So what have you done?

[LINGsCARS]

I'm also bolstered by the fact that spending online is increasing at a much faster rate than the overall economy is receding. I feel having less cash is converting people to internet shopping actually.

This is a key fact for most of us, even if you are on the other side of the coin (ie brick/mortar only).

In fact the overall market does not matter unless you are HMG. All that matters is your own micro market.

The stress is forcing more people down different purchase routes. With all this stuff it is guesswork, but you just have to get your fishing rod in the right bit of the pool.

 

[movietub]

Exactly!

I however remain immune due to the fact that 50% of my income comes from the budget sector which will (in fact is) swell during the recession. The other 50% comes from the super rich that cause occasional 'economic problems' and then ride above them, hardly noticing.

Thats the best way to beat the recession. Be so rich that you don't have a hope of spending the interest you earn every day. Then you'll be fine.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Put it this way as Le Gib is always saying ... if your competitors have stopped marketing why should you ... chances are you will get their potentials instead!!

Do I say that? Jeez...

A few months ago, someone on the forum made the point that the difference between 2% growth in the economy and a 2% recession is just 4%... and who couldn't increase their sales by 4%?

Even if it were 10% recession, that's still only 12%... and that's an average, your sector might barely contract at all.

So, while I expect things to get pretty grim over the next few years most of us will be in sectors where the main factor in deciding our incomes will be what we do (or don't do), rather than what happens in the larger economy.

Steve

P.S. I've read that, in the US great depression, 75% of the workforce still had jobs. That means there were still people buying things, even at the bottom.

 

[LINGsCARS]

Do I say that? Jeez...

etc

Steve

Completely spot on. Why can everyone say things far more clearly than me? Very annoying.

This is exactly the attitude, not all those annoying "positive" or "negative" generalisations.

4% is pish, everyone should get on with it.

 

[thedesigntailor]

Here here

(or is it hear hear)

+1

 

[LINGsCARS]

This thread is exactly why the mods should take a back seat on these forums. When things play out they generally work well.

If SCFC (are you still here? Good. What are your views SCFC? But...avoid giving advice in your answer) read this single page and got on with something at 16, by this time next year he could have a £25k turnover and a £10k profit quite easily. By 2010 he could have a £100k business (worth £500k). By 20 years old, you could EASILY with lots of work and tears be worth £1m.

This last page on its own could do it for him. I hope so. (SCFC but - this is a clue - you have to DO something. What's the worst that can happen, you blow £5k and mess up? Let's face it a lot of 18 year olds blow more than that getting into debt in uni).

 

[Gillie]

Do I say that? Jeez...

Amongst lots of other stuff yes ... and for a Scot ... you make sense sometimes!!

 

[Real World Hypnotherapy]

Eek...what has happened to this topic?

To address what someone asked about how much time I put into these long posts, the answer is quite a bit. I am however going to use some of my posts on here in a blog I am starting probably.

Also I get emailed loads of times about if people can include my stuff in their own blogs, websites and newsletters. I am fine with people using my stuff as long as I get credited with it. If you want to know more please contact me about it.

So lets stop all this arguing and get back to the main points.

What are you doing to increase orders?

Matt

 

[sysops]

Eek...what has happened to this topic?
...

So lets stop all this arguing and get back to the main points.

The original post was really, really long, and I doubt most of us have read it (I know I haven't!). But OP aside, the thread has been quite interesting.

 

[movietub]

Eek...what has happened to this topic?

To address what someone asked about how much time I put into these long posts, the answer is quite a bit. I am however going to use some of my posts on here in a blog I am starting probably.

Also I get emailed loads of times about if people can include my stuff in their own blogs, websites and newsletters. I am fine with people using my stuff as long as I get credited with it. If you want to know more please contact me about it.

So lets stop all this arguing and get back to the main points.

What are you doing to increase orders?

Matt

I agree, back to OP

Budget sector (online and offline sales in my case)

I have been contacting all suppliers, turns out they are as keen to sell as I am so some fantastic discounts have been arranged (the sort of deal where you walk away smiling, safe in the knowledge that in half an hour you saved £1000's. Good day!).

