Be Positive

I went to see an estate agent this morning to go through their requirements for a new website.

This company has been specialising in the sale of residential property for 30 years, has an untarnished reputation in the locality and is unlikely ever to have been the subject of one of the increasing number of complaints received by the Property Ombudsman.

I came in to the office this morning to be greeted by a plethora of gloomy news:

"Fall in take-home pay "worst since the '70s" http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/

"A third of Britons to retire in poverty" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Not the kind of thing one wants to read......but the press, collectively, does tend to like to wallow in the swamps of pessimism.

The agent I went to see this morning mentioned that he had not known the level of new enquiries to have been so low for as long as he can remember. This is not surprising. Whenever individuals start to feel the effects of a country-wide tightening-of-belts, then businesses really start to feel the effects.

However...what is this estate agent doing?


He is investing in a new website.

He knows he cannot afford to fall behind in his marketing efforts. A client can be a fickle beast, and when faced with incentives and discounts forced by a becalmed economy, jumping ship is too easy.

Our estate agent needs to keep his competitive edge; he needs to be seen to be instilling a degree of confidence, and keeping his vendors and applicants abreast of the prevailing market fluctuations. His years of experience and his knowledge of the local market count for a great deal when home owners and prospective buyers are facing ongoing uncertainty.

There is an old saying: "Market your way out of a Recession". Never before has this been so relevant - sitting back and hoping that you will weather the storm is not the answer. Your astute competitors are ensuring that they are tightening up the effectiveness of their marketing activities. This does not necessarily mean spending more money; it does mean thinking outside the box and being creative in your approach.

Above all, be positive and ensure that your clients and customers absorb your optimism.

A Practical Suggestion for Start Up Britain

As a follow up to my rant of yesterday, I thought I would jot down my own personal thoughts about practical help for start-ups.

Let us first look at a few home-truths:

1. Start-ups need some money. Not always a great deal, as I know from my own experiences, but they will need some. Even if this does not come in the form of direct funding, it might come as a result of the founder not drawing a salary for 18 months, ploughing whatever revenue is generated back into the business.

Banks, despite their rhetoric, are scared of lending money to start-ups with no proven track record. If you have a property, with some spare equity, then you are in with a chance. Again, from my experience, the banks will take notice if they can secure funding against your home, and even then, they still prefer you to stump up half the required capital first.

2. Individuals interested in starting up a business do not have all the skills they need to get it off the gorund, nor do they have the financial wherewithal to contract in external assistance. Yes, they can get business advice from a wide variety of sources, but it is practical help that small businesses need from the outset.

Many small businesses do not have a clue what a business plan is, have no idea how to go through cash flow projections or appreciate just how difficult it can be to get started. These are not just documents that you submit to a bank in the vain hope that they will shower you with cash as a result. They are a detailed overview of what you, as a new business, would like to achieve and how you aim to go about it.

The home-truths out the way, let me outline what would have helped my business when I started it, two years ago, without a penny to my name:

A co-operative of like-minded individuals, who share skills and expertise.

I have a digital marketing company, a tool hire business and a (soon to be launched) internet dating website!

When I started, I was desperate for people to run some telesales campaigns to introduce our products and services, but I couldn't afford to outsource this.

I wanted leaflet distributors.

I was lucky to have my son, a graduate multi-media designer, available to build my website free of charge. Other start-ups don't have this resource. Even fewer have any idea of how to go about actually marketing their new business.

Sales people, interested in getting in front of potential customers, would have been the icing on the cake.

These are practical aspects of my business that I needed in order to grow, but aspects that were all beyond my financial reach.  So, where to get that help?

I see the co-operative system working in the following way:

Someone in my area might want to start a commercial cleaning business, but cannot afford to have a website or leaflets designed, but they have the skills and equipment ready to get started.

I provide the design skills free of charge, provided I can advertise my services at the same time (on their website and leaflets), as the cleaning company's clients could well be potential clients for me.

I need some telesales done. A new start-up may be offering business services, and telesales may be one of the services they provide. They offer to run a campaign for me free of charge, and I agree to pay them a commission on any generated business. A risk, but the new start-up has a bona-fide client (my business), and gets their name out in front of other potential clients. I provide testimonials that they can use to help gain other business.

This is not rocket science, more a case of "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". It is a network of young business owners who all need practical help, not just words. A referral scheme, designed to generate money for the participants on the StartUp Britain website is not the answer. NatWest do something similar - "you are a valued customer, so join our Advantage Gold Scheme. You pay for this monthly, but look at the rewards you get!". I was an Advantage Gold customer and never took advantage of the so-called perks. It is a marketing ploy - pure and simple!

So, is StartUp Britain a marketing scheme dressed scantily as the Start-Up's Saviour, aimed at generating income for its contributors? Start-ups need to get customers, generate sustainable income and keep costs to an absolute minimum. Advocating the spending of money based upon discounts offered is not, in my opinion, helpful. 

