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| Thread ID: 43283 | 2004-03-09 11:06:00 | Starting an Internet Cafe | hamstar (4) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 221454 | 2005-07-24 03:28:00 | Hey Metla That is a pretty big question and uhhhhhh, where do I start? (This will take a while to explain so apologies for the long answer) The books I mentioned were very useful to me (in the professional services and lately in the technical services industries) but the principles are applicable to almost any industry. Keep in mind the 22 laws book should be read in conjunction with a proper marketing plan. Also, if you can look past the 'Americanisms' of Tom Hopkins, there is a lot of useful stuff in the sales book. The readers digest version to your question : marketing should be based on a formal marketing plan which addresses areas such as the product / service you are selling, the place of business, your price strategy, your promotion plan and your target market (to start with the 5 basics). The marketing plan starts out highly conceptual and the more you get into it, the more detailed it gets. For example, Coca-Cola project an image of selling fun or good times, despite the actual product being lolly water. The mistake for CCA would be to refer to their product as a carbonated beverage, because whilst that is the physical product they are moving, they focus on the benefit to the end consumer (which is that you drink Coke when you are having fun, therefore it's not a big leap of logic to think that drinking Coke is actually fun, to {the cynical} who needs external 'fun' stimulants when I can get it from this can?). Without labouring the point, rather than approach your products from a technical perspective, describe your products in terms of 'what is the benefit to my customer?'. So pick a benefit to your customers and focus on that as your 'product'. Why should someone buy from you rather than Dell or the Warehouse? So focus on that point of difference and consistently drive that point home (e.g. "You want cheap? Well yes the Warehouse or Dell is cheap, but did you think about after sales support?...") Also, don't pick 'quality' as your point of difference. To be a point of difference, it has to be unique. Who doesn't stand for quality? Who says we are going to sell you 'un-quality'? No-one, so pick a unique benefit. Keep in mind that if you are wanting to project a high quality image then your pricing should match it, and vice versa. That's why promotions focused on top quality at rock bottom prices don't work (the average consumer simply doesn't believe it). Take for example the Warehouse, they don't waste any time or money trying to present themselves as a purveyor of top quality consumer goods, and quite rightly so. Contrast that with the approach jewellers other than Michael Hill take. What do you think Briscoes and Rebel Sport are doing to their long-term image by being on sale every other weekend? The message I get is not to go there at other times, because there is bound to be a sale on next weekend when I can get the identical item cheaper. Don't be too vague with your marketing plan and things like 'NZ' for your place of business isn't what the plan is about, nor is a target market of 'all computer users'. It has to be conceptual yet specific. Where the 22 laws book helps is in paring back your marketing / business efforts to the products and services that actually matter. For example, in most businesses you can apply the (Pareto?) 80/20 rule where 80% of your sales are from 20% of your products (or 20% of the staff do 80% of the work, or 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers etc). The message the 22 laws book hammers home is 'focus', 'focus' and 'focus' on the 20% that actually deliver results. The promotion methods (read advertising, sponsorships, newsletters etc) must tie all of this together consistently and be aimed directly at your target market. For example, would you advertise on Radio Talk Sport? Before you answer that, you first have to consider, who listens to radio talk sports and how well does that fit with my target market? The same goes for any other promotions you might consider. All the stuff so far has been about marketing. Think of marketing as the conceptual stuff. It's about creating interest in your business / product, generating enquiries, keeping you in the mind of the prospects, or bringing your business to the attention of prospects etc. Now for the sales stuff - yes think of the greasy-haired used car salesman. This is the part where you are faced with a prospect and you are trying to close the sale. It's not about desperate techniques or underhand tactics, it's about building a sales relationship based on trust (does this prospect trust me? If not, he / she won't buy from me). The quick and dirty version is that sales is about creating a sales 