well of oil beneath her. How could she ever discover this?

    Even if Jane were to ask experts to help her she may well be hampered by beliefs that she might have built up about her unworthiness. Stories that her family, friends, school, etc may have shared with her and which she in turned believed and built into the way she sees the world around her. Aside from that, how would she even know to ask for the type of expert that would help her to uncover oil reserves.

    The fact is, external feedback is our best chance of improving our lot. Even when we find it hard and don’t like it. Perhaps even more so when we have an emotional reaction to it. Just as we need to pay attention to what’s going on inside ourselves, we also need to have our ears and eyes open to the world around us. 

    We need to find others in our lives who offer honest, unbiased feedback on how we are doing. We need to actively solicit feedback and be open to hearing it’s message, even when it’s difficult and our egos are stinging from it. It’s most helpful though, when we have a clear idea of where you want to go.

    The Right Direction

    Lewis Carroll once wrote “If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.”  We need know what we want and in which direction we are heading. We then need to listen to our internal and external feedback loops as we go to determine if we are heading the right way and adjust accordingly.

    Where is the abundance currently concealed from your view in your life? Where do you want it to be? What can you do to uncover it?

    What you focus on will guide you. Slow down. Pay attention to what is working and ignore what isn’t. If you have an emotional reaction to a feedback loop then there is almost certainly a lesson to be learned from it and, who knows, perhaps even gold hidden within it.

    Why Customer Complaints Are Good for Business

    How to make your Business Fly

    Why Facing your Fears is so Important for your Growth

  • How to use a SWOT Analysis to improve your Business

    SWOT Analysis

    What is a SWOT Analysis?

    A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique to help you achieve your business and personal goals. By considering your internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) it forces you to be specific about your objectives and to identify the key factors that will hinder or support your success.

    I think it’s a great tool for thinking things through, making decisions and most importantly taking action. There are no guarantees with any road we close to walk down, but using the SWOT analysis can help us to tread more carefully and keep our eyes wide open as we go.

    Let’s take a look at each of the elements and how retailers and publishers might use them. I’ll also talk about how we used the tool to decide whether or not to take on distributing BambooCup.

    Your Objective

    It’s important to get clear on what your goal is so that you use the SWOT analysis to examine the way forward with that objective. You might alter your objective at the end and redo the analysis, but it needs a focus to work. Most businesses, whether retailers or publishers, will probably be looking at how they can grow their sales. To decide on distributing BambooCup or not, we started by looking at our strengths.

    Strengths

    What do you currently do well in relation to the objective that you have in mind?

    A retailer might list their prime location as a strength or even the fact that they own their own premises. The power of their customer relationships and the knowledge that they have of their customers are also strengths as is their business experience and a well trained team.

    For a Publisher their strengths might an innovative design team or that they are financially stable and profitable. They could have a recognisable brand or a strong and active database.

    With BambooCup I knew that we were strong on marketing, PR and Social Media. Blue Eyed Sun is a familiar name with many retailers. We have a great operational team and our own warehouse space to accommodate the project. Personally I also have a passion for taking care of the environment - It’s one of the main reasons I don’t eat meat for example (not a weakness btw ;).

    Weaknesses

    Where do you need to improve in order to reach your goal and is this possible?

    A retailer may list ‘buying power’ as a weakness. It simply might not be possible to compete with supermarkets on price for example. Poor window displays on the other hand is a weakness that they can do something about. Other weaknesses might be include inadequate staff training, poor up-selling and bad stock control of best sellers.

    A publisher might need to improve their business structure and be more demanding of suppliers and retailers. Their designs might not be strong enough or they might simply not have enough customers.

    With BambooCup, we were not familiar with selling gifts. We didn’t know what we didn’t know about the category. The profit margins are smaller than cards and the business model is slightly different. The new products could put a strain on our cash flow. We weren’t known for gift products.

    Opportunities

    Where could this take us and how could it improve things?

