By John Morris
Small, medium and big businesses benefit so much from making their products and services known to the public through different events, stalls and stores they establish in malls.
One of the events that proved to be beneficial to these businesses is trade shows. The primary goal is to showcase products or services to various markets that may be interested in availing the services or the products. Moreover, other benefits can be acquired as well from participating in a trade show.
A businessman should not be afraid even if he is new in the field because of the amount of exposure he would get through these kinds of events. Trade shows are a continuing trend in the business sector. Malls have always been open to hold such shows and be a venue. Therefore, trade show will continue to exist in every corner of shopping malls. It is not only appropriate because people who are visiting malls are in a shopping mode so most likely they will drop by your booth and have time to listen and view your products and services. Who knows, you might have a handful or a number of leads by the time the show ends and close a number of sales. You do not want to miss that opportunity, right!
But participating in a trade show is not a piece of cake. You would need fresh and innovative marketing ways to catch the attention of potential customers and you should be financially able to participate. A trade show is not a one- man show but tendency is all your competitors will be present, so be very creative in your marketing ploy.
There are some great tips for you to guide you in achieving success in trade shows.
1. Identify the purpose of your participation in the trade show. Aside from increasing your sales and collecting possible leads or customers, trade shows are opportunities for you to observe the trends in your area or field of business. You may learn the newest products or services that your competitors may offer. Through these, you can assess how your business is catching up in the industry you are involved in and you can think of ways to improve or plan out your next step. Trade shows can also help in your networking efforts with colleagues that are not competitors and suppliers. Therefore, be sure that your products and services are cut for the trade show you have participated in. You do not want to be out of place, would you?
2. Plan out your budget. Every wise businessman should include participation in trade shows as a part of his marketing plan because it can cut off costs on his part. In case you have a series of trade shows to participate in, be sure to inform the proper people who can help you, pose a partnership with them and in the end share the expenses. Most likely, these are your show sponsors, suppliers, previous attendees, vendors and your customers. Do not forget to register early for the trade show because usually they have early bird discounts.
3. Get organized. Once you have registered, you should keep papers and pertinent documents that you can refer to in the future or when the show is near. Be sure that all documents such as registration form, booth and floor plans, invoices and notes are all intact in one folder. You might need all these to confirm your participation and to submit to the organizers your booth floor plan and design so they can make the necessary adjustments.
4. Identify the goals you want to achieve during the trade show. It will be an extra effort if you would research on who is going to participate and who will be attending but it will be worth your while. Set a plan and identify a number of high quality leads to achieve within the period of the show so that you have something to look forward to.
5. Make your customer know that you are participating in a trade show by marketing it. Publish print ads in different publications especially in the trade show publication. Send out invites to your prospects through direct mails. Ask these prospects and other long time customers to drop by your booth and try out some of the new products or services you have.
6. Your participation does not stop from just stalling a booth in a trade show and wait for customers to drop by. It is important for you to create an appealing atmosphere by being creative in the manner of your presentation and how you make your booth striking and a level higher than the other booths. You can include value- added services inside your booth and make use of technology such as LCD projectors and DVD players to present your product or services to customers. Make sure that you assign staff in the booth who is knowledgeable about your products and services. This way, you can take a rest in manning the booth but still be confident of the person you will leave behind. Also, prepare your materials like brochures, flyers and giveaways. These are necessary point of sales materials that the customers can refer to after dropping by your booth. Be sure to have your contact details on all of these materials.
7. During the trade show, focus and get your acts together. Try to plan out your work by focusing on your set goals and the number of prospects you will have to follow- up. Make sure to keep some notes of the promises you made to prospects like a follow- up call, a presentation of your products in the prospects office, a quotation for your services or products or even a visit.
8. After gathering some quality prospects after the show, be sure to keep their interest high by following them up with letters, thank you cards, an email or phone call.
9. After the show, it is best to make an evaluation of how well you did by determining if you have reached your identified goals before the show, if you have executed your plans well and whether you did an immediate follow- up to an interested customer.
10.Keep in touch with the shows organizers, sponsors and interested prospects and customers. Be sure to actively participate in the next show. You can even volunteer. Additional task, yes but it will be all worth it.
There you have it! All the recipes for a trade show success served in a silver platter. Be sure to keep them all in mind until your next serving.
