INTRODUCTION
It's your business: your place to shine. You're capable; you know what you are doing and you are good at it. You're motivated; you know what you want to achieve and all the things you will do when you can afford the money and the time. Aren't these - autonomy, ability and motivation - the ingredients for success?
But is your reaLity different to the business you set out to buiLd? Even when it’s not a struggLe it’s an effort to keep things on track. You put yourself out there to serve your community but most days you spend more time looking after cash flow, staff and chasing after customers who don’t really appreciate you.
Unfortunately too many small businesses are doing it tough. The statistics on small business failures is well known. The tragedy is, behind every one of these failures are people: famiLies who sacrificed for the dream; staff who were more than just workers; customers who believed in and supported the business; and you who feel it's you, not the business, which has failed.
The fact is we NEED small businesses. You are the people who choose to do something because you love it, not because some board of directors approved it. You give us an alternative to mass produced products and programmed services that corporates use their power to pay as little as possible for, sell with the highest possible margin but price just low enough to undercut you. You do things to benefit many – even if the resuLts are not immediateLy obvious and are not the kind of benefits that will ever show up on a balance sheet. When you succeed it's a win for your community, not exorbitant salaries and bonuses for a privileged few.
If you can relate to any of these statements, this eBook is for you. If you have thought to yourself, "Maybe it's time to call it a day", and you have been thinking about this more seriously recently, you need this eBook. In here we will help you understand how you have ended up in this situation and seven steps you can take that will help you to start becoming the owner of the business you were meant to have.
What is an 'inner brand'? Is it some new marketing fad or instant business success formula? There are so many new 'cures' for businesses that aren't growing fast enough or big enough out there. you would be forgiven for thinking this is just another one jumping on the bandwagon.
Except 'inner branding' is not new. If you have some knowledge of marketing or management you may know it by the many components of which it consists: unique selling proposition. core values. core competences. brand equity. organisational culture and competitive advantage. Successful businesses have been using these for decades to establish their market leadership. It is a big reason why the small to medium organisations that do not have dedicated head office and support teams whose sole roles are to focus on the business. usually fall behind their larger competitors.
We want to show you how you can apply the same knowledge and skills these large, successful companies use so you can have some of their success.
We call it 'inner branding'