All businesses need to raise awareness of their products, but how this is achieved depends on the type of business you have, as well as how it is launched. Target Audience With any product or service launch, it is important to get the right message to prospective customers. You must convey to your target audience that your proposition meets a need or want that is currently unmet, or that it is better than what they currently have. It is essential to understand your target audience because you may find that the language, channels, and information you use to communicate with and appeal to one demographic is ineffective with another. By clearly defining your target audience, you can direct your marketing efforts, create more consistency in your messaging, and connect with your audience authentically. This allows you to mentally strike the audience, as they get hooked from the ad that completely appeals to them. But how do they see this in the first place? Social Media The more interesting the product or service, the more likely you are to gain genuine public interest, however not all products are original, some are simply successful as they exist as an upgrade to the competition. So how do we market this? Social Media is most likely your best chance to success in gaining product awareness. Being able to share images, product designs, news and updates, and release topics with just a few clicks is an extreme technological advance to the available resources 20-30 years ago. This allows you to amass a large organic following, tell your followers when this new product will launch, what to expect from it, and really drag their attention to it, if done correctly. Of course, not all of this has to to be organic, all of the most popular socials do in fact utilize paid advertisements. So once you've decided your target market, you build your marketing around this (while matching your brand guidelines). Grab your teams best ideas, designs, and concepts, and get that advert to be as pretty as possible to the people you're looking to reach, we recommend divulging into a professional marketing team to help you achieve this, (which, SME CofE does offer as a supreme packaged service) as this will be the pinnacle attention grabber from random potential customers. Using the paid ad feature allows you to reach a mass previously unavailable, and at a significant lower cost than that of a TV ad. Of course social media doesn't just allow for product promotion, but you can keep your brand image and reputation at a high level with directed posts and PR management. For example, meat stick company Slim Jim has a fantastic social media presence and a fantastic PR based community on Instagram, which has grown drastically in the last couple years, going from 5k followers to a current (as of May 2022) 1.4 Million, which has no doubt driven Slim Jim sales up exponentially. The average age range using Instagram is 30.1% 18-24 year olds, and 31.5% 25-34 year olds. Knowing this, Slim Jim converted their page to fit a more comedic meme-based community, all while still promoting their product. This is exactly what drove them to be so successful so quickly, they took complete advantage over Instagram having an above 60% average younger aged audience, and directed their posts to be what would be attention grabbing to this audience - humour. And this is just on one social media - there are several, and the higher the growth on one platform, normally organically leads to a higher growth on the other platforms too - Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat etc. Other uses of Social Media: Further points of using social media to get your product awareness out there, is the fact of how easy it is to manipulate what the viewers can see of the product. For example, releasing a new soft drink product against a plain white background wont attract anyone's attention, but a green screen effect or an animation including it is certainly more attractive to look at and more importantly - talk about. Through spread of mouth, shares online, and paid ads, the product awareness possibilities are endless when utilised correctly. However, we realise not everyone is a social media wiz, so here at The SME Centre Of Excellence, we offer a fantastic result driven marketing package, covering all organic growth needs, your social media brand image, and even your website design, as well as offline marketing strategies, all of which would be fantastic to boost the growth of your product awareness. To view this package, click here. Or, to find out more over the phone, contact the SME Centre of Excellence here.

Over 30 years ago, psychologist Dr Carol Dweck coined the idea of a Growth Mindset. A growth mindset is a belief that, if you’re not as good at something as you would like, you can work to improve. She tells a story of hearing about a high school in Chicago where students would get a ‘Not Yet’ grade instead of a failing grade. “And I thought that was fantastic,” she said, “because if you get a failing grade, you think, I’m nothing, I’m nowhere. But if you get the grade ‘Not Yet’, you understand that you’re on a learning curve. It gives you a path into the future.” She found that students that were taught to have a growth mindset were much more likely to improve their grades than students that had not been taught the growth mindset. But the Growth Mindset is not only applicable to school children. Entrepreneurs constantly have to learn and teach themselves new skills and succeed. For example, did you know that Walt Disney’s first film studio closed down due to bankruptcy barely a year after he first started it? Similarly, Bill Gates applied his knowledge from a failed first computer business to build Microsoft. Another example is an entrepreneur learning how to navigate a new financial records system or a CRM software. Understanding that failure does not mean the end, but is instead a learning experience is key to finding success as an entrepreneur. The growth mindset means the belief that we can continuously develop and build up our skillset, so how can you start to develop a growth mindset? One easy way is to give and ask for feedback: once you understand where you have the potential to do better, you can begin to create strategies for how to improve. Another easy way is the set yourself some SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely) goals that stretch you and get you out of your comfort zone, then begin planning how you can achieve them. As a leader, you can also promote a growth mindset among your team by encouraging continuous learning and providing opportunities for your team to improve or learn new things.

