Many business owners seem to think that they will get an average,
or “their fair share of business” in a local area.

Relying on this alone does not make sense.

In a recent NRG business networking seminar I attended,
the presenter was Chris Bose of Inpress PR.
He spoke about the operation of Power Laws with Internet Traffic.
Whether on the Internet as a whole or in specific niches,
the dominant players get nearly all the traffic.

So in business it pays to define a niche and then dominate that niche.
Not to rely on the law of averages.

I attended a seminar a couple of weeks ago at the Reading NRG Business Networking Group. It was presented by Phil Parr of the branding agency, twentyfive, on the subject of business to business branding.

One of the points he made was about the importance of constantly measuring the results of your branding activities.  He also stressed that the key to measurement is that it tracks the effectiveness of activities and does not become an end in itself. He quoted an old proverb to illustrate the point.

“you can’t fatten a pig by weighing it”

He is absolutely right about the common sense of measuring, and also right to warn about the dangers of becoming obsessed with that alone. I am sure can all think of business & government examples of the latter.

In my business networking blog entry, Reputation, Friends & Generosity, I mentioned a seminar presented by Nancy Williams of Tiger Two on online reputation management.
The last of her 13 top tips was about good old fashioned customer service. Getting back to the past as she put it.

It makes common sense for any business to practice the things she highlighted:
1. Listen to your customers
2. Provide the best value you can
3. Go the extra mile
4. Maintain flexibility & innovation
5. Focus on the people who matter
6. Give help & advice when needed
7. Develop a reputation
It helps you with that good old fashioned ‘Word of Mouth’

Great post from The Engaging Brand Blog with Anna Farmery. Business is essentially simple, but we tend to make it very complex.

She wrote her Dad used to say to her:

“Anna, business is not complex, people make it complex but business is just based on simple common sense. What is complex about these principles….”

Read the 6 principles at 6 Common Sense Principles for Business

If you provide your network with opportunies and support then in turn it should bring you great opportunities and support. To understand how to build netorking relationships there is a free download of “The 7 secrets of effective business networking” at the NRG Business Networking Website.

I co-authored this as a result of experience and some research that we did at NRG-Networks.

The following is a visual representation of the model:

I developed cs4b™ ‘Common Sense For Business’ a few years ago to help business owners with business development so they can get on with what they enjoy, get better organised and find the right focus to become more successful and put the processes in place to:
- win better customers
- build better relationships with existing customers
- operate more efficiently
- maximise margins and profitability
- be investor ready

This blog will focus on common sense approaches to these areas.