Gaining New Clients

Just a short post as it's a busy weekend writing exam papers and sneaking off to North Shields this afternoon to watch Matt play for Boro Colts against Percy Park.

So a quick discussion on gaining new clients.

We are now focussing on a much tighter set of services and using trusted partner companies to deliver the associated services our clients want such as video, SEO, Adwords and animation. Our key offerings are:

• Web design which includes responsive designs for mobile
• Mobile web design
• Web-based applications
• Mobile apps
• Other software

As the business has evolved it's the web-based applications and mobile apps that we are concentrating on in terms of our marketing effort. 

Why?

The reason can be summed up as "doing more work, chasing less clients". Building applications is a much longer process and therefore we need less clients to generate the same income plus there are ongoing licensing fees that generate longer term income and provide upselling opportunities as clients will often want to add extra functionality over time.

Does that mean we don't do brochure style websites? Of course we still do them and the majority of our clients are still small businesses who want a simple website with a few bells and whistles or an e-commerce solution for a small retailer. And we're very happy to provide that service for them.

So why don't we concentrate on those clients in our marketing efforts?

1. To break even we would need to find around 50 new small website clients per year whereas for the right applications projects that could be 2 new clients.
2. For small website clients after creating the website, there is rarely any further income stream other than hosting and we don't make money on that. We do offer support and upgrade packages but many clients are happy with what they've got for a few years. This means we have to find 50 new clients every year to stand still.
3. Application clients generally sign up to an annual licence fee which generates income year on year. They also often want to add features to an application and therefore we have further paid development work year on year from the same client.
4. Often the application development process creates modules that are reusable in other projects and this makes us competitive when bidding for work for similar projects.
5. We are now known widely enough for the smaller websites to come in without making a big effort to find them.

I must stress that we still make a big effort on creating the website for any client regardless of price, this is purely a cost/benefit decision on our marketing activities. We charge the same daily rate on the projects so in terms of delivering an agreed project the cost/benefit outcome is identical.

So the result is that the focus of our marketing work is the bigger ticket applications. The focus of our day to day design and development work is every single client regardless of the size of the project - we see providing a great service on small projects as the prime marketing activity to gain 50 new small website clients. 

If we aren't marketing for smaller websites do we still get those jobs?

Yes we do and we do still use social media, networking and word of mouth as marketing tools for that work even though we do not focus on it. This week we have had four enquiries regarding small websites that came from:

• Our BNI Chapter
• An old neighbour from our days at Wilton Centre
• Our Palace FM advert
• A Google search

Two of those are now agreed contracts, the other 2 are considering our services and we are very hopeful of one being agreed next week and this could lead to two more projects.

So the strategy seems to be right, it looks like we will be able to get 50 new small website clients this year anyway. We also have interest from the largest application project we are developing with other organisations looking to buy into it with development fees and licensing fees for each.

Time will tell but the marketing shift plus being around for a couple of years and developing a good reputation seems to be moving us forward well.

The Importance of Intellectual Property

I spent most of the week working on one project which is a bit of a flagship one for us and developed for a local client. This includes a website and a mobile app which we are now developing as stage 2 of the project. The initial work was begun to "help out" the project when it was struggling to move forward and most of the work on the web application has, in reality, been done for very little payment. I'm not saying we haven't been paid at all just that it was done at a reduced rate due to the nature of the project plus our costs became significantly greater than planned.

Why was that?

It's a great project to be involved in but there are limits to what we will do for reduced rates, after all there's wages and rent to pay. It also became clear that once completed there would certainly be potential for the commercialisation of the project. So as it progressed we became acutely aware that we needed to protect our commercial interests should the web application, and now the mobile app, be of interest to other parties and advertisers.

The solution, use an IP lawyer. We didn't have to search too much as IP Contracts Solutions occupy the office next door to us. So we have a contract in place that asserts our ownership of the applications, the licensing fees payable to us annually, the sell on terms and obliging the clients to use us for any future developments.

Your average website doesn't work like this, that's more of a case of pay an amount up-front, maybe some interim payment and  final payment on completion and at that point the client takes ownership. In this case we have done a lot of unpaid work to get the project off the ground and expect the benefits of that should it get sold on - and there is already interest pre-launch. So my top tip - get an IP Lawyer you can work with, and I highly recommend IP Contract Solutions.