    A retailer might consider the internet and social media as new opportunities for growing sales. Collaborating with other retailers on their streets to create events could be another.

    A publisher may identify they can grow their sales through new sectors and new export markets.

    With taking on the UK and Ireland distribution of BambooCup, Blue Eyed Sun could expand into new retailers we didn’t already stock. We could increase order values with our current retailers. It would also allow us to diversify. We could even expand into B2C using our social media skills if we chose to.

    Threats

    What are the potential obstacles and dangers ahead?

    A retailer might identify external threats that include business rates, poor parking on their high street or even competitors across the street from them.

    A publisher could see the decline of the high street, SOR (Sale or Return), increased bad debts, improved competition and a lack of younger generations entering the industry as threats.

    With BambooCup more experienced competitors, currency fluctuations, stock availability and supply chain issues were some examples of the threats we considered.

    It’s important to be specific about the threats as it helps to figure out what can be done about them. Some things, like the weather, for example, cannot be controlled but they can be kept an eye on and can affect what strategies are best to use.

    Strategies

    Once you’ve completed your SWOT Analysis you can start to consider different ways to achieve your goal.

    Strength-Opportunity

    Which strengths can be used to maximise the opportunities you have identified?

    A retailer could use their well trained team to improve customer experience in store to increase repeat business and average order values. Our publisher might use their innovative design team to expand into the white label market or export territories with the languages. We recognised that we could use our PR and marketing strengths to expand quickly into a fast growing product category with BambooCup.

    Strengths-Threats

    How can you use your strengths to minimise the threats identified?

    Retailers with a well trained team will have a better chance of resisting the threat of competitors. Financially stable publishers will weather bad debts. With BambooCup we used our marketing and trade PR strengths to position ourselves against our more experienced competitors.

    Weakness-Threats

    How can you minimise your weaknesses to avoid the threats you’ve listed?

    A retailer with weak window displays and sales staff can invest in training to boost sales to take on external threats. A publisher with weaker product might need to expand their design team. With BambooCup we trained ourselves up in product and category knowledge to fully understand and compete with our competitors.

    Weaknesses-Opportunities

    What can you do to minimise your weaknesses using the opportunities presented?

    A retailer training their team to offer better customer experience might use this as an opportunity to integrate the improvements with their social media. Taking the improved customer engagement online increases their reach and can boost sales.

    A publisher improving their weak business structure will allow them to successfully pursue new business opportunities abroad by taking on new team members who can facilitate this, for example.

    Despite not having sold giftware to retailers before, as Chairman and long standing member of the Giftware Association we have the network and resources to figure out things as we go. We also have a lot of retailer friends that we can call for advice and feedback.

    A Useful Tool

    The SWOT Analysis is a really useful tool that can help you decide whether an objective is achievable or not. If not, it can offer up new goals worth considering. You can use it for your business life and for your personal goals. You can even use it to analyse your competition.

    As a retailer it could help you to focus on where you want to take your business rather than the difficulties you might be facing. As a publisher it might help you to reassess the direction you are taking and open up new possibilities.

    After much deliberation it helped us to make the decision on distributing BambooCup and strengthen our weaknesses, explore new opportunities and plan for external threats.

    If it’s new to you, give it a go and let me know how you get on with it.

    How to Make Better Decisions

    How to Do Things When you Don't Feel Like It

    Learn more about the Ladder Club

  • Business Ambition with Peter Jones from Dragons Den

    Jeremy Corner Peter Jones

    Watch Blue Eyed Sun MD, Jeremy Corner, on a Facebook Live panel session with Dragon's Den star and tycoon, Peter Jones. The panel was led by Kevin Poulter and included Janice B Gordon, both fellow Sage Business Experts. Organised by Sage the broadcast on 13th June was part of their ongoing support for business builders.

    The discussion included topics like ambition, what makes British business great, brexit, greeting cards and BambooCups. The evening continued with a fireside chat between Peter Jones and Sage CEO, Stephen Kelly. Attended by Sage customers it was fascinating to listen to Peter's journey and to hear tips for businesses within the audience.

