BUSINESSES were told at a Chamber of Commerce survive and revive seminar to work smarter and not necessarily harder.
Image Group managing director Andrew Lewis, whose business has a presence in Guernsey and Jersey, told delegates that there was a tendency for everybody to work harder during recessionary times when, if they thought about things a little more cleverly, there would be no need for it.
The former Jersey senator and Home Affairs minister said on a simple level that could be delegating better and putting in good IT systems that reduced a lot of the administrative burden, or for sole traders sub-contracting work, which could grow their business organically rather than taking on the financial burden of more staff.
But at all levels of business, companies should be utilising the power of networking whether in person, or online, according to Mr Lewis (pictured).
‘Planning and building a brand is so important and if done in the traditional way can be quite expensive.
‘But networking is also so powerful, especially in a small community. It’s the cheapest form of marketing we are ever going to do.
‘Organisations like Chamber, Giba and sports clubs are a great way of meeting people and getting your message across. But it’s not just about selling your business, you can be getting intelligence, finding staff through it, or treating it as a free focus group.’
Mr Lewis said utilising online resources was also critical.
‘With a website you can change your literature all the time at no cost, on the back of which you can take full advantage of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
‘You can build a whole community online that in the past would have taken months, if not years, to do.’
And it was not just small companies using the power of the internet. Mr Lewis said most large corporations would use it in one way or another too.
‘What they are looking to do is get some brand awareness. That may involve creating a character that people start to follow in order to win a prize. They’ll use it very much as a teaser.’
Mr Lewis was delivering the keynote speech ahead of the rest of the survive-and-revive seminar, which built on the success of a similar event held last year about unlocking the potential of businesses.
The event included a series of practical sessions looking at strategy, cash flow, debt recovery and credit checking.
It also ended with a networking session led by The Learning Company’s Kathy Tracey, the importance of which Mr Lewis had highlighted earlier.
Article posted on 16th November, 2009 - 2.30pm
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