Small Business Branding, SEO and Social Media

With the vast array of opportunities for small businesses to succeed today, it is a necessity for them to ensure that they are taking the proper steps towards attaining their greatest potentials of success. As businesses may find it a difficult time to compete with other businesses in their particular field, there is always an opportunity with today’s online branding strategies. In order for a business to beat out their competitors, they must implement efficient and effective methods of marketing into their functional models/operations. Only by taking these necessary steps will a company have success in creating their own brand. Let’s look at small business Branding and how it relates to online factors like SEO and social media.

As today’s businesses are provided with a myriad of tools online for chances at success, it is important to note that delving into such opportunities will only be effective if the website owner acts proactively in maintaining their updating necessities on a consistent basis. For instance, a website that provides its customer base with a number of products and services will usually be required to update their database’s content every once in awhile to show their persistence and credibility as a brand.

When a business keeps their content up-to-date and in with the current trends, they are sending a message to their customer/client base that they care about them and their needs and will do everything they can to keep producing and providing similar products/services to maintain an entity as an ever-changing brand.

Social Media

Firstly, take advantage of social media when trying to promote your brand. Set up Google+, Twitter and Facebook accounts. We live in a day and age where everything and anything can be shared. Join relevant Google+ communities, tweet out to industry influencers, share your blog posts on Facebook. But most importantly, provide content that makes your business stand out from competitors. For example, create hashtags and share content outside of your brand, but still relevant to your industry. The less commercial you sound, the more willing people are to connect and follow you. Strive to be the account people want to follow and keep tabs on what others in your communities are sharing. This way you’ll not only gain a following, but connect with people and influencers in your industry. Also, don’t overlook the potential these channels have to boost employee recognition. If someone in your company receives an award, right a blog post about it and share it online. You’ll most likely find that the employee recognition ideas that can be incorporated on social channels will be a great way to increase employee buy in and overall engagement.

SEO

One of the most effective strategies of branding is search engine optimization. By incorporating SEO work into one’s web content, the website owner will be able to generate more leads towards their website(s) than ever before. As the web developer intertwines popular keywords and phrases into the site’s overall content, they will have the ability of having their link show towards the beginning of some of today’s most popular search engines. There are many reasons why this is important and vital to one’s success. As there are billions of webpages on the Internet, a business who utilizes website development for the purposes of marketing will need to ensure that their content consists of high quality material to truly grasp the attention of visitors.

However, in order for those visitors to land on the webpage(s) in the first place, they will need to be driven to the site(s) somehow. If the brand hasn’t already built itself up a name and reputation, it is very unlikely for their page(s) to even be seen as there are billions of websites on the Internet. By implementing SEO work into one’s content, the website owner will be able to take advantage of having content with special keywords and phrases that work to drive their webpage(s) towards the front of some of today’s most commonly utilized search engines. When people search for certain products and/or services, they will usually input certain words and phrases into search engine boxes to find what they are looking for. A business that combines popular keywords along with high qualities of content within their webpage(s) will moved towards the front pages of their search result “hit queries”.

Face-to-Face

Video conferencing is another essential function of a solid branding foundation. Video conferencing allows companies to communicate with their clients in a face-to-face setting without having to actually travel from one place to another. Therefore, both parties can comfortably communicate with one another on a personal level without having to leave their homes or place of business. This is a great benefit for small businesses as it brings networking and communications to a platform that cannot be found elsewhere. Any company that is striving to break through in their market should use video conferencing as a form of communication as it can boost their ratings and reputation as a proficient, reliable, and trustworthy company. Furthermore, it shows how a company strives to please their clients/customers by maintaining personal connections.

Have an experience using any of these tactics to grow your small business? Better yet, have an experience where you used a tactic that I left out? Share below in the comments.

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In The Beginning: Blog Topics and Tips for Small Business Owners

Let’s say that you’re a small business owner and you just started a blog because you heard how incredibly helpful they can be in building your brand and raising awareness for your business. Now that it’s up and running, you’ve encountered an issue…

You’re Not sure How or What to Blog. Read on for blog topics and tips…

We’ve all been there, which is why today we’re going to discuss some key blog topics and tips that will help you solidify your business’ presence online. Let’s take a look!