The elevator pitch is a short description of your company. This pitch should last as long as an elevator ride, which is between 15 seconds and a couple of minutes. However, on most occasions, your elevator pitch shouldn’t be longer than 30 seconds.​ Delivering an effective elevator pitch has become increasingly important among start-up founders as VCs and angel investors get bombarded with start-up pitches. The idea is that, once you have identified your target (an investor), you get his or her attention in as little as 30 seconds.​ To craft a good elevator pitch, you should take the following things into consideration: ​ Define the goal of your pitch – What do you want to get out of this? Is it a meeting? An opinion? Think about this before crafting your message.​ Explain briefly but clearly what you do – Can you be concise and still express the core idea of your start-up?​ What is your value proposition? Communicate your USP – Are you able to identify one or two key differentiators for your start-up?​ Engage the listener with one good question – What is the next step after you pitched your idea? Ask for it!​ When To Use It? This could follow your “Twitter Pitch” or can be used when you know that the listener is open for pitches. I personally recommend not going on for 30 (or even worse 60) seconds when you first meet someone, especially at an event. An alternative, if you feel like the twitter punchline is not enough, is to think about a 15-second elevator pitch​. The framework for elevator pitches to help you get to the point quickly while still clearly communicating key information to the listener is:​ For (customers) that have (a problem) we provide (a solution).​ Here’s an example from Pana, a Techstars company:​ For hiring managers that don’t want to spend time booking or reimbursing travel, Pana is a chat-based travel concierge that allows candidates to book travel without the hassle of reimbursement or scheduling.​ There are a few things to notice from Pana’s pitch:​ They use everyday language - no jargon.​ It’s one sentence.​ If you time how long it takes to read aloud, it’s roughly 10 seconds.​ End your pitch with what you want from your audience, anything from investment, a purchase, advice or a useful contact.

OKR stands for ‘Objectives and Key Results’ and is a way of defining goals and measuring progress and success as you set out to achieve them. The way it works is you set an Objective and then define the key results that will mean that you have reached your objective. A very simple example: Objective – to learn more about OKRs Key Results – read at least one article on OKRs As you can see, the Objective is more of a high-level goal while the Key Results break it down into smaller, measurable goals. A Better Example: Objective – Increase customer satisfaction Key Results – Achieve Net Promoter score of 4 or above; Resolve all complaints within 48 hours; Reduce customer churn rate by 30% It is important to remember that the Key Results are not specific tasks that need to be completed, but rather the way you measure the success of your objective. Tasks should instead be designed to fulfil the key results. Measuring success: OKRs can also be used to provide a figure on how successfully you are completing them. As each OKR is reviewed, score the key results from 0.0-1.0 based on your success in achieving them. Regularly scoring either 0.0 or 1.0 might mean that you have to rethink the way you set your OKRs. They might be too ambitious, or not ambitious enough. To ensure that key results can be scored accurately, they need to have some way to measure success included when they are set. Clearly defined goals make it easier to track long-term improvements. Using OKRs OKRs can be used if you are the only person working in your business, or if you have a team of thousands. The important thing is to ensure that everyone shares the same language and overarching goals. You might want to have one or two OKRs that describe your company’s vision while setting (or letting your employees set) more specific ones that impact day-to-day tasks. One company that successfully uses OKRs is Google. Each employee is encouraged to set their own “stretch goals” – goals that are just beyond being achievable. Google defines success in achieving these as consistently scoring 0.6-0.7. Every OKR is made public so that the whole organisation can see what each employee is working towards. You can find out more about Google’s approach to OKRs here.

