10 mistakes of referral marketing
“Referral is the highest form of flattery” This is the by-line of Majestic
interactive and has become the cornerstone of what we do. In fact, this is what
my seminars and the Majestic Network are achieving every day in ways that
will bring tears to your eyes. Unfortunately, what nearly all businesses don’t
understand is that referral marketing must be a formal process. In other
words… you need to measure it.
So, here are the top 10 mistakes that South African businesses make in their
viral/referral marketing initiatives:
They don’t understand the concept. Referral marketing is about leveraging
trust from one person to another. It is inherently the purest form of business
honestly one can have. Referral marketing is NOT just some scam to bring in
business for free.
They think that referral marketing just happens. Less than 10% of
referral business “just happens”. People DON’ T want to talk about you or your
product at parties and they DON’T want to run around telling all their mates
how great you are.
They don’t formally measure it. If you don’t have a formal process to track
referral leads, then don’t bother.
They don’t report on it. You need to show the person who referred you what
the result was (especially if there is commission owing). You also need to know
at a glance who referred who and where each person is in the sale process.
They don’t ask for referrals. It’s unbelievable, but nearly all businesses are
too scared to ask the simple question: “could you please give me a referral?”
The timing of their request for referrals is bad. If you ask for a referral
before the relationship is strong enough, then you don’t have much chance of
success. However, ask at the right time and you may just get more business
than you can handle!
They run campaigns that rely solely on referrals. Referral initiatives are
there to SUPPLEMENT other marketing initiatives, not REPLACE them. They
should be part of the campaign, not the campaign itself.
They don’t make a referral process part of their day to day business.
Referrals should be part of your life, not an occasional flurry when your
business is having a bad month.
They let the referee down. Someone puts their name on the line for you and
you don’t have the courtesy to follow it up? Or worse, you provide shocking
service to the lead?!? This makes me want to get violent.
They don’t offer commission (or are unwilling to pay for leads). For
crying out loud, this is BUSINESS. Business is about money. Referral
commissions are the most critical element of the whole show. They’re not
always necessary, but you’ll lose out if you don’t offer it. Don’t believe me?
Amazon.com is built on referrals – that’s what makes them number one in the
world.
All this leads into the concept of lead generation and ROI (Return on
Investment) marketing and one of the key lessons in my book: do not spend
money on marketing, unless you are guaranteed a return on investment.
Tax Day
The tax season is finally open for individuals to submit their tax returns. This year the season is shorter compared all the other years. Submission of tax returns calls for proper planning to entail a smooth submission of returns.
Taxpayers need to ensure that they have allTaxpayersred documentation handy. These documents include IRP5, medical certificates, pension certificates, proof of medical expenses and all other relevant documents. If you are a first timer make sure you have registered with SARS and have a tax number. Once you get your tax number go on SARS efiling and create a profile. Once the profile has been created you can go ahead and submit your tax return.
Your accountant can help you with your individual tax returns by completing the return on your behalf and filing it through SARS efiling. Some taxpayers are not Tech savvy and prefer to submit their returns at the SARS branch close to them. This is time-consuming as one has to que at SARS to submit the tax return, I would advise that all taxpayers register of SARS efiling so they can submit their returns electronically from the comfort of their offices or homes. This is hustle free and very convenient.
An individual needs to ascertain if they have to submit a tax return. SARS has criteria to determine whether an individual taxpayer must submit a return information can be obtained on the SARS website.
For more information and assistance with your tax returns please do contact your accountant or tax practitioner who should be able to assist you with your tax queries or you can call SARS directly.
Win with the Business Partners Business Plan Competition
We are all aware of how tough the economic environment is for young people at the moment. Entrepreneurship is one of the ways we can equip these youngsters to consider their own businesses as an option.
All young aspiring entrepreneurs now have the opportunity to attend a one-day business workshop at no cost, when they enter our 9th Business Plan Competition, but we need your help to spread the message.
The 9th annual Business Plan Competition for young aspiring entrepreneurs is now open for entries.