About the Author:
For more great trade show related articles and resources check out http://superiortradeshows.info/Article Source:http://www.freearticles.co.za/business/10-tips-for-trade-show-success.html
How To Write A Successful Business Plan
by: Jason Kay
Whether you are planning to start a brand-new business, expand an existing company, or get financing for a business venture, you will need to write a business plan. A business plan not only lends your business a sense of credibility, but also helps you to cover all your bases, increasing your chances of success.
Although writing a business plan can be a lengthy, intimidating project, it is not necessarily difficult. Here is an overview of how to write a successful business plan.
What to Include in Your Business Plan
Your business plan needs to demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered all aspects of running your business. To that end, the standard business plan has nine major sections, covering everything from your business’s mission statement to a detailed financial analysis.
Executive Summary
The first – and most important – section of your business plan is the executive summary. This section is so important that it should literally be the first thing the reader sees – even before the table of contents! However, it should also be written last, as you’ll have a better understanding of the overall message of your business plan after you’ve researched and written the other sections.
One of the most important parts of the executive summary is the mission statement. The mission statement is only three or four sentences long, but it should pack the most punch out of everything else in your business plan: Those four sentences are responsible for not only defining your business, but also capturing the interest of your reader.
The rest of your executive summary should fill in the important details that the mission statement glosses over. For instance, your executive summary should include a short history of the business, including founder profiles and start date; a current snapshot, listing locations, numbers of employees, and products or services offered; and a summary of future plans and goals.
This section is a candidate for a bulleted format, which allows you to list main points in a manner that is easy to scan. Avoid using too much detail – remember, this section is a summary. A page or two is usually sufficient for an executive summary.
Market Analysis
The next section of your business plan focuses on market analysis. In order to show that your business has a reasonable chance for success, you will need to thoroughly research the industry and the market you intend to sell to. No bank or investor is going to back a doomed venture, so this section is sure to fall under especially close scrutiny if you are looking for financing.
Your market analysis should describe your industry, including the size, growth rate, and trends that could affect the industry. This section should also describe your target market – that is, the type or group of customers that your company intends to serve. The description of your target market should include detail such as:
• Distinguishing characteristics
• The needs your company or product line will meet
• What media and/or marketing methods you’ll use to reach them
• What percentage of your target market you expect to be able to wrest away from your competitors
In addition, your market analysis should include the results of any market tests you have done, and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.
Company Description
After your market analysis, your business plan will need to include a description of your company. This section should describe:
• The nature of your business
• The needs of the market
• How your business will meet these needs
• Your target market, including specific individuals and/or organizations
• The factors that set you apart from your competition and make you likely to succeed
Although some of these things overlap with the previous section, they are still necessary parts of your company description. Each section of your business plan should have the ability to stand on its own if need be. In other words, the company description should thoroughly describe your company, even if certain aspects are covered in other sections.
Organization and Management
Once you have described the nature and purpose of your company, you will need to explain your staff setup. This section should include:
• The division of labor – how company processes are divided among the staff
• The management hierarchy
• Profiles of the company’s owner(s), management personnel, and the Board of Directors
• Employee incentives, such as salary, benefits packages, and bonuses
This goal of this section is to demonstrate not only good organization within the company, but also the ability to create loyalty in your employees. Long-term employees minimize human resource costs and increase a business’s chances for success, so banks and investors will want to see that you have an effective system in place for maintaining your staff.
Marketing and Sales Management
The purpose of the marketing and sales section of your business plan is to outline your strategies for marketing your products or services. This section also plans for company growth by describing how the growth could take place.
The section should describe your company’s:
• Marketing methods
• Distributions methods
• Type of sales force
• Sales activities
• Growth strategies
Product or Services
Following the marketing section of your business plan, you will need a section focusing on the product or services your business offers. This is more than a simple description of your product or services, though. You will also need to include:
• The specific benefits your product or service offers customers
• The specific needs of the market, and how your product will meet them
• The advantages your product has over your competitors
• Any copyright, trade secret, or patent information pertaining to your product
• Where any new products or services are in the research and development process
• Current industry research that you could use in the development of products and services
Funding Request
Only once you have described your business from head to toe are you ready to detail your funding needs. This section should include everything a bank or investor needs in order to understand what type of funding you want:
• How much money you need now
• How much money you think you will need over the next five years
• How the money you borrow will be used
• How long you will need funding
• What type of funding you want (i.e. loans, investors, etc.)
• Any other terms you want the funding arrangement to include
Financials
The financials section in your business plan supports your request for outside funding. This section provides an analysis of your company’s prospective financial success. The section also details your company’s financial track record for the past three to five years, unless you are seeking financing for a startup business.
