Marketing for a Small Family Business largely
depends upon the ability of the Family to:-
(1) Provide:
(2) the right Product
(3) at the right Price
(4) in the right Place
(5) at the right Period
(6) using the right Promotion
(7) employing the right People
(8) for the right Purpose
(9) using the right Persuasion
(10) in order to make the right Profit
Provide
Initial Provision:
(1) When first entering the Small
Family Business world as an owner operator it might be best to start with a
product other than your own as a "Pro Vision" - i.e. for looking
or seeing things. This will give you the opportunity of getting your feet
wet without "damage" to your own new product or service.
A bit like learning to drive
in someone else's vehicle. This is so that your's wont get damaged by those
other less careful drivers before you learn to evade them and understand the
problems of the road ahead.
If the first Business
opportunity costs nothing to start or finish then most of your Capital can
be used to do your own thing - but now, fueled with some of the necessary
street smarts.
The
Right Product:
(2) The right Product needs to be well
market researched before entering the fray - not forgetting all the tax
implications and benefits.
The
Right Price:
(3) The right Price - not too expensive
to have cheap imitations follow your pioneering - not too cheap so that all
the profit is lost - including intellectual copyright.
The
Right Place:
(4) The right Place is not always easy to
choose. Although Entrepreneurs are Creative they also learn somehow, to be
realistic. Some learn from books i.e. from other people's experience. Some
learn by observation and some have to pee on the electric fence themselves.
The
Right Period:
(5) The right Period is not a
"put off" to next year. If your product is a new mouse trap is
there a plague? (Just in passing the best mouse
trap is a plastic see-through trap which catches them alive. The animal
liberation people have indicate mice should not be drowned so one could be
forgiven for liberating the mice on their doorstep. Thus creating a
mini-plague for which the best mouse trap is readily available.
(NB If you can't have a little fun doing your thing ,
it may not be the best thing since sliced bread)
The
Right Promotion:
(6) Possibly the best initial
and low cost Promotion is simply Telemarketing. This gets a fairly
comprehensive feed back (market survey) within the first $25 spent (100
phone calls) You learn how to act and react with potential clients
within the first twenty calls. After the first 10,000 successes, call for
John Singleton - you don't have the time to do your own Promo work.
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The
Right People:
(7) Employing the right People is
usually not an issue with a virgin Entrepreneur. It's the Family
Members or not at all. However, the Worse Case Scenario is to expect any
Family Member to work for nothing. In fact it is almost fatal and bad
Business Economics not to pay them the max that the ATO will allow i.e.
market "arms length" value.
This is why Tax Planning, rather than
Accountancy, is so necessary to the understanding of Digital
Money. see "How to Rob a Bank Legally"
The Right
Purpose:
(8) Being a business owner infers
being rich rather than being poor - master rather than servant - but it
does not infer great wealth. Creating great wealth infers working long
hours and much stress on Family Members.
If being your own boss confers on
a Family the Freedom of Choice to climb every mountain,
ford every stream, follow every highway, in search
of that impossible dream - happiness - your true purpose may not be
uncountable wealth.
That is not to say
great wealth is not a commendable target - providing you can handle
it.
Many can't - so most
of us are just happy to be rich --- broke or wealthy makes little
difference.
The
Right Persuasion:
(9) Using the right Persuasion
requires a touch of practical psychology.
All
people belong to a social system of three elements. A system, any
system, has
(1) input
element
(2)
control element,
and (3) output element.
Our Westminster
System of Government has a
Judicial
Arm examining new Law
Executive
Arm controlling by Law
and a
Legislature - Entrepreneurial Politicians creating new Law
So we must have
Controllers (management/executive)
Critics (examiners, lawyers,
accountants, doctors, etc.)
and Creative Entrepreneurial
people - Business Owners and or Inventors.
But no one of the three
elements can take the place of another very well.
That's why
Managements can get along with each other on the totem poll or pecking
order - they know their place.
A Critic within Management is
just a pain in the butt. Put him to work examining the books, researching
the law, examining diseased organs and he/she is happy.
Imagine a Creative
Entrepreneur in Government - time for another Royal Commission.
Each
person owns his own job function, character or attitude and each needs to
be Persuaded by different methods or view points for Management, Critics
or Creative People.
A good sales
person (marketer) would first establish which characteristic (read
attitude) is best in line for his Product. Or otherwise learn how to
approach each individual characteristic in it's own distinctive way.
Motivation
is also an Issue in Persuasion.
By rule of thumb, most
Australians are motivated by either ego or greed - similar in range (1-14)
perhaps, to the pH scale for acids and alkalis in Chemistry. Near neutral
(7) being easier to deal with than the real greedy (1) or the very
egotistical (14)
The
way to approach a slightly "greedy" person would be different to
approaching a slightly "egotistical" one.
And no doubt a very "greedy" or "egotistical" one
would be different again.
The
Right Profit:
Some say
this should be up to market forces. However, if a reasonable profit is not
made a Business will soon go broke. But on the other hand, if profits are
too high and the price is astronomical for the market, the Business will
go broke also. {Back}
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