0 Seeking and Using Alternative Solutions

Most problems have more than one solution.  You can offer several solutions to a problem or you may have a single approach that works for some clients and not others.  Either way it helps to show you are aware of alternative solutions.  And what do you do when nothing works?

This question is step 2 of the Awareness Ladder and here it is important to show prospects you are aware of alternative solutions.  In your publicity, you can discuss alternatives and use them to move your prospects to consideration of your solution, step 3.  For certain prospects, your solution will be the best.

How to Explain Alternative Solutions

There are several ways you can move someone from alternatives to considering your solution.

How Well Known are the Alternative Solutions?

If you are scraping around, seeking arcane approaches to your prospects’ problem, just possibly you don’t need to fill a lot of space explaining about the alternatives.

If there are alternatives, your prospects need to know why they should consider your solution.  For example, many organisations seeking a website will consider a website designer.  Very often they know little about website design and choose perhaps the cheapest.

They need to know the risks when making that choice.  They may be lucky but often a £500 website is a waste of money.  Indeed larger sums of money can be wasted because the prospect is not aware of likely pitfalls or other options.

You could ask and answer questions your prospects are likely to ask or have not thought of asking.  This is an educational approach, you are not simply debunking alternative solutions but helping the prospect understand what they really need.

Some solutions, perhaps including yours, may not be well-known and raise issues  your prospects have not considered.

On Being Stuck

Sometimes no approach, including your own, will work.  Being stuck is not a bad place to be but it needs patience on your part and your client’s.  Maybe you have overlooked some issue that negates your approach. Or maybe you are on the verge of a new insight!

So, your client has tried everything, including your suggestions.  You’ve reviewed everything they tried and as far as you can see they have tried everything with diligence.

The most important thing is patience.  You have two brains working on the problem and one of you is likely to have an insight.

But perhaps not today.  You may need to take a break and allow your subconscious to work on the problem.  Take a break but keep in touch.  If you have a germ of an idea (once referred to as a maggot!) share it!  Communicate insights, however trivial they may seem to be.  You don’t know what might trigger a breakthrough in your mind or the other person’s.

So, celebrate being stuck!  Welcome the opportunity to venture into unexplored territory.

Have you a story of being stuck and making a breakthrough?

1 Building an Integrated Online and Offline Marketing Campaign

I’m planning something big to take place in February.  The challenge is how to market it and this post is the first of a few that will explain what I’m doing.  The campaign will integrate online and offline marketing and this post explains what I started on 1 December 2016.

You will note I haven’t explained what I’m planning for February and I’m not going to – just yet!  If you start early enough, a little mystery or intrigue helps your campaign.  I’m hoping you will hop on board, follow what I’m doing and pass on the message to anyone you know who may be interested.

There will be plenty to take part in online, even if you are too far away from Sheffield to take part in the live event in February.  My consultancy offer is available to all coaches, consultants and local businesses, wherever they are based.  At the same time, I’m working with others to promote best practice locally.

Facebook Live

First, I’m doing a series of 30 daily Facebook Live broadcasts.  You can see all of them on my Community Web Consultant Facebook page as they appear.  I shall add a 1 to 2 minute video, daily.  I’ll probably break over Christmas but the idea is to build a presence or following, engaging in debating local economics.

You can take part in the debate by commenting on my Facebook Live videos.  Each day I shall share one simple idea and together these posts will seed a powerful online conversation.  I have the 30 days mapped out but will respond to comments either direct or in one of my videos.  I can be diverted to explore relevant themes, which may mean I extend the series – we shall see how we go.

One of the issues I’ve had planning this is, the time of day to record the videos.  It is possible to view them live.  To do this it is ideal to have a regular time.  My problem is I cannot find a time when I can absolutely guarantee I can post every single day.  I may be able to find such a time as I get into the series.  However, I’m not too worried as I suspect the recordings for most people will be more accessible than the live performance.

These posts will be an opportunity to promote other activities.  So, I may encourage people to like my Facebook page or visit this blog or attend my series of Webinars.