The financials section should include:
• Company income statements for prior years
• Balance sheets for prior years
• Cash flow statements for prior years
• Forecasted company income statements
• Forecasted balance sheets
• Forecasted cash flow statements
• Projections for the next five years – every month or quarter for the first year, with longer intervals for the remaining years
• Collateral you can use to secure a loan
The financials section is a great place to include visuals such as graphs, particularly if you predict a positive trend in your projected financials. A graph allows the reader to quickly take in this information, and may do a better job of encouraging a bank or investor to finance your business. However, be sure that the amount of financing you are requesting is in keeping with your projected financials – no matter how impressive your projections are, if you are asking for more money than is warranted, no bank or investor will give it to you.
Appendices
The appendix is the final section in your business plan. Essentially, this is where you put all of the information that doesn’t fit in the other eight sections, but that someone – particularly a bank or investor – might need to see.
For instance, the market analysis section of your business plan may list the results of market studies you have done as part of your market research. Rather than listing the details of the studies in that section, where they will appear cumbersome and detract from the flow of your business plan, you can provide this information in an appendix.
Other information that should be relegated to an appendix includes:
• Credit histories for both you and your business
• Letters of reference
• References that have bearing on your company and your product or service, such as magazines or books on the topic
• Company licenses and patents
• Copies of contracts, leases, and other legal documents
• Resumes of your top managers
• Names of business consultants, such as your accountant and attorney
Writing a Successful Business Plan
Despite the quantity of information contained in your business plan, it should be laid out in a format that is easy to read. Just like with any piece of business writing, it is important to craft your business plan with your intended audience in mind – and the bankers, investors, and other busy professionals who will read your business plan almost certainly won’t have time to read a tedious document with long-winded paragraphs and large blocks of text.
Business plans for startup companies and company expansions are typically between twenty to forty pages long, but formatting actually accounts for a lot of this length. A strong business plan uses bullet points throughout to break up long sections and highlight its main points. Visuals such as tables and charts are also used to quickly relay specific information, such as trends in sales and other financial information. These techniques ensure that the reader can skim the business plan quickly and efficiently.
Think of your audience as only having fifteen minutes to spend on each business plan that comes across their desks. In that fifteen minutes, you not only have to relay your most important points, but also convince the reader that your business venture merits a financial investment. Your best bet is a well-researched business plan, with an organized, easy-to-read format and clear, confident prose.
About The Author
Jason Kay is a former professional business plan writer and provides business start up advice. He contributes to business magazines and websites such as http://BudgetBusinessPlans.com, which provides business plan writing services and business plan samples.
Source: ArticleCity.com
Whether you are planning to start a brand-new business, expand an existing company, or get financing for a business venture, you will need to write a business plan. A business plan not only lends your business a sense of credibility, but also helps you to cover all your bases, increasing your chances of success.
Although writing a business plan can be a lengthy, intimidating project, it is not necessarily difficult. Here is an overview of how to write a successful business plan.
What to Include in Your Business Plan
Your business plan needs to demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered all aspects of running your business. To that end, the standard business plan has nine major sections, covering everything from your business’s mission statement to a detailed financial analysis.
Executive Summary
The first – and most important – section of your business plan is the executive summary. This section is so important that it should literally be the first thing the reader sees – even before the table of contents! However, it should also be written last, as you’ll have a better understanding of the overall message of your business plan after you’ve researched and written the other sections.
One of the most important parts of the executive summary is the mission statement. The mission statement is only three or four sentences long, but it should pack the most punch out of everything else in your business plan: Those four sentences are responsible for not only defining your business, but also capturing the interest of your reader.
The rest of your executive summary should fill in the important details that the mission statement glosses over. For instance, your executive summary should include a short history of the business, including founder profiles and start date; a current snapshot, listing locations, numbers of employees, and products or services offered; and a summary of future plans and goals.
This section is a candidate for a bulleted format, which allows you to list main points in a manner that is easy to scan. Avoid using too much detail – remember, this section is a summary. A page or two is usually sufficient for an executive summary.
Market Analysis
The next section of your business plan focuses on market analysis. In order to show that your business has a reasonable chance for success, you will need to thoroughly research the industry and the market you intend to sell to. No bank or investor is going to back a doomed venture, so this section is sure to fall under especially close scrutiny if you are looking for financing.