    Click on the link to download a free ebook on Business Ambition.

    You can watch the playback of the discussion by clicking on the image below:

    NB. There are some issues with viewing this video internationally. We are working on this.

  • How to make your business fly

    How To Make Your Business Fly

    Running a business is a bit like flying a plane. Here's why and how to make your business fly.

    We all have key numbers in our businesses (often referred to as KPI’s - Key Performance Indicators) that we need to track on a regular basis. They’re kind of like the dials you’d use to fly an airplane. To help fly your business safely you need to measure and understand your customers, your products, your financials, your employees and your suppliers. 

    The dials are essential but they are not the whole deal. If we spend all of our time looking at them and not paying attention to what’s around us we can still crash. The information they provide is there to inform the decisions that pre-empt our actions. If we are only focussed on data and aren’t taking action we will also come unstuck. 

    Alternatively, if we don’t look at the dials and the environment, and simply rely on our intuition or feelings, we can be prone to making rash decisions. Actions taken without considering relevant information can also lead to injury. Before we take off, you need to understand what gives your business lift.

    Leveraging Numbers

    The numbers within the numbers are also important. You can have an overview of total sales from your customers, but if you don’t know that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers you could waste a lot of your time targeting the wrong customers in your marketing.

    The 80/20 rule was first noted by the Italian economist Vilfedo Pareto at the University of Lausanne in 1896. Also known as the Pareto Principle, it states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. It’s not a completely fool-proof system, but it can give useful insights into your business.

    You can use it on almost anything in your life to help you focus on taking action on the things that matter most and to minimise time spent on the things that matter the least.

    Imagine, for example, that 70% of your profits come from 30% of your customers. Although it’s not an 80/20 split it still adheres to Pareto’s Principle. Do you know if this is the case in your business? Do you know who these customers are? How do you categorise them? 

    Let’s say your customers break down into three categories: 10% are raving fans (who love you and buy regularly), 20% normal customers (who buy occasionally) and 70% prospects (that haven’t purchased yet). How do you allocate your resources to these three categories of customer? 

    Most businesses allocate 70% of their time and money to acquiring new customers (the prospects), 20% to their normal customers and 10% to their raving fans.

    When you look at your numbers you invariably realise that the bulk of your profits come from your raving fans. They are also the ones most likely to refer you to others. Acting on the Pareto numbers within the numbers can then help you to take action on staying closer to your raving fans and allocating your resources more efficiently towards them (For example: 70% to your fans, 20% to your customers and 10% to prospects). Understanding the 80/20 rule can take your business to new heights.

    Customer Numbers

    It’s important to know your customers well, how many you have, how may you lose each year and how many you gain. Which are the most profitable and who are your raving fans? What patterns do they share will help you figure out how best to please them and target others like them? How many prospects do you find each year and how many do you convert into customers? How likely is it that your customers will refer your business to others (a.k.a. Net Promoter Scores).

    All of this data falls into areas largely within your control. It’s useful to track, because it can help you take actions like invest in marketing or product development to reduce customer churn. It’ll also help you to pay close attention to those customers that are most important to your business.

    Numbers outside of your control can also help. 

    For example, how large is the total card market (currently £1.75 Billion at retail) and what is the size of your market share share? If there’s room to grow and the market’s growing then you might also decide to act by investing your resources accordingly.

    Products and Service

    You need to know which products are most profitable and which are most popular in your business.  It’s surprising how many business owners don’t know their best sellers. They even allow top products to run out of stock because they are enticed by the next shiny new thing. That’s like letting your plane run out of fuel when you are flying high. 

    How well do you service your customers? How fast do you turn around your orders? Do you track this each week? How successfully do you fulfil orders (are there shortages?) How many quality issues do you have each month? How many complaints? How many compliments? If you don’t track these numbers you will suffer over time as your disgruntled customers leave or complain about your business instead of referring it to others.