Webinar Series

I’m planning a series of three webinars, opportunities to explore some of the themes in the Facebook Live series in more depth.  I’m aiming for 1 – 2 minute soundbites through Facebook Live and so the Webinars will be about 20 minutes, including and followed by comments and questions.

I’ll record each webinar on YouTube and it will available as a replay.  You will be able to comment and ask questions on the replay too.

The first webinar is “It’s Where Your Feet Are: How Businesses Benefit from Supporting the Local Economy”.  One thing I’ve noticed is we often discuss how businesses can support community but rarely ask how businesses themselves benefit from their commitment to their locality.

The benefits have to be mutual.  A business that went out of business because it supports its community would be neither use nor ornament.  When the benefits are mutual is an opportunity for sustainable local regeneration that includes local businesses as well as the amenities that make it possible for everyone to take part in their neighbourhood.

I have lots of plans for webinars following these first three about the local economy.  Stay with me as this is likely to become very interesting.

I’ve found an approach to webinars that is cost-free and you will see it does not involve a commercial webinar host. It is hosted on my website.  I shall write about this in more detail once I’ve tested this method.  But if you’re interested in trying this approach yourself, it is worth considering and I’m happy to answer your questions.

Conclusion

You will note I have said little today about offline marketing.  The mysterious event in February is an offline event.  And there will be offline aspects to the marketing as well.  I shall review how I’m approaching that in a few weeks’ time.

Have you used the methods I’ve described here?  What other online approaches do you use to promote events?

0 How to Finish Your Project

It may seem odd to move from keeping your project going to closure!  But perhaps we all benefit from understanding how to finish our projects.  The community sector is particularly prone to organisations that continue well past their sell-by date.

What I say here about finishing applies just as much to businesses as it does to community organisations.   The big issue for businesses is cash flow.  Failure to make sure cash flow can bring about a sudden end to a business. Maybe cash flow is not so crucial for community organisations; it depends on how they are funded.

Equally though healthy cash flow can keep a business going even though it has lost sight of its purpose.  Perhaps most business people would see healthy cash flow as a reason to keep something going and perhaps build a new strategy upon it.  That is a good and proper response and reinforces my main point, planning is important.  If it is inevitable a business or organisations must close, then plan it.  Don’t leave a bad organisation to drift.

Planned Closure

Do not be afraid to close an organisation or business.  It is better to read the signs and close than allow your organisation to drift into oblivion.  The first thing you need to do is decide.  Then plan how you’re going to do it and do it.

Planned from the Start

Some organisations are able to plan closure from the start!  They exist to meet some goal and once it is complete, the organisation closes.  This means closure can be included in the original business plan.

There can be many advantages to working this way.  Everyone knows what they’re letting themselves in for and understands their role through to the end.  There are no unrealistic expectations and perhaps a focus on team work and not so much organisational reputation.

Of course, this is perhaps easiest where an organisation has several projects on the go and needs to keep stock and end projects once they have completed their purpose.  The organisation itself has an open-ended lifespan but plans projects with life-cycles.  Loyalty might be to a team of people and not so much to what they are doing.

Planned as a Response to Changes.

Perhaps most businesses and organisations do not have a planned life-cycle.  This is not a problem so long as they produce and interpret management accounts.  Management accounts enable managers to see trends and respond to them.  Many organisations keep going for many years because they monitor and respond to trends.

When it becomes clear your organisation is no longer viable, you need a plan.  It is not a case of keep going until the bank account hits zero.  You need to factor in the costs of closing.  Staff will need statutory redundancy notice and are entitled to redundancy payments.  It is possible to calculate roughly what these costs are likely to be and many organisations hold this sum in reserve.  This means they know they can cover the costs of closing, so long as they don’t spend their reserves.

Organisations registered with Companies House have limited liability and this is a possibility for community organisations as well as businesses.  This means members are responsible for business failure but only to a limited amount, commonly £1 or £10.  There are various ways you can manage this and it is always worth considering options where you have significant cash flow or staff.

