Six Reasons You Have to Join a Mastermind

May 18, 2013 by 2 Comments

6MS.290

 

How can you get a fresh perspective and new ideas for your business with confidentiality assured?

The Answer: Join a Mastermind Group

 

This week I had the great pleasure and privilege to spend a day on the company of a diverse and stimulating group of business people led by Chris Ducker.

If you don’t know Chris, visit ChrisDucker.com and then go an subscribe to his podcast on iTunes.  Chris is a successful entrepreneur, blogger and Podcaster and, I am sure, by this time next year, New York Times best selling author (no pressure, Chris!).  Before we start, take a look at this short video in which Chris explains why he finds Mastermind Group so valuable.

 

I want to share with you my experience of the day and why I learned so much and am now hugely enthusiastic about Mastermind Groups.  Here are Six Reasons YOU have to join a Mastermind. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Video Tagged With: , ,

How to Identify A Small M&A Deal in the UK Technology Sector

May 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

6MS.289

I have been doing some thinking about how to screen for small M&A deals in the UK technology sector and have been working on creating a short list of potential targets.  I thought I would share some of this work with you to help you with your own acquisition searches.

My starting point was to create a database of the market I wanted to address and for this I turned to Companies House Data and have identified 1570 companies which are covered by the SIC code relating to Computer Services (including Software Development, Retail, Maintenance, Repairs, Training and Consultancy).  I restricted the companies to those with Revenues of £5m or less.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: M&A Tagged With: ,

Are You Strategic about Social Media?

April 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment

are you strategic about social media

This has been a busy week with a speaking engagement at Salisbury Big Business Event.  I would like to thank everyone involved for making it a great event and I really enjoyed meeting a wide range of business people, exhibitors and other speakers.

 

 

Karren Brady, an eminent British business woman and Deputy Chairman of West Ham Football club gave a very inspiring keynote on her experience as a woman in the business of Football.

In case you were unable to make the event, I would like to share with you my thoughts about Social Media Strategy and how to use Social Media Marketing to really engage with your customers.

My talk was entitled “How NOT to be the next Comet – Marketing in the Connected Economy“.  Comet was an electrical retail business in the UK which lost its connection with its customers and went bust.  It metamorphosed from being a retailer to being a high street show room for Amazon.

I have made a 12 minute video, embedded below, in which I have covered all the main points from my Presentation and below this you can download the slides which are on Slidedeck.

The full slide deck can be downloaded from Slideshare and is provided for you below.

Marketing in the Connected Economy from jbdcolley

Comments following the Presentation

Here are a few of the Tweets and Comments I received following the presentation:

“If you are looking for a superb strategist, tutor and social media expert, John would be a great asset to help make the most of your business. John is personable and a professional, I cannot reccomend him enough.” Eliot Jones, President, Salisbury Chamber of Commerce

@personnelplace Very welcome, thanks for yours! Really enjoyed today’s presentation at SBBE.

@futrsocial thank you very much for a extremely informative and engaging talk yesterday!

@personnelplace Morning John – many thanks again for yesterdays seminar – such useful advice that I will be putting into practice!

@tylrsguesthouse Good presentation today @SalisburyBBE Thanks to @jbdcolley

@puncturesafew Very stimulating and thought provoking presentation you gave this afternoon at BBE Salisbury

@simonwardphoto A great talk from @jbdcolley about ‘How Not To Be The Next Comet’

@eliotcjones Great to listen to @jbdcolley @SalisburyBBEcorporate strategist, blogger and social media specialist. Thank you John for your advice

@wiltshirehour @KenziaDigital @SalisburyBBE How remiss of me ! Apart from previous mentions, credit due to @jbdcolley for his sound advice.

Kenzia Digital Salisbury Presentation – 12 Ways to be more Effective with Social Media Marketing

Amanda Kennedy from Kenzia Digital, a fellow speaker at the event, has kindly given me permission to share her complementary presentation which covers 12 specific pieces of advice on how to be more effective in Social Media Marketing.  You can also find Amanda’s presentation on Slideshare here.

Salisbury Big Business Presentation from Kennedy PR

If you would like to know more about the Strategic use of Social Media for your marketing, why not get in touch with me to discuss how I might be able to help your business.