    With products, remember to cut your poor performers too. Stay well stocked on best sellers and clear slow moving stock quickly. Know your numbers and own those mistakes as soon as you can. 

    Financials

    It’s obviously important to know your cost of sales, profit margins, overheads and turnover. It’s worth tracking sales orders received each month and sales invoiced (orders shipped) to see what’s ahead. 

    What’s most important though is tracking cash flow. Loss of profit will slowly cause your plane to descend over time. Not having enough cash in your business is like turning the engines off mid air. 

    You need a cash flow forecast that acts as your map and then it needs to be checked against what actually happens each month. The map is not the territory. Knowing your monthly overheads and seasonal variables will help with managing these numbers.

    Knowing financial data that is outside of your control is also useful. For example, high levels of inflation means that even as consumers spend more, they can afford fewer goods. When inflation is low we might see volumes of sales go up and the volumes may fall when inflation is high. Tracking the climate around you helps you stay grounded when times are tough.

    Employee Numbers

    How likely are your employees to recommend your business as a good place to work? How many days do you lose to absence? What’s productivity like within your company? How much do you spend on training and personal development with your team members? Who are the weakest links on your team? Are you helping them to improve or terminating their services so that you can replace them with a stronger member of your team? A team of inflight crew are only as strong as their weakest link. They all need to be aware of what the customers want (a safe and comfortable flight) and all work together to provide it.

    Suppliers

    What about your suppliers? Who performs well and who doesn’t? Can you track their reliability and sales performance? Do you have good communication with them to highlight issues and praise them on good performance?

    If you use sales agents, tracking sales orders received and sales orders shipped is vital to avoid missing important customer orders and to make sure the market reality (sales) meets your expectations (targets).

    Numbers are only useful if you use them to inform your decision making and take action based on those decisions. If sales aren’t going well, you know the numbers and you don’t do something about it you will suffer even more later.

    Remember that you can’t cover every detail when making a decision. If you think about it you can never take enough data into consideration. So it’s important to decide on the key metrics that you need. What are the vital dials are on your dashboard? What information will cause you to crash if you don’t keep an eye on it and take appropriate action? Remember that you can only act on things that are within your control. We can steer the ship and adjust the sails, but we can’t control the weather.

    This is important to remember so that you can avoid anxiety about the numbers. A good pilot doesn’t stress about the dials and numbers before her. She stays calm and uses them to take action no matter the circumstances.

    How to Future Proof your Retail business

    The importance of Story for your Retail Brand

  • Business and the Environment

    Business and the Environment

    Someone cynically once said to me that people can only be environmentally conscious when they can afford to be financially. It sounded like a reasonable argument at the time, although these days I’m less sure. That’s because there now appears to be real momentum for environmental change, despite that fact that we are not currently experiencing a boom in the economy. 

    Britain recently successfully implemented the 5p plastic bag levy, which has contributed to a 90% reduction in their use. We’ve literally slashed consumption of single use plastic shopping bags by billions and there’s even talk of introducing the levy in retailers with fewer than 250 employees.

    Single use plastic straws are now in the firing line with bars, restaurants and cafe’s around the world no longer offering them as standard in order to discourage unnecessary plastic waste. Single use plastic lined coffee cups may also soon be targeted with a latte levy. Waitrose are committed to removing all single use coffee cups from stores this year. Pret a Manger and Starbucks already offer discounts to customers using their own cups (more on cups later).

    Changing Habits

    What’s significant about these changes is that people are actively engaging with habit change. If you can carry reusable shopping bags in your car, rucksack or handbag then why not carry a spare reusable cup? Changing habits aren’t just limited to reducing plastic consumption they’re also affecting what we consume everything from goods to food to power.

