• Long-term Growth Strategy and Support
• Small Business Strategy and Support
• Quality Control and Cost Savings
• Minimum commitment
• Quick-wins first
• Marketing and Sales Strategy and Support
• Online Strategy and Support
• Software and Technical Development and Support

CLARITY FOR YOUR VISION...

What's the point?

Seriously – what's the point of your business? Is it money for your kids' future, a new Ferrari, power, status, recognition, running a big company, helping people, changing the world?

Once you've come to terms with your real drivers you can start to look at what your business would look like to satisfy you. Maybe you'll need to open another office, sell a new range of products, export, import, learn some new skills. This is your...



Vision

It's imagining how your business could look to serve the life you really want, and once we've helped you get an idea of it, we can start on a...



Strategy

This will be your guide for how you'll achieve your vision.

QUICK-WINS FIRST

A grand strategy is great; in fact, it's probably the safest way to reach your objectives in business, but a five year plan might not help with this year's holiday or new car, or this month's mortgage and bills...

Online

Most people nowadays use the internet on a regular basis, and it's probably the least expensive and most effective way to advertise locally, regionally or even worldwide depending on your type of business! Some businesses need a great website, some can rely on twitter, some just have an eBay shop. Sometimes Facebook is best, sometimes LinkedIn, sometimes targeted forums.

Consider the impact of your prospective clients seeing a message about the quality of soopawidgets you supply on an Orange and White Facebook page and then go to your Blue and Yellow website to find out soopawidgets are out of stock, finally following a link to Twitter where you've tweeted that you don't rate soopawidgets any more as megawidgets are better...

A consistent message across a suitable combination of online services is what works best and that's where an online strategy is of massive benefit.

Adverts alongside Products/Services

Can you advertise within your product? What about including a leaflet for your other services with every megawidget you deliver? What about a new dropdown menu on your website or software product that upsells your other services and products?

This is a great way to sell more to people who you've already sold to and who are more likely to buy more from you!

Phone calls

Sometimes an old-fashioned phone call works wonders, but there are phone calls, and there are phone calls. We have a great deal with an incredible telemarketing/telesales company who will learn your products and services, research your market, work with us to create great scripts, make calls at the best times, generate leads and give you regular reports at prices significantly lower than you'd expect!



Find out more about how Conclusys can design, implement and support your online strategy, source prospective client lists, assist with in-product advertising, arrange and monitor telemarketing/telesales campaigns and much more – just email us at info@conclusys.co.uk for more information!

LONG-TERM STRATEGY

Once you've got an idea of what you want to achieve (your Vision) it's time to work out how you get there.

Whether or not you call it a Business Plan (or Business Planning seeing, as it works best when it's continuous) – it's basically your guide on how you believe you'll best achieve your objectives. There are so many variables it's unlikely you'll be able to follow it exactly, so as long as you cater for zigzagging towards your goals you increase your chances of success significantly more than by just letting your business run you.

Business plans have other benefits too – dealing with the bank if you need a loan, persuading other people to buy in, talking to bigger prospective clients who want to know you've got solid plans, getting endorsed by other businesses – and you're not restricted to one version – once you've got the gist of it you can have a “private" version to withhold your secret recipe for success, and one for everyone else!

MARKETING & SELLING

Without Marketing people wouldn't learn about your business, and without Selling it's unlikely you'd ever have a profitable business!

Marketing is broader than selling and takes place (often long-) beforehand. It covers everything about your market, your clients, and your brand. Marketing is about creating a relevant brand that satisfies specific market needs for your prospective clients, building product, service and brand awareness, influencing buying considerations, and ideally obtaining repeat customers and referrals!

Great marketing can multiply the results of your sales efforts. Here are some things to consider...

• Market Research (locally, nationally, internationally)
• Competitor Research
• Product and Service Pricing
• Appropriate Marketing Material
• A Digital Marketing/Social Media Strategy
• Design and Execution of a Marketing and Sales Campaign
• Telemarketing and Telesales
• A Product or Service Catalogue Website, and SEO so people find it!
• Product Placement
• Client Management
• Visits and Presentations

It should tie into your Vision and Strategy and it's a long list, but don't worry – this is where we can help! Email us at info@conclusys.co.uk to find out how we can help!

ONLINE

Websites

Most businesses find they're website is the go-to place for any prospective clients. Get it right and you can have your site at the top of relevant Google results and more leads than you could imagine, get it wrong and you're missing a trick. Nowadays you can build your own site for free and it might just do the job, but if you spend just a bit of time and money on it you can transform your business's image.