Unplanned Closure

Without management accounts organisations are flying blind.  You really don’t want to do this, especially if you employ staff.  Handing them their cards on a Friday night, without notice is not a good place to be in.  Don’t kid yourself, you cannot steer the organisation away from bankruptcy at the last-minute.

Usually the reason for unplanned closure is cash flow gets out of hand.  On paper, you might be an affluent company, but if you have no cash in hand, you will be in trouble.  You may have plenty of clients on your books but if income from them is not available, you may find paradoxically you must close even though in time money will come in.

I’m not going to go into all the reasons why cash flow fails.  Let’s just say management accounting should pick up issues before they become critical.  If you’re not chasing your debtors, your accountant should point this out!

Forced Closure

With no planning and no monitoring you can put yourself in danger of breaking the law.  This is why forced closure is not desirable and should be avoided at all costs.  There are end creditors who will insist upon payment.  If you use management accounts you can schedule these payments into your financial planning.

The problem for many communities is businesses may be reluctant to pursue money because they know if their debtor go under, they will not receive the full amount.  You can end up with chains of businesses, where they’re waiting for someone at one end to pay their bill, so that the finance can be passed down the line.

If the business that owes the money at one end goes under, it can take down several other businesses, even businesses with which it has never had relations.  When we fully appreciate the impact on others of our own failure, perhaps there will be a greater incentive to plan and monitor performance.

What is your experience of well-managed project closure?  Do you have any advice?

0 Are Your Prospects Aware of Their Problem?

Your business provides solutions to a problem your prospects share.  But are your prospects aware of their problem?  This is step zero on the awareness ladder.

What makes Your Prospects Aware of their Problem?

If you refer to my post about the awareness ladder, you will see step 1 is where the customer knows they have a problem but don’t know if there are solutions.

So, let’s think about weight.  I was once overweight.  Indeed, I was surprised to discover the medical profession categorised me as obese.  I had a mental image of obesity and I was not by that standard obese.

I sort of knew I was overweight and I was aware of lack of fitness and that I was generally not healthy.  But none of this was enough to lead me to seek a solution at step 1 of the awareness ladder.  Most of the time, apart from a few crises, I didn’t think about my weight.

So, consider some of your prospects will have some awareness of their problem but they are not actively seeking a solution.  This could be because they know they have a problem but they simply don’t rate it as important.

Contrast that with someone who has a cancerous tumour.  They may be unaware they have the problem.  There may be certain signs that should lead them to seek help but they are not aware of their tumour and so not likely ask for the tests that are available.

It is similar for website issues.  Some website owners know there is a problem but are not seeking solutions.  They know they exist but the problem is not so pressing that they need to do the research.

Other website owners may not be aware of what their website should be doing.  Consequently, they’re not seeking a solution because they’ve never thought their site could do more.

We can see there are at least two types of problem unawareness: deliberate and unconscious.

How Do You Increase Awareness of the Problem?

I have offered a couple of examples of problems that are real although people are not always aware of them.  They may be aware of a few symptoms but they are not themselves pressing and so they ignore them.  Or perhaps they are simply unaware the problem exists at all.

The obvious solution is education.  It is a major issue in health services.  The health issues associated with overweight are well-known but there are many people who do not believe they are so overweight they need to take action.

They need to understand what is overweight and the likely outcomes of ignoring the issue.

Now I’m someone who is generally aware of health issues and yet for many years I did not know my weight was a problem.  It was only when my doctor diagnosed Type II diabetes, I became aware of my problem and started to seek solutions.  It was actually the diagnosis that led me to taking the problem seriously.

These days I see people every day who are overweight and yet many people are like I was, unaware they have a problem.  They could all wait until they get an adverse diagnosis.  But perhaps it would be better for them and the health services if they could learn about weight and its effects.

This educational challenge is a marketing and sales challenge.  You are trying to persuade people to change their behaviour.