Your market analysis should describe your industry, including the size, growth rate, and trends that could affect the industry. This section should also describe your target market – that is, the type or group of customers that your company intends to serve. The description of your target market should include detail such as:
• Distinguishing characteristics
• The needs your company or product line will meet
• What media and/or marketing methods you’ll use to reach them
• What percentage of your target market you expect to be able to wrest away from your competitors
In addition, your market analysis should include the results of any market tests you have done, and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.
Company Description
After your market analysis, your business plan will need to include a description of your company. This section should describe:
• The nature of your business
• The needs of the market
• How your business will meet these needs
• Your target market, including specific individuals and/or organizations
• The factors that set you apart from your competition and make you likely to succeed
Although some of these things overlap with the previous section, they are still necessary parts of your company description. Each section of your business plan should have the ability to stand on its own if need be. In other words, the company description should thoroughly describe your company, even if certain aspects are covered in other sections.
Organization and Management
Once you have described the nature and purpose of your company, you will need to explain your staff setup. This section should include:
• The division of labor – how company processes are divided among the staff
• The management hierarchy
• Profiles of the company’s owner(s), management personnel, and the Board of Directors
• Employee incentives, such as salary, benefits packages, and bonuses
This goal of this section is to demonstrate not only good organization within the company, but also the ability to create loyalty in your employees. Long-term employees minimize human resource costs and increase a business’s chances for success, so banks and investors will want to see that you have an effective system in place for maintaining your staff.
Marketing and Sales Management
The purpose of the marketing and sales section of your business plan is to outline your strategies for marketing your products or services. This section also plans for company growth by describing how the growth could take place.
The section should describe your company’s:
• Marketing methods
• Distributions methods
• Type of sales force
• Sales activities
• Growth strategies
Product or Services
Following the marketing section of your business plan, you will need a section focusing on the product or services your business offers. This is more than a simple description of your product or services, though. You will also need to include:
• The specific benefits your product or service offers customers
• The specific needs of the market, and how your product will meet them
• The advantages your product has over your competitors
• Any copyright, trade secret, or patent information pertaining to your product
• Where any new products or services are in the research and development process
• Current industry research that you could use in the development of products and services
Funding Request
Only once you have described your business from head to toe are you ready to detail your funding needs. This section should include everything a bank or investor needs in order to understand what type of funding you want:
• How much money you need now
• How much money you think you will need over the next five years
• How the money you borrow will be used
• How long you will need funding
• What type of funding you want (i.e. loans, investors, etc.)
• Any other terms you want the funding arrangement to include
Financials
The financials section in your business plan supports your request for outside funding. This section provides an analysis of your company’s prospective financial success. The section also details your company’s financial track record for the past three to five years, unless you are seeking financing for a startup business.
The financials section should include:
• Company income statements for prior years
• Balance sheets for prior years
• Cash flow statements for prior years
• Forecasted company income statements
• Forecasted balance sheets
• Forecasted cash flow statements
• Projections for the next five years – every month or quarter for the first year, with longer intervals for the remaining years
• Collateral you can use to secure a loan
The financials section is a great place to include visuals such as graphs, particularly if you predict a positive trend in your projected financials. A graph allows the reader to quickly take in this information, and may do a better job of encouraging a bank or investor to finance your business. However, be sure that the amount of financing you are requesting is in keeping with your projected financials – no matter how impressive your projections are, if you are asking for more money than is warranted, no bank or investor will give it to you.
Appendices
The appendix is the final section in your business plan. Essentially, this is where you put all of the information that doesn’t fit in the other eight sections, but that someone – particularly a bank or investor – might need to see.
For instance, the market analysis section of your business plan may list the results of market studies you have done as part of your market research. Rather than listing the details of the studies in that section, where they will appear cumbersome and detract from the flow of your business plan, you can provide this information in an appendix.
Other information that should be relegated to an appendix includes:
• Credit histories for both you and your business
• Letters of reference
• References that have bearing on your company and your product or service, such as magazines or books on the topic
• Company licenses and patents
• Copies of contracts, leases, and other legal documents
• Resumes of your top managers
• Names of business consultants, such as your accountant and attorney
Writing a Successful Business Plan
Despite the quantity of information contained in your business plan, it should be laid out in a format that is easy to read. Just like with any piece of business writing, it is important to craft your business plan with your intended audience in mind – and the bankers, investors, and other busy professionals who will read your business plan almost certainly won’t have time to read a tedious document with long-winded paragraphs and large blocks of text.
