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Trade shows are a very powerful
marketing medium because they generally take place at a single
location, have short runs (usually one to three days), and bring
together thousands of exhibitors and potential customers.
Common reasons for exhibiting include: Generating sales leads
and actual sales at the show, enhancing your image and
visibility, reaching a specific audience, personally meeting
your customers, competitors and suppliers, prospecting for new
customers,.
introducing new products and services, demonstrating your
product in ways not possible using other marketing channels,
recruiting distributors or dealers, educating your target
audience.
There are probably several trade shows in your industry worth
visiting, and a select few worthy of a company booth. Start by
researching which shows to attend. Identify the locations and
dates of all the trade shows related to your industry. Request
media kits on each show, which should tell you about its size,
target market and typical exhibitors. If your direct competitors
are likely to exhibit, your company may be conspicuous if
absent.
It's a good idea to exhibit at least once a year just to get
your name out there, especially if you're an early stage startup
looking for publicity — or funding.
Once the show space specifics have been established, then you
can move on to deciding what to take and how you can ‘show your
stuff’.
The following are just a few ideas to help you get ready for
that all important trade show.
a) If the trade show display table you have does not include a
tablecloth, be sure to get one that complements your display and
represents your company’s image and colour
b) Erect a stand-alone presentation board. On the board, you can
show how clients can benefit by using your products/services. Be
creative and make it stand out. Include pictures, if possible,
and be sure your company name and logo are more than obvious.
c) Arrange your trade show display table in levels. Put the
larger items at the rear, shorter items in front of those, and
even shorter items in front of those.
d) Develop a PowerPoint presentation to display on your table.
You can make it on your desktop computer and transfer it to a
laptop, which you can rent or borrow if you don’t already have
one. Your visitors will find this visually appealing and it will
draw in their attention.
e) Have plenty of trade show giveaways, such as business cards,
brochures, pens, magnets, and anything else that has your
company name and/or logo on it.
f) Offer something a little different as a trade show giveaway…
FOOD. Package your food in a way that will allow you to have
your company contact information on it.
g) Offer Gift Certificates for some of your services as a trade
show giveaway.
h) Have a draw for a prize. Offer a prize that in some way
complements your business if possible, and appeals to anyone.
Have visitors and entrants sign a guestbook, fill in a ticket,
or drop their business cards into a fish bowl or gift bag. The
great thing about this trade show giveaway is that you can then
use this information at a later date to make a follow up
contact.
i) Have a portfolio of your work available as part of your trade
show display. Print off some of your best projects, put them
into plastic sheet protectors, and arrange them in a binder.
Article
How to turn your stock into precious
working capital
Most businesses have stock or
inventory of goods for sale, unless they are in a purely service
based business. Obviously stock is required to be available for sale
when your customer is ready to buy. The aim of the game is to have
the stock on the shelf ready for sale for the shortest possible
time. This is because it costs money to have the stock sitting
around waiting to be sold. Stock sucks up precious working capital
that could be used for other things like advertising, salaries and
expansion costs. Stock can cost you interest if you have borrowings
in your business. If you can get into the habit of thinking of stock
as fifty dollar bills piled up in your stock room this gives a
really good incentive to manage every stage of the process where
stock is concerned. Vital to this objective is to know the sales
cycle of your products i.e. how long does it take from when the
goods arrive into stock until they are sold. You may have historical
data upon which to calculate the sales cycle. If not, you need a way
to calculate how long goods are sitting in stock so that you can
minimize the length of time and maximize your available working
capital. This is called ‘Stock Days’ and is an average of all stock
lines. One way to calculate ‘Stock Days’ by using your financial
reports is as follows:
Stock on Hand ÷ Cost of Goods x Time Period=Stock Days
· Stock on Hand means the dollar value of stock in store as at a
given date e.g. 30th June.
· Cost of Goods means the direct costs of getting the goods ready
for sale e.g. purchasing the goods, freight inwards, store costs but
not fixed overheads like administration wages or advertising.
· Time Period is the reporting period upon which you are basing the
above two numbers.
A business with $150,000 in stock at 30th June and Cost of Goods for
the year of $400,000 has ‘Stock Days’ of 137.
i.e. $150,000 ÷ $400,000 x 365 = 137
This means that, on average, stock in this business takes 137 days
from when it arrives into stock until it is sold. Once you know this
number you are then in a position to manage the situation and work
on shortening the cycle.