The challenge is the same in all areas.  A website that does not do anything is a problem.  Granted, it may not be a pressing problem.  Many organisations get by with a rubbish website but my guess is it’s usually a sign of more deep-seated organisational issues.  Are they selling?  If they’re doing very well by other means, the website issues may not seem important.

But how can an organisation find out what potential it has to improve its marketing and sales?  Many people simply do not know what options are available.  Online technologies have improved significantly in recent years, so fast that most people are not aware of what is within their reach.

Marketing is education.

Through learning, people take part in the market and in society.  Note education does not necessarily lead to sales.  It may help someone move from not knowing they have a problem to acknowledging their problem but they still need to decide they’re going to tackle the problem and find the right solution.

If you educate your audience and offer your solution, some people will walk away and find an alternative and that’s fine.  Businesses need to understand one purpose of their marketing is their contribution to the community.  If an organisation learns about marketing from me and puts what they learn into practice, it is a part of the contribution I make to the community.

Those marketing support for people who need to lose weight are presumably delighted for those who lose weight, following their marketing but through alternative devices.

How do you educate your prospects?

0 Marketing Meetings

Last Friday, I described three types of meetings and suggested marketing meetings is the most challenging aspect of organising meetings.  This is particularly true for one-off public meetings; other meetings are not so desperate for the public to attend, although what I say here can apply to them.

A Simple Model

A public meeting or event is successful to the extent it attracts people to attend.

Imagine three concentric circles.  The innermost circle represents the event itself.  This might be a speech, an agenda, guiding people to plan something, a film, a play – just about anything people might attend and take part in.  This is equivalent to a product or service.

The second circle represents packaging for the event.  How will you describe the event to its market?  How will you describe it on a website or in a handout?  How successful is the packaging at making conversions?  The packaging is equivalent to conversion on a website.

The outermost circle represents the marketing of the event.  How are you actually going to get the packaging into peoples’ hands?  This activity is equivalent to generating traffic to a website.

Being a Producer

When you organise an event you are a producer, someone who creates something that was not in the public domain before.  It is worth remembering this because it is like being a ringmaster, someone who creates a show, builds the excitement and makes it into something many people are reluctant to miss.

This means if you are serious about your event, you cannot afford to be complacent.  You need to take every possible step to draw peoples’ attention to the event, package the event so that on closer scrutiny it is irresistible and design the event itself so that it exceeds expectations.

Preparing the meeting

Usually, though we get it wrong and need to upend our expectations.

Allocating time to the 3 activities

Your priority is getting people to the meeting and so you need to devote most of your time to marketing.  Your offer needs to be irresistible and so your packaging needs a great deal of time devoted to it.  Least crucial is the meeting itself.

It is tempting to devote a lot of time to the meeting at the expense of the marketing.  This is not to say the meeting should be substandard but it is to say, if you devote most of your time to preparing the meeting and no-one shows up, you have wasted your time!

Prepare your marketing first!

This may seem bizarre but most people go about organising meetings the wrong way round.  Don’t start with the meeting content.  It is often the easiest and most fun to prepare and so tempting to do it first.  Don’t.

Instead, start with the packaging.  What are you planning to deliver at this event?  What are the benefits for those who attend?  This may be in effect a plan for the meeting.

Now make a start on the marketing.  If people are not interested, you have saved a lot of time preparing for a meeting that isn’t going to happen.  If your marketing does cause people to respond, then you have a great incentive to complete meeting preparation.

Social Media campaigns

Finally, you need to use social media and smartphones.  This may go against the grain for oldies like myself.  However, many people cannot be reached effectively by any other route.  But note I’m not saying don’t use other routes, just make sure you use social media.

Not so long ago we communicated events through leaflets and posters, perhaps supported by occasional radio or TV interviews.  Now people mostly hear about things through emails, websites and social media.  Use these media because otherwise you will go unheard.

Have you any tips for meeting promotion in the social media age?

