Following on from yesterdays post about the business expo I thought I'd give you my thoughts on credibility. (After all its my blog and it would not be fair for me to give you your views on credibility).
At the end of the seminar on Social Marketing a young man asked a question.
"How can I get credibility. I have just left university and have a few ideas for an Internet business. How can I sound like an expert? All people see at the moment is a former university student"
Now for all I know this guy IS an expert at the field he plans to go into. But all I have to go on is his question. Looking at his question as an accountant I can see a number of things that need to be broken down and discussed.
How can I get credibility?
There is only one way to get credibility. Be credible. No shortcuts, no fantastic online tool. If you are answering a question know the answer. Online this is even easier than in offline life. If you see a factual question on an online forum and you think you might, possibly, but are not totally certain, know the answer, don't post. Be sure, do your research. Once you are as certain as you can be then post.
If the question asks for an opinion then actually be sure you have formed an opinion. Have you read up widely on a subject? Do not just read on article and regurgitate it. The more you can read up on a subject the better formed your opinion will be. Can you defend your position? Do you know enough to support what you have written if someone argues against it? The "I'm rubber you're glue" defense does not look good to professional people.
Know the difference between something that does not resonate with you and something which is badly constructed. If you look at any website relating to the arts (films, literature, music, painting etc) you will see plenty of examples of people attacking something as bad with any argument that people are idiots for liking X as they personally do not like it. If you are the only one in a crowd to disagree with something it may be down to group dynamics at work, but it is equally likely that it is you that has the problem.
Offline questions are slightly different. It is OK to sometimes say "I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head I will get back to you". Obviously you will not want to do this every time. But occasionally will not be a problem.
I have just left university and have a few ideas for an Internet business. How can I sound like an expert?
Again you need to do research. A few vague ideas is OK when you are at the very early stages of a business. The first thing any accountant worth their fee is going to do is strip everything down to the best idea. Next is to work out if that idea can actually make money. Plenty of people have ideas for business but most are unworkable.
Make a business plan, not for anyone else, but for yourself. I will go through business plans in another blog, but the key thing is can you actually at least break even. If you can sell a widget for £2 and it costs £1 to make then you can possibly make money. But if it takes 1 hour to make a widget you are never going to be able to live off the business.
Next work at the business, research everything you can about the market. Research other business in the same market. If you think you have found a completely new market then do your market research. Does the market really exist?
Now you can sound like an expert! And that is because now you are an expert.
All people see at the moment is a former university student
The easy bit. People will see what you believe. They will stop seeing you as a former university student when you stop being a former university student. If you have a business idea they be a business man. Again, see above, research, work.
Credibility is hard to get and easy to lose. Do not be afraid to admit your mistakes. Every one makes them and your credibility will be less hit if you spot and correct the mistakes before someone else does. Be sure of your self. If you have put the work in it will show. Do not be afraid to call others on things, but be ready to defend your opinion, and be will to listen to theirs. Do not be afraid to change your position if your view of the information changes. It is better to show flexibility than to be the last man desperately trying to stand up for a discredited cause.
PS. And finally spell check every document. That way you won't lose you crejibility
Showing posts with label expo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expo. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Monday, 23 March 2009
Grow your own business Expo - The Good, The Bad & The Very, Very Ugly
I attended the Expo last Friday. It was actually a small subsection of a Franchising Expo which was being held at Olympia. There were a number of stands and a small theatre area which had a number of seminars throughout the day. I am usually a big fan of these sort of events. Accountants tend to ignore them as time consuming and unproductive. However I like them as they are a good way to see what information is being fed to clients.
As my last blog indicated the "someone told me" call is a common one, and one which usually creates more problems than it fixes. So attending these sort of events helps understand the current thinking. It takes us as Accountants out of the Ivory towers to the dirty cobbled streets below. That said, if I had staff I would be sending one of the more junior guys instead of me and have them give a presentation.
As the title of this blog suggests it was a mixed day. Some things were useful, some were less than useful and a lot seemed to be missing the point of the Expo.
The Franchise Expo took up more than two thirds of the floor space. Including a stall for McDonalds which surprised me. McD's have been closing sites in recent years. Maybe they see a growing business in a recession? There seemed to be a disproportionate number of car repair franchises. And some odd franchises (Vinegar store? Honey and jam reseller?). All seemed to be busy throughout the day. I guess that in an employment market that is falling every day people are attracted by buying into a brand name.
But what are you really getting. For example there was a greeting card company exhibiting. But it was not Clintons, Hallmark or another high street name. So with no brand name it appears all you are getting is a line to a supplier. Now admittedly I did not enquire as to the details of the franchise, but can anyone tell me I'm wrong?
The seminars were poor too. Unfortunately thanks to the London transport system I missed the first seminar. The second dealt with Franchising which was odd as the Franchise area had three theatres going all day.
The third seminar was "Maintaining and growing cash flow, sales and profitability". Unfortunately this was given by an accountant and turned into Accounting 101. Yes it is important to understand that profit does not equal cash, but that hardly helps build cashflow! It maybe that I am being unduly harsh (accounting jealousy!) but there seemed to be little here that was anything other than common sense. If businesses are not planning ahead it is unlikely they will succeed no matter what the economy is doing. I guess the main thing to be taken away from this seminar is that times are hard, keep trying until you find something that works!
