Category Archives: Uncategorized

PERSUASIVE WORDS IN MARKETING

Posted on February 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

If you’re writing about your business or thinking up special offers you need to make sure your copy is as effective and as persuasive as possible, as leveraging your marketing efforts means you get a much better return for your dollar or time.

Some say there are 8 really persuasive words in the English language, some 10 or 12 and one or two even 108 or 120 but I like the 16 most persuasive words used in advertising & direct mail as below:

  • You/Your
  • Guarantee
  • Easy
  • Results
  • Fun
  • Now
  • Save
  • How to
  • Money
  • Love
  • Benefit
  • Proven
  • New
  • Health
  • Free
  • Safe

Now you might think you’re pretty good at writing copy or you may think so daunting a prospect that you’d rather take your mother-in-law out to dinner, but either way, using as as many of these words as you can will make it very easy – just build your sentences around the words – here, let me demonstrate:

“You will save money, love to use, have fun and enjoy proven results with the new super this and that now available in 6 new easy to use safe styles, guaranteed for 10 years, and comes with free accessories so healthy it’ll benefit you for years to come”.

There you are – easy peasy – used all bar one of the words in one sentence in a few seconds! And in addition, they’ll make sure you avoid the No. 1 mistake in advertisements. Which is, you ask? Putting your name at the top and then just listing out the services you provide. Is that persuasive? I think not! Who cares about your name unless you’re a global brand? And listing out your services? Come on now! I recently saw 15 adverts in one magazine for accountants. All bar two had their names and what services they provided. Tax returns? Accounts? You don’t say!

If you need help with your marketing contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Marketing, Uncategorized

ESSENTIAL BUSINESS INFO

Posted on January 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Many business owners operate completely in the dark, with no meaningful business information upon which to manage, let alone improve, their businesses. As trusted advisers (and with so much knowledge of our clients’ businesses) it’s our job as accountants to empower and enable business owners to get control of their businesses by giving them the tools to find out whether they’re making or losing money, growing or contracting and what they need to do to succeed.

So what sort of business information does a typical business owner need? These are the more common types which I normally recommend:

Information

Benefits

Easy or Difficult
Monthly or bi-monthly interim financials Can see whether you’re making money and can plan and react quicker to improve plus can minimise IRD interest Piece of cake but if you hold inventory you need the month end inventory figures
Perpetual Inventory Can keep a track of all your inventory and what cash you have invested in inventory plus identify old or slow moving stocks Difficult in manufacturing businesses where you use common items for different products but otherwise you just need good systems
Job Costing Can see whether you’re making money on individual jobs Not too bad if you’re keeping keep timesheets for labour costs and can record the allocation of inventory items to individual jobs (specific purchases for jobs are very easy to allocate) which means probably keeping perpetual inventory
Divisional Reporting Can see which parts of the business are losing or making you money OK if you can allocate overheads between divisions and can allocate inventory usage to individual divisions
Budgeting Can manage by exception, can identify over-spending and highlight sales shortfalls Easy if you have accounting software
Break-Even Point Analysis Probably the most important thing you should know about your business. Knowing whether you’re covering all your outgoings (including drawings and tax) is absolutely vital. Easy but you do need to know recent overhead levels and your latest gross profit margin which can slip when things get tough
Cashflow forecasting Can forecast cash crises and get peace of mind when expanding Easy. If you find it difficult to predict your sales work back up from overheads using your gross profit margin
Gross Profit Margin Analysis Can see just where you’re losing or making money If you keep inventory you probably need to maintain perpetual inventory or it’s too difficult
Key Performance Indicators Can focus on the key things in the business, those factors critical to success Easy if you have accounting software and good systems

What information do you have available in your business? Are you still just using the traditional measures of what cash you have in the bank and comparing turnover with that achieved in previous years? All this really useful information is easily available with good systemsand some decent accounting software, so come on, get up to date by contacting Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized