How to survive

1. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 1 Breakfast September 11th Challenges and Solutions to Business Development for SME’s in the current climate Graham RoyceManager and Mentor for the Limerick Enterprise Acceleration Platform (LEAP)

2. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 2 The Challenges Only Two Survive Current Climate and Grow the Business

3. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 3 Direction Clear Strategy Marketing Sales Growth Financial Clear Business Plan (Map)

4. Creativity 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 4 Very Creative With Your Business Check Products Check Services Change Quickly Retrain if Necessary Working Practises Be Flexible Focus on Emerging Markets If you are at the Cutting edge stay a the cutting edge

5. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 5 Connectivity Networking LinkedIn Business Clubs Twitter Plaxo Pulse Make use of strong Diaspora well-connected Irish executives around the world We need to work fast we need to think fast

6. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 6 Support Know The Various Supports Enterprise Ireland City Enterprise Boards County Enterprise Boards EI Mentoring Business Rings BNI etc etcetc Be Tolerant of Failure (we are Intolerant) We must support younger and younger start-ups Apple started as teenagers – Facebook started by teenagers – Microsoft university drop out The Collinsons were ignored here in Ireland found funding in Canada - they sold for 3M

7. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 7 Knowledge Know Everything Know your strengths and weaknesses Client Profiling Service / Product Profiling Market Size Competitors Buying Cycles Birthday’s and Anniversaries New Technologies New delivery models like Cloud computing

8. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 8 Market Market Research - Marketing Research Market Surveys On-Line & Paper Focus Groups Study you Chosen Slice of the Market Colours – Words – People – Industry Export Talk face to face with all customers / suppliers

9. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 9 Process Don’t Reinvent Booking engines Book keeping Methodologies Markets Tried and trusted business rules Silicon Valley Good idea’s not afraid of failure They have innovative universities attached You have a venture capital community that’s known Silicon Valley kick started a recession in the Fifties.

10. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 10 Communications Know and Understand Communications Internet Phones Email Letters General meetings Language Skype TXT Face to Face

11. Finance Cash Flow - Cash Flow - Cash Flow Pre agreed payment dates Talk to the banks & financiers Invoice sooner Know exactly outgoings and incomings Prioritise 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 11

12. Smart Business Change direction if you have to (R&D) Innovation (Create Introduce Implement) High Quality (Be the best) Commercialisation (Understand the Market) Export (Look at all Markets) If technology is available use it (Internet - Cloud) Stay Up to date(Spotify MuZu Iphone twitter) Be unique (Business Models) 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 12

13. Top tips Get referrals Keep Customer Profiles up to date Review all resources all the time Be creative in selling Make sure all training is up to date Keep the company profile up to date Monitor all staff give targets if necessary If targets are not being met replace the staff Keep all staff motivate Watch the market stay in touch Recognise opportunities 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 13

14. Winning 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 14

15. 10/09/2009 Graham Royce 15 Communications My Details Graham Royce LEAP Manager Phone 061 490152 Mobile 086 6089112 Email graham.royce@lit.ie Email roycegraham@eircom.net Skype greybadger http://www.linkedin.com/pub/graham-royce/1/215/324 twitter graham_royce