'environment', creating / converting sales leads, overcoming objections and closing the sale. As for 'creating' sales, this is a combination of promotion (which is part of marketing), and a number of sales techniques to generate and convert 'leads'. If you can visualise a 'V' shaped filter, you tip leads or prospects (or suspects?) into the top of the filter, and only a fraction will drop out the bottom as actual sales. How to do this? That is the $64m question. It depends on everything else. The focus has to be on getting more (qualified, i.e. relevant) leads into the top of the filter and converting as many as possible to the next 'stage'. The 'stages' might include Prospect -> Lead -> Enquiry -> Dialogue -> Quotation -> Acceptance and Sale Closure. In some cases this process might take months, for others it can happen in a matter of minutes or seconds (particularly retail). In a retail environment, typically the maximum potential sales is limited by the amount of walk-by traffic (i.e. the prospects or suspects). So rather than try to convert unwilling or unqualified leads (i.e. all of the people walking past your shop) into sales, how do you increase your maximum potential by going beyond the foot traffic? Helping on internet forums? Will this lead to more sales? How about seeing more people (read prospects) face-to-face outside of your premises? Yes this has pitfalls but hey, I can't tell you what to do....only you can do that. Before you do anything, ask yourself "will this contribute to an increase in sales for my business?". If the answer is 'no' then there has to be a pretty good reason why you do it (i.e. hobby, boredom, fun, chill-out etc). The other benefit of the sales book is that is contains conversations that you will have with your customers (if you follow the prompts, the conversations will be almost word for word). Typically these guides will help you overcome 'objections' (e.g. too expensive, I don't need one, I prefer Linux, I want an Intel chip etc.) and train you to eliminate sales-busting words from your everyday vocabulary e.g. never use the words 'sale' or 'sell' (as in I'm going to sell you a computer, 'oh no you're not' is the mental reply from a prospect), 'contract' (the prospect thinks 'I had better read a contract', instead it is 'paper work' which is ok) and words like 'deal' (is for people who never do them) and so on. I don't mean to sound rude, but people (usually not in business) who use the words sales and marketing inter-changeably don't know what they are talking about. I attended the small business expo in Auckland last week and a guest speaker kept using the words interchangeably, I resisted temptation to interject .... instead I just did the Kiwi thing and voted with my feet. When such a person refers to 'marketing their product' what they mean is 'selling their product'. I trust this explains the differences (in the few thousand characters that I have typed). This sort of stuff is the subject of very long courses and degrees. I know I have left out lots of important bits and pieces(other posters please fell free to add to my thoughts) but this is all my brain can cope with on a slow Sunday afternoon. Lastly, 2 things : the goal of business has to be "to make money", anything else is fluffery. And most importantly, these are just my opinions. Cheers A |
andrew93 (249) | ||
| 221455 | 2005-07-24 04:08:00 | Excellent, Thanks for the effort (my screensaver kicked in twice while reading that), as is most probally obvious I threw myself into business on the basis that I could use a screwdriver and install an AV suite so there is a vast amount of information that relates to growing a business that is ouside my experience. Looks like I shall have to order those books in online, The local bookstore was as helpfull as a dose of the gout. |
Metla (12) | ||
| 221456 | 2005-07-24 04:19:00 | Excellent, Thanks for the effort (my screensaver kicked in twice while reading that), as is most probally obvious I threw myself into business on the basis that I could use a screwdriver and install an AV suite so there is a vast amount of information that relates to growing a business that is ouside my experience. Looks like I shall have to order those books in online, The local bookstore was as helpfull as a dose of the gout. No worries - I didn't intend it to be that long and I could write / talk about this stuff for hours (but I won't). You can order the Tom Hopkins book from Whitcoulls by phone. From memory it is about $25 and it takes a week or two to arrive. I haven't seen the 22 laws book in local stores, we bought it via e-bay for SFA. Start with the Tom Hopkins book first - the price will pay itself back on your next 'sale'. :thumbs: A |
andrew93 (249) | ||