Common Blog Topics for Small Businesses

Blogs are huge opportunities for small businesses to expand their reach and market their products. The problem is, you can’t simply provide a stream of advertisements and expect the blog to take off.

To help you build a strong presence of content online, consider these topics as great places to start:

Provide Helpful “How-To” Posts

Blog content should always provide value to the reader. Value is the name of the game, and nothing is more helpful than a “how-to” guide that is relevant to your audience. Take a look at the expertise you have in the field of your business, and use that to create a helpful guide that your customers can use.

Solve a Problem Your Customers Have

Another great way to provide that all-important value to your readers is to solve a common problem that they have. This can be anything from a guide on how to start to start a blog, to a guide on how to use your products to make their life easier.

Promote Your Products and Services

Keep in mind that using your blog to promote products and services is possible, but trying to sell customers on them in a pushy way through the blog won’t go over well. Instead, place the product in your customer’s daily lives. Make it relevant and useful to them in a way that allows you to naturally mention it in a post. Don’t make it the focus of your post, instead make it a side note that fits naturally into the greater whole.

Share News From Your Industry

Credibility is huge when it comes to small business blogs. People need to be able to trust your advice and opinions. By showing them current news stories and speaking authoritatively on topics that interest them, you’re building an image that showcases you as a credible source for information.

Entertain Your Readers

Sometimes readers just need to know that you’re human. The ability to tell a story and captivate your readers is something that every business will need to have in the near future. If people can associate an emotion or story with your brand, then they will connect with it much easier, and remember it in the future.

Blogging Tips for Small Startup Businesses

Now that you have some blog topics to run with, the next step is understanding how to craft the perfect blog posts for your readers. Next up, we’ll take a look at some tips to make your posts stand out from the rest.

Stick to Your Schedule

Once you’ve defined your blogging schedule, make sure you don’t deviate from it. Consistency is key in the world of blogging. If you deviate from your usual schedule, readers will look elsewhere for the information they need, and that’s the opposite of what you want.

You don’t need a schedule that takes you away from every other aspect of your business, but whatever you decide, make sure it doesn’t deviate from the plan that you’ve established.

Quality is King

People who read content online are in a hurry. The people who read your blog have busy lives, which is why you should value their time. Ensure that your posts are focused, informative, and represent your brand in a positive light. In addition, be sure to do plenty of proofreading and editing before you post. You don’t need to be an English major to write quality content, but there are some key writing techniques you should be familiar with in order to properly engage your audience.

Length is Important

The length of your posts in terms of word count is important. Not every post needs to be 2,000 words or more, but they all should shoot for a 500 word minimum. In the end, longer posts are better, but you shouldn’t seek to fluff your posts just to create a longer word count. Make sure the content you publish is relevant. Never fluff your posts.

Engage With Your Readers

When you finish writing a post, invite your readers to comment and share their thoughts. When that’s done, make sure you respond to them in kind. If they have questions, concerns, or feedback, then respond to them in the comments and let them know you’re reading what they say.

Approach these situations like you would if someone walked into your office. Treat them with respect and offer honest and thorough answers.

Use Social Media

Your readers are most likely present on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. Anytime you post something, be sure to promote it through these platforms by creating profiles for your business that you can use to reach additional readers and bring them to your blog and ultimately to your brand.

Final Thoughts

Small businesses can reap huge rewards by starting a blog and using it to leverage their presence on social media, and bring new customers into the fold. Using these topics and tips, small business owners can bring their brand to new prospects in a big way. What tips would you offer new businesses starting a blog? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The future of Ireland

The first ‘Future of Ireland’ nationwide study, published today by leading media agency OMD with the support of Ulster Bank, has found that Ireland’s citizens are optimistic about the future and that our values and priorities have significantly changed. Based on conversations with over 1,000 people, the Future of Ireland report asks a series of questions exploring what people believe the future will hold, both for them personally and our country as a whole, in 2025.

The predictions are collated in a research report which is available online at www.futureofireland.ie, with a view to sparking a national conversation about who we want to be in the future and whether our expectations of what will change are welcome or not.

