General advice

[onaquest]

Ok so I am stuck. I have been working on my business for over a year. Gained all the relevant requirements to trade. But reached a brick wall.

I started the business with a very small investment, have not taken a wage, have worked like mad and got a small client base.

i cannot get any help from the bank with the exception of a small overdraft. however, I now need to get the business to the next level. My competitors all advertise on tv and in the main stream press. I dont have the financial backing they do and it is very frustrating as I know with some help my business would literally fly as there could not be a more right time than now with all the publicity.

I realise you may well be asking what my business is involved in, without going into too many details we are a claims management company and specialise in PPi reclaiming.

Any advice would be musch appreciated.

[Ralph at NWL]

If you can't compete on the TV advertising then maybe you can stand out in a different way.

There are lots of different ways to advertise and if you can differentiate yourself from your competition then local advertising and using the internet can be just as effective.

TV advertising is a mass vehicle. many thousands of people see the adverts but only a very small proportion respond If you can be more targeted you can get results without the big budgets.

Can you identify a group of people that would ideally benefit from your business? Can you work out where these people 'hang out'?

If so you can target them with leaflets, posters etc. You also say you have a small client base, don't forget the power of referrals.

There are many ways of marketing and the real trick is do find a way to stand out from the crowd.

[greenguru]

why not invest in property while the market is low and get a return on some bmv properties to gain a better capital? that way you can get the cash you need in a couple of years - I know this may seem like a long time, its going to become increasingly more difficult to lend any money from banks. rather than go under, plan your strategy
that's what I did...

[KJL126]

I agree property is still the way to make cash in our society, however the time it will take may miss the PPI window.

Not wanting to be defeatest, consider what you can afford to do, estimate the returns you'll get and choose your best path. You may not be competing with the TV advertisers but then again you won't be spending as much either.

By setting attainable targets and hitting them you won't have any need to be beating yourself up.

[alice_p]

As you already know, that industry is extremely competitive both on and offline and potentially a window of opportunity as oppose to a long term thing although I don't know your business model so just making a genera statement about PPI claims rather than your business.

Personally, like someone mentioned above, I would drill down into segments and look at taking things online.

Online the industry is competitive too and the main keywords will be hard to rank for and take time and resources so I would look at targeting geographical areas and towns within a radius of "x".

This should convert better with it being more local and be easier to manage and rank for online meaning far less resources.

Hope this helps
Ally

[Leansecrets]

In order to grow your business it may be an idea to make it as effective as possible by reducing any waste in your current processes to free up some money to expand and ensuring tht when you grow you have embedded a continuous improvement culture. Apologies if you have already done this.
Also social media is an effective method for getting to your potential customers.
Hope this helps and doesn't hinder
Lee
Leansecrets

[fiftyintheclip]

Make sure you're on the top of Google.