Start-Ups - don't get sucked in.  Find ways to work together, help each other gain customers in order to build up referrals and a reputation. Think hard about what you want to achieve, how much money you have and then share ideas and skills with other start-ups, and let's combine to get our collective businesses off the ground.

StartUp Britain

I have got to have a rant!

Leaving political affiliations to one side, I am seething at the half-cocked nature of the new StartUp Britain initiative - http://www.startupbritain.org./

There has been a lot of ranting on Twitter this morning, not least from the design industry that, quite rightly, is collectively shocked that there are links to US design companies. At least support UK companies in this initiative, and only UK companies. This country has a rich and enviable culture of cutting-edge design in all disciplines, but advocating that start-ups get their logos from a US company? Insulting.

I can also understand the comments being made from within Northern Ireland - StartUp Britain or StartUp UK?

My second grievance is that most of the information dressed up on the StartUp Britain website has been freely available via BusinessLink for as long as I can remember. I can't see this scheme offering anything new that will really help the new entrepreneur, or am I missing something?

Thirdly, and most importantly, every new business needs MONEY! I started our business up two years ago, and could I get any funding? I drafted an extensive and very detailed Business Plan, had a very realistic cash flow forecast, sought the advice of Business Link and knew the nature of my proposed business like the back of my hand. The banks were not interested unless I put up 50% of the capital. My problem was that there was no equity in my house, due to the recession, and although I was owed money from a former employer, I wouldn't get to see any of that as they had gone into Administration.

It is easy to get funding if you have a property with spare equity. If you don't, you are up the proverbial creek.

There are many organisations that help the younger generation - the Prince's Trust being the most laudable. I was advised of another today who provides awards over the course of the year (http://www.shell-livewire.org/awards/ ), but the upper age limit is 30! I am 48. Interestingly, this recession affected many small business owners, and employees, all aged over 30, whose skills and experience would make them perfect for this latest round of StartUp enthusiasm. Where is the help for these people?

I have spent two years building up my business, and still receive no help whatsoever. I have been fortunate in that I have two work colleagues who have believed in the business enough to work for nothing. I am an employer, pay VAT, corporation tax and Employer PAYE/NIC. I give something back, but can honestly say that I got nothing to help me get here.

Recycling the same old platitudes is not going to help get this country back on its financial feet.

Oh, and please use UK businesses to help you with your StartUp!

Dental Practices are not Recession-proof

Contrary to popular belief, Dental Practices are not recession-proof.

With a new Budget out today, and April looming, there is no doubt that individuals are going to start to notice the tightening of the economic grip on a very personal level. This is the time when businesses, including dental practices, notice that the phone starts to ring a little less.

Instead of a 6 monthly check-up, patients will think they can stretch this out to 12 or 24 months. I know myself, as I have now delayed an optician's appointment for nigh on 18 months, as the cost of new contact lens and spectacles is something that I would rather not consider!

However, we all know that these delays are often a false economy. Lawrence Spindel, in his Dental Blog (http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2008/09/are-dentists-recession-proof.html), identifies that a 6-month check up would identify problems before they escalate. Waiting until you get a chronic toothache, and then consequently need root canal work or an extraction, ends up costing the patient more in the end.

This is where marketing comes in.

Marketing does not need to cost the earth, but informing your patients of the pitfalls of treatment delays in straitened times will be of benefit to both the patient and your practice.

How do you do that?

• Emphasise, via your website, the importance and cost-effectiveness of regular check-ups;
• Use email to remind patients of the risks involved in delaying check-ups;
• If you have screens in your waiting room, show the effects of delaying treatment and prompt the patient to make their next appointment there and then.

Use this opportunity to strengthen the relationship that exists between you and your patients. Other dental practices will be only too keen to welcome patients whose loyalty may be wavering, or who may be tempted to defect by discounted prices and incentives.

Argent Ram Media offers specialist products and services to help dental practices strengthen patient loyalty, inform and educate patients and maximise patient spend-per-head.

• Website Design and Development for Dental Practices;
• Waiting Room screens;
• Dental Treatment Video Animations;
• Screen Content;
• Design for Print;
• Logos and Branding;
• Video Production

For further information, please call Lorraine Baker on 01580 761000 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com

What a way to waste money...

We are in the process of running marketing campaigns aimed specifically at dental practitioners, promoting website design, waiting room screens, dental animation software and video production.

During the course of research, I have been astounded by the number of dental surgeries that seems intent on wasting money on Google Adword campaigns. That is not to say that the campaign itself is a great way of getting their website in front of prospective patients, but what happens when that prospective client clicks on the link (and costs the dental practice some money!).