0 How to Keep Your Project Going

How to keep your project going over the long haul is a challenge.  What do you need?  Let’s assume you’re delivering a service people want because it is a good service.  Your business or organisation is growing and you have to manage a team plus various stakeholders who want a say in it.  Here are three aspects of your business or organisation you may need to consider:

Governance

Here are three simple questions:

Who Decides?

This is day-to-day management and it should be delegated to a manager or small management team.  They will usually be employed by a project or entrepreneur.  The aim is to be crystal clear about who is in charge.

Normally, managers contribute to the strategic direction of their project too because they have experience and are closest to the work.  However, they should not have the final say on strategic direction.

Who Decides Who Decides?

There is usually a board of Trustees or Directors who appoint the project managers, to be accountable to them.  They debate and decide overall strategic direction, usually advised by the managers.

Where there is a partnership, there may be a small group who make the decisions.  The main drawback is, what happens should an individual at the top of the organisation be unable to continue in that role?

Who Decides Who Decides Who Decides?

The Board is usually appointed at an Annual General Meeting, made up of members who have an interest in the work.  For a business these may be share-holders.

Usually, a constitution of some type governs how people are appointed to the governing body.  There are many different approaches to governance of  businesses and other organisations but this general three-fold pattern is common.  Any business or organisation that doesn’t have it needs to consider how it addresses the missing elements.

Those familiar with my three function model of community development, will see parallels.  In reverse order, these three questions parallel the model’s functions of representation, planning and delivery.

Financial Control

Every business knows management accounts are important or at least if it doesn’t, it soon finds out.  Many community organisations struggle for years without financial management information.

Let’s be clear.  If you do not see management accounts, you have no idea what financial resources you have or any sense of where they are heading.

Lack of financial knowledge is a problem for businesses as much as it is for community organisations.  It is not merely about keeping good accounts but being aware of how to finance the work and how to build an asset base so the business or organisation can keep going.

Marketing

Marketing is how you tell people why you are there; explain the reasons for your existence.  It is how you communicate with your market and help them understand their problem and your solution.

You may need several marketing campaigns. Besides people who use your services, there may be others who provide resources for your use.  Suppliers, if they understand your cause, may be able to put good deals your way.

Partners need to understand what you are doing.  They can provide better support if they understand your offer.  This can reduce duplication, although in my experience, once you lead the way, there can be any number of copycat projects.

Conclusion

If you pay attention to these three aspects during the earliest stages and review them from time to time, you will minimise the issues that crop up for poorly managed organisations.  You will be in a position to respond positively to setbacks and tackle problems as they arise.

What else have you found you need over the long haul?

0 Sensitive and Embarrassing Problems

Don’t be fooled by this title, almost any problem can be sensitive or embarrassing.  This is not restricted to intimate health issues or severe emotional problems. Perhaps it is best to start by asking what it is that makes for sensitive and embarrassing problems.

When are Problems Sensitive or Embarrassing?

Some things are likely to be sensitive or embarrassing and you must assume they are until you know otherwise.  There is variation in how people feel about these things but it is their perception that matters and when they first approach you, assume it is sensitive.

Obviously Sensitive and Embarrassing Problems

I’m Type 2 Diabetic and I don’t hide it because I want people to know about the condition and how to avoid it.  I am healthier than I’ve ever been because good health is how to resist a condition that can have a devastating impact in later life.

I am not sensitive about diabetes or embarrassed about it.  Yes, I allowed my health to decline to the point where I developed the condition.  It was not a deliberate choice; I was not aware of how unhealthy I was.

Whilst I believe it is important to be open about this and help people make lifestyles choices that will not lead to the condition, I appreciate some people will not feel the same way.  If I were offering consultancy for lifestyle and diabetes, I would assume this came under the heading of sensitive or embarrassing, even though I don’t find it so.

Potentially Sensitive or Embarrassing Problems

So, let’s take a look at a service that is not normally seen to be sensitive or embarrassing, website design.

The first thing is to note most professionals offer a confidential service.  You work on the assumption your prospect or client is not ready to go public.  If they are it is their decision, not yours.