Beliefs, hopes and expectations of Ireland’s citizens today and for ten years’ time

Commenting at today’s launch, Tim Griffiths, Managing Director of OMD said: “The Future of Ireland captures the beliefs, hopes and expectations of Ireland’s citizens today and for ten years’ time. Its findings show that whilst we live in a society that is fast-changing, Ireland’s traditional optimism triumphs, with respondents feeling positive about the future and in control of their destiny. This snapshot of how we feel and what we want for 2015 is a really valuable insight into communities across Ireland and just the starting point for a wider conversation that we look forward to everyone joining.”

Ulster Bank

Paul Stanley, interim Chief Executive of Ulster Bank, said: “Ulster Bank is delighted to have this opportunity to listen to people from across the country talk about what matters to them for the future. Like all businesses, we want to be able to understand our customers and communities better. Listening to the insights from this study will enable us to make a more impactful contribution to society both through our business offering and as part of our commitment to being a responsible member of Ireland’s business community. ”

The main findings from the study include:

We’re a positive nation

There’s an overall feeling of optimism from participants in the study, when it comes to our happiness, wealth and relationships. 44% of us believe we will be our lives to be better in 2025 than we are today, 43% of us expect our family relationships to have improved and 48% of us expect to be in a better financial position. When it comes to happiness, 42% of us expect to be happier, with the top three factors in achieving this identified as free universal healthcare by 52%; work-life balance by 50% and freedom of choice by 49%.

We plan on taking greater control of our own destiny

There’s recognition that if we want something then we need to go for it, rather than waiting passively for the future to happen. Over half of us, 51% intend to learn a new skill that will earn us money and nearly a quarter expect to set up their own business while two thirds of us expect to make new friends and take up new hobbies. Over 1 in 5 expects to sell up and opt for a simpler life and 30% expect to live abroad for a year or more.

A female Taoiseach and Dublin on the wane?

Over half of us, 56% believe Ireland will have its first female Taoiseach by 2025. Whilst the influence of both national and local government is expected to largely stay the same, by 2025, when it comes to traditional institutions, 75% of us expect the influence of the Catholic Church to have declined and over 40% of us expect the influence of Irish media, specifically that of RTE and daily newspapers to decline. Over half of us believe that younger generations will hold greater influence than they currently do while older generations are expected by 33% of us to have less influence. Over half of us, 53% believe that foreign companies will have more influence on our daily lives and countries like Germany and China will become more important.

Alongside this, 58% of us anticipate Dublin becoming less important both commercially and politically compared to other Irish cities. Almost two in five of us, 37% would welcome this development, although perhaps not surprisingly Dubliners were less supportive, with only 22% viewing Dublin becoming comparatively less important as a welcome step.

Town and country will continue to diverge

Although we expect Dublin to be less important, when it comes to bridging the differences between urban and rural Ireland, a majority of us, 60% don’t anticipate this happening. This might have something to do with the fact that over half of us believe Ireland’s main streets will struggle to recover in the next ten years from the combined impact of the recession and increasing online shopping – over 62% of us hold this view. And, we aren’t positive about the future levels of coverage of high speed internet access, with only 31% of us thinking this likely to happen even though 83% of us would welcome it.

The United States of Europe?

Today, 69% of us still think of ourselves as being Irish first and European second and 59% of us are proud of our nation’s achievements. But there is a belief that the things that make Ireland different from other countries are fast disappearing and 40% of us expect that by 2025 Ireland will just be a region of a European super state. Even among the younger generation, where life as a European has always been reality, 41% of under than 25s feel that a sense of Irish distinctiveness is being lost.

One of the drivers of the changing sense of Irishness is the impact of immigration and emigration. Over half of us, 51% expect immigrants to have greater influence in the future and some 38% of people expect that there will be more Irish citizens speaking Polish by 2025 than speaking the Irish language. We also expect those who emigrated from Ireland to stay overseas, with only 21% believing emigrants will be back home by 2025.

Marriage in decline but family bonds stronger than ever

One of the most significant trends emerging is the redefining of the traditional family model. 60% of us believe that marriage will be less important but that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to value our family and relationships. Over half of us (51%) now include friends in our definition of family, along with relatives, rising to 71% of under 25s.

Rather than butting heads with older generations, there’s agreement to disagree. Whilst 53% of us say we have different values to our parents when they were the same age, intergenerational relationships are strong, with 63% of people having a strong sense of openness between parents, children and grandparents. Positively, 43% agree that today, different generations get along better.