Why not sign up for my weekly VIP Newsletter to get exclusive content about Business Strategy and Marketing to help your business, including instant free Access to my Six Minute Strategy Review now.

 

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Filed Under: Engagement, Slideshare Tagged With: ,

Buy Side M&A – An Art or a Science?

April 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

6MS.287

 

Working on the Buyside in M&A can be like searching for a needle in a haystack, particularly if your responsibility is the  origination of the deal (often the most difficult).

I thought it would be helpful to share some of my thoughts and my approach to the problem.

I have been doing some buyside M&A preparation this week in the Technology Financial Services Sub-Sector and thought this would make a good case study.

Using the Six Minute Strategist Methodology, lets split this into Six Steps.

  1. Objective Setting
  2. Landscape Defining
  3. Screening
  4. Short Listing
  5. Refining
  6. Approaching

You will note this stops at the point at which the first discussions take place between the target company and myself and/or my client.

I have prepared a brief video for you to watch before you decide whether to read the blog post (of course, I hope you do!!!) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, M&A Tagged With:

6MS Episode 65 – Accelerating Growth with GrowthAccelerator

April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Listen to my latest phonecast

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Small Business Growth? Its Time to Accelerate!

March 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Small Business Growth - Its Time to Accelerate!

 

This week’s post is all about the GrowthAccelerator Programme which  English SMEs really cannot afford to ignore!

 

 

I recently attended a Seminar to learn about the programme and I have come away very enthusiastic about the Government/Private Enterprises Partnership.

Enthusiastic about a Government backed programme – that really is a FIRST for me!

Start by watching my introductory video…

What is GrowthAccelerator?

A simple question - Do you want to achieve 20% Growth Year on Year?

GrowthAccelerator is a programme designed to help your business become a high growth business.  Working with a nationwide group of experts, they create a unique programme tailored to the needs of your business.

Everything the programme does is focused on a single goal: Fast Growth!  This is why it requires a personalised approach and why the programme works with over 800 experts with a broad array of skills and experience.  Together, you can discover new insights into your business to enable you to accelerate your growth.

The objective of the programme is to double the size of your business in three years?

Are you up to that?

Are you ready to achieve your Business Ambition?

Are you ready to get a different perspective on your business?

Are you ready to focus on clear business objectives?

Does  your business Qualify?

It doesn’t matter what stage your business is at.

Can you answer “Yes” to these four questions?

  1. Are you determined to Grow?
  2. Is your Company registered in England at Companies House?
  3. Do you have less than 250 Employees?
  4. Do you have less than £40m Turnover

What does the Programme cover?

GrowthAccelerator focuses on four main areas:

  • Business Development (Coaching)
  • Access to Finance (Coaching)
  • Commercialisation of Innovation (Coaching)
  • Management and Leadership Development (Training – Matched Grants)

The Programme delivers a combination of one to one coaching and masterclasses.

In addition, there is the opportunity to get matched funding up to £2,000 per individual for Management and Leadership Development training.  This can involve anyone in your business in a senior managerial position and is not limited to Board Directors.

What if I don’t know what I need?

The GrowthAccelerator Programme focuses on 10 core business areas:

  • Business Strategy
  • Cash
  • Marketing and Sales
  • Leadership
  • Access to Finance
  • Innovation
  • People and Staff
  • Operations
  • Sustainability
  • Change Management

In the initial phase, Programme Managers work with you to establish what you and your business needs and then draws from the network of over 800 experts to match your business requirement with the right expert for you.

Business Development

The GrowthAccelerator Programme provides bespoke business development and coaching and support from specialist growth experts.

The benefits to your business include:

  • Developing a clear growth strategy aligned to your particular needs
  • One to One Coaching
  • Masterclasses
  • Support to ensure your growth plan is adopted and implemented
  • Tailored support to develop business capabilities

Focus areas include: sales, marketing, access to finance, innovation, operations, change management, recruitment and logistics.

Access to Finance

Getting access to finance is a critical area for growth companies and in todays market, can be harder than ever.

The programme helps you to ensure that your are properly organised and prepared when you seek finance and that you are made aware of the alternative forms and sources from which additional capital can be raised.

