Do what you love, love what you do

The most successful small business owners enjoy a close relationship with marketing.

Your business is driven by love. Whatever you do, be it bookkeeping, beekeeping or beer brewing, it’s powered by your passion for that thing. Or, like the exstockbroker I recently spoke with, you’re driven by a love for helping others.

He’s just become selfemployed as a finance coach. Not because of his lust for cash, but because he’s inspired by helping people make the most of their money.

Unfortunately, in business, ‘all you need is love’ doesn’t cut it. Your devotion to your thing (books, bees, beer or whatever) won’t automatically attract customers.

Successful businesses marry their product with marketing. They form a partnership. Let’s be clear what marketing is. Marketing is everything to do with the relationship between your business and your customers.

Marketing means understanding what customers actually want. It means getting your prices right.

And it means providing the level of service they expect. Marketing also means letting potential customers know your product or service exists and explaining how it can help them. There are so many ways to do this: paid advertising, business networking, social media, flyers through front doors and many more. Business owners often tell me: “But I hate selling.”

Marketing isn’t selling. It’s about making sure your product or service is something that people want or need, and letting them know.

Marketing done well brings in people who are looking for what you have to offer. This takes pressure off needing to sell, because they’re already interested.

If you’re new to running a business, I recommend you spend time getting to know about marketing. Then marry what you learn with what you sell. Do this and you’ll have the best chance of enjoying a happily ever after.

Where to learn about marketing

There’s a massive amount of information about marketing available online, for free.

Websites like smallbusiness.co.uk, simplybusiness.co.uk and enterprise nation.com are good places to start. Or simply Google ‘marketing for small businesses’ and spend time reading what comes up. YouTube is also packed with marketing advice videos, as are Instagram and TikTok.

Copywriting tips for your business

Tips for your website, your flyers and your ads: Use the word ‘you’ much more than ‘we’, because it helps make the reader feel you’re talking to them. Describe the problems that you help to fix, before talking about the products or services you provide. Have a clear call to action. What do you want the reader to do next?

Ask someone you trust to read your words. Someone not afraid to tell you if it’s boring, irrelevant or unclear. Cut out unnecessary words. Shorter is almost always better.

Bluebird still going places

Bluebird Coaches in Weymouth will turn 100 years old next year, celebrating a century of taking freedom loving travellers on tours and trips across the country and Europe.

Frederick Cecil Hoare founded Bluebird Coaches in 1924 when the charabanc outing was becoming more and more popular. After finding a four-penny tin of Blue Bird Toffees, Bluebird Coaches was born and soon his company became synonymous with Portland and Weymouth as a wellrespected tour operator. Starting with a small Fiat charabanc, business was brisk and soon demanded that a Crossley and later a Ford were added to the fleet. Compared to the hitech, luxury coaches of today the vehicles of that period were very basic, but tours to such exotic destinations as Cheddar Caves and the New Forest were readily undertaken with a spirit of adventure. Over the decades, the coach holiday programme has grown, featuring holidays in the UK and abroad – all individually tailored rather than ‘massproduced’ packages and giving travellers a feeling of luxury in its high-end fleet.

Bluebirdcoaches.com

01305 782353

Bridal boutique set to open

Tracey Goodall’s luxury bridal boutique Brides of Dorset will be opening in Gillingham at the end of February.

“This has been my dream for 18 years,” she said who was putting the finishing touches on her new shop at Kingsmead Business Park, near to Orchards Garden Centre.

“Ever since I walked into a bridal shop with my sister Cheryl in Cardiff all those years ago, I have wanted to own my own bridal shop to give a relaxed, personal and luxurious experience to brides-to-be.”

With off-the-peg designer bridal gowns and dresses ranging in sizes from 8-30 and the made-to-measure collection from up-andcoming British designer, Louisa Jackson, it is little wonder Tracey is thrilled.

“I cater for brides of all sizes and with budgets ranging from £200 to £2,000. The stunning Louisa Jackson collection is made-to-measure, so every bride can look and feel gorgeous.”

Brides of Dorset

Kingsmead Business Park

Gillingham

SP8 5FB bridesofdorset.co.uk

Facebook and Instagram:

@bridesofdorset

Mediation is an effective way of resolving many different types of dispute without any need to go to court. It takes less time, costs less and is usually much less stressful than court proceedings. The Civil Mediation Council is a charity which aims to promote the resolution of conflicts and disputes by encouraging the use of mediation and other dispute resolution techniques and methods and to advance the education of the public in matters related to this. Mediation can take place on-site, in the participant’s homes (usually for boundary disputes and neighbour disputes), at Pharaoh Law’s offices in Dorchester or indeed anywhere that is appropriate depending on the nature of the dispute to be mediated. Once both participants consent to mediation, they will be asked to sign a Mediation Agreement before the mediation commences to ensure that all participants understand the process. Participants must confirm that the mediation discussions are to remain confidential. The participants will prepare and send to the mediator a note of their position together with relevant documents. The mediator will prepare by reading the papers carefully to understand the positions of the participants and the case before the mediation hearing begins. A legal representative, such as a solicitor, may attend the hearing with the participants. n Contact Lisa at Pharaoh Law, Solicitors, Dorchester Office.

Participants are given their own private ‘space’ to preserve confidentiality and so they can talk in private.

The mediator then shuttles between the parties during the mediation, asking questions of the participants about the dispute and exploring whether an agreement can be achieved. It may be that the participants will wish to discuss their issues altogether on a face-to-face basis but the consent of all participants concerned must be obtained and discussions will only take place in the presence of the mediator. The costs of the mediation are usually shared between the participants. Mediation is an empowering experience for those involved and allows the participants to craft their own resolution to their dispute without court intervention.

01305 819696 lisa@pharaohlaw.co.uk mediation@ pharaohlaw.co.uk