Brains of BusinessA collaborative business newsletter, focussing on practical and useful

information that benefits you and your business.

ISSN 1834-2728

Email Mangagement. Would you like to better manage your Inbox? Clare tells us what to look for to take control.

By Clare Fountain, Sorted Business Administration Services....................................................................Page 5

Microsoft Word, Mail Merge and Outlook. Would you like to know how to send out individualised and personalised emails to a group? In this edition, Julie shows us how.

By Julie Misson, Simply Access.................................................................................................................Page 3

K.I..S.S. in Bookkeeping. Present your financial information both accurately and meaningfully so that you, and others, clearly understand your financial position.

By Jennifer Blainey, First Class Accounts..................................................................................................Page 6

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‘Mystery Shop’ your business...you may be surprised! Find out how to avoid the classic errors that make a huge difference to your rate of sales conversion and lifetime value of your customer.

By Paul Henshall, Master of Business .......................................................................................................Page 2

Ho, Ho, Ho Humbug! Avoid the Christmas tax scrooge this year. Find out what you can and can’t deduct and ensure you enjoy your Christmas celebrations.

By Dean Murphy, Valentini & Murphy.........................................................................................................Page 4

Social Media: Are You Ignoring Your Customers? Listen, participate and relinquish control. In return you will build trust, gain respect and end up with a tribe of raving fans.

By Nathan Hulls, Internet Marketing Expert...............................................................................................Page 7

Issue 18, February 2011

Workplace Culture Change - the Missing Link. Don’t fall into the ‘technology only tack on trap’, take away the landfill bin.

By Ian McBurney, Live Ecological..............................................................................................................Page 8

Mystery Shop your business ... you may be surprised! Have you seen the recent spate of television shows where the owner or CEO goes ‘undercover’ to experience their company’s performance at ground level? I STRONGLY encourage all business owners/managers to regularly mystery shop their own business.

When a prospective customer visits you’ve already paid for the contact via your advertising and marketing. This means the cost of the contact is the same whether you make the sale or not. Here’s a list of some of the classic errors that make a HUGE difference to your rate of sales conversion, size of sale and the lifetime value of your customer.

1. Greeting. Greet everyone with your name and make sure you get theirs. Use their name immediately and throughout the conversation. Seems elementary, but it occurs less than 50% of the time.

2. Sequential Sale Process. Have a sequential sales process in place, including a set of standard opening questions. For example, “May I ask you a few questions so I can suggest the best options for your situation?”. Also have a transition statement then ask open-ended questions to identify the key information you need to narrow the choices. I see a sequential sales process occurring in less than 20% of cases.

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Results based one-to-one business coaching

• Intensive “group” sessions

• 2 day business “boot” camps

• 1 day Workshops in Marketing, Sales, Team Building, & Customer Service

• One off business “boost” sessions for any size business

Paul Henshall, Master of Business For more information contact Paul Henshall

Address: 196 High Street, Bendigo 3550 Phone: 5441 6740 / 0418 302 057

URL Address: www.pauhenshall.com.au Email: paulhenshall@paulhenshall.com.au

Paul Henshall, Master of Business

3. Unique Buyers Advantage (UBA) & Guarantee. What makes your business different from the competition? What guarantee do you offer to entice the prospective customer to confidently say yes? If the answer is good service, good selection and competitive prices, you can bet your competitor is saying the same.

4. Response to Price Question. How many times do you actually make a sale without some type of question about price or an objection to it? Have some prepared responses for when a price

objection occurs. Unless you’re happy to just beat or match other prices, sales are flying out the door.

5. Capture Information. Be sure to capture contact information from the

customer and to offer a good reason for it. It could be to keep them updated on new items, specials or a sale on the item they liked. This seems very basic but evidence suggests this almost NEVER happens. I consistently hear this type of response, “Here’s my card. Give me a call if you need any additional information or want to look at anything else”. Pretty inspiring, huh? You can’t go about the process of improvement until you actually know what to improve so take some time to see what is being said to your prospects and clients.

If you would like a mystery shop conducted on your business, contact me and we’ll see how we can make it happen. I guarantee you will find the information well worth your while!

Top TipYou can’t go about the process of

improvement until you actually know what to improve.

Microsoft Word, Mail Merge and OutlookHistorically one of the frustrating things with Outlook is that you could not set up templates and send individualised emails to a group at a time, i.e. you could not say “Hi Julie”, “Hi Liz”, etc., you had to write something lame like, “Hi all!”.