    This is exciting for the world as we move to embrace environmentally friendly renewable energy sources like wind and solar. There’s also been a rise in the number of vegans and vegetarians. Netflix hits like Cowspiracy and What the Health have emphasised the importance of eating less meat in order to save the planet’s resources and reduce CO2 emissions. Viral internet hits like the Story of Stuff are affecting the way consumers purchase, with a shift from goods to foods and experiences.

    The most important thing to be aware of with these changes is that they are increasing as people get more comfortable with making these small adjustments in their lives.

    Ideal World

    I guess in an ideal world we’d completely reduce or offset our carbon footprints. Perhaps we’d stop consuming altogether and live more simple lives. We might reduce our number of fashion items like those taking part in Project 333 or we could even move into a tiny house or a van conversion to minimise our impact on the planet. We may even decide not to have kids (one fewer child per family is said to save 58 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions per year). 

    These extreme alternatives are also growing in popularity, especially amongst millennials. It’s important that we start to become aware of these shifts so that we can accommodate them in our business models and avoid losing valuable customers.

    What can we do?

    As someone who loves to buy and send cards, I personally don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I don’t find Facebook messages and SMS’s nearly as intimate as sending a card (besides, even websites contribute to CO2 consumption). I find writing cards with my fountain pen a soulful and profound way of connecting with my fiends and loved ones. 

    I’m not just saying that because I publish cards. I genuinely love them and always have done. If you watch The Greeting Card Project videos I made on YouTube last year you can see the effect sending more cards has on us. For those that love to send and receive cards they have real meaning and importance.

    Having said all of that, the environment is important to us too. How can we reconcile these two seemingly polarised values? How can we reduce the impact we have on the environment and still enjoy doing something we love?

    Sources

    The first thing to figure out is what we are buying and where does it come from? For example, are the boards and papers ethically sourced from responsibly managed sources? At Blue Eyed Sun we have been using FSC boards since we first started although we don’t actively promote this on the backs of our cards (partly because we are design snobs and find the logo unsightly on the card backs and partly because administratively burdensome chain of custody requirements). FSC stands for the Forest Stewardship Council and is one of several organisations that promote responsible management of the world’s forests. It verifies that cetified cards are not made from rainforests.

    We are currently carrying out a company wide audit of all of our material components. Once this is completed we will be able to pinpoint areas for improvement. We’ll also be in a better position to communicate the environmental provenance of our cards to our fans and advise them on how best to recycle them when ready. 

    Communicating

    It’s all very well doing the right thing, it’s also important to spread the word and let your customers know the facts about your products so that they can make informed decisions. This includes being transparent on your website about where your products are sourced and how best to recycle them.

    Having environmental and social responsibility policies that you can share on your website helps with this sort of thing. Once we have all the facts about our sources this will be easier to communicate.

    Integrity

    Of course, being environmentally friendly doesn’t just stop with our products. How we run our businesses on a daily basis also affects our environmental impact on the world. Are your lightbulbs still tungsten based for example or have you switched to lower wattage alternatives? Our new production and distribution facility is fully equipped with LED lighting, which saves on electricity consumption. 

    We also recycle the majority of our waste at Blue Eyed Sun, which I thought was pretty good until I met Bruce Podmore from Windles at a recent GCA National Council meeting. His factory recycles over three tonnes of nails from his pallets each year and uses the wood from them to fuel his heating (reducing their bill by a phenomenal 85%). 

    Not only is Windles actively working to minimise their environmental footprint for the good of the planet, these actions are making good financial sense too. Their frequency controlled fluorescent lighting has reduced power consumption by 85% and saving money in the process. Their staff are more engaged with solutions and improvements. They’ve even won awards for their hard work in this area.

    What inspired me most about Windles is how they’ve  systematically identified areas for improvement throughout their business and are continually working towards reducing their environmental impact. This is the key I think. To start taking some steps. One at a time. Lots of small ones as many big ones as you can manage.

    For us, solar panels is the next big investment goal we are working towards to reduce our consumption from the grid. It’ll take time, but long term we will feel proud of making a difference using it.

