As an example… we’ve just had Easter bank holiday.  Traditionally this is a very busy weekend, with people spending money on tourist attractions, gardening, campervans, motorbikes, trips away and everything associated with that.  If you’re in a related industry, it would be worthwhile considering the promotions you’re running and how relevant they are to what people are buying right now.  If you can tie in with those trends, you could boost your profits.

This weekend, we travelled for two hours to look at a motorbike only to find that two minutes earlier it had been sold (at a discount) to a dealer.  Despite us calling about the bike that morning.  The bike was already the cheapest of its kind on the internet – It seems the seller hadn’t taken into account the effect of the bank holiday and the warm weather on bikers – they were out in force this weekend, spending their money.  But he lost at least £200 in net profit after he’d already offered the bike at the cheapest price anywhere in the country – and you know I never advise being the cheapest to start with; especially when timings are on your side.

Friday brings yet more opportunities for plenty of businesses.  Are you watching your timings?  If people are buying in force, are you opening longer / opening on days you wouldn’t usually open / running timely promotions / taking advantage of the fact people are spending??  The companies who are will be the first ones out of the recession.

From a marketing point of view, this wedding is fantastic news.  It will bring opportunities for many companies and it’s also put the country in the international spotlight.  Many papers and magazines have published the story and a large number have led with it – so the Americans are likely to be more excited than we are about the wedding.  Which is great news for our economy.

It’s also provided the media with some good news to share and this is a welcome relief to recession doom and gloom.  (It’s almost as if it was planned that way… conspiracy theorists unite!)

Companies are already manufacturing merchandise to mark the engagement and there will be more for the wedding itself.  Come on, admit the Charles and Diana memorabilia you have hiding at the back of your cupboard.  It’s sure to create a buzz and give people an excuse to spend some money.

The question is… is the Royal Wedding going to be an end to the recession in the UK.  I sincerely believe it will be – and the more of us believe that, the higher the chance it will put the recession behind us.

Bring on more good news… !

But what does it mean for your business?

Tesco posted profits of £3.17 billion for 2009, but for the vast majority of British businesses, profits will be well below that level and many have sustained heavy losses in the last year; in terms of redundancies and customer / supplier losses.  So what can most businesses look forward to?

Recent information from the Chartered Institute of Marketing has been looking at how customers have changed with the recession.  They give trends to look out for, as follows…

• People are still wary of spending.  In spite of some customers being better off due to falls in interest rates, they are still watching their cash.
• That said, credit card borrowing is rising again, as we find the credit habit hard to beat (despite the fact that living beyond our means helped create the recession).
• DIY and ‘Make Do & Mend’ Trends are still popular
  
• Consumers seem to be hunting for value for money – both Next and John Lewis recently posted rising sales figures, although some other high street retailers are struggling.  It seems people are buying fewer items, but looking for quality and items that will last.  The question is whether this will be a long-term change in buying habits.

With these trends high in the minds of many consumers, your business needs to review its sales messages, as the country starts to recover.  Are you selling what people want?  Are you giving people the best value for money that you can?

There will be plenty of opportunities – you just to ensure you position your business to take advantage…

Easter has become much more than simply chocolate eggs, with all the major retail chains now offering craft kits, Easter baskets and even Easter crackers.  These ranged in price from £1 to £4 and it’s a fantastic additional sale for many retailers.  (I spent an additional £2 and I don’t even have kids!)

The question is whether you could do the same thing with your products and services, for example:

• Special offers for the holidays – people will be out shopping and the RAC advise 22 million of us will be hitting the roads this weekend – will they be passing your business?
• Make the most of your signage – people are on the move, so ensure you can be seen
• Update your window – you should be changing your shop window every few weeks, but some Easter bunnies or an Easter Egg hunt could attract more people to linger
• Offer Easter eggs to customers – one hotel did this to excellent effect; leaving eggs outside the guest’s rooms on Easter Sunday – imagine their surprise.
• If you’re taking time off this Easter, make sure people can still reach you by diverting your calls and emails to your mobile – so you don’t miss any opportunities
• Create Easter-specific products.  One food manufacturer is selling cup-cake kits this year – could you do something similar to make the best of the Easter marketing opportunity?