Actively managing our health

71% of us expect our health to be either the same or better than it currently is in ten years’ time as it is now, with the unsurprising exception to this being the older generations, with 51% of over 60s, expecting their health to worsen. A majority of all ages, 70% plan on taking greater responsibility for managing their health in the future rather than relying on public health services and over half, 54% would be prepared to wear technology devices to monitor their health if it led to reduced insurance premiums.

As Ireland’s population ages, a majority of people, 78% think it is important to discuss the care of ageing parents with them and whilst 45% would be happy to see elderly people cared for by adult children at home, only 21% think this is likely to happen in 2025.

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How to Set Up a Successful Trade Booth

Trade shows are an excellent place to get the message out about your business and reach potential new customers. But you’re also competing with like-minded businesses who are also trying to do the same as you. You need your booth to stand out in a crowd to attract as many eyes as possible. The following tips will help you boost your trade booth and draw in foot traffic.

Get It Together Before Arriving at the Trade Show

Don’t wait until the last moment to put your booth together, or do it at the show and hope it’s going to work. Bring all the components together long before the show date and have your crew put it together. Taking this step gives you the opportunity to see it as a visitor would. You can tweak, change, remove, and add elements that don’t belong or are missing from the overall presentation at this point. This will include the booth walls, vinyl banners, tables, power strips, boxes of giveaways, lighting, etc. In the end, the design should look seamless and everything should be set up, so that those manning the booth will have easy access to everything they need during the trade show.

Use Interactive Technology

Your product may be the best there is on the market, but if potential customers don’t know what it’s supposed to do, they’re not going to look further. Setting up an interactive display that invites passersby to investigate is a tried-and-true method of making sales. People are naturally curious, and if they can investigate the product to see how it works, they’re more likely to make a purchase. Giving them the opportunity to learn about the product before they buy it helps them make a more informed decision when the time comes to buy. It also makes them more likely to buy from you.

Give Demonstrations of the Product or Service

It’s always better to demonstrate than to tell. Set up a demonstration area for the product and have someone perform an action with the product to show it in its best light. When people are given the ability to see how well a product can do a job, it aids them in making a purchase decision. It also makes them more likely to buy because they already know what the product or service can do.

Hand Out Swag

Everyone does it which raises the bar for swag bags. Promotional items help to sell your product, so you’re going to have to get creative with what you give away. Put your best product sample in the bag along with coupons for future purchases. Pens are always appreciated, especially at trade shows, but make the pens stand out with a unique shape if at all possible. Aim for the highest possible quality that you can as it leaves a lasting impression on the guests who receive your swag bags. If the event is more than one day, make sure you split up the swag into boxes labeled with each day, so you don’t run out of items before the last day.

A trade show booth is what you make of it. The more time and money you invest in it, the better your return in terms of new customers and sales.

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Innovation As The New Normal

Ulster Bank is basing their innovation team in Dogpatchlab. The coolest tech start up space in Dublin. Here is why.

Dogpatchlab

Dogpatch Labs houses some of the IDA’s most promising clients, including many well know tech companies that are scaling operations in Europe for the first time, and Enterprise Ireland backed early stage Irish start-ups. All companies in Dogpatch Labs have potential for high-growth and are looking to create, test, market and deliver scalable world-class technology products and services

CHQ

It is located in the heart of the Dublin Docklands in the historic CHQ Building, it currently spans an area of 13,500 sq ft of space on the ground floor. Very soon that space is nearly doubling with the support of Ulster Bank.

Robin Marshall, CIO Ulster Bank

One of the people behind this is Robin Marshall, the CIO of Ulster Bank. His job is to manage what he call the two speed IT. The enterprise part of the IT and the agile, innovative part. Both are important, but in his view, particular the agile IT is essential for Ulster Bank to stay relevant.

Statement of intent

“The partnership with Dogpatch is one of the main statements of intent to increase the agile IT capability and bring business customers into the process of innovation. Because customers are at the heart of this initiative. it will be a combination of making space available, bringing in the capabilities and access to events. The aim is to improve customer experience, which means it does not all need to be bing bang, it can be incremental improvement too. Above all we try to keep it simple”.