The theatre was orientated so that the sun shone on the screen all the time. This meant that the PowerPoint slides, whilst I am sure they were useful, remained invisible.
The next seminar dealt with social marketing which is a whole blog on its own. Ultimately it felt like a 30 minute pitch for Ecadamy (which the speaker was associated with!) but had a few useful tips. I guess the most important was "first impressions count, don't blow it".
I tried to last until the next seminar. But the expo was so small that I think some of the people on stands thought I was stalking them as I had been past so many times. I gave up. It was 2pm on a Friday and I was too bored to stay. Looking at the floor plan there was a visitors area, which I thought was seating for a coffee bar! There really needed to be a business area where people could of sat to pick up messages, dealt with phone calls etc. The Expo only used about 3/4 of the total floor space (I went up to the gallery to see) so it would of been easy to have an open area with chairs for sitting and plenty of space for everyone to find a quiet area for a phone call.
The Dragons Den stand raised a chuckle, particularly as one time I walked past I overheard the trophy girlfriend (whatever image is in your mind right now is probably about 50% there!) of a young would be TV star beg for a mention in his pitch!
Ultimately the whole Expo seemed like a good idea wasted. Maybe companies were reluctant to attend due to cost. But the only IT company in attendance was Sony (Like the Vaio netbook btw). No software suppliers of any type. Surely one of the best ways to grow, or at least maintain profitability, is to upgrade IT to run the business as efficiently as possible?
On the walk home it really occurred to me that what should of been running was an Entrepreneurs Expo. The Franchisers would still be there but the focus would be much more on new or small businesses. That would be when Accounting 101 courses would be useful...
As my last blog indicated the "someone told me" call is a common one, and one which usually creates more problems than it fixes. So attending these sort of events helps understand the current thinking. It takes us as Accountants out of the Ivory towers to the dirty cobbled streets below. That said, if I had staff I would be sending one of the more junior guys instead of me and have them give a presentation.
As the title of this blog suggests it was a mixed day. Some things were useful, some were less than useful and a lot seemed to be missing the point of the Expo.
The Franchise Expo took up more than two thirds of the floor space. Including a stall for McDonalds which surprised me. McD's have been closing sites in recent years. Maybe they see a growing business in a recession? There seemed to be a disproportionate number of car repair franchises. And some odd franchises (Vinegar store? Honey and jam reseller?). All seemed to be busy throughout the day. I guess that in an employment market that is falling every day people are attracted by buying into a brand name.
But what are you really getting. For example there was a greeting card company exhibiting. But it was not Clintons, Hallmark or another high street name. So with no brand name it appears all you are getting is a line to a supplier. Now admittedly I did not enquire as to the details of the franchise, but can anyone tell me I'm wrong?
The seminars were poor too. Unfortunately thanks to the London transport system I missed the first seminar. The second dealt with Franchising which was odd as the Franchise area had three theatres going all day.
The third seminar was "Maintaining and growing cash flow, sales and profitability". Unfortunately this was given by an accountant and turned into Accounting 101. Yes it is important to understand that profit does not equal cash, but that hardly helps build cashflow! It maybe that I am being unduly harsh (accounting jealousy!) but there seemed to be little here that was anything other than common sense. If businesses are not planning ahead it is unlikely they will succeed no matter what the economy is doing. I guess the main thing to be taken away from this seminar is that times are hard, keep trying until you find something that works!
The theatre was orientated so that the sun shone on the screen all the time. This meant that the PowerPoint slides, whilst I am sure they were useful, remained invisible.
The next seminar dealt with social marketing which is a whole blog on its own. Ultimately it felt like a 30 minute pitch for Ecadamy (which the speaker was associated with!) but had a few useful tips. I guess the most important was "first impressions count, don't blow it".
I tried to last until the next seminar. But the expo was so small that I think some of the people on stands thought I was stalking them as I had been past so many times. I gave up. It was 2pm on a Friday and I was too bored to stay. Looking at the floor plan there was a visitors area, which I thought was seating for a coffee bar! There really needed to be a business area where people could of sat to pick up messages, dealt with phone calls etc. The Expo only used about 3/4 of the total floor space (I went up to the gallery to see) so it would of been easy to have an open area with chairs for sitting and plenty of space for everyone to find a quiet area for a phone call.
The Dragons Den stand raised a chuckle, particularly as one time I walked past I overheard the trophy girlfriend (whatever image is in your mind right now is probably about 50% there!) of a young would be TV star beg for a mention in his pitch!
Ultimately the whole Expo seemed like a good idea wasted. Maybe companies were reluctant to attend due to cost. But the only IT company in attendance was Sony (Like the Vaio netbook btw). No software suppliers of any type. Surely one of the best ways to grow, or at least maintain profitability, is to upgrade IT to run the business as efficiently as possible?
On the walk home it really occurred to me that what should of been running was an Entrepreneurs Expo. The Franchisers would still be there but the focus would be much more on new or small businesses. That would be when Accounting 101 courses would be useful...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