One day I was messing around in Word Mail Merge and saw there was an ‘Email’ option. I had one of those ‘aha’ moments or, as Paul would call it, ‘The blinding flash of the obvious’.

Note: These instructions are for Word 2003. If I have requests over the next 3 months for Word 2007, let me know and that can be my next Newsletter.

Caution: Your email provider may have limits on how many emails you can send at once or within a time period, so start with smaller numbers and work up or ring to determine how many you can send. Some are happy to give this information, others are not.

So here are my instructions on how to send out individual and personalised emails by using Mail Merge in Microsoft Word. If you receive this Newsletter from me, this is likely how I sent it out:

• Open Microsoft Word to a new word document. • On the toolbar click on Tools > Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge Wizard.

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Individual database development

• Microsoft Access problem solving

• Data management

• Client management systems

• Microsoft Access training

Simply Access For more information contact Julie Misson

Phone: 0400 906 942

URL Address: www.simply-access.com Email: info@simply-access.com

• The Mail Merge Wizard should appear on the right-hand side of your screen. • Choose ‘Email Messages’ from the selection provided. • At the bottom of the right-hand panel click on Next: Starting Document. • Select ‘Use current document’. • Next: Select Recipients. • Select ‘Select from Outlook Contacts’. • Click on ‘Choose Contact Folder’ - most of you will only have one to choose from;

click ‘OK’ to open the Contacts list. • Select or unselect the people you want/do not want to send the email to. • Next, write your email message. • Write your message and add fields (i.e. by

clicking on ‘More Items’, highlighting the field and clicking on ‘Insert’). To add the first name of the person you are sending the email to highlight ‘first’ then click on insert, it will then be added to your document and look like this «First». • Next: Preview your mail message. • This will show the first person on your list so check it all looks okay. You can retrace steps any time during this process.

• Complete the merge then click on Electronic Mail. • Add the subject line and OK, this will create an individual email for each person you have selected.

• Close Microsoft Word.

Top Tip

Use Microsoft Word Mail Merge to set up templates and send

individualised emails.

Ho Ho Ho humbug: Avoid the Christmas tax scroogeIf you’re planning your Christmas budget for your team and your clients there are a couple of things you need to know to keep the Christmas tax scrooge from ruining your Christmas celebrations. We take a look at what you can and can’t deduct and what is and isn’t likely to incur Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT).

Your team: The big issue with Christmas celebrations for your team is FBT. FBT applies to non-cash benefits provided by employers to their employees. This generally includes expenses for entertainment that you provide to your team (and their family). If you provide the Christmas celebrations at your work on a working day, then they are likely to be exempt from FBT. If however, family members of your team attend, then FBT may apply if the cost of the celebration is over $300 per person. If the cost of the celebration is less than this amount then no FBT applies as it is considered to be a minor benefit and minor benefits are exempt from FBT. If you hold your celebrations at an external venue then you need to ensure the cost of the celebration is less than $300 per person. Christmas presents to staff members also need to be kept to less than $300 per person and need to be one-off gifts. They are not included in the calculation of the

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Business Taxation Returns

• Ensuring you understand the financial position of your business

• Strategic Review of business structures & systems

• Budgeting & business planning

• Review & feasibility of new business acquisitions & start-ups

Valentini & Murphy For more information contact Dean Murphy

Address: 425 Hargreaves Street Phone: (03) 5443 0800

Bendigo 3550 Email: dmurphy@vandm.com.au

Valentini & Murphy

total cost of the Christmas party but are assessed separately (even if they are given out at the event). The cost of your Christmas celebration for team members is not deductible for income tax purposes if FBT does not apply. If FBT applies then you can claim a tax deduction.

Entertaining clients at Christmas: Entertaining your clients at Christmas is not tax deductible so, if you take them out to dinner, to the theatre, or any other

form of entertainment, then it’s not deductible. However, if your business gives a gift then it is deductible as long as the gift is given with the expectation that the business will benefit.

To be deductible the gift needs to be an expense of the business incurred in the course of generating revenue. You need to be able to prove the link between the two.

Donations to charity: It’s important to recognise you can only claim a deduction for donations made to deductible gift recipients (DGRs). If you receive any form of merchandise - biscuits, teddies, balls or you buy something at an auction - then it’s not deductible. This is simply because you purchased something rather than giving a gift. The same goes for charity balls and dinners. You cannot claim the cost of the dinner unless the organisers have arranged for part of the cost to be deductible and are able to provide you with a confirmation receipt.