Innovation as the new normal

“Innovation has to become the new normal for Ulster Bank, which means that everyone, staff, clients and stakeholders need to get involved. It is not a static process or a project, it is constant movement and it is culture”.

“I think innovation has to become the new normal for most business and I am sure we can learn from each other. I am looking forward to it”

Engage!

If you want to engage with Ulster Bank, contact ron@smallbusinesscan.com. He will point you in the right direction. Or feel free to drop into Dogpatchlab. We will be there.

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Essential SEO Tips to Improve YouTube Video Rank

YouTube is considered to be the second most important search engine just after its father Google. You need to set up an excellent SEO strategy for improving the ranks of your videos in YouTube. Here are some simple SEO tips to influence your YouTube video rank.

Video Titles

Titles play a great role as the audience encounters with the title at first. Your entire content can be introduced through this one liner. So you must be choosy enough to select the right keywords so that your audience can understand the theme of your video. You can keep your title very short within 70 characters and avoid tricks. If your title does not match your content, you will face a huge drop off that can provide a negative impact on your video.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails can act as marketing banners for your videos. If you can use right thumbnails, you will definitely be successful in attracting large number of viewers. Your thumbnails should represent your video content and should never mislead. If your videos are full of animation, you must use attractive as well as colorful thumbnails to make your videos stand out of others. For choosing your thumbnails, you must choose pictures with high resolution, at least of 640*360 pixels. When your thumbnail appears to be low resolution one, viewers will have a perception that the videos are of low quality and will never click on them. As your thumbnails must look great in all sizes, you must check in various devices like desktops, laptops, Ipads, TVs etc. Utah SEO Company also suggests that foreground must stand out of the background in thumbnails of your videos.

Video Descriptions

Descriptions of videos must precisely describe the video content. It remains just below the title and can include 2 to 3 lines. Basic information must lie within the first two sentences with relevant keywords and links. You can also add transcriptions of your video scripts where you can insert relevant keywords.

Calls-To-Action

Audience can clearly perform actions if your calls to action are clear to them. You can ask your viewers to comment, share, like and subscribe your videos. Though YouTube allows a CTA button, you must include a CTA button after your video also. You can also measure your CTA performance and check whether your videos are effective or not. A/B testing method included in CTA can help in clearly understanding the lead sources and what your audience actually wants.

Engagement

You need to keep your audiences engaged as the amount of time spent on watching the video in total impacts on the ranking in YouTube. To attract excellent engagement for your videos, you must create work with excellent animation quality, crafted in an awesome manner that can truly be engaging.

Promotion with Money

Always try to invest some money to provide a little push in your promotional campaign. You can use the paid promotion services during the initial days and as soon as you can count huge numbers as your viewers, you will automatically be rewarded with high ranks.

Recent internet marketing guide by examiner.com suggests some excellent SEO tips that will improve your video ranks. Just perform and measure regularly through analytics. Either organically or through paid promotional services, you can definitely achieve higher ranks if the video content is attractive and informative to your target viewers. Your YouTube channel must provide consistent and high quality videos to boost up the ranking.

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The New Era of Digital Marketing: 4 Trends Small Businesses Can’t Ignore

The majority of your customers spend up to 3 hours online each day. Searching, posting, updating, watching and reading. They are bombarded with marketing messages, to the degree that they quickly become immune to tactics that just a short while ago were touted as the “next big thing” to revolutionize your digital marketing strategy.

As a small business you have to be smart about which trends you seize upon and which ideas you rule out as not being the best fit for your goals, audience and budget.

Here are four digital marketing trends that aren’t going away any time soon, and are absolutely essential for you to consider as you plan for the future.

Digital Marketing and Mobile Optimzation

You’d have to be an ostrich with your head stuck pretty deep in the sand to be oblivious to how much mobile phones and tablets have infiltrated our daily lives. Yet many businesses haven’t fully considered what that means for their marketing.

You don’t have to take the full leap to creating your own app, or even launch a wide scale mobile ad campaign, but you do have to think about how visitors experience your website on a mobile device.

As well as ensuring that visitors using a mobile device to access your site stay longer and can find what they are looking for, making your site mobile ready is critical for search engine optimization.