Do you have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal? A Big Hairy Audacious Goal (or BHAG) is a term that was created by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. A BHAG is a long-term goal, usually 10-25 years, that is inspired by your organisation’s values and purpose and, in turn, inspires your shorter-term plans. Your 90 day, one year and 5 year targets should be steps on the journey to achieving your BHAG. An example is one that Microsoft founder Bill Gates shared: “When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have. We talked about a computer on every desk and in every home." It is your vision for the future that will serve as the roadmap for all the changes that you seek to make. How do you define your BHAG? First, don’t choose something that you think you will accomplish easily. SpaceX’s BHAG is to ‘Enable human exploration and settlement of Mars’. Microsoft’s dream of a computer on every desk and in every home might seem relatively straight forward now, but when it was created, it presented a seemingly impossible goal. Secondly, pick something that you, your executive team and your employees are passionate about so that everyone can feel encouraged to work towards it. Finally, make it simple to understand and communicate. How can new employees or customers get on board with your vision if they can’t understand what you’re working towards? Try to condense it to no more than a sentence so that it can be easily communicated. Here are some more examples: Walmart’s 1990s BHAG was to reach $125billion turnover by 2000. NASA’s goal in the twentieth century was to land a man on the moon by 1970. Nike’s BHAG in the 1960s was simply: “Crush Adidas”. Once you’ve chosen your BHAG, commit to it and start working towards it!

We’ve all seen the movies where the main characters are trying to pull off an elaborate heist. To make sure it works, they all gather around the blueprints (and maybe a 3D model) of the building where the jewel, or safe, or secret document, is kept so that they can prepare for every eventuality. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but films always need some kind of drama. In real life, you want to cut out as much drama as possible, especially when starting your business. You need to plan carefully and follow it up with a successful heist! A business model is a blueprint for how your business functions. It shows you every angle and allows you to examine the potential weaknesses and strengths of your business, as well as innovate and take advantage of market gaps. Like a blueprint, your business model should show the essential building blocks of your business. For example, who will your customers be? What is your value proposition, that is, what are you offering to customers that they can’t get elsewhere? How will you make money? What resources will you need? Fill in each section accurately and in as much detail as possible to best assess your plan. Research your market and customers to help you. Once you have filled in all the necessary building blocks, you can then use them to assess three things: desirability (do people actually want it), feasibility (it is possible to do) and viability (will it make money) of your business. Your business model is validated if it can do all three! Once your business model is finalised, don’t put it away and never look at it again. Business models should be reviewed frequently to keep them up-to-date and relevant. Let’s take a famous example: Netflix. Over 200 million people are currently subscribed to Netflix worldwide and a large part of that is down to the company’s successful business model… and business remodelling. Did you know that Netflix actually launched in 1997? The original business model was an online DVD rental service which, in 2006, had grown to 5 million members. In 2007, though, Netflix began to introduce the model that we know today with a streaming service alongside DVD rentals. By 2012, they were making their own content and, by 2016, the now-exclusively-streaming service had launched in over 190 countries across the globe. As you can see, Netflix’s business model has changed significantly since its launch to take into account new market opportunities and current trends and technologies. (Netflix’s rival failed to adapt to changing environments and went bankrupt in 2010.) One of the tools you can use to help you create a business model is the Business Model Canvas. To find out more about this and how we can help you to start, survive and thrive, contact us at the SME Centre of Excellence.

Pausing and recollecting yourself is a fantastic thing to make a hobby out of. Losing control in the heat of the moment is a sure way to make mistakes or take unnecessary risks. Taking that moment to have a breather, relax, cool off and calmly progress forward or backward is a much safer, well thought out plan. But being amongst the hustle and bustle, working all day, personal problems etc, saying all this might be easier than it sounds. So, here is our list of ways to stop and think. Daydream – We know, this doesn’t sound the most productive, however daydreaming can be pretty useful when coming up with potential future procedures. Having your imagination be the only limitation, you can plan out what you would do in all of these scenarios. Ask your close ones – Parents tend to have many more years of knowledge and experience than us. Don’t be afraid of asking them for advice, chances are they’ll be able to help. It’s also free! Check your diary – Scour through your upcoming plans. You might have to cut out on some social events to devote time to your business, are you prepared for this sacrifice? Give it some thought. Ditch the phone – Phones are a huge distraction in daily life. Switch it off for a bit, and use the freedom to focus on thinking ahead. This is the ideal time to start daydreaming. You might be surprised what your mind comes up with. Go for a walk – Early morning walks can test your fortitude, commitment, and willingness to get out of bed and get the day started. On a walk, you have plenty of time to yourself to think of your future, make the most of this. Breathing exercises – Controlling your breathing can be a great way to free your mind of current stresses, so you can use this free-thinking space to analyse your situation properly. Next time you’re about to make a rash decision, try box-breathing (or any other exercise), and then approach the decision again.

