What Does Your Strategy Say To Your Customers?

Your business’s strategy says a lot about what you and your firm believe in and where you are going to invest your resources. But what does your strategy say about your firm from your customer’s perspective?

Your customers want to know that you and your business care about them. They want to feel important and that they are at the centre of your universe. Without your customers, your business wouldn’t exist. As such, it is important to build your firm’s strategy around your customers.

The very best businesses build every process and interaction around creating a great experience for their customers. Businesses such as Amazon and Netflix are well known for their customer centric business strategies, but you don’t need to be a global enterprise in order to create a strategy that puts customers first.

The next time you and your management team sit down to review your strategy, start with your customers. Think about who they are, the problems they face and what your business can do to help them. Maybe they are time poor so your strategy could be to save them time by offering the most efficient service in your market sector. Perhaps your customers want better value for money so maybe a strategy that focuses on delivering a low cost product or service would be more relevant to them.  

Regardless of the strategy that you choose to implement, make sure that it sends the right message to your target audience. That message should be bold and it should tell your customers (and target customers) that they are at the centre of everything your business does.

PJ☎ 020 89310165☏ 07900537459✉ pushkar.joshi@apjaccountancy.com

Tax Diary Of Main Events - October, November & December 2016!

UK Tax Deadlines for October, November & December 2016!

Date	What’s Due
01 October	Corporation tax for year to 31/12/15
05  October	Deadline for notifying HMRC of chargeability for 2015/16 if not within Self-Assessment and  receive income or gains on which tax is due, for example rental income or CGT on the sale of a second property.
19  October	PAYE & NIC deductions, and CIS return and tax, for month to 5/10/16 (due 22 October if you pay electronically);
01 November	Corporation tax for year to 31/1/16
19  November	PAYE & NIC deductions, and CIS return and tax, for month to 5/11/16 (due 22 November if you pay electronically
01 December	Corporation tax for year to 30/11/15
19  December	PAYE & NIC deductions, and CIS return and tax, for month to 5/12/16 (due 22 December if you pay electronically)
30  December	Deadline for submitting your tax return online if you would like your outstanding tax for 2015/16 collected through payroll (limits apply). If you would like to pay your tax this way please ensure that we receive your tax information in good time to meet the 30 December deadline. Note that the absolute deadline for filing your self-assessment tax return online is 31 January 2017.

Contact us for all your Tax needs!

PJ - APJ Accountancy

☎ 020 89310165

☏ 07900537459

✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

Brexit: The Facts And Our Approach To Helping Clients!

Introduction

The initial economic and emotional response to the UK’s vote to exit the EU is now behind us, leaving much conjecture and ambiguity. One certainty is that we will continue to work closely with our clients to inform, manage and where possible, mitigate the risks they may face

Key milestones in the BREXIT process are:

•          UK notification to the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the EU under Article 50 of the Treaty              on European Union. This is not expected to take place in 2016 but, once Article 50 is triggered, the UK will leave               the EU two years later (unless all other EU member states agree to an extension of that period).

•          European Council’s adoption by consensus of the guidelines for the EU mandate to negotiate and complete the             Withdrawal Agreement. The timescale for the negotiation is not set and may well take longer than the original                 two year Article 50 time-frame.

•          Trade deals with EU and non-EU countries as they fall due. Non-EU country trade deals are already being         discussed now but Germany and France have publicly stated that the EU trade deal negotiation will not           commence until Article 50 is triggered by the UK. It is expected that the negotiations will take place during the    post Article 50 notification, thus allowing quicker resolution post the conclusion of the Withdrawal Agreement.     If new trade deals are not negotiated in the two year period (and any extension) then the UK could potentially have to fall back on World Trade Organisation trade principles until the trade deals are finalized (which impose              tariffs on certain good and services etc).

Next steps

We will continue to monitor the situation, and provide insight and updates as set out above. You can expect timely information, advice and solutions to best place you to manage the risks your business will face

Please call us and we’d be delighted to discuss the above further.

PJ - APJ Accountancy

☎ 020 89310165

☏ 07900537459

✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

How to manage business information overload?

Today's hyper-connected business people are bombarded with more information than ever before. We are all faced with information overload.

Many businesses have tried to encourage their offices to go paperless. However, people still have stacks of paper, magazines, articles and reference materials all around their desks. Inboxes are overflowing with ever increasing volumes of emails. Businesses are spending more and more on digital storage (and physical storage). So how do you manage information overload?

Identify sources and create filters

Consider where your information comes from. You probably receive email, newsletters, industry publications, etc. Consider what information you really need then set up email filters which cut out the rubbish and only allow the relevant information through to your inbox. In terms of physical information – create a rule. If you don’t read an industry publication within a week you should pass it on or bin it (in the recycling of course).

Allocate time to review it

Put some time in your diary to go through all the data that you are collating. Go through those email folders. Review documents that you have stored away. Book a meeting with yourself to do this so that you’ve got some structured time in your diary each week to deal with information. If you use a mind map to organise your data sources into categories you could set up time to deal with each category one by one and therefore avoid jumping around from one topic to the next.

Act on it or delete / recycle it

During your review time your plan should be to act on information or delete it. Your options should be something along the lines of the following:

• Deal with it now
• Deal with it later - only if it’s going to take more than 5 minutes to do.
• Add it to your To Do list or mind map of tasks.
• Pass it on to someone else to action.
• File it away as information that is useful to know.
• Delete it.

What's your Business's Unique Selling Point?

Most good marketing campaigns will focus on communicating a firm’s Unique Selling Point (USP). In today’s crowded market, customers have more choice than ever before. This increase in competition makes finding, defining and communicating your USP more important than ever before.

So what is your firm’s USP? Do you offer the faster or better or cheaper product or service? Maybe your people are regarded as the best or most efficient? What is it that is truly unique about your business?

When it comes to your product or service, you will know how it works and so you should understand exactly what it is that you do cheaper/ better / faster than your competitors. The problem is that your customers are trying to decide between choosing your product / service or one from your competitor. They don't know as much about your product line as you do. Getting them to choose your firm can therefore be a real challenge.

The problem with most marketing campaigns that focus on a USP is that they try to communicate the “what” rather than the “why”. Most businesses will talk about what it is that they do. They probably won’t talk about why it is that they do it. However to really stand out, you need to differentiate your firm. Maybe you should think about using the “why” as your USP.

This is a point that is well made by Simon Sinek in his famous Ted Talk. Sinek, a bestselling author, set out to discover why companies like Apple have been able to achieve such huge success, while others with the same resources have failed.

He outlined how Apple focuses on “Why” rather than “What”. What is it that Apple makes? They make electronics. They make tablets, laptops, desktops, portable music players and watches that have a nice design. They make nice software. That isn’t any different to any other electronics manufacturer. However, Apple builds its core marketing message on “Why”.

The core marketing message from Apple would likely be something along the lines of “With everything we do, we aim to challenge the status quo. We aim to think differently. Our products are user friendly, beautifully designed, and easy to use. We just happen to make great computers.”

Taking this as an example you can create a USP and associated marketing message for your business which communicates “Why” it is that you do what you do and how this is of benefit to your customers (and potential customers).