Many small businesses suffered catastrophic drops in search engine traffic after Google’s algorithm update in April, which added a website’s mobile readiness to their ranking factors. If you were lucky enough to escape “mobilegeddon”, consider it a lucky reprieve and don’t delay in making sure your website looks great on all types of mobile devices.

Content Marketing

You have probably heard the phrase: Content is King. But what exactly does that mean? And how can you make sure your content is helping your small business grow?

Today’s internet users consume content at a startling rate. Hundreds of articles, videos and blog posts flood our inbox and social media streams and the average person spends two hours a day consuming content online.

Content can be shared, bookmarked and interacted with in ways that few other marketing channels can be.

In general, try to create content which is:

Valuable. Ask yourself what your content offers the reader.
Visually appealing. Make your content more engaging with images, videos and infographics.
Crafted with SEO best practices in mind. Decide what keyword your content should target and optimize it carefully.
Easily shared. Place social sharing buttons in the content and use a catchy, descriptive title that will entice people to click through to read the content.

Cybersecurity

Headline security breaches can cost big businesses millions, but it’s not just major brands that are at risk. Over 30,000 SME websites are hacked every day. Small businesses are often more likely to suffer a data breach or website hack due to having weaker security systems in place. When we think of hacking incidents we tend to think of individuals looking to steal or expose information. However, your website can also be hijacked or injected with malicious code that serves unwanted ads, redirects visitors to other pages, locks you out of the admin area and generally wreaks havoc with your site’s stability.

Of course, theft of information is a strong motivator for hackers, and don’t fall into the trap of thinking you don’t have anything worth stealing!

If your website stores intellectual property, contracts, orders or customer information it is your responsibility to protect it.

Look into steps you can take to strengthen your defenses such as SSL certificates, two-factor log in authentication and third party monitoring/response services such as Sucuri.

An Ever-Shrinking Attention Span

It’s not just screen sizes that are shrinking- our attention span is dwindling too. While there is little you can do to combat human nature, it’s vital that your marketing efforts acknowledge and adapt to the fleeting window of opportunity you have to capture someone’s interest.

Make sure your title is catchy and interesting. Keep important information up front and centre, but include a great “hook” to encourage them to read more.

Include great visuals such as videos or infographics. Visually represented information is digested by the human brain at a much faster rate than the written word, so it is a great shortcut to getting your point across.

Make sure that your call to action, whether it is a link, a button or a form are prominent and clear.

While we are on the topic of forms, keep those short and sweet. The percentage of people who will complete it decreases with every field that you add.

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Upcoming Events from the British Irish Chamber of Commerce

Just to let you know that we’re busy at the Chamber creating great networking and advocacy events for our Members – in fact, it’s our busiest ever season and I hope we’ll see you on one or more of these occasions.

“Invited Leaders” series
On Thursday evening 5 November, we have the first in our new “Invited Leaders” series in association with Pathfinder Consultants in Management with guest speaker Howard Millar. This closed Supper series at the RDS Ballsbridge will bring great leaders from the UK and Ireland business and public affairs space together to network against the backdrop of issues of the day.

Ireland in London Week
The week of 9 November is fast becoming “Ireland in London Week” with a great line-up of events leading to an important civic conclusion. Starting on Monday with our delegation to the CBI Confederation of British Industry Conference which will, for the first time, be addressed by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, we then have ourIreland & UK Tech Sector gathering at London’s most important Innovation Centre, Level 39 at Canary Wharf, on Tuesday afternoon,10 November. We’ll be opening up the challenge of building on the success of the ICT sector on both islands (and the support of the public agencies in both territories) to deliver a worldclass Joint Tech Hub through the best collaborations and strategic planning across Policy, Skills, Science, Infrastructure and Funding. We hope you can join us for this first event in what will become an important initiative from the Chamber’s new ICT Advocacy and Action Group.

COBCOE International Chambers Forum
On the afternoon of Wednesday 11 November, we will have a delegation attending the COBCOE International Chambers Forum on Europe, bringing our Members’ views into a timely and important debate on how the best Europe can be delivered for all.

Dublin Chamber visit to London
Thursday 12 November and the morning of Friday 13 November will see us join the Dublin Chamber visit to London and a series of meetings with The Irish Times, Investec and Doyle Hotel Group. On Thursday evening we’ll be at Westminster for Tourism Ireland’s major networking event for Irish interests. Along the way, we have important engagements with Co-operation Ireland and with Ambassador Dan Mulhall and his business team at the Irish Embassy.