| 221457 | 2005-07-24 04:32:00 | I think I do pretty well with making sales once the customer is through the door, Though I picked a location for easy parking rather then foot traffic and the business has been marketed as a repair centre above all else. Infact I am probably operating at about 20% more workload then I can easily handle. Retail sales is definitely an area where I can see room for massive growth though, and I can see a huge amount of work to be picked up servicing other businesses but can't actively peruse it as it would mean extended periods with the shop closed or hiring someone on, both risky propositions (even though realistically I can’t for a second entertain the notion of having the shopped closed for extended periods, and If I want to grow I am going to have to at some stage hire someone) |
Metla (12) | ||
| 221458 | 2005-07-24 06:36:00 | Hi All, Just a thank you for all of the good advice. All I need to do now is come up with a business plan, find a suitable location, borrow an awful lot of money and learn to live without sleep for a few years. How hard can it be :-) I'll let you all know how it all goes in a few months time (assuming I get as far as opening the front door). In the mean time I'll be keeping an eye on the forum to see how things develop so keep the good advice flowing in. BTW. If anyone has some real-life week to week examples of the types of outgoings I can look forward to (expecially hard figures) post em up. |
MEee (5380) | ||
| 221459 | 2005-09-28 05:25:00 | hi i am in the middle on setting up a internet cafe here in australia. i have been look for software for my internet cafe for the last 3yrs and just found some free sofware online. its called eficium cybercafe surfshop you can download it at downloads.com its free and ez to run but you computers need some add on software to run it but is ez to download off the net. this has now cut $1000+ out of my setup costs. all you need is high end pc to be the server and cut down bare boxes pc to be the cilent computers making it cheap to setup. then you can make money alot faster and pay off all of your loans and get income faster. i am planing to open a internet cafe next year when my mum and dad come back from new zealand as i going get them to help set up the business( no i am 23yrs old and not living at home). i am luckey that i live 30mins out of brisbane as it cheap to buy 2ndhand pcs over here. for gaming maybe have 4 computers for starter as a high end pc will cost about $700-800 ea when you have made your money back invest it back by replaceing all the 2nd hand pc's with new ones when you have 100% new pc go and start upgrade your shop by adding more pc's making more of a income for your business. start with 5-8 pc's and one server ,hub and router(with built in fire wall for about $100-200) total cost is about $5000 plus deposit for place to rent and 2 weeks rent on top. buy cheap tables and chairs from big-w or k-mart or any hardware shops will help total costs will not be over $7000. look for unlimit plans with a slow down speed or is a true unlimited plans. buy you adsl modem to save on setup costs on your internet(most modens are about $80 for network modem). with windows you can buy copys off e-bay for cheap. rent a shop and go for small retail space in a high end spot it will be about $130-$300 a week but you will get you money back in no time. setup near backpackers and uni's as most people will pass your shop and see you have internet. offer cheap rates to them and they will tell there friends about you and they will come back. open as late as you can as most backpackers will hang out for hours on end doing there e-mails and book there trips on you computers. put down on paper you aims for you business as this will help you. don't talk to other business as they will try to stop you from seting up. talk to people that migth come and use your computers find out what things they do on the internet or on computer. have office software and printing. sell food and drinks only sell them if you have the room. sell cds or usb keys for them to store files on. sell prepay internet and have the income flowing all the time. the more you find out the ez it will be to setup you business. |
shieldzee (5381) | ||
| 221460 | 2005-09-28 06:03:00 | Please don't bring up things that havent been posted on in a while... | CorbinH (37) | ||
| 221461 | 2005-09-28 22:22:00 | Actually CorbinH it has continuosly been posted in for quite some time... live and let live... Two months sure, but its still relevant :) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 221462 | 2005-09-28 22:27:00 | Thread has some good info and insights in it, Should be given a gold medal. | Metla (12) | ||
| 221463 | 2005-09-28 22:32:00 | Thread has some good info and insights in it, Should be given a gold medal.Apart from the spelling and grammar, it's a perfect post... nice advert for himself but includes useful info! Rather strategic I reckon! :thumbs: | Greg (193) | ||
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