You see, website design can be sensitive or embarrassing.  I look at dozens of websites and most of them are poorly designed.  This is true of businesses and organisations that have a good reputation or a proven track record.  They may have traffic because of their reputation but it is unlikely their website convert.

Let’s say your prospect has spent a lot of money on a website that does not convert.  This could be sensitive and maybe embarrassing for the person involved.  Note too we may not be talking about a lot of money.  A £20K website should convert.  A web designer charging that amount who does not know how to design a site that converts is dishonest.

A web designer who charges £500 may have some technical expertise but no real understanding of how websites work.  If a small organisation has a £1000 marketing budget, £500 is affordable, a massive outlay for the organisation and 99% of the time a complete waste of money.

So, it is bizarrely at this low-end of the market where you’ll find most defensiveness.  They will furiously throw back at you not only the money spent but also the hours of work the site has involved, the endless arguments about content and on and on …

What to do About Sensitive and Embarrassing Problems

I’m not saying embarrassment over a website is anywhere near as serious as health issues, family breakdown or many of the obviously potentially embarrassing situations.  However, there are always some issues to consider.

Confidentiality

First be clear about confidentiality and stick with it.  Ask permission to make anything public about your prospects and clients.

Sensitivity for the Client

Second do find out how sensitive the problem is for the prospect or client.  Whilst they will control their own publicity, you need to know the limits they work to.  You may sometimes need to challenge these limits but to do that you need to know their view.

I’ve indicated some websites are sensitive and equally some things you would think would be 100% confidential are a part of the story your prospect or client wants to get out there.  I heard a story recently from someone with terminal cancer who wanted to talk pubicly about his incontinence because it was a part of the message he wanted to get across.  If you were providing a service to this client, you need to hear what he is saying and not assume he’s typical of people in this situation.

Appropriate Tools

Third, consider the best tools to work with a client who has this problem.  In some circumstances online meetings might be better than face-to-face meetings, for example.

Your Embarrassment

Fourth, face up to your own sensitivity or embarrassment.  It is possible you’ll be more embarrassed by someone’s problem than they are.  You really must listen carefully to what they say and not allow your feelings to get in the way of your listening.  The fact that you would not make it public, does not mean it is a bad idea.  Always remember it is not your problem, unless you make it into your problem.

Equally, you might not feel at all embarrassed by something that is a real challenge for your client.  For example, someone may be very embarrassed by mice infesting their house.  You might not be too bothered by that problem because you’ve never had it, know how to get rid of it or don’t see it as much of a problem.

But you do need to be careful.  If you are a mouse exterminator, you get in and do the job.  A customer with high anxiety will simply be more pleased to see you.

But what if you are coaching someone who is experiencing stress and freaking out about the mice?  It may be important to deal with the mice (call in the exterminator) but their response to the mice may be the client’s problem.  Don’t assume the problem is the first thing that comes to light.

Do you have examples of problems you thought would be embarrassing and weren’t or were more embarrassing than you first thought?

0 Meetings and How to Make Them Work

Let’s face it, meetings are a headache.  You put hours of effort into preparing for a meeting and then no-one turns up!  It’s even worse if you charge a fee for food, venue or content.

We always forget marketing a meeting is perhaps the most important aspect of preparation.  If you have 100 hours to prepare a meeting, you might be better off spending all the time marketing it.  Any other preparation you do, will not bring any more people along.  Granted it might be a rubbish meeting and no-one might ever trust you again but at least you got them to turn up!

Obviously, you need to prepare and market, so my purpose here is to underline how important it is to give time to promoting the meeting.

Before I do that, let’s be clear about what we’re talking about.

Types of Meeting

There are three types of meeting and it is well to be aware of which type your meeting is.

Private Meetings

These meetings are always by invitation and they usually have a purpose, often in the form of an agenda.  Usually, these are the easiest to organise and need minimal marketing.  Most likely, the date and time is agreed at an earlier meeting or through some sort of arrangement between the members.  An online meeting scheduling assistant can be helpful, eg Doodle Poll is free and an easy way to agree dates for a meeting.  It takes out a lot of the effort formerly done by overworked secretaries.