I'm using this extra margin to reduce my sale prices to the end customer. The extra profit was tempting but this is a safer policy. Long term I believe it will significantly increase t/o which will lead to further discounts and so on.

So for now I'm being pro-active and fiercely competitive. Any competitor of mine who doesn't keep up will go a long time before I do!

High end sector (bespoke product service and installation contracts)

Re-did the entire website. Stopped chasing all jobs and focused only on the high profile stuff. The mainstream market will bare most of the brunt of the recession so I'm aiming above and below the pockets of the 'average' earner/consumer.

If your not very rich or very poor I have nothing for you!

 

[Gillie]

Eek...what has happened to this topic?



What are you doing to increase orders?

Matt

Taking advise from a couple of top guys, listening and implementing ... both market and both do it slightly differently ... and then I use my own judgement too, which is getting there with knowing where I should be going.

 

[Real World Hypnotherapy]

Hi Gillie

Although your answer is great to hear, there isn't any substance to it. Can you tell us about what you have implemented and what the results have been like?

Matt

 

[SCFC]

This thread is exactly why the mods should take a back seat on these forums. When things play out they generally work well.

If SCFC (are you still here? Good. What are your views SCFC? But...avoid giving advice in your answer) read this single page and got on with something at 16, by this time next year he could have a £25k turnover and a £10k profit quite easily. By 2010 he could have a £100k business (worth £500k). By 20 years old, you could EASILY with lots of work and tears be worth £1m.

This last page on its own could do it for him. I hope so. (SCFC but - this is a clue - you have to DO something. What's the worst that can happen, you blow £5k and mess up? Let's face it a lot of 18 year olds blow more than that getting into debt in uni).

I was just observing.

I'm working on my business plan and also reading a few articles from this site.

(SCFC but - this is a clue - you have to DO something. What's the worst that can happen, you blow £5k and mess up? Let's face it a lot of 18 year olds blow more than that getting into debt in uni).

Very true. And if I did mess up, at least I can say I tried and hopefully it will have taught me a lot to see where I went wrong and amend them for whatever future ventures I take.

I want to do a sports online business. I have the knowledge for sport since I did really well in my PE theory course at school and am a very sporty person myself. I want to encourage sport in people of similar age to me and older as I think we are fast turning into a nation that just want to play video games. Not that I'm against it, I think it's perfectly OK to play xbox, playstations, ect but in moderation as well as getting exercise.

But I also understand that it may be too much for me because of storage of items ect. I need more time to think about it if I'm being honest. Your advice is always appreciated, though. Thanks everyone.

I don't want to steer this thread off-topic so my apologies.

 

[Gillie]

But your question was what have I done, and I answered it .. listened to Steve Gibson and Mark Nagurski. If I was to state all that they had told me, then I would be doing them a disfavour and losing them potential business!

Its like me asking you to teach me how to hypnotise people so I can do it 'for fun'.

If people want to know more about either of these gents ways of working, both have some excellent articles and advise on their websites and both give away quite a lot on here too!

 

[LINGsCARS]

So lets stop all this arguing and get back to the main points.

What are you doing to increase orders?

Matt

We stopped arguing ages ago, catch up!

To increase orders, i have been working with several suppliers to write xml feeds of their stock for me to use, so instead of pulling out a few items and sending those to me, I can get the full feed of cars and use them to reply to quotes, show a wider selection etc.

I have been working on back ends to further improve responsiveness to customers.

I have been dangling some afilliate payments to my local advertising pal so he will stick the opportunity to "sell" cars for no overhead with a fully managed CRM in front of some (big name) clients.

I have committed to 1,250,000 email marketing campaign.

Can be viewed HERE

Apart from that i have been arguing on here in the hope that someone may feel sorry for me an order a car. As if hahaha!

 

[Gillie]

Apart from that i have been arguing on here in the hope that someone may feel sorry for me an order a car. As if hahaha!