Top TipDon’t let the Taxman spoil your

Christmas – but don’t use that as an excuse either.

Email Management Who’s in charge? Here’s how you can manage your Inbox if you use Outlook 2007. The menu items in more recent versions would be similar – this information tells you what to look for!

Manage You.

• Block out a set amount of time to check and respond to emails and STICK to it – e.g. 10 mins every 2 hours.

• Prioritise what you need to reply to on the spot. Knock off as many instant replies as you can, e.g. meeting availability requests, etc.

• Block out time in your diary to come back and respond to more detailed emails/issues.

• Turn off notifications/popups that show new messages – you choose when to check, not the email.

Manage the software.

You can make emails received from certain people a different colour to assist you with prioritising. Visit ‘Organise’ on the ‘Tools’ menu, select ‘using colours’/’colour messages from xxxxxx’ and choose the colour.

To put emails that you are only cc’d on into their own folder. Set up a new rule, select ‘move messages from someone to a folder’/’where my name is in the cc box’/’move it to specified folder’/select specified folder (maybe create a ‘cc’ folder).

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Practical workshops - Time Management; Find Your Desk Under the Mess; Roles & Goals

• In-house training

• Consulting

• We get your business organised so you can enjoy the important things in life

Sorted Business Administration Services For more information contact Clare Fountain

Address: PO Box 105 Phone: 1300 667 554

North Bendigo 3550 Email: clare@sorted4business.com.au

Sorted Business Administration Services

To see the first couple of lines of an email in your inbox, select ‘Using views’/’messages with auto preview’.

Making a quick appointment: Drag an email across to the ‘Calendar’ bar and it will open up an appointment and put the email text into the meeting notes. This can help you be prepared for meetings by having all the information in one place. You can also attach emails to the meeting – choose insert from the

appointment menu/select ‘attach item’ for an email or ‘attach file’ for a document.

Set up a quick task: You can also drag an email across to the task bar and set up a task so the email text

is already in there. You can set a start date/due date/reminder and track the status.

Set up a quick contact: Again drag the email across to the contacts bar and it will open a ‘contact card’ with the senders details inserted and the body of the email in the notes.

These are just a few features of Outlook that will save you time and make the most of a software product that can support you to be organised! If you have any other tips to share please feel free to post them on my blog at www.clarefountain.com. This article will also be posted there so you can easily share it with others!

Top TipMake sure you manage your email

before it mangles you!!!

“K.I.S.S.” in BookkeepingHow tidy are you in business? How readily can where you are, and where you are headed financially, be communicated to others? In this information age we need to be able to clearly articulate to others our business’ finances for a variety of reasons.

Bookkeeping is used to bring together financial information from a variety of sources and present it accurately and meaningfully so that you and others who deal with that information understand your financial position. There are a number of simple strategies that we can implement to ensure that when we look at our standard financial reports they make sense.

The most important step is to take the time to have a logical and summarised chart of accounts. It is from this list the profit and loss and balance sheet is reported. Most bookkeeping computer packages will give you a general list to get you started. Some have just a few, others with way too many, which tends to confuse people with too much choice and still others are organised alphabetically by account name. Expenses tend to be the main area that gets out of control. New accounts are created on the fly when entering transactions rather than thinking about the broader grouping that will keep the reports easy to read.

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Installation, training & support of MYOB & QuickBooks software

• Regular bookkeeping maintenance services

• Regular management reporting

• Payroll, incl. PAYG & Superannuation requirements

• BAS & End of Year preparation of books for Accountant

First Class Accounts Bendigo For more information contact Jennifer Blainey

Address: 196 High Street Phone: 03 5441 6261

Bendigo 3550 Email: bendigo@firstclassaccounts.com

URL Address: www.firstclassaccounts.com/bendigo

First Class Accounts Bendigo

It’s important to use heading accounts to summarise groups of like information, e.g. a heading of ‘Motor Vehicle Expenses’. Underneath that you can have a more detailed breakdown into things like fuel, repairs, registration, etc., so you can analyse this group further. When you are producing your reports for the bank when going for a loan, they will not need, nor want to see, that level of detail. If you make the reports

well summarised and easy to read and understand, your application is likely to be processed more quickly and smoothly because you have made their job easy to complete.

Even if you have been in business for some time and your chart of accounts has become messy, long and not really telling the story of your business effectively, it can be re-organised. Existing transactions will go with the re-organised accounts, with data needing to be re-entered. Sometimes renaming accounts or moving them from alphabetical order or account name to groupings of like expenses is enough to achieve better understanding.

