Small Businesses
Sage Customer Wins Blue Book Voucher
By Aisling White, Senior Marketing Specialist at Sage
We ran a competition throughout the month of March where every small to medium size business customer that purchased a Sage product was entered into a draw to win a €500 Blue Book voucher. Ireland’s Blue Book is a collection of Irish Country House Hotels, Manor Houses, Castles and restaurants from across the county.
La Bucca restaurant in Co. Meath won the prize when they purchased an upgrade to Sage 50 Accounts 2012.
Avril McArdle, Digital & Marketing Manager, Sage, Barry Murphy, Sales Manager, Sage and Amanda Francis, La Bucca Restaurant.
Posted under: Business Start-Up Advice From The Experts
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media and Content Specialist at Sage
‘How To Survive The First Two Years in Business’ was the topic of our thrid Facebook Lunch ‘n Learn on the 12th April 2012. Terence Bowden, Venture Manager at DCU Ryan Academy and Stephen Dillon Managing Director of The Corkage Group & Founder of Startups.ie joined us to answer questions on the topic and we also got great input from small business others that joined in the conversation on our Facebook wall. You can see all of the questions and answers by looking at our Facebook Timeline for the 12th April but here is an overview of the conversation and advice from Terence and Stephen.
- Stephen Dillon and Terence Bowden about to take part in the Sage Lunch ‘n Learn on April 12th 2012
How To Choose A Social Media Expert For Your Business
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
Many businesses large and small are looking for the help of social media consultants. As the industry is unregulated anyone can be a social media ‘expert’ so how does a business owner tell who is good and who is not so good, especially if they don’t know much about social media themselves. There really is no such thing as a social media expert just people that do social media well.
In his 2011 interview with TechCrunch TV, Gary Vaynerchuk said that “99.5 Percent Of Social Media Experts Are Clowns“ He talked about social media ‘experts’ that rave about Twitter Followers and Facebook Fan numbers without ever having a sales result. For me, results is one area that will definitely separate the good from the bad.
Results
Results won’t always mean direct sales, there are other results that your business can aim for when using social media, like brand exposure, obtaining and showcasing customer testimonials, PR, customer care, increased website traffic etc. Of course all of these things will lead to increased sales and yes sales themselves should also be another measurement of your social media activities. So when talking to the person that you are considering selecting as the social media expert for your business, ask them what results they have had when using social media in the past.
Are they measuring how many sales or conversions on their client’s websites are a result of social traffic? Can they show you how much PR coverage their other clients got as a result of social media activities? Can they show you an example of customer interaction via a social media channel that resulted in a positive outcome for the organisation they were helping? Do they even measure results? If they tell you these things can’t be measured then back away. If they only thing they measure is number of followers and likes then you don’t need them.
Interview With Entrepreneur Ron Immink
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
Ron Immink is a key individual in the Irish business community. He is a business development expert for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is board advisor to a number of start-ups, a fellow of the Institute of Commercial Management and on the panel of experts in entrepreneurship for the OECD and entrepreneur in residence of the Innovation Academy in University College Dublin. What better person to talk to about business and entrepreneurship in Ireland at the moment.
Hi Ron. You have your finger on the pulse of the Irish small business community, what is the general feeling about Ireland’s Economic Recovery among small businesses, do they feel we have turned a corner?
Yes and no. It really depends on whom you talk to. Retail is tough. Local services is though. Companies with modern business models with an international outlook are doing well. The companies with outdated concepts, focused on the local market are not doing that well. It is not only the recession, the company life cycles are getting shorter (average age of a company is 7 years), technology and global competition are making being and staying in business more and more difficult for everyone.
The good news is that the companies that are currently still standing have become lean and mean fighting machines that are capable of competing in any market. And they should.
Cash Is King And Don’t Ever Forget It
By Michael Byrne FCA, partner with DBASS Chartered Accountants
Ten Steps For Improving Cash-Flow In Your Business
In the last few years, access to credit for companies has all-but dried up. This makes the balancing act of cash-flow management an even more precarious task. The quarterly Credit Watch survey from ISME found that the average payment period for small and medium enterprises is currently 71 days.
40% of companies were waiting over three months for some payments, with 12% waiting over 120 days. Observe the following steps to help keep your cash-flow levels healthy.
1. Prepare Regular Cash-Flow Forecasts
This will give you breathing space and minimise unpleasant surprises. Prepare projections for the coming year and roll these forward each month. This will allow you to look at the next twelve months to assess when cash-flow difficulties may arise. Plan your outgoings accordingly to ensure you can keep your business afloat. Approach suppliers and banks in advance of a cash-flow shortage to work on a solution.