In the course of the past couple of days, I have seen single-page websites for dental practices that are as compelling as a blank wall. I have attempted to contact the practice using the email address on the website to find that the email address link has been mis-spelt. Websites have no clear call-to-action, nor do they give a concise overview of the services and treatments that are available.

This is a salient lesson to any business advertising using Adwords or other sponsored scheme. If your website is not at the top of its game in terms of message, design and construction, and call-to-action, then you might as well take the advertising budget and flush it down the drain.

If only we all had money to waste...

Postscript: If your website is not getting the enquiries you expect from your sponsored links, take a break and consider a contribution to:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/japantsunami

Estate "Agent" or Quick-Sell wide-boy?

So, the Property Ombudsman has today announced that complaints against Estate Agents were unacceptably high after dealing with a record number of disputes throughout 2010:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/property/property-complaints-hit-a-record-high-2243311.html

I was an estate agent during the heady days of the mid-80s, and to this day I can't understand why the profession leaves itself so open to criticism and vilification.

It might help if we started being a bit literal and looked at the very title "Estate Agent". An agent is someone who is authorised to act on the behalf of someone else - in the case of an estate agent, they act on behalf of the vendor of the property. They are NOT property sales reps, or retailers, or "stack-em-high, sell-em-cheap" traders. As agents, they owe a significant duty of care to the vendor, whose valuable asset they are entrusted to market effectively and for which they are expected to achieve the best possible market price.

I wouldn't dream of teaching professional estate agents to suck eggs, but I do have my own theories regarding successful estate agency:

1. You needed to get the best instructions on a sole agency basis and at the right price in order to achieve a successful level of sales, and fulfil your duty to the vendor.

How do you get the best instructions? On the whole, a vendor needs to be able to trust you and have confidence in your ability to sell their property. This very often comes down to personality. A property is a very personal asset, and a vendor wants to feel that their agent knows that property, its advantages, the unique aspects and the features that make it a valuable proposition to a prospective purchaser. No-one wants to feel that their property is just another item of stock that, if not sold within 4 weeks, will be reduced in price just to get rid of it.

In one of her recent Secret Shopper programs (Channel 4), Mary Portas demonstrated with great success the difference it makes when an estate agent is fully briefed on a property when they show that property to a potential purchaser (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/mary-portas-secret-shopper/episode-guide/series-1/episode-4)

2. Build relationships. If you consider yourself to be a property professional, you need to immerse yourself in the area in which you operate, and engage with the residents. Someone you sell a house to tomorrow will probably want to sell that house at some stage in the future. If they know you, and remember the great service you offered, the likelihood that they will instruct you to sell that house again is high. If you were perceived as being a fly-by-night wide boy, what are the chances of picking up that house at a later date? It is a short-sighted estate agent who goes for the quick sell without any consideration for the future.

3. Know your clients. That sounds a little glib, but when I was an agent, I had a very good understanding of the requirements of all my "hot" applicants. When I then went to value a property, I was able to mention that I had genuine purchasers who would be interested in that property, and applicants trusted me enough to arrange to view a property on my recommendation alone. That word "trust" counts for so much in this business.

So, although the above is a very brief overview, to my mind there is a common theme running throughout - trust and confidence. Complaints against estate agents can all be channelled down to the prevailing lack of trust and confidence. Agents don't communicate properly, they are inaccurate when it comes to property descriptions, marketing and advertising. All elements that do little to instil trust and confidence.

Not all estate agents are rogues, but there are still too many estate agents who really don't appreciate the term "agent" and all that entails.

Argent Ram Media provide a full range of marketing solutions for estate agents based on a thorough understanding of the profession and the importance of getting core messages across to target markets.  We also understand the importance of relationship-building and client engagement.  We can help estate agents with the principles of the successful marketing required to instill trust and confidence.

Websites for Estate Agents on subscription;
Marketing screens;
Design for Print and Branding

For further details, please contact Lorraine Baker, Sales Manager, on 01580 761000 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com

Dental Practice Digital Marketing Solutions

We, at Argent Ram Media, are delighted to announce that we have become an authorised reseller for one of the UK's largest suppliers of dental animation software.

Designed for dental practice websites, waiting room screens and surgery client-side demonstrations, these sophisticated animations provide detailed information on treatments, patient information and oral health. In addition to the main dental modules, there are separate modules for orthodontics and facial aesthetics.

We are a one-stop shop for dental practice digital marketing, and can offer a solution to meet the requirements of any practice:

• Website design and development;
• Waiting room screens;
• Surgery screens;
• Leaflet design and print;
• Screen content and software;
• Animations for existing websites and screens

Key benefits to any dental practice practice:

• An opportunity to engage with your patients;
• Inform and educate your patients;
• Market and sell treatments, services and products;
• Increase patient loyalty;
• Enhance the reputation of your practice

If you would like information on treatment animation, waiting room screens or websites for your dental practice, please contact Lorraine Baker on 01580 761000 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com