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Customers

Without customers you don’t have a business; how do you find them and keep them buying?

-how I... guides>

"To get our name out as quickly as possible, we sponsored a few events hosted by the CIPD which is the professional body..." Mark Ions

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-pearls of wisdom>

"Whether you’re going to launch by exhibition or direct mail, I think you really need to understand your consumer, and..." Steven Bell

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"We encourage everybody in the business to look at client relationships as a long term thing. I think people do..." Kari Owers

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-how I... guides>

"Regalo means gift in Spanish. Initially it was going to be a gift buying service but I realised I would miss out on a..." Clare Rutherford

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"For the first company the advertising was based around Sunday broadsheet newspapers. But then we realised that there..." Alistair McLean

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-challenges>

"The biggest challenge in business is identifying what customers value, and what they don’t. It’s more difficult than..." John Elliott

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-challenges>

"When we grow in the future, I think one of the hardest challenges we’ll have to face will be ensuring that the ethos..." Antonia Clifford

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-aspirations>

"In the near future I hope to move the business away from home to a commercial building with room for design and..." Anh Mao

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-successes>

"I remember that first day in the office. I sat by the phone with my hand trembling thinking, shall I pick up the phone..." Sarah Taylor

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-successes>

"The rewards you get at the end of the day, even if you haven’t made any money, are fantastic. If you’re leaving work..." Chris Quickfall

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-pearls of wisdom>

"There’s a simple premise; if you have the right product or service for your customer, you do it well. That’s a given...." Fiona Cruickshank

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-lifestyle stories>

"I currently still work as a Nursing Sister part time on evenings and my social life has taken a back step. But it is a..." Karen Forster

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-challenges>

"In our industry competitors do have quite strong relationships with their customers so it’s quite hard to go and knock..." Paul Bell

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-how I... guides>

"In the beginning, I needed to get people to know that I was trading and build a big following among the first customers..." Steve Mbara

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-secrets>

"The secret of being a good entrepreneur is to always be on alert, looking and thinking of new ideas, markets and..." Tom Bivens

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-successes>

"What makes my business work is a dedication to customer service both from myself and my excellent staff, whilst still..." Kaye Winship

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-challenges>

"When I opened in December I had a few really good weeks where everyone was out buying Christmas presents then I hit the..." Fiona Houghton

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-challenges>

"Bingo needs liquidity, it needs lots of players otherwise it just doesn’t work. But I couldn’t get enough people to..." Phil Cronin

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-mistakes to avoid>

"I make mistakes all the time. Probably the biggest has been underestimating the value of my company. I now find the..." Sheila Stokes-White

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-how I... guides>

"We’ve got big industry competitors, some of which are essentially ‘factories’ which have all these huge pieces of..." Louise Allcroft

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-secrets>

"I think the two main success factors have been honesty and reliability. I provide a fair service to my customers that..." Leanne Hodgson

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-aspirations>

"Part of my future plans involves developing a corporate sales strategy. I will shortly be joining Darlington Business..." Nicole Race

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-how I... guides>

"Increasing competition creates constant pressure, but I counteract this by pursuing any value added aspect that I can..." Trudy Hindmarsh

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-how I... guides>

"In terms of finding contacts, I find the best way to create relationships is to do it face to face, not with the..." Chris Quickfall

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-challenges>

"I think my biggest challenges so far has been to understand the buyer’s perspective, often big name supermarket chains..." Geoffrey Johns

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-successes>

"We started on day one with zero clients: we had no commitments from anybody and nothing on paper. We thought “What are..." Christian Cerisola

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-how I... guides>

"After a lot of hard work and persistence I eventually managed to get the product finished working closely with Food..." Geoffrey Johns

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-how I... guides>

"I’m studying for a marketing management degree at Newcastle University which has really helped me with my business. I..." Matt Scott

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-successes>

"I answered an advert from the Miss England organiser who was looking for a designer to design for Miss England 2006 to..." Anh Mao

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-pearls of wisdom>

"You have to know your competitors. Try and find out what similar businesses are doing, what they’re margins are, what..." Sir Peter Vardy

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-secrets>

"We like to build a relationship with our clients. We’re very open and honest with them; we like to make it fun for..." Antonia Clifford

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-secrets>

"In order to survive in business, you have to stay close to your customers and understand what their needs are. To go a..." Steven Bell

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-challenges>

"Our primary driver was to have creative freedom. It wasn’t necessarily the financial drive to become rich. We wanted..." Satish Shewhorak

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-mistakes to avoid>

"Circumstances were heavily against us, but I’ve learnt so much from that first time round. That’s the essence of..." Alistair McLean