You may think this is a ‘no-brainer’ and that all you have to do is
sell stock quicker. We all know how hard it is to sell anything;
otherwise everyone would be doing it. The real trick to shortening
the ‘Stock Days’ number, is to carefully manage when the stock is
coming in, as well as focusing attention on when it is going out.
You need a system for purchasing stock i.e. not just buying when the
sales representative of your supplier calls in. If you have a ‘model
supplier’ who knows your sales cycle and only supplies when you need
it great, but if not, you need to create your own methodology.
This first thing you need is a good record keeping system that tells
you the following:
· what is selling
· what isn’t selling
· what are slow moving items
· what has become obsolete
· what are the trends/seasons
· what are your margins on items
· what is it costing to store stock
All of the above needs to be known for individual items as well as
item groups.
Once you know the above you are well on the way to being able to
manage stock at optimum levels. You can determine your minimum and
maximum stock level requirement for various items lines. This makes
it much easier for staff to know what, how much and when to order.
Many businesses buy when the sales representative calls in or if
they get offered a discount. You should buy stock when it suits you
and your needs, not those of your supplier. Discounts can also be a
big trap. Ask yourself “Why are they discounting?” Do they know
something you don’t? Is there a new product coming up that will
supersede the existing one? You need to measure the cost of having
that stock sitting around sucking up your precious working capital
against the discount being offered. It may be tempting to swap
cashflow for potential increased profits, but if it’s going to cause
you cashflow problems perhaps it’s not worth it.
Stocktaking is a necessary evil in any business dealing with stock.
You need to regularly check stock levels, not only for tax purposes,
but for knowing your business profitability. You can do this by
keeping a continuous record, also known as ‘Perpetual Stock Method’
or by regularly counting stock levels. There are literally thousands
of Stock Management systems available which should reduce the need
for manual stock-takes. It may seem like a pain and expensive to
install one but the dividends far outweigh the cost. Such systems
will report on all aspects of stock management including stock
searching, stock receiving, bar-coding, special pricing, sales
orders, picking and packing, dispatch register, order fulfillment,
product specifications, manifests as well as reporting on stock
usage and reordering requirements. Many systems will also assist you
manage sales prices based on cost prices so that your margins are
always maintained. They will automatically adjust sales prices
without you having to constantly recalculate them.
Obsolete stock can be a real ‘hiding place’ for cash. It can be
heartbreaking to have to sell items at a loss, but if they are going
to sit there forever, you may as well turn them into working capital
to spend on better selling items.
If you have good records you are also in a position to know just how
much you are purchasing from suppliers. This puts you in a better
bargaining position when it’s time to renegotiate prices and terms.
A really great tool you can use to manage your ‘stock days’ is
Industry Benchmarks. Good Benchmarks should include ‘stock days’ for
the low, average and top performers in your industry. This gives a
real clue to why some businesses are in the ‘top performers’
category. You will find their ‘stock days’ are less than those in
lower categories.
In summary, shortening the length of time stock sits in your store
room will free up your precious working capital to spend on other
things.
CAD Partner (CFO On-Call) can advise you on all of the above and
more to ensure your precious working capital spends more time in
your bank account than that of your customers. Feel free to call us
on 1300 36 24 36 for a no obligation discussion or visit
http://www.cadpartners.biz
What's Free
Get a FREE e-book on Cashflow Control at
http://www.cadpartners.biz/e-book.htm
Recommended Reading
 Permission
Marketing
Instead of annoying potential customers by
interrupting their most coveted commodity -- time -- Permission
Marketing offers consumers incentives to accept advertising
voluntarily. Now this Internet pioneer introduces a fundamentally
different way of thinking about advertising products and services.
By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an
interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing
enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers,
create trust, build brand awareness -- and greatly improve the
chances of making a sale.
In his groundbreaking book, Godin describes the four tests of
Permission Marketing:
1. Does every single marketing effort you create encourage a
learning relationship with your customers? Does it invite customers
to "raise their hands" and start communicating?
2. Do you have a permission database? Do you track the number of
people who have given you permission to communicate with them?
3. If consumers gave you permission to talk to them, would you have
anything to say? Have you developed a marketing curriculum to teach
people about your products?
4. Once people become customers, do you work to deepen your
permission to communicate with those people?
And in numerous informative case studies, including American
Airlines' frequent-flier program, Amazon.com, and Yahoo!, Godin
demonstrates how marketers are already profiting from this key new
approach in all forms of media.
To order this book in Australia,
click here
To order this book in USA,
click here
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Till next time ... Ivana Katz
Websites 4 Small Business
www.web4business.com.au |