Social Media

We all know the main three: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter but there are many more out there that could be relevant to your business.

Need convincing? Check out this 3 minute YouTube video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxpa4dNVd3c&sns=tw

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the process of affecting the ranking of a website or single web page for a search engine's “natural" (i.e. non-advertising) search results. In general, the higher up the list your site and more frequently it appears in the results list, the more visitors you'll get.

It's seen as quite a mysterious art, but in reality it's typically started with a combination of choosing relevant target search engines (e.g. picture search, video search, news, local search, academic search, industry-specific etc.) and then identifying and using the keywords and search terms that your target prospective clients would use. After that your website's ranking can be improved by “embedded" certain things behind the scenes, having other websites point back to yours, removing certain barriers that would stop a search engine ranking you well and various other tactics.

You can pay £1,000s a month for high-quality SEO, and the best methods vary over time but there are some tried and tested quick-wins you can be smart about!



Drop us an email at info@conclusys.co.uk and find out how we can help!

OPERATIONS

We class “Operations" as all the parts of your business that happen behind the scenes. The bits your clients don't see. The accounts, the banking, the legal stuff, the business planning, the supplier negotiations and agreements, the way you mix A, B and C to make the D that you use to do the best job they've ever seen.

It's often what gives you an edge over other businesses doing something similar. If you can source your materials cheaper, deliver your service more efficiently or get a better deal from a supplier then you can undercut and over-deliver in comparison.

See our page on Quality Control for some reasons about why getting it right could be the difference between failure and success!

Or, even better – email us at info@conclusys.co.uk to arrange a chat and find out how we can help your business grow!

SOFTWARE AND TECHNICAL

Nowadays there aren't many businesses that can't run without some form of technology. Here's just a selection of some of the software development and technical services we can offer you as part of or independently of our Business Strategy services...

Technical/Development
• Migration from old desktop programs to modern, cloud-based desktop programs
• Functional Websites
• Web-scraping (subject to legal compliance)
• Desktop Apps Development with a Server or Cloud Database
• Desktop Apps Maintenance in VB6, VB.Net
• SQL Server, SQL Azure
• Microsoft Excel (including Macros)
• Microsoft Access
• VBA Macros in Excel and Word, e.g. for process automation

Software setup and assistance

We offer set up and support for a wide range of systems, including but not limited to:
• Odoo (ERP)
• Sage ACT!
• WordPress
• SmartDraw
• Microsoft Office (inc. Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio)
• Advanced VBA for Microsoft Office to extend Word, Excel and Access
• Microsoft Word/Excel Forms (as a front-end to VBA)

QUALITY CONTROL

There can be lot of complexity involved in the Operational side of your business (i.e. the things your clients don't see), but even when there's not, an understanding of processes and Quality Control can transform your profitability and enable quicker and safer growth.

There are lots of reasons for having a handle on some form of Quality Control, whether it's simply refining and defining how you work or going all out to achieve ISO 9001.

Reduced costs

If you can get your monthly costs from £1,000 down to £500 a month then that's £500 more you're guaranteed to make each month thereafter.

Reduced risks

If you employ someone who learns the job too well, it can be very costly if they decide to leave. Defining how to do jobs means new people can get up to speed far quicker, saving not just your time but money as well!

Prime examples...

Whether you like their food or not, consider how McDonald's works.

Consistency isn't an issue. Whether it's McDonald's in Turkey, Texas or Essex you expect the same food, the same service. They have processes that run the business. They've removed as many risks as possible and solved problems so each branch follows the system.

Staff turnover isn't an issue. They don't recruit the most skilled people they can, they design their systems so that the least skilled people can do the job. They're not necessarily unskilled, but McDonald's don't rely on them having any specialist skills – if two people decide to leave on the same day they recruit more.

Do systems always apply?

You or your staff might need to be creative. Designers, decorators, painters, gardeners, musicians, actors – even Business Support and Growth companies (ahem...). That's okay – they can still follow guides and processes as those processes support their creativity!

How do I save money and reduce my risks?

Other than the general principles above, it varies from business to business. Email us at info@conclusys.co.uk and find out how we can help!

TRAINING

You or your staff might need some new skills if your business is to grow. We are proud to be associated with excellent training providers, who can offer many workshops/courses, such as:

Legal
HR
Microsoft Office Desktop and Microsoft Office 365
Sage
Adobe
Leadership and Management
Soft skills (such as Networking and Relationship Management)
Principals of Selling & Creating Winning Sales
Getting More Done in Less Time
Delegation
Presentation skills
Communication skills
Customer care