So what is this application? I can't say at the moment but phase 1 is rolling out with our client getting other organisations involved in it. Stage 2 is the public launch which should be at the end of April and we are told there may be involvement of Middlesbrough FC alongside us and our client.

But you'll have to wait for more details.

Do Givers Gain?

Any of you who have ever been to a BNI meeting will know where that title comes from but it is sparked by what I've been up to plus today's post and link on Google+ by David Laud of i2i Business Solutions LLP which makes interesting reading (http://time.com/18659/the-five-paths-to-being-the-best-at-anything/).

The article is particularly interesting to me in that the section on "Givers" says research shows that you are more likely to end up at the bottom in terms of satisfaction with your life if you are a Giver but you are also more likely to end up at the top. It seems the key to getting to the top as a Giver is balance - give but don't spend all your time giving, after all you have your own goals, ambitions and jobs to do. The other key difference between top and bottom is that successful Givers are surrounded by "Matchers", people who give in an expectation of receiving in return. If you are giving and surrounded by Takers you will plummet to the bottom.

Why is this relevant to me at the moment? Those who know my business will know that I'm a member of BNI, a business referrals organisation with the philosophy of Givers Gain. We work on the principle that by finding business for others that giving will be reciprocated. Each local chapter is populated by Givers though in reality we are also Matchers as we believe we will receive also.

Does it work? Certainly for me. We have done work for fellow members of our Chapter but also for their business contacts. Over time that will lead to doing work for the business contacts of those people and so our business network and client list expands.

But it's bigger than that. We had a regional training session last Tuesday with close to 200 businesses involved. I belong to a fairly new chapter so have not met most of those businesses but from the stats BNI keeps I know I am one of the top 10 performers in the region in terms of what I give to others in BNI. So that should mean I gain more without expecting anything in particular from it. At the regional gathering I was given the opportunity to tell all the other businesses what we do and the kind of client we are looking for. I was also used as an example of how to write a profile on BNI Connect (think BNI LinkedIn) and therefore had my profile raised even further.

Did I expect any of that - No. Did I ask for any of that - No. But the organisation is based on Givers Gain and those great opportunities were provided by others who get the philosophy.

Has that event generated any business for me? It has in that I changed what I ask for as business in terms of contacts and products we provide when I was talking to a bigger audience and that has led to a new and substantial piece of work for someone in my own chapter. More importantly, I have a new set of contacts who in some cases have connections with the next level of clients we want to talk to and who also offer services that would be of use to our current and future clients. I have already started meeting some of those to discover how I can help them and, of course, in return they will try and help me. I'll be arranging more meetings soon.

So onwards and upwards. I'm getting quite excited about the future possibilities for Tad Web Solutions Limited - the hard work may be paying off.

The Customer Experience

A short post this weekend as I had a day off yesterday (Friday), which just means I'm working from home today to catch up, or at least until the 6 Nations kicks off.

Last week I was at Customer Experience Training from BNI. Whilst there is an element of relating this to our BNI chapter and the experience we give to visitors, the training was not specific and can be applied to our own business.

The key lesson can be summed up that excellent customer service is provided by "going the extra mile" but that this can be done at with little or no cost. So there's lots of little things that can be done day to day such as:

• Using people's names when you talk to them on the phone
• Being friendly and welcoming
• Simply being honest and helpful

But that should be standard, how do we turn that into something a little special at Tad Web Solutions? 

We have already implemented a little "Thank You" process when we complete a project and get paid. So for companies with a few employees you are likely to get a little batch of cupcakes delivered as a sign of or appreciation, or if you are a sole trader you will receive an alternative.

One area we could improve on is our own visitor experience. Our visitors are generally existing clients or potential clients and hopefully we give them a good experience once we meet them after Reception have told us they're here. But there are 3 real problems we could improve on:

1. There's no parking at our business centre (despite the original promises from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council), the nearest parking must be paid for and is a couple of hundred metres away
2. The Reception staff are not very welcoming, we get told this quite often (yes they are supplied by RCBC - there's a theme here)
3. If there's only one member of staff in our office, then the visitors are left to themselves whilst a cuppa is made as the kitchen is not in our office.