Once scheduled these meetings sit in diaries until the time of the meeting and most people turn up!  If they don’t, they usually send apologies.    This is just as true for the largest committees as it is for a one to one over a coffee.  These meetings imply personal promises to attend and so people usually make an effort to tell the organiser should they be unable to attend.

I used to organise 24 hour committee meetings at a conference centre.  We set the dates for 2 – 3 meetings per year, each year in advance.  People travelled from all over the country. My job was to prepare the agenda and make sure everyone prepared their reports in time.  We did this confident people would attend.

Regular Public Meetings

These meetings have something in common with both Public (below) and Private meetings.  Examples might be church services or meetings of societies, including political parties.  Usually, there is some pattern to the meetings, eg every Sunday at 10.30am or 7.30pm on the third Thursday of the month.

The attenders are usually on a mailing list, they have the usual date pencilled in their diaries and they do not usually offer apologies.  The organisers can be confident enough people will turn up and so can focus on organising the meeting.  There’s no need to spend a lot of time scheduling or marketing these meetings.

However, over the long haul, attendance can drop off.  Sometimes this can be countered by refreshing the approach to the meeting.  However, a good idea can grow stale; a generation or two later, when not so many people are interested, a meeting will have to close.  Is it worth marketing at this point in the life-cycle of a regular meeting?  Usually, the idea itself is stale and no longer addresses the need it first addressed.

However, many regular meetings have a winning formula and keep going for many years.  Some religious meetings continue for hundreds of years.  The formula may be modified over the generations but the meeting is manifestly the same body of people, united by their story of how their ancestors brought them all together.

Public Meetings

Usually, these are one-off meetings designed to bring new people into contact with the organisers.  There will be very few reliable attenders and people attend to be informed, entertained and educated in some way.

Anyone who has experience organising this type of meeting will testify to the difficulty of persuading people to turn up.

If you don’t charge (or charge at the door), you are likely to get a large number of expressions of interest and fewer people actually turning up.  This need not be a major disaster these days, when you can collect expressions of interest online.  This will build your email list of interested people, who you can contact in the future.  People don’t turn up for various reasons and so the chances are those who don’t are not all time wasters.

If you charge for the meeting, the chances are a higher proportion of the people who pay in advance will actually turn up.  This helps with catering, something it is usually unwise to leave to chance.

I’ll leave this topic here for this week.  Next Friday I’ll say more about how to market public meetings.

Please comment and share your experience of organising meetings and the problems you have met.

0 How to Start a Project

This is the first of ten posts inspired by ideas in the book, “Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t”.  I plan to review it at some stage!  Everything I write under these headings are my own thoughts. This first post is about how to start a project.

What is a Project?

A project is a discrete piece of work and community development projects are usually started by local residents, who have a problem they want to tackle.  They may have approached their local authority or other agencies and found there are no resources, so their only option is to take it on themselves.

Businesses usually start a project to solve other peoples’ problems.  They won’t necessarily think of their project as a project, perhaps preferring terms like offers, products or services.

It is interesting to compare these two.  Perhaps, the business appears to be more altruistic.  Businesses certainly can be altruistic but they usually deliver their offers in return for money.  The community project is usually run by volunteers, who manage a paid worker or a team of workers.  Note someone gets paid for both approaches; the source of payment is different.

There are pros and cons to both approaches.  The community project is usually free at point of delivery and can target services for people who cannot afford to pay for them.  The business is potentially sustainable.  It aims to do better than break even and if successful can continue to deliver its offer indefinitely.

How to Get Started

Every project is different, so you need to tread carefully but there are three things you need.  You may need more than these but they all need to be in place for any chance of success.

A Market with a Problem

In community development, we don’t think about markets.  A market implies people who are able to pay for a service.  Some community projects do charge for their services but they are seldom conceived as businesses.

