Month: July 2011

My top 10 free local activities and things to do

Following the massive popularity of my Bay Radio (102.8 FM) discussion on air today, here are my top 10, totally free things to do:

Corfe Castle Museum – Corfe

Southampton City Art Gallery – Southampton

Tolpuddle Martyrs – Dorchester

Russell Coates – Bournemouth

Red House Museum – Christchurch

The Waterfront Museum – Poole

Guided Fossil Hunting Walks – Charmouth

Swanage Regatta and Carnival 30th July to 6th August

Bournemouth Carnival Procession 7th August

Bournemouth Fireworks on Friday Nights starting 22nd July 8pm to 10.30pm

I hope you enjoy them and please let me know what you think

steve@bicknells.net

Is cashflow killing your business?

Many small businesses are suffering slower and slower customer payment as highlighted in this link

http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2011-07-12-small-business-late-payments_n.htm

Lack of cashflow is the main reason for business failure.

Bartercard can help because they can provide an interest fee credit facility to buy goods and services from their members, Bartercard have 4000 UK business members including solicitors and debt collectors (which can help collect your cash)

Contact me for more details steve.bicknell@uk.bartercard.net

How do you market your business?

Bartercard give a 100% guarantee of sales included as standard in their membership, what do they do to get those sales?

Did you know Bartercard promote your products and services in 17 ways?

Yes thats right, 17 ways and here they are:

1. Members Directory
2. On line Directory
3, E Auction
4. Account Managers (TCOs)
5. E Mail Campaigns
6. Mail shots
7. Fax Campaigns
8. Networking events
9. Trade Shows
10. International Hot Deals
11. Value Added Services
12. Moving Inventory
13. Last Minute Deals
14. The Barter Bulletin Magazine
15. Member Referrals
16. Offers to Supply
17. E Market Place

Thats why Bartercard confidentially guarantee that they will generate sales from their members for you, if you want to know more or want to link in my e mail is steve.bicknell@uk.bartercard.net

Whats the Return on Investment from Bartercard?

To join bartercard there is a “once only initial investment” so how can we quantify our return on investment?

Every business has had to make an investment in their business to get it started, for example a hairdresser would need to fit out her shop with fixtures, fittings and equipment, so in accounting terms how can we evaluate the investment that we make when we join bartercard?

1. Pay Back Period – how many years does it take to get back our initial investment in profits – for normal investments anything less than 3 years is considered good – because Bartercard specialise in selling spare capacity and as such only product replacement costs are relevant, its likely that the profit on each sale will be around 70% profit (as used in our hairdresser/accountant trading story) – as Bartercard guarantee to get more than the joining fee in sales in the first year, the payback period is likely to be less than 2 years – so thats an excellent return on investment

2. Average Rate of Return (ARR) – this method of appraisal takes the average of the profits made over say a 3 year period (or the life of an asset) and shows the result as a % of the initial investment I estimate a 70% ARR, obviously this will vary from business to business, but I am sure you will quickly be able to work out the return for your business

3. Net Present Value/Discounted Cash Flow – this method of appraisal takes into account the time value of returns, its often considered the best and most precise way to assess returns, to calculate the Net Present Value you create a cash flow table year 0, shows the investment as a cost, then the net profits are shown in the subsequent years and a factor is applied to remove the effect of inflation, the higher the NPV the better the investment

4. Internal Rate of Return – this is also described as the effectie interest rate, to calculate this we increase the Discount Rate in the DCF (3 above) until the NPV equals zero and that produces the return rate

If you need help doing this analysis for your business drop me an e mail

steve.bicknell@uk.bartercard.net

Increased Sales without discounting, guaranteed!

The reason most businesses join bartercard is to increase their sales. Isn’t that what everyone wants? it’s why we go networking, why we advertise and its generally the reason we went into business in the first place – because we thought we could earn more (by selling more) than working for someone else.

When you barter using bartercard you swap your services at their full value, there are many discount schemes now being promoted, they generally get you to heavily discount your product/service and charge you a fee on top. The theory being that the new clients who use the discount scheme will want to come back and pay full price, it could work, but I suspect many people just take the special offers.

Bartercard now have 75,000 worldwide members, so there are plenty of businesses to swap with and Bartercard give a guarantee that they will get sales for your business. So if you want more sales, why not give it a go?

steve@bicknells.net