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Yearly Archives: 2021

What Is Your “Brand”?

As a small business owner, you might think that "branding" is all about big businesses. But that's probably because when you think of a company's brand, you think of its logo. In fact, a company's brand is a lot more than a logo. It is all about what your business stands for, and how you portray it to the world as you do business - buying, selling, hiring, growing. For example, Apple's "brand" is not just their logo or even their device designs. The Apple brand includes all that you feel as soon as you hear of the name - their designs aim to make tech look like art, they aim to simplify, to combine, they "think different", they make the release of new products art, you expect them to say "and one more thing" as made famous by Steve Jobs. When you think of "big businesses" and their brands, you will actually see that everything about their business aligns with the brand - the way they act in the market, how they appear to customers, their public values represented by the way they do business, their business model, the messages they give out in advertising and even the look and feel of their...
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Small Business Marketing – What and How

What is marketing if you own and operate a small business? Most people think it's all about advertising. It isn't - that's just one of your marketing channels. You could market to them using seminars or sales events. You could engage with them through direct mail or social media. The appropriate marketing channel depends on who they are, and what they want to hear. (more…)...
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Risk Management Planning – Identifying The Risks

How do you effectively identify the risks threatening your organisation so that you can plan to mitigate those risks and avoid disaster, or even a relatively minor incident that could derail your normal operations and take time, energy and money to correct? It is just common sense to avoid yet another bushfire if you can. Identifying the variety of risks that could mean significant delays, or worse, is part of Risk Management Planning. Risk Management Planning is the process of:
  • Identifying the risks that threaten your organisation,
  • Analysing what effects those risks could have on the organisation,
  • And then developing strategies to manage or mitigate those risks.
A Risk Management Plan is an important tool for your organisation and helps to support operational continuity when events threaten part of your operations, or even the whole organisation itself. While the risks – or even the types of risks – can vary from organisation to organisation or within an organisation from program to program, the process of preparing a Risk Management Plan is a logical step-by-step process that anyone can follow. (more…)...
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Get To Know Your Numbers

I always tell my small business clients that they can't afford to "leave the numbers to their accountants." Most people start their business to achieve a great goal, whether that be to serve their customers well, or to build a great product, or even just to do something they love while finding a way to enjoy life and spend time with family. So it's not surprising that small business owners with no formal training in accounting think that they can leave the numbers to their accountant. But you can't really, and this is why. (more…)...
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OTS Management