Irish International Business Network
On Friday 13 November, we’re supporting our friends at IIBN, the Irish International Business Network, at their Annual Conference at BAFTA in London which features a superb lineup of Ireland & UK business content.

Lord Mayor’s Show
On the evening of Friday 13 November, we’ll be at the Irish Embassy for Ambassador Mulhall’s reception in honour of the Lord Mayor’s Show and the extensive Irish delegation which, for the first time, will include the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Belfast and many more.

Finally, rounding out a great week for Irish and British business collaboration, we will honour the Lord Mayor of the City of London with a first-time presence at The Lord Mayor’s Show of the Lord Mayors of Dublin, Belfast and several other Irish communities.

Our heartiest congratulations and appreciation go to Niall Gibbons and his Ireland and UK teams at Tourism Ireland and to Peter Finnegan and Dublin City Council’s International Relations team for their huge work in bringing about such an important initiative as Ireland in London Week – it’s a fitting acknowledgement, if only a taster, of the trading relationships that power a €1 billion a week joint market and the 400,000 jobs that directly flow from it.

Keynote business gathering
Moving on, we’re planning a keynote business gathering around a visit to London by one of our leading government Ministers on Monday November 23.

Invitational Breakfast at Iveagh House
On the morning of Wednesday 2 December, we will stage a major invitational Breakfast at Iveagh House in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green under the kind auspices of Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan. At a time of unprecedented interest in British Irish affairs, we’ll have a panel of prominent thought leaders from Britain and Ireland engaged on the upcoming UK Referendum on EU Membership and Ireland’s interest in these critical proceedings. This kicks off an important new series from the British Irish Chamber as part of our commitment to facilitating high quality debate, factual information and wide engagement on issues of importance to business, investment and jobs on both islands, with the question of Brexit clearly high on that agenda for all our interests.

Meet the Buyer
On Thursday 3 December, the Chamber’s Board meets in the City of London alongside a parallel Meet the Buyer event for SME’s hosted by Grant Thornton, followed by the Chamber’s London Christmas reception hosted at Lloyd’s of London and kindly sponsored by William Fryand Robertson Low. Keep an eye out too for a special surprise Christmas Reception we may announce for Dublin very shortly…

EU Commissioner for Agriculture
On Tuesday 8 December we have a special In Camera lunch in London with EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan. Showcasing quality Irish food at Richard Corrigan’s Bentleys Restaurant, we’ll bring together food industry leaders from Britain and Ireland to consider the issues impacting the industry locally and in a European context. We’re grateful for the sponsorship of ABP Food Group and of Beauchamps Solicitors in hosting this important event.

Annual Conference and Dinner
Moving into the new year, we will have the Annual Conference and Dinner of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce on Friday 19 February at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin’s Ballsbridge. With the support once again of title sponsor Ulster Bank and Dinner sponsor Lloyd’s, and several supporting firms, we’ll be building on the widely acknowledged success of our 2015 event to deliver another memorable and influential business and social gathering.

King George V Cup Race Day
Last but not least, looking further into 2016, you’ll want to note two Save the Dates for your diary – Friday June 3 for our King George V Cup Race Day at Leopardstown and Thursday September 8 for our British Irish Chamber of Commerce President’s Annual Dinner.

So we’ve certainly got something for all our Members in the weeks and months ahead and our sectoral Policy Groups (spanning our UK Advisory Group, International Affairs, Energy, Technology, Finance & Professional Services, Life Sciences, Food & Agribusiness, SME and Culture, Arts, Sports & Tourism) will also be hosting their own special-interest fora as well. Do let us know if you’d like more information on any of our Events or to get more involved in our sectoral Policy Groups and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Post by John McGrane, www.britishirishchamber.com

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Hedging Currency Risk

Currency risk is a natural by product of trading overseas. In most cases, a company trading overseas will have to make purchases in foreign currency to pay suppliers or convert the receivable currency into Euros to pay overheads. Given the volatility in foreign exchange rates and the credit timeline most companies will have to make a call on whether they hedge the currency risk or just convert to or from Euros on the day they receive the foreign currency.

