www.ei.co.za» Entrepreneur Incubator: Providing Assurance to Business Owners

100 questions in 100 days – part 2

Bruce — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:00:57 +0000

With just 90 days to kick off we continue with our 100 day plan for your business with 100 questions to ask as a business owner, one for each day until 11 June. So here are the next 10, about marketing in your business.

Have you created a profile of your potential customer with as many adjectives as you can?
Do you know the places your customer frequents?
Do you know the associated services your customer uses?
What types of marketing material could you use to reach your customers?
How would you get this material into their hands at the right time?
What ways can you build and maintain good relationships with your customers?
How could you measure and manage your marketing?
How fast are you able to adapt to the changing market?
What campaigns have you used related to the World Cup?
What have you set in motion for post World Cup markets?

Get going with your answers, the next set in 10 days time.

Earth Hour 2010

Bruce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:49:00 +0000

Thursday’s Finance – what do you spend your money on?

Bruce — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:55:39 +0000

Each Thursday we will bring you a financial tip or article. Mostly supplied by our Wealth Coach and Financial Mentor, Clive Bydawell from 7 Year Wealth Plan. This week Clive’s message is short and plummets straight to the heart of the matter.

The best way to generate long term wealth is to continually focus your energy on buying appreciating assets with your hard earned income. Period.

Ok, time to go shopping!

Overdosed on coffee at Hostex Cape

Bruce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:25:48 +0000

Today we took some time off to visit the Hospitality Expo at the CTICC. We knew from experience that this is one expo to look forward to in terms of free snacks and give aways but this year we over did it just a tad. We walked away with not only some great new contacts for business and networking but also a huge snack and coffee overdose. At one stage I even got the shakes as the caffeine surged through my veins. Oh Yes!

Hostex Cape has become one of the best expos we attend (and we do a lot) The people behind the stands are trained in hospitality and service and actually enjoy being there and chatting to people. They are keen to give you free, engage you in conversation and let you play with the toys as they offer advice and coffee, did I mention coffee. I am willing to bet that the expo floor for these 3 days offer more coffee per square meter than other spot on the planet. I did feel sorry for the few who were there to sell coffee, much like selling water during a monsoon.

All in all a great experience and lots of new contacts to follow up with EI as well as for our members. And I got some free Lavazza coffee for our workshop tomorrow. May the buzz continue.

They are open until Wednesday evening so get down there if you can or diaries it for next year.

Tuesday Tips – Ping.fm app for iGoogle

Bruce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:53:35 +0000

I have been using Ping.fm now for a while to manage my social media broadcasts. Ping.fm allows me to send the same message to many different platforms from one single application. It is fast, easy to use and FREE. No up sells to get the full functionality or pesky little emails each week offering me more stuff for just $14 a month.

I like to be left alone and allowed to use an application for what it was marketed and designed for without all the up sells. Apps like Ecademy, FastPitch and SocialOomph are fast becoming huge pains in my life with all their marketing invasion into my inbox.

My tip for this week is simple. Ping.fm have added a function application that sits on your iGoogle page and allows me to ping from my browser home page. No hassle, no fuss, just ping and all my chosen platforms are updated. Give it a try. Convenience at its best and you know how I like convenience.