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-secrets>

"You can find that you’re doing a lot of work for a big contract, but for low profit margins. We went to see one of our..." Jamie Greenwood

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-lifestyle stories>

"Because we’re honest with our clients, they know our situation. The bottom line is, we work when we choose to. Their..." Christian Cerisola

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-mistakes to avoid>

"We’ve spent a lot of money on advertising when we really shouldn’t have. When you’re a new company you’re often simply..." Jonathan Wells

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-secrets>

"I’ve never had some wonderful plan and I don’t try and predict the future too much. You should always have a gut..." John Hays

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-secrets>

"Getting to the market is unique to that product; there isn’t one formula to fit all. You need to sit down and say..." Sir Peter Vardy

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-successes>

"It’s one thing to know you’re giving a good service; it’s another thing to be told that. Clients give us really good..." Kari Owers

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-secrets>

"One lady went with one of our competitors for a while. When I asked her the reason, she said that they sold holidays..." Alistair McLean

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-aspirations>

"I don’t want to become a multi millionaire or have a franchise of Flirtatious Lingerie Boutique’s, I just want to have..." Fiona Houghton

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-successes>

"I’ve been approached my many established businesses in the North East and National chains, such as the Living Room, to..." Fiona Houghton

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-mistakes to avoid>

"There are potential clients that we’ve turned away and said “you don’t need PR, you need something else,” and as a new..." Christian Cerisola

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-challenges>

"The travel agency was based in Seaham where there was no competition. When we applied for a licence the inspector came..." John Hays

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-mistakes to avoid>

"The biggest test is, will they pay for it? We’ve made some big mistakes with this. One of the first dehumidifiers I..." John Elliott

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-pearls of wisdom>

"You need to have ways of measuring customer satisfaction. A good entrepreneur isn’t satisfied by just good sales..." Steven Bell

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-successes>

"Feedback from customers is brilliant too. Someone went to that little place that we recommended and had a fantastic..." Sarah Taylor

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-successes>

"Recently we went for a huge national contract even though up until then we’d focused regionally. I was very nervous..." Nickie Gott

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-challenges>

"Our biggest initial challenge was getting people to visit the websites but we soon learned that generic domain names..." Les Calvert

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-secrets>

"We had to get up every day wanting to do things better than we did them the day before. It was a constant passion for..." Sir Peter Vardy

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-how I... guides>

"The main hurdle that I faced was not what to do, but how to do it. My original dream involved a delicatessen / café..." Nicole Race

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-successes>

"What we’ve found is that a lot of people come back to us because we offer a very personal service and we develop..." Louise Allcroft

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-how I... guides>

"We used other people’s money. I borrowed £5000 from my dad, £5000 from the bank, but then suppliers gradually give you..." Sir Tom Hunter

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-mistakes to avoid>

"I think the mistakes I’ve made have stemmed from sales calls coming in offering advertising. I’ve spent money where I..." Nathan Robinson

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-lifestyle stories>

"I feel like we’ve got a pretty large responsibility to our client base, and we have an enormous investment in being..." Chris Quickfall

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-lifestyle stories>

"The first day in the office was pretty bizarre. I was always used to phone calls and general chatter in the office but..." Mark Ions

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-how I... guides>

"In terms of building a client base, we made a list of everybody we had an opportunity to do business with, then..." Chris Quickfall

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-how I... guides>

"In the first couple of years we didn’t grow as fast as my business plan had intended. It was interfered by an event..." James Robson

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-secrets>

"I went and spoke to customers and said, “I’m thinking about doing this and if I did would you be interested? And would..." Keith Miller

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-challenges>

"I needed to work on areas where I was weak. For me, that was marketing, PR and communications. I had to learn that..." Sheila Stokes-White

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-how I... guides>

"Customer loyalty is fantastic. What I do is try and personalise things and not treat people as a number, but as an..." John Hays

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-how I... guides>

"At the moment even though it’s the North East Bakery, the name above the majority of the doors is Milligans. So we’re..." Greg Phillips

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-successes>

"On the client side, I get satisfaction from the fact that I know I’m doing a good job for them. It may not be done..." Antonia Clifford

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-mistakes to avoid>

"I’ve made mistakes but this is all part of the learning process. Making mistakes is natural, the important thing is to..." Tom Bivens

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-successes>

"The business has been more successful than I ever anticipated in these early stages. I was expecting the first year of..." Melanie Cornish

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-how I... guides>

"I did a leaflet drop around our estate which was quite new and people were looking for beauticians and hair dressers. I..." Naomi Johnson

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-secrets>

"The best advice comes from the people you want to sell to. If a customer says, that’s a bad idea, it probably is. If..." Jonathan Wells

