I spent a day with Doug Richard (Ex- Dragons Den) at the London Business School with his School for startups.
Here are some snippets of what Doug advocates for startups….
- Stop wasting money on Branding Campaigns – Doug advocates anything that is not a ‘Direct Response’ campaign is a waste of money for small businesses. Dont be fooled by ‘awareness campaigns’ or ‘ get the message across’ campaigns. Unless you are a large business with big budgets , stay away from costly branding exercises.
- Focus on No cost Marketing : There are several free resources available to any business owner, who chooses to work smartly. Really understanding who your customers are, will allow any business owner to turn up in front of them in the most cost effective way. Doug gives several examples of such marketing.
- Business Link and advisors : His views are very clear. If you are getting advice, get it from experts who have a proven track record. He questions the guidance from the so called ‘experts’ at business link.
- Use Social Media to maximise opportunities: Rather than stay away from social media, try to ask the question “how can I make use of social media (facebook, twitter, flickr etc…) to increase my bottom line?” Doug and his partners give various examples like Dell etc… on how they increased their bottom line by using ‘Twitter’. More importantly these tools are mostly free!
- Remarkable Business : If you dont have a remarkable product or service, then how do you turn your business in to a remarkable one? Various example are given on how a business owner should work at turning their business in to a remarkable one – Something worth talking about.
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