The payment timeline can vary from a couple of weeks to a couple of months – a cursory look at Euro/US Dollar graph below which shows where the currency has traded over the last 3 months, makes it clear that if you are trading overseas you are likely be exposed to considerable FX volatility

Source: Bloomberg

The Euro/ US dollar has seen a high of over 1.1600 down to a low of below 1.0900 in this period. In Euro terms, €100k could either have bought you $116k or $109k in this 3 month horizon – that’s a difference of $5k which could be the company’s profit margin.

So when Banks talk about currency hedging they usually mean using foreign exchange forward contracts to lock in today’s exchange rate for delivery on a date in the future. The date in the future can vary from 3 days forward to years in the future depending on the size and type of company but typically it’s not longer than 12 months.

Foreign Exchange Forward Contracts

One of the advantages of using foreign exchange forward contracts is that it buys certainty on the currency front. The company will know exactly how much they need to pay in their home currency or how much they will receive in their home currency when entering into a transaction. It allows them to protect their margin and removes the risk of being a hostage to volatile currency markets. What it doesn’t allow is taking advantage of any further up side in the currencies once the contract is booked.

Some firms may be willing to risk part of their FX exposure in the pursuit of a better exchange rate while others accept that the principle of protecting the bottom line is their priority. In reality, a company might not hedge 100% of their exposure but this is very much down to the risk appetite of the company in question and what their treasury policy guides.

In my experience, the one certainty when dealing with foreign currencies is volatility. As a company trading internationally the choices are around how you deal with this volatility in your business model. Do you leave currency conversion to chance and take the rate on the day or do you take a more proactive approach to managing the risk using forward hedging as a means to protect your bottom line? Expanding into new markets and taking on new suppliers overseas has many risks not just those in relation to foreign currency volatility – recognising and making a decision on how best to address those risks is half the battle.

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Sales Lessons from Rome

Sales Lessons from Rome – Recently Mrs Business Therapist and I made our long awaited trip to Rome courtesy of a long and slow collection of points with a well-known rewards company (no free advertising here!) As all our friends had told us, it was a beautiful and mind blowing experience. We undertook all the touristy and historic things but for me the highlight was the food and a particular food walking tour recommended by a friend.

The Romans as a rule were a delight to deal with and suffered my very poor North Belfast Italian with a smile on their face. However the business lessons that became apparent did not come from the Romans but the many Asians we encountered every few yards selling trips and tours of all shapes and sizes on open or closed top buses.

Lesson1: Adapt – These sales people were very obviously not in their home environment but had adapted to their new surroundings learning the languages required to provide their consumers with the solutions needed.

Lesson 2: Listen – Every sales person I encountered met me with a smile asked if I was interested then waited for my response and dealt with it accordingly. Communication is two way and an essential element of any sales process.

Lesson 3: Be positive – The sales people will probably get more ‘no thanks’ than a yes’s every day but their enthusiasm and positivity did not seem to be waining. In sales ‘no’ can be a positive answer allowing you to move on or diarise for a revisit. It will never leave you hanging.

Lesson 4: Get your timing right – We were very lucky to enjoy great weather in Rome except for one day when we were caught in a torrential downpour. All sane people sought cover but we thought we would plough on back to the apartment. The streets had emptied and even the tour sellers had the sense to hide or so I thought. Within minutes they reappeared with new products suitable for that time – umbrellas and rain coats! Timing can be everything to a successful business and is not only influenced by the markets but legislative and governmental changes. It is essential that you do not get bogged down in your business preventing you from being sensitive to systemic changes.

Words of warning – In Rome the traffic is constantly moving with everyone attempting to move quickly, bursting for that gap that has just appeared – all in an attempt to get ahead – just like business. When you look closely at all these beautiful Italian cars, large and small, you will soon notice that most, if not all, have bumps and scrapes – battle scars from this environment. As a small business when you move, adapt and grow it is most likely that you will also experience the bumps and scrapes – expect them and move on.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger”
Friedrich Nietzsche

As always I appreciate your comments, your feedback and the sharing of any of my blogs.

The Business Therapist – making your business better – you can catch me on twitter @BizGrowth4U or LinkedIn

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