So how do we improve on that, other than continuing our push for visitor parking?

1. Send our visitors  a pdf with where to park and our mobile numbers. Ask them to text us when they're 5 mins away and we will nip out to the car park, pay for a place via mobile and have an umbrella for when the weather is inclement.
2. We then walk them to the building and take them up to our office avoiding the Reception staff
3. Have our own kettle and small fridge so drinks are ready when the visitor arrives

Small things that will simply show that our customers matter.

Are Business Advisers Any Good?

The answer is...

... it depends on who the adviser is.

Tad Web Solutions is nearly two and a half years old. It started out as I switched from working as a sole trader/freelancer and decided to do the Web thing full time and seriously. Once I'd made that decision I needed some help as I was a pure techy and had never run a real business.

This was the days of Business Link and I secured 40% funding for business/marketing support and was furnished with a list of potential suppliers. This was quite enlightening as to the different approaches taken by those potential suppliers and also the differences in price.There were 3 broad approaches:

The first (relatively inexpensive) and very poor approach was to receive an email with an outline of what would be done without even having a conversation.

The second and most common (average price) was to pop in for a quick meeting, explain how they would help me increase conversions from leads to sales plus get more for each sale.

The third was an interview at some length over the telephone (most expensive) that asked me detailed questions about what I do, my plans, problems, etc. and then a fairly detailed plan for working together was sent to me.

So guess which approach worked? Yes, the expensive one. not because it was expensive but because it was thorough and bespoke. Even though I struggled at the time to pay for it, and the fee was double any other quote, I knew I would be working with someone who would make a difference. And it was the correct decision.

If you would like to know who we used, it was David Laud at i2i Business Solutions Llp and I thoroughly recommend him.

Since then we have had other business advisors supplied, for free I hasten to add, via Redcar and Cleveland Council with various levels of success including one who I told not to come back after a brief meeting (no names but he just talks jargon-filled bollocks). We've pretty much fulfilled the early years plan we drew up with David and that has got us to a level where we need to plan again, and move forward to the next level.

Then a few weeks ago there was a free workshop on Business Growth at The Palace Hub and I was very impressed by the person running it (and believe me I'm not easily impressed). At the end he said there is free support from him available if Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council agree. So off I went to ask for it based upon the fact that Peter has recently gone from apprentice to "proper job" and I intend to grow - and hey presto support available.

So before you ask, why not use David Laud? I would happily do so, David is worth every penny, but our new support was free to us (paid for by the council) and I am from Yorkshire after all! (Sorry David)

We have now had 3 meetings with Ross Golightly from Sphera Consulting with the aim of setting growth targets for the business, planning for them and implementing strategies that will ensure we meet those growth plans. Ross works with business who are looking to grow rapidly and in broad terms the plan is that in 3 years our turnover will increase 7-fold, so very ambitious but also very achievable. The final plan for long term and shorter term are not yet written and in place, though they will be shortly, but we have already introduced a couple of very simple strategies Ross has suggested.

What have those 2 simple strategies done:

1. Cash flow is much better (and Feb is always a bad month, but fine this year - annual insurance gets paid and Jan is a slow month for work completed and invoiced)
2. Got £500 of extra business this week that we normally would not have got (if that happens every week that's £26k a year)

There was no extra work to improve cash flow nor gain the extra business (though that will involve an extra day's work that is charged to our clients) and are very minor tweaks to how we operate not some major part of a strategic plan.

I'm really looking forward to doing the more strategic stuff as the changes so far come under the "bleeding obvious" heading even though I would never have made them without encouragement from Ross, who I've really enjoyed working with

The lessons:

• The right support can make a big difference to your business
• Cheap is not necessarily best, sometimes you get what you pay for but it is definitely worth the expense
• Free can be great - but it can also be garbage
• Don't be afraid to pull out of a support package where you feel it is of no use, even when it's free - your time is money
• Councils do offer some great business support but chose which you use, it's all about the person/company supplying that support

And watch this space and see us grow.