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-challenges>

"Before I started out I had to face some stiff challenges. I’ve never been confident about speaking to new people and..." Tom Bivens

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-secrets>

"You need to do some preparation when you go out to talk to people. I never go into a meeting without reading..." Lorna Moran

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-challenges>

"The trouble is, my business is a small business but it competes with big business: schools and colleges. I’ve got to..." Angela Brown

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-challenges>

"One of the biggest challenges I faced was getting the name of the business, Exclusive Human Resources, into the market...." Mark Ions

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-successes>

"When the clients and candidates started to come in, all of a sudden those databases and websites; systems that you’ve..." Mark Ions

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-successes>

"Once word of mouth developed, our order book was growing at a much bigger rate than we even hoped it would. For the..." Pete Hunt

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-mistakes to avoid>

"I’ve made heaps of mistakes; I think I’ve probably made every mistake possible. One mistake cost me £180,000 so it was..." Ross Cooney

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-mistakes to avoid>

"My biggest mistake was not being prepared enough for the company to take off in the way that it did. Even though..." Melanie Cornish

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-mistakes to avoid>

"I’ve made mistakes in the past but it’s important to learn from these. One such mistake was spending money on..." William Ingram

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-challenges>

"It was still pretty hard going though because CRM, the product that we were selling, was fairly new at that time...." Derek Curtis

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-defining moments>

"I had a couple of clients at the start, and they then referred me onto other people. I found myself three months in..." Kari Owers

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-how I... guides>

"The big guys, the national travel agencies, embarked on a really big expansion. They opened in Seaham and smallish..." John Hays

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-challenges>

"My main challenge is my location. I’m upstairs in Eldon Garden so I get very little passing trade, which is bad for the..." Fiona Houghton

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-how I... guides>

"I promote the classes in the local press and I changed the business name to Washington Dance Academy in January as I’m..." Susan Pluse

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-successes>

"My biggest success thus far has been to generate the interest I have. For a 19 year old to set up a business which..." Ceyhan Mihcioglu

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-challenges>

"We’ve got fairly ambitious plans to invest in the business and grow to another level. We could be constrained if..." Greg Phillips

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-how I... guides>

"Everyone kept coming up to us in the early days and asked us who did our PR. We were thinking, are we supposed to have..." Carol Metcalfe

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-mistakes to avoid>

"What I shouldn’t have done is take out non-targeted advertising. In the future I will specifically target the bridal..." Rosie Willett

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-mistakes to avoid>

"We did think it would be easier to sell into the education market than it was. I think I was naïve in thinking..." Anne Curtis

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-how I... guides>

"The business provides a full safety management system; tailored to the needs of the client. Large companies have..." Terry Barnett

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-how I... guides>

"In the beginning, with the management buyout, I was buying a contract to supply a large chain of pharmacies. When that..." Fiona Cruickshank

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-how I... guides>

"Each of my businesses has resulted in a trade sale. An unfortunate problem with a lot of internet companies is that..." Ross Cooney

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-mistakes to avoid>

"I think a mistake was putting on a class because people asked for it and said they would come but then they only showed..." Susan Pluse

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-lifestyle stories>

"The rewards you get at the end of the day, even if you haven’t made any money, are fantastic. If you’re leaving work..." Chris Quickfall

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-challenges>

"Age has been a stumbling block, but I’ve come to realise that if someone won’t work with me because I’m sixteen, it’s..." Jonathan Grubin

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-pearls of wisdom>

"There’s nothing wrong with keeping a business small. But it does limit success, and it also limits the economy. The..." Lorna Moran

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-secrets>

"The majority of our customers speak directly to Matt who’s our graphic designer; they don’t have to go through an..." Paul Bell

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-successes>

"Success for me will be when I know that I am supplying a product that women love and that makes them feel great about..." Michelle Taylor

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-secrets>

"You don’t need to be five times better than anyone else, just a bit better, then in the end the customers come to your..." Jonathan Wells

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-mistakes to avoid>

"Making mistakes is the best way to learn. I underestimated the need to establish a clear brand. I’m now in the process..." Terry Barnett

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-successes>

"The main success I’ve enjoyed so far is simply getting the business off the ground and making a real go of it. We’ve..." Lindsay Hogg

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-successes>

"The success of the business has definitely exceeded the expectations I had when we began. We’ve helped Jamie Bell and..." Trudy Hindmarsh

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-pearls of wisdom>

"It’s important to be honest with your clients so you can build up a relationship of trust. We know we can only take on..." Paul Bell

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-successes>

"I got a business start up loan which was setting up capital and I also got an overdraft which I dipped into, but now..." Nathan Robinson

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For more information please contact stephen@ifwecanyoucan.co.uk or call 0191 226 7491