Business plans for startup companies and company expansions are typically between twenty to forty pages long, but formatting actually accounts for a lot of this length. A strong business plan uses bullet points throughout to break up long sections and highlight its main points. Visuals such as tables and charts are also used to quickly relay specific information, such as trends in sales and other financial information. These techniques ensure that the reader can skim the business plan quickly and efficiently.
Think of your audience as only having fifteen minutes to spend on each business plan that comes across their desks. In that fifteen minutes, you not only have to relay your most important points, but also convince the reader that your business venture merits a financial investment. Your best bet is a well-researched business plan, with an organized, easy-to-read format and clear, confident prose.
About The Author
Jason Kay is a former professional business plan writer and provides business start up advice. He contributes to business magazines and websites such as http://BudgetBusinessPlans.com, which provides business plan writing services and business plan samples.
Source: ArticleCity.com
The Importance of Taking Your Marketing Campaign Online
Radio, news paper ads, TV commercials, bill boards, flyers, sponsoring a popular activity, etc. are all ways to advertise a business off-line and they can be very effective but they lack something important, the fact that you are not able to create a marketing campaign highly targeted to your potential clients. Yes, TV ads may cater to a certain demographic but the person watching your commercial may not be the one best suited to act upon your ad, not to mention that TV ads can be quite expensive and probably not the best way to get a good Return on Investment, especially if they are aired at the time an important Show or event is happening.
Radio advertisement is very similar to TV advertisement with the difference that you obviously see no pictures and that the pricing also increases as your ad is transmitted during a popular talk show or radio program. The costs associated with radio advertising are not as high as TV advertising but they are still substantial. Radio advertising also gives you a chance to a different type of audience.
If you take the billboard and sponsoring routes the costs are not going to decline, on the contrary your costs as advertiser and sponsor go way up and you may still not be advertising to the right demographic or person so what do you do in this day and age to get effective advertising that actually translates into sales?
Enter the Web
According to recent studies nearly one billion people will have internet access worldwide this year and out of that billion 250 million will be paying for high speed internet access, now does that sound like numbers you could use in your favor? They sure do! The more people use a specific medium the better your chances are to reach your potential clients.
The web has made it easy for people to find the information they need and to communicate with one another and the same can be said about businesses which are not able to advertise their products and drive sales in cheaper, more targeted and effective way.
Yes, that?s the web for you but don't be fooled by all of this sweet talk, if you plan to advertise on the web you will need to hire people who know about marketing because creating a site is just 10% of what you will need to do to get people interested in your products or services. Search engine optimization and effective pay-per-click marketing is essential to get the clients you want so make sure to research those topics and create a team of professionals who will make you an internet success by providing you the right knowledge to excel in this modern medium.
The Auther: Gen Wright:To get all the UK marketing news and to find out more about online advertisement and web promotion make sure to visit our UK marketing forum where you can get great tips from fellow UK online business owners.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/international-marketing-articles/the-importance-of-taking-your-marketing-campaign-online-671611.html
Radio advertisement is very similar to TV advertisement with the difference that you obviously see no pictures and that the pricing also increases as your ad is transmitted during a popular talk show or radio program. The costs associated with radio advertising are not as high as TV advertising but they are still substantial. Radio advertising also gives you a chance to a different type of audience.
If you take the billboard and sponsoring routes the costs are not going to decline, on the contrary your costs as advertiser and sponsor go way up and you may still not be advertising to the right demographic or person so what do you do in this day and age to get effective advertising that actually translates into sales?
Enter the Web
According to recent studies nearly one billion people will have internet access worldwide this year and out of that billion 250 million will be paying for high speed internet access, now does that sound like numbers you could use in your favor? They sure do! The more people use a specific medium the better your chances are to reach your potential clients.
The web has made it easy for people to find the information they need and to communicate with one another and the same can be said about businesses which are not able to advertise their products and drive sales in cheaper, more targeted and effective way.
Yes, that?s the web for you but don't be fooled by all of this sweet talk, if you plan to advertise on the web you will need to hire people who know about marketing because creating a site is just 10% of what you will need to do to get people interested in your products or services. Search engine optimization and effective pay-per-click marketing is essential to get the clients you want so make sure to research those topics and create a team of professionals who will make you an internet success by providing you the right knowledge to excel in this modern medium.
The Auther: Gen Wright:To get all the UK marketing news and to find out more about online advertisement and web promotion make sure to visit our UK marketing forum where you can get great tips from fellow UK online business owners.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/international-marketing-articles/the-importance-of-taking-your-marketing-campaign-online-671611.html
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