Innovative research company, FibroFind Ltd, have appointed leading business man Ammar Mirza CBE as their new Non-Executive Director to help their ambitious growth plans. FibroFind is leading innovation in the research of medicines to treat fibrosis in chronic disease. Led by a team of world experts with a combined total of 100 years of experience between them, they are currently in the early stages of ambitious plans to scale their operations, nationally and internationally. Ammar is one of the North East’s most influential entrepreneurs. An angel investor and businessman in his own right, he has used his skills and experience to support thousands of businesses, not least through the SME Centre of Excellence, of which he is Executive Chair. “I am honoured and proud to be joining FibroFind as their new Non-Executive Director,” Ammar says. “It is a company with an exciting future and growth plans. I have had significant experience within the Health and Life Sciences sector and I hope to bring my experience to aid FibroFind as they grow. I look forward to working with the leadership team and wider network at FibroFind to support them going forward.” As well as significant experience leading and advising scaling businesses, leading a number of private and public sector organisations, Ammar supports the creation and implementation of the Life Science Innovation Pathway working with the Academic Health Science Network for North East and Cumbria and NHS, alongside chairing the Business Growth Board of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership. “We are excited to have Ammar on board,” Professor Jelena Mann, FibroFind CEO, says. “We know that he has some extremely valuable insights to offer us as we begin scaling FibroFind further. Ammar’s experience and knowledge make him the perfect choice to join us as Non-Executive Director and we are looking forward to our future collaboration.” FibroFind is a rapidly developing Newcastle-based biomedical sciences company that was spun out in 2019 from research carried out by its founding scientists and directors (Professors Mann, Mann, Oakley and Dr Borthwick) at Newcastle University. The science focus for the company is a disease process called ‘fibrosis’ which results from infections or injuries to internal organs of the human body and which underlies up to 45% of all deaths in the developed world. FibroFind has a deep understanding of the biology of fibrosis and has employed this knowledge to design bespoke biological assays with human tissues that can determine if a novel drug is able to prevent fibrosis and halt disease. At present, there are only two medicines approved for the treatment fibrosis and they are only licensed for use in a rare form of lung disease. As such, the hunt for anti-fibrotic medicines is intense and has become a multi-billion-pound industry. The business focus for FibroFind is their proprietary human fibrosis bioassays that provide a pre-clinical service for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing medicines that target fibrosis. This business model has proved to be highly valued by its growing client base which currently stands at 89 companies based in the USA, Asia and Europe, comprised of prestigious, major blue-chip global pharmaceutical companies. Despite only beginning trading just over 2.5 years ago, FibroFind has already been directly responsible for new medicines entering into ongoing clinical trials, this providing direct benefit to society through advancement of human health. FibroFind is now entering its next phase of business development which includes expanding its service operations into Asia, with new laboratories currently being set up in Istanbul, Turkey.

Using stakeholder management, a business can understand: The most important stakeholders How the stakeholders connect What the various stakeholders contribute to the business What influence do stakeholders have on the business? Ways the business can act to benefit the stakeholders How it’s used To begin stakeholder management the business’ stakeholders must be identified. The different stakeholders are grouped based on how they relate to the business e.g. staff. Stakeholders carry different levels of importance so it is important to understand how they will each influence the decisions of the business. Consider: The power of the parties to influence decisions of the business The actions of stakeholders within the business If stakeholders score high on the above characteristics, they can be considered to have a high level of influence therefore their interests and concerns should always be considered by the business. You should also look at the relative position of stakeholders amongst other stakeholders: The current relationship of the stakeholder with the business The relationship of the stakeholder with other stakeholders The position of the stakeholder in the market that the business operates in The power of the stakeholders The core interests of the stakeholders The interest of each stakeholder or interested group should be considered, as well as the concerns of the direction that the business wants to go in. From there, you can decide which stakeholders will support the business and those that won’t. The supporters are known as movers and they will actively engage with the business. Those who are against the decisions are called blockers, and those who are not as supportive but are not against the business, are called floaters. For those with doubts, the business can explain how they will work to serve their doubts. With regards to the blockers, the business should inform them of how their plans aim to counter the threats perceived by the blockers.

