You’ve heard it thousands of times before. You know, the statement by Henry Ford: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
If you are absolutely happy with what you’ve got, well done.
What does the statement mean? It probably means: “If you continue to do what you’ve done before but it failed, the chances are that if you keep doing it in the future, you’ll continue to fail.”
What’s the lesson? “If you aren’t sure what to do, and what you’ve tried before has failed, then try something different.”
It worked for Apple. If it worked for Steve Jobs, it could work for you. View their “Think Different” Ad.
The marketing guru Drayton Bird emailed me today with a helpful hint. He said it is so brief and simple, that he was tempted to apologise for giving it.
It is: Start with the truth, not what you wish it to be.
However, far too many people seem unaware of the importance of this, which is prompted by something Drayton read in a New York Times obituary in 1984: “Honesty is not only the best policy. It is rare enough nowadays to make you pleasantly conspicuous.”
Unless you are a most remarkable organisation around, you aren’t perfect, and admitting this, wins you big brownie points with your prospects. When you admit to your shortcomings, people are far more inclined to believe other things you say.
My message to you today is: Read the last few articles I’ve sent to you. Doing something different doesn’t happen by magic. But when it works, it’s just like magic.
Most of what’s offered here is free. It costs nothing. Except if you think it’s a catch and don’t bother to read it at all – which would be a real shame.
The very best publication on the Budget
Chancellor George Osborne has chosen 18 March date for his 2015 Budget. This will be the last Budget of the Parliament and is less than two months before the date of the general election.
His update on the economy, including any tax announcements, will come just weeks before Parliament breaks up ahead of campaigning for the 7 May 2015 poll.
Place your order now…
The Bizezia 2015 Budget Summary is not free but it’s offered at an amazing price. It will be published on 18 March 2015, just a few hours after the Chancellor presents his proposals to Parliament. You can now start placing your order for it here.
The earlier you order, the cheaper it is. You’ve already missed the chance to buy it for only £20 + VAT. The lucky subscribers got it for that price by ordering before 9 January. Remaining options are:
| Order by 5pm on | Price |
| 06/02/2015 | £80 + VAT |
| 06/03/2015 | £140 + VAT |
| 13/03/2015 | £155 + VAT |
The ICPA said glowingly: “This is simply the very best publication on the Budget available anywhere”.
See what you missed from the 2014 Budget publication, click here.
Please don’t miss it this year.
Here is my regular round-up of marketing and business promotion issues plus other interesting things over the past week.:
Marketing and Business Promotion
Marketing ideas from Marketing Profs
More marketing ideas and tips have been published by Marketing Profs:
- Add These 5 Word ‘Magnets’ to Your Marketing and Sales Vocabulary
- Projected 2015-2017 Ad Spend Growth by Region and Channel
- Customers Trump Analytics—Email Is About People, Not Metrics
- Why Personalized Marketing Will Dominate in 2015
- Top Brand Marketers Share What They’re Gearing Up for in 2015
- Five Rookie Website Mistakes You Can Fix Today
- The Most Important Elements of an Email Campaign
- How to Develop a Dynamic Creative Briefing Document
- Social Sentiment Toward Top Brands: 2014’s Naughty and Nice
- In the Internet of Things, Will You Be a Leader or a Follower?
- Four Steps to Getting Started With Social Selling
- Turn Customers Into Rabid Loyalists: Peter Shankman
- Email Essentials: The Keys to Increasing Open Rates
- Gender, Age & Left-Handedness… in E-Commerce [Infographic]
- Why Social Is the New Word-of-Mouth, and What That Means
- Selfies for SMB Marketing (Not Just for Teens and Celebrities)
- CES Trends, Top Instagrams & Vines, When to Post on Socnets
- Toolkit: Email Campaign Planner
- The 10 Most Shazamed TV Ads Last Year
- Learn From the Financial Sector’s New Focus on Customer Service
- The Evolving Sales Funnel
- The No. 1 Social Media Mistake You’re Making & Four Ways to Fix It
- How to Use Testing to Improve Website Conversions
- Four Factors That Affect the Viewability of Digital Display Ads
- Content Lessons From Brands That Kept Their Brand Promise
- What Motivates Consumers to Complete E-Commerce Purchases
- How to Build a Thriving Brand Community
- What Sales Pros Want From Product Management
- The Cost and Hassle of Predictive Lead-Scoring Drift
- Flip Your Media Plan: 3 Steps From Old-School Marketing to Digital
- Best Content Types for Each Stage of the B2B Sales Cycle
- How to Organize a Successful Distributed Team Meeting
- Why Coupons Rule as Marketing Tools
- Who, How, and Why: Three Keys to Successful Content Marketing
- 2015 Will Be the Year of Video Marketing
- Mistakes Marketers Make and Lessons From Industry Experts
- Create a High-Frequency Content Development System
- The State of B2B Event Marketing
- The Top Three Mobile Marketing Trends to Watch in 2015
- Four Tips for Cooking Up and Serving Consumable Content
- How to Create Visual Content That Gets Shared & Drives Traffic
- The 10 Most ‘Loved’ Brands on Social Media [Infographic]
- ‘SEO Marketers’ Need to Start Calling Themselves ‘Digital Marketers’
- Four Tips for Cooking Up and Serving Consumable Content
- How to Create Visual Content That Gets Shared & Drives Traffic
- The 10 Most ‘Loved’ Brands on Social Media [Infographic]
- ‘SEO Marketers’ Need to Start Calling Themselves ‘Digital Marketers’
- 5 Ways to Extend Your Holiday Marketing Into 2015 for Greater Results
- Year in Review, Top Content Platform, Holiday Selfies, BS, More!