    Working Together

    At the GCA we are working hard to try and improve communication of factual information surrounding the use of foils, glitter, recycling and so forth. There’s still so much to be understood and it’s important to share resources, learning and best practice. 

    It’s tempting for any business in the industry to use such knowledge to gain competitive advantage over others. To do this is to miss the bigger picture. We all need to work and act together to show how we can minimise our environmental impact on the world. We only have one planet after all.

    New Products

    As we continue to work hard to improve the environmental credentials of our greeting cards and the way we work as a business at Blue Eyed Sun, I’m also very excited about a recent exclusive distribution deal we’ve signed for a range of Bamboo Products. 

    BambooCup is an environmentally friendly alternative to single use plastic lined coffee cups, 2.5 billion of which go into landfill in the UK each year. Reusable cups are a booming category in retail and we are thrilled to be involved in a fast growing niche that’s making a difference to our planet.

    We still love publishing cards. Now we want to offer our customers even more.

    Find out more about BambooCup

    CelloBags and Recycling

    How to Change Your Habits for Good

  • How to deal with shame in business

    Shame in businessEverybody loves hearing stories of successful businesses and entrepreneurs. Most business owners aspire to sail their own ships with the hope of financial gain. And yet, even the best laid plans so often go awry.

    Around 300,000 businesses die every year in the UK (whilst 400,000 are born). Competition is fierce and it takes focus, determination and luck to succeed in a world that seems to change at an increasingly rapid pace each year.

    The transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau famously wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Currently it appears that many retailers and suppliers are silently struggling to cope with poor sales, increased costs, lower profits and the threat of potential failure.

    Shame of Failure

    Failure in itself is not the biggest issue for business owners though, it’s the stigma of shame and the suffering that might come with it that most find hardest to bear. This sense of shame can have damaging consequences on health, confidence and well being.

    Ideally we’d all have a sense of detachment from our businesses and the objects in our lives that are the achieved through financial success. More often than not we don’t. We identify ourselves with our status and get attached to an idea of ourselves (our ego). This is not surprising when we’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into our business endeavours and associate this with who we are.

    When faced with failure people can choose to act in ways that cause even more harm, pain and suffering to themselves and those around them. They may lie to conceal the reality of the situation, they may cheat in a desperate attempt to fix things and in the most extreme cases they may even take their own lives.

    Most people in these situations don’t want sympathy. This only makes it worse. They need empathy. They need someone who can see the world from their perspective in a non-judgemental way. They need to feel heard. It’s so important to understand each other’s feelings and to let them know.

    If you know of someone in a situation where they might be experiencing a sense of shame, a card is a great way of reaching out and letting them know that you care and are there to listen to them when they need it. A phone call or coffee together is even better.

    Identifying Shame

    If you are finding yourself in a difficult situation with your business right now and you feel ashamed about it, the first thing to do is to recognise that feeling. It’s most often linked to expectations you have of yourself or that others have of you. Certain people, situations, words or self talk will trigger the feeling for you and it’s important to be aware of what these are.

    So often we feel like it’s all us, we are the only one in this situation, it’s my fault, something is wrong with me. Because of the expectations of ourselves and others, we can often place ourselves under incredible pressure, making the situation even worse. It helps to take a step back.

    Reality check

    The truth is we are almost never alone with any given situation. We are not the only ones who suffer from expectations. The world at large affects all of us. If you are caught in a storm don’t blame yourself for the weather.

    I recently attended a talk by an economist on the future of the British economy. With Brexit, squeezes on living standards, increased costs, low income growth, low GDP growth and the retreat of consumers it’s continuing to be a challenging time to be a business owner. Particularly in the retail and wholesale sectors.

    Make sure that your expectations are realistic. Normalise your situation and be aware that you cannot control how others perceive you. Taking your focus away from yourself and seeing the bigger picture can be help to alleviate your sense of shame.