Sorry Ling, I do my own thanks!!

 

[LINGsCARS]

I was just observing.

I'm working on my business plan and also reading a few articles from this site.



Very true. And if I did mess up, at least I can say I tried and hopefully it will have taught me a lot to see where I went wrong and amend them for whatever future ventures I take.

I want to do a sports online business. I have the knowledge for sport since I did really well in my PE theory course at school and am a very sporty person myself. I want to encourage sport in people of similar age to me and older as I think we are fast turning into a nation that just want to play video games. Not that I'm against it, I think it's perfectly OK to play xbox, playstations, ect but in moderation as well as getting exercise.

But I also understand that it may be too much for me because of storage of items ect. I need more time to think about it if I'm being honest. Your advice is always appreciated, though. Thanks everyone.

I don't want to steer this thread off-topic so my apologies.

So, start a new thread. Give it a sensible title. Like "First stage of online sports goods retailing" Just start with a basic statement and ask for the steps to be laid out, from people with successful online retailing businesses. Important that you qualify that point.

I do know a very large sports equipment wholesaler.

But, you will need to do a lot of work first, that is not the first stage. Discuss in new thread.

 

[Real World Hypnotherapy]

But your question was what have I done, and I answered it .. listened to Steve Gibson and Mark Nagurski. If I was to state all that they had told me, then I would be doing them a disfavour and losing them potential business!

Its like me asking you to teach me how to hypnotise people so I can do it 'for fun'.

If people want to know more about either of these gents ways of working, both have some excellent articles and advise on their websites and both give away quite a lot on here too!

What a strange response. All I did was ask what marketing things you are doing and how the response was. All you basically said was "I am doing some marketing", so not really much help to anyone. When I talk about marketing I give specific examples on how I do things, now I am not asking for that level of detail but just some idea would be nice. Even like that you did a leaflet drop and got a 4:1 return or something.

I wasn't trying to snoop and get the inside info on how you market your business, I don't even know what your business is. I don't see how by you telling people what systems you are doing would effect Steve or Mark (I didn't even know who you were using), it even may have generated them work.

To say that this is the same as you asking me how to hypnotise people so you can do it for fun, well what a stupid thing to say. I really don't know how to respond to that because frankly your claim doesn't make any sense.

Matt

 

[Gillie]

What a strange response. All I did was ask what marketing things you are doing and how the response was. All you basically said was "I am doing some marketing", so not really much help to anyone. When I talk about marketing I give specific examples on how I do things, now I am not asking for that level of detail but just some idea would be nice. Even like that you did a leaflet drop and got a 4:1 return or something.

I wasn't trying to snoop and get the inside info on how you market your business, I don't even know what your business is. I don't see how by you telling people what systems you are doing would effect Steve or Mark (I didn't even know who you were using), it even may have generated them work.

To say that this is the same as you asking me how to hypnotise people so you can do it for fun, well what a stupid thing to say. I really don't know how to respond to that because frankly your claim doesn't make any sense.

Matt

You see if you did a little research and went and had a wander around my site it would tell you why I responded so, and actually, here we go again, calling people stupid without even doing your home work first ... now that's what I call stupid!!

Give you a clue though what my main thing in business is Matt ... its called check the signature out!!

 

[Real World Hypnotherapy]

Gillie

I never said you were stupid. I visited your sites and I am still non the wiser on what it is you have done marketing wise. Also I don't know if you realised but the middle link doesn't work. Well it does work but there are some issues with the website, it just goes to a blank "about" page.

I don't want to see like I am getting at you, I am just interested in what people have done to increase orders during this bad period.

Matt

 

[sysops]

Looks like this thread was destined to become an argument, whether on or off topic

 

[Gillie]

To say that this is the same as you asking me how to hypnotise people so you can do it for fun, well what a stupid thing to say. I really don't know how to respond to that because frankly your claim doesn't make any sense.

Matt

To say something stupid would imply that the originator was stupid, and I am a million miles away from stupid thank you!

 

[Real World Hypnotherapy]

I said it was a stupid thing to say, not that you actually were. You seemed to think I was taking a swipe at your business and I really wasn't. I am not sure why you are reacting to me in such a way.

Matt

 

[Cornish Steve]

Is there a full moon or something?

 

[LINGsCARS]

An argument WITHOUT me? I will report this to the mods.

Thank God they have the weekend off.

 

[adventurelife]

Okay in an attempt to get back on the OP subject line

What have you done? Just a selection

Defensive first

1. Complete restructure of business models with significant 6 figure cost savings and implemented a much more flexible business model that can allow us to shrink by up to 70% of revenue without going under.
2. Been hording cash for over 8 months
3. Put on hold new vehicles and equipment purchases and leases.

Aggressive

1. In talks to aquire more businesses
2. Locating new high street premises for one of our fast growing new businesses
3. Increasing number of websites
4. Increasing website development spend
5. Increasing PPC
6. Increasing printed material distribution
7. Increasing my own work rate by a lot
8. Increasing deals available to sales partners
9. Installed new business CRM software going live DEC 1
10. Link software with all websites by Apr 2009
11. Increase film making and distribution
12. Producing 20000 cdr promotional disks for give aways
13. Website content, content , content
14. Partnership deals with a range of new suppliers for joint marketing promotions.
15. Changed marketing direction away from corporates to focus more on stag and hen and government agency/ Fire/NHS/Military/Education

Results

Nov up 100% in trade
Dec up 150% in trade

Although the above % looks good we are coming of a very low base in Nov and Dec as they are rubbish trading months for us with break even being a good month.

More importantly are the October and November enquiry and conversion rates which are both showing significant increases on last year.

Am I positive ? No. I will survive and may even prosper as I know how and I have no business debt but I still reckon we are in for a very difficult time and lots of people are going to go under and potentially millions are going to lose there jobs.

The negative impact of what the likely fallout to society because of what is happening is going to be damaging for a very long time.

Bottom line is what is happening is not good for any of us no matter what view/spin you put on it.

Keep fingers crossed it is a short 1-2 year recession on not a ongoing one for many years.

 

[adam]

ok not read 7 pages of, well, err stuff lets say with a few interesting points.

Spend spend spend at the moment. Market myself, market the special offers ideal for a recession and do the best you can.

Also, renegotiate with suppliers, get special prices. They need you at the moment. There is only so much cost cutting that can be done so as well as getting new people in you should be okay.

 

[oldeagleeye]

Anyone who thinks that a recession is so bad really ought to think again because if most of your compeitors are batterning down the hatches think of the opportunities for you. There may be a cold wind blowing out there but it could just put you into a winning position way ahead of your competitors and for years to come.

Marketing - Marketing - Marketing then. That and positive thinking and change your marketing strategy to suit the circumstances. Remember. The only one that has ever had a business plan cast in stone was Moses and even that is cracking these days. Rob

 

[oldeagleeye]

Sorry Adveturelife. Missed the bottom bit of your post and take quite the opposite view. Once people stop living on so much credit they will all have more to spend. Credit cards charge 14%. Store cards can be almost 30%. Bin them and there is 14 - 30% more money to spend. Rob

 

[adventurelife]

Sorry Adveturelife. Missed the bottom bit of your post and take quite the opposite view. Once people stop living on so much credit they will all have more to spend. Credit cards charge 14%. Store cards can be almost 30%. Bin them and there is 14 - 30% more money to spend. Rob

I agree on that , society needs to get back to living within its means, however, it would be better for society as a whole to readjust over a protracted period of time.

The likely massive downturn will be a sharp shock that may not be short of course most will still be okay but if enough millions of people are not okay we all suffer in indirect ways like increased national debt, crime, divorce rates etc.

The government seems to be intent on getting people spending more instead of less according to all the politics shows today though

 

[thedesigntailor]

The government seems to be intent on getting people spending more instead of less according to all the politics shows today though

Good - At bloody last they speak sense.

 

[movietub]

Yes but that's only this weeks policy. Next weeks might be rubbish again