- Online Planning Tool: Blogging
- Email Marketers’ Top Resolutions for 2015
- What Digital Marketers Can Expect in 2015
The Accountant’s Checklist to Prepare for Client Meetings
From Sageworks: You can now download this FREE checklist, “An Accountant’s Checklist to Prepare for Client Meetings,” to learn questions to ask to facilitate information exchange and build relationships with clients.
Questions include:
- Do you annually budget for your expected cash requirements?
- Do you know your Gross Margin, and is it comparable to your peers?
- Can you describe your ideal customer?
Building relationships with our accounting clients requires trust, rapport and an atmosphere for open dialogue. Many accounting firms use a checklist to prepare for client meetings and to facilitate information exchange. This FREE checklist has some questions that many accountants who are clients of Sageworks have found helpful when interacting with their business clients. Details here.
Download ‘An Agenda For Growth’, the KPMG Exclusive YouGov Report.
Accountants everywhere take note. Learn what the big boys are doing…
How much time do you spend growing your business? KPMG’s new report ‘An Agenda for Growth’ finds that administration and accounting take up almost 60% of the working day for entrepreneurs running growing businesses. How much is this impacting your ability to grow and run your business? The report brings together views from over 1,000 SMEs in the UK and uncovers the hurdles and challenges they face.
There is also expert analysis and comment which reveals:
- Where to best apply technology to lighten the administrative load
- How spending more time on what’s important can future-proof your business
- Why you could be missing out on initiatives and tax incentives aimed at SMEs
- What SMEs want government to do to support growth
KPMG Small Business Accounting is our new affordable online accounting service. They take away lots of admin, like invoices, receipts, expenses, and bank reconciliation, leaving clients free to focus on your business while they take care of the books. To find out more, click here
Can you learn anything? Definitely, yes.
2015 Social Marketing Planning Guide
From Simply Measured: 2015 is already here, but there’s still time to fine-tune your social strategy. Start the New Year off right with ten fresh tactics based on the 2014 trends we expect to shape this year, and learn how you can refine your brand’s social strategy for success.
Download this guide to learn:
- What changed in social marketing in 2014?
- How you can expect social to change in 2015?
- Ways for you to take advantage of the latest social media trends
…and much more.
Click below to download the guide: get.simplymeasured.com/2015-social-planning-em.html
Technical Stuff
Get ready for 2015 with a FREE 32-page Accountancy FRS 102 guide
From accountancyLIVE: As the countdown to the new UK GAAP starts, download a FREE 32-page guide to FRS 102, effective 1 January 2015 to help you manage the transition. The Accountancy FRS 102 Guide provides the ideal starter pack for anyone preparing for the move to the new UK GAAP or as a refresher for those of you already well down the road to adoption.
Read the step-by-step guide to the new accounting rules written by technical experts, Helen Lloyd FCA, accounting specialist at Wolters Kluwer and Andrew Davies ACA, technical accounting lead at EY.
Click here to download your copy of the Accountancy FRS 102 guide: www.accountancylive.com/exclusive-accountancy-frs-102-guide-0
Tools to help you prepare for new UK GAAP
From ICAEW: The ICAEW have described new UK GAAP as “the biggest change to financial reporting rules in a generation”. And it becomes effective this month (on 1 January 2015). So how prepared are YOU for the change?
To help to ensure that you are prepared and make a smoother transition, Wolters Kluwer have compiled comprehensive coverage of the Standards, expert commentary, and practical tools onto three different platforms. Choose the ones that suit the way that YOU work.
More at: www.newukgaap.co.uk/advice-and-help/tools-to-help-you-prepare
Accountants note: Overhaul of Class 2 NICs planned for self-employed
From accountancyLIVE: By Diane Tan: The new tax year 2015/16 will see a major overhaul of Class 2 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for self-employed taxpayers, marking a significant change in the way self-assessment tax liabilities are collected.
The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) are urging the government to reconsider plans to bring the collection of Class 2 national insurance contributions (NICs) into the self-assessment system, as announced in the Budget.
From April 2015, Class 2 NICs will be collected along with other self-assessment tax liabilities, on 31 January following the year of assessment for all self-employed tax payers, warns the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG).
Under the new arrangement, Class 2 NICs for 2015-16 will be collected on 31 January 2017.
This is a significant change for those who pay their Class 2 NICs by either direct debit (on a monthly or quarterly basis) or by direct billing by HMRC (six-monthly) as these will both cease automatically during 2015, with the last monthly/ quarterly direct debit payment collected by 10 July 2015 and the last six-monthly bill due by 10 July 2015.
The change will impact those who rely on their Class 2 NICs for payment of certain state benefits, for example Employment and Support Allowance or Maternity Allowance, as they may need to pay contributions earlier than would be required for annual self-assessment liabilities.
Read more: www.accountancylive.com/overhaul-class-2-nics-planned-self-employed
He has written over 700 business publications (see Glossaries at http://onesmartplace.com/resources/glossaries/) and is editor of Better Business Focus (see http://onesmartplace.com/resources/better-business-focus-magazine). His Blog, on a wide range of subjects can be found at: http://onesmartplace.com/blog/
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