Good luck with the ideas and HAPPY EASTER from all at Showing Off

The main points were:

• A cut in business rates, which means smaller businesses may have a little bit more cash available to invest.  This could provide opportunities for businesses who could help them reinvest that cash in future business growth.
• £94 billion in business loans from RBS and Lloyds; nearly half of which will be for smaller firms.  It’s hoped this might finally give easier access to funding once again, particularly for small businesses.  If your target customers have expansion plans, and you can assist in reinvestment for growth in order that they can pay back their loans, this measure could increase you target audience.
• £4bn in business support through ‘Finance for Growth’, which will streamline and improve government help for small businesses.  It wouldn’t surprise me if this is linked with public sector cuts, with some levels of ‘middle management’ stripped out.  This should hopefully make it easier for companies to know how and where to access advice and funding.
• An extra 15% of central government contracts would be awarded to SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises).  That could mean up to £15bn in new business across the public sector.  If your business is interested in this sector, it would be worth ensuring you’re linked into services such as tendering notifications and taking advantage of tendering training available.

It seems that Labour, like the Conservatives, know that the key to economic growth lies in small businesses – the 80% of companies who employ a handful of people, but keep the economy ticking over.  The parties all seem keen to offer support but, when that support is combined with the massive public sector cuts predicted, it’s likely to provide both opportunities and threats.

Our suggestion would be to get hold of some good advice to make sure you take advantage of the opportunities available in your industry.  They will be there…

According to the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (published for the first time on Friday),  nearly half of the total minutes spent on mobile internet were spent on Facebook Mobile; highlighting the social media trend too.

With an increase in smartphone ownership (now reckoned to be 20% of the British population) could this be an area your business might find opportunities?  For more details of the report’s contents, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/feb/08/facebook-rise-mobile-web-use.

We’re at the start of another marketing revolution, which is incredibly exciting – 3G mobile penetration in Western Europe rose from 17% in 2007 to 29% in 2009, and it’s forecast to reach a whopping 67% next year.  (Japan is already at 91% and Morgan Stanley estimates that $43 billion was made from the mobile internet in Japan in 2008.)

Of the 400 million active Facebook users (doubled since last summer), half log on in any given day; sharing 5 million pieces of content a week and uploading more than 3 billion photos each month.  On average, they spend more than 55 minutes a day on Facebook.  Those who access it via their mobiles are twice as active (For more, visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7028215.ece)

If you’re not excited yet, you should be!

This includes the following:

• Policies of the leading national parties
• Local policies of politicians in your area (whatever their party)
• Public sector changes in your target area
• Public opinion – which usually sways political opinion (when voiced by sufficient numbers of people)

For example… most people are predicting cuts in public sector spending in 2010 to make up for their increase in 2009 (which bolstered the economy).  The Conservatives have allegedly suggested they would abolish regional assemblies, such as the regional development agencies, which would save a significant amount of money – and would possibly be a vote-winner.

What impact would such a move have on your business?  And what opportunities might it present?

How could you position yourself now to take advantage?  For example…

• What contacts might you need to make
• Do you need to be on any tender lists?
• Do you know the local MPs and what their policies are?
• How might your target audience change with an election, in terms of what needs / problems they have?

Now’s the time to be positioning yourself and building relationships with the ‘right’ people – after the election will be too late.

This level of growth is competing with China for the accolade of the fastest-growing economy in the world.

The two countries combined account for 40% of the world’s population and are among just a handful of countries whose economies have continued to grow in spite of the global credit crunch.  Two years ago, China overtook the US as India’s largest trading partner and China is now emerging as the world’s largest consumer – passing the USA in many economic areas, for example 13 million new cars were sold in China last year, whilst only 10 million were sold in the USA.

It begs the question why we’re still learning French and German at school!  Perhaps your business needs to be more open-minded than that?

This week I read an article about Florida’s Hillsborough County Jail and the inmates who’ve created a ‘Jailhouse Fire’ hot-pepper sauce.  The sauce is made and sold by inmates at the minimum-security jail with peppers grown on-site.

Their strapline is “created with conviction” and they use sales messages such as ‘murder on the taste buds’.  Have a look at www.jailhousefire.org for more info – all proceeds support inmate programmes.

Their customers are primarily office workers, who pop into the shop for chocolate bars, snacks and cigarettes and they have a fairly consistent turnover from that market, but it’s only just covering the bills.  They have a sandwich shop next door and a restaurant on the other side; both of which also attract a lunch-time crowd.

The couple also have a block of 700 offices within yards of their door, in which no-one delivers sandwiches, coffee  or newspapers.  This untapped market could massively boost their profitabliity and negate the need to open at weekends (or could fund a member of staff to cover those late shifts.)

Often, as business owners, we only see the area that we control.  But, if we look outside and think more broadly about potential customers, we can find a huge amount of opportunities, right on our doorstep.  Why would you travel further?