It’s never too soon or too late to tidy up your accounts and have financial reports that explain your financial situation clearly and succinctly. Get it done now... and see the benefits.

Top TipSpend the time to get your chart of

accounts in order so it tells the clear story of your finances.

Social Media – Are you ignoring your customers? By definition, social media is a term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of words, pictures, video and audio…

But in my simplistic terms, Social Media is a conversation which happens online.

What’s important to understand from a business or organisation’s point of view is that these conversations are happening right now on Facebook, youtube, twitter, etc. Your customers and potential customers are talking about you, your products, your service, about the experience, or lack of experience they encountered with you, and it is your choice whether or not you will begin to engage in these conversations.

Social media is not a fad – it is a fundamental shift in the way people communicate. The conversations which used to happen in the market place and town centre now happen online.

Our old way of communicating a marketing message was monologue, talking at people, and it’s getting much harder to cut through with the average person being exposed to 3000+ advertising messages per day.

The new communication model is a dialogue. This is fantastic! Why? Because 78% of people trust the

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Online & social media strategy

• Website design

• Cheap professional websites

• Self-managed websites

• Logo & stationery design

Nathan Hulls, Internet Marketing Expert For more information contact Nathan Hulls

URL Address: www.hirenathanhulls.com Phone: 0407 542 636

URL Address: www.websiteco.com.au Email: contact@hirenathanhulls.com

recommendations of other consumers, and by developing a conversation we have more of a chance of our prospects and customers getting to know, like and trust us! It’s all about conversations and the best communicators must start out as being the best listeners.

How to get started:

1. Listen – immerse yourself in the conversations.

Begin to listen to the conversations that are happening already, around your products, your market place, your target market, your industry. Read blogs from market leaders, follow these people on twitter, LinkedIn and

Facebook. And just listen!

2. Participate – begin to share.

The people and organisations who provide the most value win! Answer questions, provide feedback, comment on blog posts, share articles, post videos, create podcasts, share wins, ask questions, blog, tweet, bookmark, re-tweet and listen some more…

3. Relinquish Control.

The goal of social media marketing is to join the conversation and then enable, inspire, influence and engage. By building a brand which adds value to the marketplace, without asking for anything in return, you will build trust, gain respect and end up with a tribe of raving fans! Add value and ask nothing in return!

Top TipGet started in social media simply by listening to what your customers are

talking about.

Workplace culture change - the missing linkWhen a business first sits down to think about ecological sustainability, the conversation usually goes like this:

“Solar panels would be good!”

“What about water tanks?”

The ideas are good, but they fall into what I call the ‘technology only tack on trap’.

At least a third of the environmental savings we can make are behavioural - and behaviour change costs a lot less and saves a lot more than solar panels. It also ensures that sustainability becomes a part of workplace culture, part of who and what we are, rather than a one-off project delivered by a few passionate people.

Don’t get me wrong, solar panels are important. They just aren’t the smartest first step for a business. They cost upfront and if we use a lot of power the payback period is long. If we focus on efficiency and behaviour first, we can cut the bills, engage and inspire our staff and ensure that sustainability thinking infuses and improves every aspect of our business.

Ecological sustainability is everyone’s job. We all make hundreds of decisions every day that impact on purchasing,

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Ecological Sustainability speaker

• Ecological Sustainability Business Mentor program

• Ecological Sustainability Speaker/Master of Ceremonies

• Business Green Team training/Ecological Sustainability Culture Change workshops

• Local ecological sustainability expert for your project, event, etc.

Live Ecological For more information contact Ian McBurney

URL Address: http://www.liveecological.com.au Phone: 0408 512 234

Linkedin: http://au.linkedin.com/in/ianmcburney Email: ianmcburney@impulse.net.au

water, waste, energy and the end product or service we sell.

Remember, it is our culture that has put us in our current environmental mess. We turn this around only by changing our culture, behaviour and way of life.

The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking. - Albert

Einstein.

Some possible culture change actions:

A switch-off campaign: switching one computer off each night saves $95 per annum in electricity.

Air temperature control: every degree above 19 in winter and below 25 in summer adds 10% to the heating/cooling bill.

Take away the landfill bin: make everyone think about avoiding waste at the desk.

Build sustainability time into site meetings, team meetings and work plans: the staff know their jobs and know what waste and pollution looks like. Provide opportunities for them to tell us what we can improve.

Top Tip Engage all staff and you’ll improve

every aspect of your business.