    Connect and Change

    Sharing our stories also helps to normalise situations and feelings connected to shame. You need to be brave to practice this one as it can feel vulnerable.

    Because I often write about positive stories and subjects in this column I am very much aware that I could come across to readers as some kind of know-it-all that has it everything sorted in my business and my life.

    Nothing could be further from the truth. I have good times and bad. I get some things right and have made spectacular mistakes which have cost me thousands of pounds. I try to help others as much as possible and I know that sometimes I have inadvertently ended up causing suffering. I have experienced hardship in both life and business and have at times felt truly ashamed of myself.

    To deal with this sense of shame it’s important to reach out and share your feelings with someone that can empathise. They don’t have to be an expert. They just have to hear you.

    Next you need to create change. Take an action that will help to change the situation you find yourself in.

    Asking for help

    Have you ever noticed that no matter how lost a man is he will rarely ask for help? It’s such a classic stereo type that I chuckle whenever I see it or catch myself doing it.

    We often don’t ask for help when we need it and there are people out there who are happy to give it to us. Sometimes we convince ourselves that we don’t need it and then get angry with our loved ones for not reading our minds and giving it to us.

    It’s so important to express how we feel and ask for what we need. Sounds easy enough, right? Sometimes we feel ashamed to ask. Asking somehow solidifies the situation we are in.

    The truth is you can’t hide from it anyway. It won’t go away. So be brave. Ask for help if you need it. You are braver for asking than not.

    Support

    If there are people in your life who trigger shame in you when you speak to them be aware of these triggers. Change the subject or avoid seeing them and then make sure you spend time with those who are great at empathising.

    Become a good empathiser yourself and you will draw more of this into your life. You can help others by being compassionate.

    Avoid blaming others as this promotes shame in the world. Shame is a cruel tool that does more harm than good. No matter what anyone says, you cannot shame people into altering their behaviour. So don’t do it.

    Shame

    I’ve described how shame can cause suffering when things are difficult in business. Though this can be extended to a whole load of other things in your life that you might have shame triggers for. Your body, a relationship that didn’t work out, your role as a parent, your career, the list is endless.

    Shame and suffering are invariably caused by our expectations and desires. Sometimes we aren’t even aware that they don’t belong to us. We’ve picked them up from somewhere or someone else. Keep your expectations realistic. Know were they come from. Are they really yours? Then try to not identify your expectations with your own sense of self. Mindful detachment will mean less suffering and pain in  the long run.

    This will pass

    I can safely say that every time that I have found business or life tougher (and felt like a failure) has led to a new phase of growth both personally and in business. If you are finding it difficult. Remember that this too will pass.

    Be grateful for all of the good things in your life. Practice self care by not being too hard on yourself and giving yourself a break. Take action to prevent things getting worse. Most importantly, remember that you are not alone. No matter how bad things may feel, someone else will have experienced it too. Take comfort in this and remember to ask for help if you need it.

    Eight ways to deal with Failure

    Lessons in Creativity

    How to cope when things go wrong

  • Blue Eyed Sun meets the Small Business Saturday Bus

    Small Business Saturday 2017Blue Eyed Sun MD, Jeremy Corner, was recently invited for a Facebook Live interview with the Small Business Saturday bus in Brighton to discuss greeting cards, retail and small business.

    Small Business Saturday is held on the 2nd December 2017 in the UK. It's a grass roots, non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to 'shop local' and support small businesses in their communities.

    Retailers and small businesses can get involved in a number of ways:

    1. You can register your business and advertise for free in the Small Business Finder.
    2. You can download and use the logo on your website and social media.
    3. Download the free marketing pack in English and Welsh.
    4. Have your social media amplified by sharing with the SBS team.

    As consumers, we can all get involved by shopping local on the day. Support your independent stores rather than just buying all of you Christmas presents with the big online companies.

    The Small Business Saturday bus tour took in 29 locations around the UK this year and offered free business mentoring to small businesses supported by ACCA accountants.