The Benefits include:

  • A comprehensive assessment of your business’ suitability and potential for raising finance
  • The development of the necessary building blocks required for attracting investment

One to One Coaching and Masterclasses to help your make your business “Funding Ready”

Commercialise Innovation

Innovation is a diverse and complex subject. If your business is developing new products and services are you creating scalable, repeatable process and systems to enable you to achieve the growth you are capable of?  Do you have a business model which ensures that your innovation leads to increases in sales and profits?

If you are making investment in innovation, are you taking the necessary steps to protect your intellectual property also known as “IP”?  This part of the GrowthAccellerator programme helps your business to build and maintain a culture of innovation.

The benefits to your business include:

  • Learning to commercialise ideas
  • Develop innovation strategies
  • Generate profitable IP
  • Leverage partnerships with financial organisations to source advice and funding for innovation projects

The programme provides one to one coaching and a series of masterclasses to help you commercialise your IP.

What does it cost?

GrowthAccelerator is a partnership between Private Enterprise and Government which means that the service is kept affordable.  With the Government investing with you in your business, the commercial cost is considerably reduced.  What you pay is directly in proportion to the size of your business.

  • 1-4 Employees = £600
  • 5-49 Employees = £1,500
  • 50-249 Employees = £3,000
  • In addition, a VAT charge of £700 is payable as HMRC attributes a value of £3,500 to the programme.  If you are registered for VAT you can obviously include this in your VAT returns.  If you are not VAT registered and you cannot claim it back you should view this as part of the cost of the programme.

How Can I Find Out More? GrowthAccelerator Challenge!

Find out if you could benefit from the GrowthAccelerator Programme.  Follow this link to select one of 10 Topics and see if you can answer “Yes” to all Six Questions. If you can’t then your Business might benefit from the GrowthAccelerator Programme and you should call me.

Take the Next Step…Take the GrowthAccelerator Six Question Challenge

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If you would like to speak with me directly, please call me on 07813 672 612 or email me john[at]jbdcolley[dot]com to arrange a time for a call.

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Filed Under: Business Strategy, Raising Capital, Six Strategic Steps Tagged With:

6MS Episode 64: Podcasting, Launch, Promotion and Syndication

March 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Listen to my latest phonecast

You can find all the notes and a transcript for this Podcast here.

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Filed Under: Podcasts

How to Podcast? Part 2: Launch, Promotion and Syndication Strategy

March 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

6MS.285

 

If you are producing a Podcast, are you reaching as wide an audience as possible?

This post is all about Launch, Promotion and Syndication for your Podcast!

 

 

Episode 64 – A Conversation with the Six Minute Strategist Podcast

Launching Your Podcast

For advice on a launch strategy, I can do no better than refer you to Chris Ducker’s excellent post on this.  It was reading this blog post that prompted me to look against my podcast statistics and to write this blog post and podcast episode (of course).

Chris explains the key steps to preparation and launch and gives some great tips on how to do well in iTunes, especially in the first eight weeks after launch.  One key point to note is that you cannot rank in the New and Noteworth section of iTunes until you have published three episodes – so definitely follow Chris’s advice to get your first three episodes out in the first week after launch.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With:

6MS Episode 63 Should You be Podcasting? 714,764 Reasons You Should

March 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Listen to my latest phonecast

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Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With:

How to Podcast? Part 1: Not Just How, But Also Why?

March 13, 2013 by 1 Comment

6MS.284

 

I have recently been reviewing my Social Media Strategy and have taken a look at my Podcast analytics.

 

 

 

Since launching my Podcast, A Conversation with The Six Minute Strategist in October 2011, I have recorded 62 episodes which have been downloaded a total of over 710,000 times!!!

To me that was a staggering surprise!  And my thanks to you all who have downloaded and listened to my Podcast.

Stitcher Radio

A quick announcement – I am very excited to tell you that my Podcast, A Conversation with The Six Minute Strategist – is now available on Stitcher Radio.  If you listen to Stitcher Radio please check out the Podcast there.

Introducing Podcasting

In these two episodes/posts, my intention is to help you to consider whether Podcasting is for you and whether you should make it part of your Online Marketing Strategy.  I was reading my friend, Chris Ducker’s blog and he explained how he launched his new Podcast The New Business Podcast – you can read the blog post here.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing, Podcasts Tagged With:
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