You cannot start a business without taking risks. Choosing to launch your business is inherently a risk, there is no guarantee on success. But you shouldn’t do so without the mind set of being able to overcome any of these risks. To help with this, identify them in advance and have a plan set in place to fight them in manageable levels. Of course, you cannot predict every possible problem that can materialise, but the more you try to anticipate them, the easier plans to deflect them can be. Risks can come in a variety of forms: External Incidents: These are the more difficult to predict, but the probability of them occurring is lower than others, for example floods, fires, or pandemics. But even with a low chance of happening, these are disastrous events with great impact. So great, that you need contingency plans to deal with them. You should identify these risks as part of your market / industry analysis, as these risks will generically affect your whole industry, so think of how your competitors might react to gain an advantage over you in recovery. Internal Incidents: The range of risks in this category are varied depending on how your business operates, for example loss of supply, malfunctions with machinery, product contamination etc. Use scenario planning to find these risks when identifying your key activities. Based on the threats your organisation faces, you can explore scenarios about the results before they materialize, and find a possibility that makes life easier to move on from it. Possible Risks: Pre-launch delays – Are any of the pre-launch key activities likely to cause delays? Competitors – What are they Doing? Competitive advantage – Is it being eroded? Market – How is it changing? Customer value proposition – Is it being delivered? Product / service quality – Is it adequate? Customer service – Are they satisfied? Cash flow – Is it adequate? Sales – Are you meeting targets? Profits – Are you meeting targets? Operations – Are key activities under control? Productivity – Is it meeting targets? Administration – Are processes and procedures working well? Brand identity – Is it being established? IP – Is it secure? Technology – How are changes affecting you? Investment – Do you need more? Why? Stocks / inventory – Are they adequate or too much? Merchandising – Is it under control? Debtors / receivable – Are they under control? Interest rates – How will changes affect you? Exchange rates – How will changes affect you?

Selling to your current customer base is simpler and more cost-effective. According to HubSpot, you are 60-70% more likely to sell to an existing customer than a new prospect. In this guide, we are going to look at some of the ways you can encourage customer loyalty so that your current customers keep coming back for more. Brand Establishing your brand identity is the first on the list. If you want to achieve a relationship of loyalty with your customers, you need to have an identity. Having an identity will help your customers to recall the company they bought from in the past and quickly understand what they offer. Without a strong brand, your customers will easily put you to the back of their mind and forget about the incredible value that you offer. Take the time to ensure you have an identity and ensure it is consistent across all your communications. Value-driven marketing Rather than using your marketing communications to demand customers buy from you, start moving towards a value-driven marketing approach. This means that your marketing efforts will aim to add value to your customer's lives before they have even bought a product or service from you. This ‘value-driven approach’ is a great way to build a relationship with your customers and encourage them to stay loyal to your business. There is a collection of channels you can deliver value-driven marketing with the availability of websites, blogs, social media, email, Google and a physical presence. These are just a few examples of the mediums available to allow you to deliver value to your audience. Offering perks This is a very common strategy to encourage customer loyalty and is used widely across many different industries. The idea is for a business to develop a loyalty scheme that offers more customer perks or benefits as a customer continues to shop with that business. These perks can come in the form of discounts, vouchers or even limited access to exclusives that the business offers, which provides a customer with an incentive to keep coming back and continue shopping with that particular business. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) People like to buy from brands that make a difference. More than 60% of consumers stated that they would like to buy from brands that help them make a difference. Actions that positively impact the wider community can make your customers more loyal because consumers are now looking to make a difference themselves by shopping more wisely. If they can find a business that helps them achieve this, they will continue to buy from them. Not only will you be improving the world through thoughtful actions, but you will also be encouraging customers to stay with you. We're here to support you Business can become very isolating and facing challenges such as customer loyalty can soon overwhelm us. Our team is here to support you so that you don't have to work in isolation.

Disruptive innovation helps businesses to understand what they can do to avoid displacement brought on by extreme innovations. Most businesses are held back from growth when they aren’t able to take advantage of opportunities. On the other hand, a lot of disruptive innovations are not profitable at first which is another reason that prevents businesses from pursuing them as they can take away resources from other activities. Here are two types of disruptive innovation: ·Low-end disruption targets segments of the market that are willing to pay premiums. This is deemed as a good place to start for smaller businesses as the larger organisations will be paying less attention. If the business wishes to onboard customers who are willing to pay a higher price, further innovation is required. ·New market disruption targets customers who have needs that are currently not satisfied by the businesses already operating within the market. How to use it Disruptive innovation can be used to manage innovations that are potentially disruptive. This method varies slightly from research and development because of the scope it covers because it will look at the business model that the technology creates. Guidelines for fostering disruptive innovation by Bowyer and Christensen: -Is the innovation disruptive or sustaining? -What is the strategy behind disruptive innovation? -Where is the market for disruptive innovation? -Make sure the disruptive innovation remains independent and does not interfere with other activities