    The video has been viewed over 1,160 times already. You can watch the full interview below.

    Find out more about SBS

    Watch our interviews with the Startup Van

    Visiting Downing Street with the Startup Britain Bus

  • The importance of your brand story in business

    Brand Story

    Most businesses focus on selling the features and benefits of what they sell. These days we are so bombarded with this approach that we’ve learnt to filter it out and ignore it. We make tea during ad breaks, we skip the ads before YouTube videos and ignore ads on our Facebook feeds.

    We also spend more and more time on our phones. They are the tools we use to live our busy lives and they command a lot of our attention. Our phones have become the new high streets and they are full to the brim with people wandering through them every day.

    So how do businesses engage with these new tools? The secret is that, whilst none of us like ads, we all love a good story.

    The Science

    We are social beings and rely on one another for our survival and happiness. Our brains produce a neurochemical called oxytocin when we are trusted or someone is kind to us, this in turn motivates cooperative behaviours. Studies have shown that character driven stories consistently cause oxytocin synthesis. Stories are also great for communicating values and information in a more effective way than listing facts like features and benefits.

    The John Lewis Story

    Think about John Lewis. None of us feel connected to the features and benefits of the goods at John Lewis. Most of what they sell you can purchase elsewhere. What makes the brand have meaning for us is the story it tells. We all know that it is the John Lewis Partnership. The team are all referred to as partners. We feel like a partner of John Lewis just by shopping there. We relate to the integrity of its values like quality, service and price. We know these because of the brand's story and how it's communicated to us.

    All of the recent John lewis Christmas ad campaigns are stories that evoke feelings and communicate the brand's core values. When we buy from John Lewis we are making a statement about we like to think of ourselves and how we'd like others to perceive us. What statement are customers asking when they buy from you? Why do they come back to you?

    What's Your Story?

    You have decide on the story you are telling. What is the thing that you want customers to remember about your business? What do you stand for as a business? What are your values? What do you care about that is relevant and memorable to your customers? Once you've decided on this, you need to think about how to communicate this.

    Start with your team. Make them a part of your story and engage them with your values. Empower them to live these values within your business. Create an environment that communicates your values and your story to everyone. Keep sharing your story in your PR, advertising and press campaigns. Share it on your website, blog and social media. You can even share it on your till receipts and the bags you give out to customers.

    Story Telling

    Remember that we all like stories that take us on journeys, stories that inspire us or amaze us and stories that surprise us and make us laugh. These type of stories make us feel happy and warm. These are all tools that help us to connect on an emotional level with our customers.

    A good story also has a clear purpose, point or moral. We want to personally connect through vulnerability, conflict or achievements that we can relate to. Good stories have vivid characters and imagery. They have humour and sometimes pathos too. If your story is right it can be shared globally across a variety of platforms.

    A good example of this is Harrods. Its story is so powerful that it pulls thousands of foreign visitors to London in through it's doors every year. Some people fly to London just to visit this store. Almost every single one of them is able to share its experience and, more importantly, buy something. I remember my father deliberately leaving a scarf inside the plastic Harrods bag in the Christmas present he gave my Mum one year. I imagine he wanted to show her how much he cared for her by buying her present from Harrods. That is the power of a retail brand.

    A Human Story

    Did you know that Liberty of London trains its team daily to share the stories of the products and goods it sells? The talk about the people who made it, where it was made and the meaning behind it. We love to hear the human stories that make up brands. What's your human story?

    I love the Alan Alda video below that tells you how to identify the human story behind something. It's not about branding, it's about story telling. Give your customers and team the human story behind your business. Weave in your values and make it authentic to you.

    If you get this right, you never have to worry about your competitors selling the same products as you, because your competitors will always be missing one key ingredient: they are not you and they do not have your brand story.

    Social Psychology in Social Media

    Why consumers want authenticity from retailers

    How to get more customers into your retail business

Items 1 to 10 of 16 total

Page:
  1. 1
  2. 2