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Grow Your Business

Posted on in Small Business Tips, SME Marketing

I went to see Nigel Botterill speak last week. The man is full of pure energy! I must admit I have been a little sceptical. Over the past year, there’s become almost a cult following of him, but I can now see why.

Nigel spoke for a couple of hours and divulged is top 18 ‘rules’, see below for a very simple summary. Now many of them we may already be familiar with but, as a successful business owner, I know how incredibility hard it is to juggle the many different hats running one’s own business requires.  Therefore, it was refreshing to hear someone else’s experiences and how they’ve tackled the very same issues.  Moreover, I believe that’s how he approaches his business growth advice too.

I strongly recommend you visit one of his meetings asap to find out for yourself.  And, in the meantime, I’ve signed up a 2-month trial of my local Entrepreneurs Circle with Martin Gladdish, who covers the areas of Watford, Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead.

Nigel Botterill’s Top 18 Rules

  1. Think BIG rather than small.
  2. Change your mind-set from a doer to a marketer.
  3. Allocate 90 minutes per day, whenever you are most productive, to finding and retaining customers.
  4. Excuses are the main prevention of growth; you are 100% responsible for your business.
  5. Telephone tracking (along with Google Analytics) is a very powerful tool to identify what’s working for your business.
  6. Google Adwords generates results.
  7. Ensure your employees are not inadvertently sabotaging your business.
  8. 20% of customers will pay more for a premium service.
  9. Don’t slash your margins with offers, instead look to upsell.
  10. Your database is your most important asset.
  11. Understand what your competitors are doing wrong.
  12. Don’t be afraid to fail!
  13. Sh*t happens, how you cope is what’s important.
  14. Testimonials are 100% more powerful than anything you can say.
  15. ‘Work’ at each area of your business.
  16. Social media is a new frontier.
  17. Deadlines get things done.
  18. Learn.  All the time.

For the full explanation, you’ll need to ask Nigel himself!

I hope you find the above useful.  If you have experience of the Entrepreneurs’ Circle, then I’d love to hear from you, either here or on Twitter.  And, of course, you can also find me and plenty of Marketing tips on my Facebook page.