2. Get Your Customers On Direct Debit
Direct-debits can take the hassle out of making a payment. The bank will charge the account holder if sufficient funds aren’t available to make the direct debit. As a result, most people will give direct debits priority and make sure they have money in the account. Getting paid regularly on a specific date will help you prepare more accurate cash-flow forecasts.
Take Over Our Facebook Page!
Do you want to take over the Sage Facebook page? Well for one day, Friday 27th April, we are offering one business the chance to be featured on our Facebook page. We will change our Facebook Timeline cover photo to the cover photo of your business and publish a post from our Facebook page about your business and showcasing your cover photo. We are delighted to see how many other businesses like the Sage Facebook page. We want to share your business stories on our Facebook page and in this case, put you in the spotlight and showcase your business to our 4,000+ Facebook fans.
To enter just email your Facebook cover photo to social.media@sage.com before 5pm on Tuesday 24th April along with up to 200 words about why your image captures the essence of your business. We will pick the best one and the winner will have their cover photo featured on our page on Friday 27th April.
Here is the boring bit, the terms and conditions;
No Frontiers, The Important Details For Startups
By Tim McCarthy, McCarthy Accountants
As explained in a previous post about No Frontiers, Enterprise Ireland are offering financial support of up to €15,000 for entrepreneurs and early stage start-up companies who intend to create or develop an innovative and sustainable business (manufacturing, internationally traded service, or domestic service with potential to trade internationally). The New Frontiers Programme is aimed to assist entrepreneurs/ start-ups in developing their idea from a business proposition to a robust business plan.
McCarthy Accountants have been in touch with Enterprise Ireland and have got more details about this programme which we are sharing here and in the Linkedin Group New Frontiers.
The Programme is split into 3 Phases:
1. Phase 1 – Test the market potential of the business proposition (6/8 Weeks)
- This phase will consist of a series of Workshops, one two one sessions and master classes will be delivered over a 6 or 8 week period.
- Please note this phase is part-time and non-funded.
- Phase 1 is aimed at determining the business case (feasibility)
- Commencing in late March 2012
Accounting Software, Choosing The Right One For Your Business
By Laura Birchall, Business Advice Team at Sage
Choosing The Right Accounting Software For Your Business
Everyday new and established businesses look at their books and decide to get them under control. The simplest route is to buy an accounts and payroll package. When making this decision to invest in your business, focus on exactly what you need to have as opposed to what is nice to have. There are many software providers out there all too willing to take your cash when their products can’t manage basic accounting. As most business owners have never done this before, what sort of questions should you be asking when looking at accounting software?
Deadline Extended For Entry To Startup Awards 2012
By Aisling White, Senior Marketing Specialist at Sage
Due to popular demand the deadline for entries for the 2012 Startup Awards has been extended to Thursday April 12th. Entry to the Startup Awards is open to all sole traders, partnerships and companies operating in the Republic of Ireland that have been in business for three years or less and have 30 employees or less on March 1st 2012. There are 15 categories to be entered with a total prize fund valued at €50,000.
The closing date for entries is Thursday April 12th 2012 at 6pm. “We have had a fantastic response to the inaugural Startup Awards” said Stephen Dillon, founder of Startups.ie “The Awards are all about recognising young, exciting, entreprenurial Irish companies across all sectors of the economy. The Awards reward innovation, endeavour, and hard work and will shine a light on the best that Ireland has to offer.”
Sage is proud to be sponsoring the Product Start Up Of The Year category and Liam Mullaney, Chief Executive of Sage Ireland & Sage Technologies is one of the judges for the awards.
Social Media Q & A – What Our Experts Had To Say
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
Our Facebook community participated in our second live Facebook Lunch & Learn on 15th March. The theme of the chat was ‘Social Media For Small Business’ and we invited Amanda Webb from Spiderworking.com and Emma Kelly from Elevate PR to answer questions about social media for business. We had some questions submitted in advance via the Lunch ‘n Learn tab on our Facebook page that I was able to put to Amanda and Emma and I also offered up some advice myself. If you want to have a look at all of the questions and answers head over to our Facebook page and look in the timeline for posts on the 15th March. This was the first chat that we ran after switching our Facebook page over to the new Timeline layout for pages so at first it took a while to get used to but by the end of the chat we had decided that they new layout was better for live chats like this as all of the posts to our wall were gathered in one place over to the right of the page.
Here are some of the questions we discussed;
How often should you update your social media for it to be useful as a marketing tool?
The collective advice was that each social media channel is different and that you can update Twitter more often than Facebook. Because of the way Facebook works, not all of your Facebook fans will see all of your updates. You know your posting to Facebook too much or posting the wrong type of content if you start to loose fans when you update. Emma from Elevate PR advised keeping an eye on churn rate (this is the rate at which you are loosing Facebook fans) and what posts get the best reaction.
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