I’ve covered the need for a market with a problem many times, indeed my current Monday post sequence is about your market’s problem.  It is crucial you understand your market’s problem for the success of your project.  So, the market may be elderly people, who have loneliness as their problem.  They might have other problems, eg low-income, ill-health.  For whichever of these is the main problem, you must market a project that addresses the problem, eg befriending, advice or medical services.

An Idea

So, let’s run with loneliness.  The next thing you need is an idea.  You know you need some sort of befriending service.  How are you going to deliver that with the resources available to you?  Whilst befriending may be the primary need, according to your data, what else might your market need?

So, befriending could be through teams of volunteers who visit people in their homes, offering company whilst alert to other needs a customer may have.  Alternatively, it could be a lunch club.  People picked up, taken to a venue, given lunch and perhaps entertainment with an opportunity to meet others.  Or perhaps a self-help project where the customers draw on their own resources to build community.

An original and realistic idea will help you find resources.

Resources

Once you have an idea, you can find resources.  The first point to note is once you commit to an idea, it becomes easier to find resources because you and others know what you need.  Three main places to look:

So, get these three in place and you have a project.  The next thing to consider is how you keep it going!

In your experience, have you found you need anything else to start a project?

0 Markets for Your Offer or Proposition

Does every business have a single market?  It might be better to say each marketing campaign has a single market and a business can run several campaigns for several markets.  So, it is worth giving some thought to the markets for your offer or proposition.

Identify Your Markets

Some businesses say their services are for everyone and this can be a problem.  How can you market to everyone?  You need to address your market, so they know you are speaking to them.  What can you possibly say that everyone would hear?

Some businesses mean, when they say they are for everyone, they don’t discriminate on grounds of demographics.  Estate agents for example presumably don’t expect more of their customers to be men or women, they are looking for people who want to buy or sell a house.  Many of us occasionally need their services but most of the time we don’t.

This is a useful albeit basic way of looking at a particular market and I’m sure estate agents segment their market into several more detailed groups.  And they will approach them in different ways.

How Do I Approach it?

My business offers local marketing consultancy to local business, community and voluntary groups.  This is a large market, especially as I offer my services to anyone anywhere in the country.  So, how do I segment my market?

I have two major divisions in my market, (1) local businesses and (2) community and voluntary organisations.  Each of these can be further subdivided, so for local businesses, perhaps (1.1) traders, (1.2) coaches, (1.3) self-employed and so on.

I could then take perhaps 1.2 and further subdivide them (1.2.1) life coaches, (1.2.2) career coaches and so on.

I can subdivide further but let’s say I chose life coaches. This is where I might introduce demographics.  As I build an idea of what a member of this particular market is like, I may find this is a career where many practitioners are women and so my marketing might show that.

Maybe I build an avatar who is a woman and a life coach.  Would this rule out working with male life coaches?  No it would not.  Your knowledge of the market and the way you picture each market is behind the scenes.  It helps you personalise your marketing.  What I say may be addressed to a female avatar but is likely to appeal to all life coaches.

How to Approach Multiple Markets

So, you have identified several markets, now what do you do?

If you are a small concern, choose one as a focus for your marketing.  Choose one likely to be responsive.  If you do this well, your offer will be clearer and you may be approached by others who don’t fit that market.

But your aim is to reach that particular market and that may be the best point of concentration for you.  If you choose to market to more than one small market you are likely to find capacity becomes an issue.

Each market needs to be addressed individually and whilst this is possible, it can become a lot of work.  Bear in mind most campaigns don’t work, so you may be better off focusing on one or very few markets likely to respond positively to your message.

Of course, you need to know about your wider market to find smaller markets likely to be more responsive.  You may find if you begin with a larger market, you get interest from a small section and you can focus your marketing on that section, as you develop your business.

The Pareto Principle might help you with this.  It says, 80% of your business is through 20% of your customers.  There’s a lot more to it but it means whilst you may have a large potential market, the chances are a small corner of it will deliver most of your business.  Find that corner and use your marketing to address them.

Have you found a corner of a larger market that responds positively to your offer?  How did you find them and how do you approach them?