Decision making is key in every area of life and particularly now when business confidence and certainty is low. 

I’ve asked Trent Moy, Director of Halide to write this guest blog series that I’ll share over 5 weeks (this gives you time to implement and try each decision making tip).  Trent specialises in decision making and leadership skills and advises on ethics across all business groups.

This series will enable you to make better decisions – for your business, for your family and for yourself.  I worked with Trent over 20 years ago and credit him for establishing my strategic decision making abilities.  His tips have certainly helped me.

We are delighted to have signed on as a participant to the Greater Sydney Women’s Safety Charter. 

The Charter has been collaboratively designed to influence policy and practice to enable women and girls to feel safer in our city. Making our city more female-friendly brings wider social and productivity benefits because a city that works for women, works for everyone. 

Here’s an extract from Lucy Turnbull, Chief Commissioner.*

I wanted to make burgers for dinner.  I usually use eggs to bind the meat together but with all the panic buying there were no eggs left on the supermarket shelves.  Before I gave up on the meat burger dinner idea, I thought it was time to get creative with the challenge at hand: What was I going to use to bind my mince meat together? 

A friend suggested I use avocado to replace the eggs.  I admit, I was a little concerned.  I’d tried making chocolate avocado mouse before (an extremely unpopular and never repeated recipe in my house). Of course, there were plenty of avo’s on the shelf, so avocado it was!  Incredibly, it was a win win result! The kids didn’t taste the difference and dinner was a ravenous success.  

Away from my kitchen there are small businesses panicking.  Customers have stopped buying (apart from stocking up on essentials).  People globally have gone from a “I want” mentality to a “I need” mentality.  I no longer need that new dress or new shoes – quickly forgotten.  The new pergola or renovation you were planning is on hold…and that overseas trip…is now a dream perhaps for next year.

How do you keep success occurring in your business during a pandemic and economic downturn? It’s time to get creative: find those ingredients that binds you and your customers together to form a new marketing mix.  Sometimes you need to take a deeper look and think outside of the box for new ways of working or marketing.

For example: cafes and catering firms have been hit hard by social distancing.  Some are now offering a home/business delivery service. Travel companies, another hard hit industry.  I recently saw an accommodation company offering self-isolation packages including food and everything you’d need for the 14-day period.

It’s important to not give up on your business marketing especially during a time of volatility and economic downturn.

Now, more than ever, look at cost effective marketing measures. Know your break even points and think about your return on investment. Every business’ break even point is different and it helps to know this to work out how much marketing budget you can afford to spend for every new or existing customer.

Remember acquiring new customers is always more expensive than retaining your existing customer base.  Importantly, focus on retention marketing and look at ways you can work together with your customers.

As a marketing specialist, small and micro business owners often say to me: “I haven’t posted to social media for a while” or “I’m not good at posting to social media!” That’s understandable. You have various jobs to do – especially if it’s only you or a few staff and you may have no marketing experience.  Even with the best marketing planning, someone has to action those marketing plans and with limited resource you get busy, overwhelmed, stressed, forget to schedule or create (if you are your own designer and copywriter too). Taking time out to do social media is tricky.

In reality, your marketing shouldn’t be classified as taking time out from your day job. It’s a vital part of your business and is key.  Effective marketing ensures you can keep doing your day job.  The benefits of marketing should be obvious in your business even if you don’t track and measure your marketing activity.  I’m realistic, I know effective measurement is rarely done in a small business with no dedicated marketing person. Often because it’s considered to be taking time out of an already busy schedule.

When you first started your business you most probably started by telling people.  That ‘Word of Mouth’ is normally your first marketing channel and should definitely continue to be a key channel in your marketing plans.  Marketing channels are essentially all the different ways you can sell your businesses products.

From those initial start-up days, you continue to add marketing channels and today, social media forms a large part of most people’s marketing.  So how often should you post?

Plunging. 115km per hour down an eighty nine degree vertical drop, marketing, strategy and planning are far from my mind. Trapped in the hurtling train, I am being pushed, spun and twisted along the contorted, steel rollercoaster track.  My head forced to the left, forced to the right, then pushed back against the seat.

Had I not previously watched hundreds of people queuing, riding and safely climbing out of the rollercoaster train, I certainly would have thought I was spiralling, uncontrollably to my doom.

My train abruptly pulls to a stop before the platform. I peel my pale, bloodless fingers from the hand grips, relax my rigid body and with my hands covering my horribly stunned face, I laugh…ok cry, in relief.  THAT, I guess, was product delight and customer satisfaction!  Without any question, I had been thrilled.