All entrants will be invited to attend a full-day business planning workshop in centres throughout the country, to empower them to submit a business plan for the second phase of the competition. Everyone is a winner – even before the competition closes.
Regional winners will win mentorship support to the value of R6 000 and enter the national event as finalists, and the national winner will win R12 000 worth of mentorship support and R25 000 cash.
The BUSINESS/PARTNERS-SMETOOLKIT Business plan competition for young aspiring entrepreneurs closes 31 July 2018.
For more information, please contact the Entrepreneurs Growth Centre on tel 0861 763 346, send an email to smetoolkit@businesspartners.co.za, or visit the SME Toolkit website at http://smetoolkit.businesspartners.co.za.
For ease of reference, find the relevant links:
- Competition blurb: http://smetoolkit.businesspartners.co.za/en/content/enter-2018-business-plan-competition-aspiring-young-entrepreneurs
- Entry form: http://smetoolkit.businesspartners.co.za/en/content/2018-business-plan-competition-entry-form
- Competition rules: http://smetoolkit.businesspartners.co.za/en/content/2018-business-plan-competition-annexure-rules
Do you need to do your CIPC annual Return?
When we chat with business owners about their CIPC annual return, we too often get blank stares with a small side of fear. “Oh no, not another compliance issue we need to take care of” is the reply.
Ok, so let’s put things right here and help lay your fear to rest, a bit.
Yes, every registered business needs to submit an annual return to CIPC. It is not a very tedious task and only takes a few minutes of online work. But it can only be done through a person or business that has a registered account with CIPC. EM Solutions has such an account.
So, what needs to be done? On or as close to the annual anniversary of the registration of your business a submission needs to be made on the CIPC system detailing your last annual turnover, business email address and telephone number and description of the business.
Payment is scaled according to the turnover and ranges from R100 for turnover less than R1 million to R3000 for a turnover of more than R25 million. There are also late payment fees applicable to anything older than 3 months.
This equates to not a huge amount of money, but by not submitting your annual return could result in your business being listed as deregistered by CIPC. Once this happens, your bank will be notified and soon all your contracts, lease and creditors will become aware of this and you will become personally liable for any outstanding overdraft, accounts payable and surety that has been signed for.
Gulp! So please check when last you submitted your annual return or contact us to check for you directly on CIPC and we will advise you accordingly.
Compliance is just one of those things you need to do to run a sustainable business.
SARS Cuts Tax Deadlines
According to SARS statistics: The 2017 tax season saw 1.6million taxpayers filing tax returns at SARS branches even though they were not required to do so, from 1.8million in 2016. 868,562 taxpayers who are registered eFilers visited branches to file returns even though they could do this online, dropping from 935,269 in 2016. 120,000 tax practitioners visited SARS branches to eFile on behalf of clients (2016:132,000). Employers can register new job-seekers electronically via e@syFile, but still many of these flock to SARS to register manually. A whopping 1 million old returns were filed during 2016, with the number coming down to 733,000 in 2017.
In response to this overwhelming strain on its resources, SARS has shortened the 2018 tax period by 3 weeks. The tax season will start on 1 July and end on 31 October for non-provisional taxpayers. SARS says this will allow them to deal with audits and verifications before the December holiday break. This is also because taxpayers will be unable to attend to any requests send by SARS during the December period, resulting in a technical non-compliance which often results in taxpayers filing objections with SARS. This leads to further traffic in the SARS system.
Non-provisional taxpayers are individuals who earn a salary and do not have any additional income, for example, rental income, interest or any other income. Manual returns will have to be filed by 21 September.
In order to ease the traffic during tax-season, SARS says they have sent direct communication to taxpayers who might not need to file a return informing them of this. However, it is prudent to get a tax practitioner’s opinion before choosing not to file a return as some of these letters have been followed up by letters to disregard the initial directive. It is noteworthy that year-on-year, taxpayer circumstances may change and thus require one to file a return in order to comply.
SARS also promised that verification letters would be more specific; which will make it much easier for taxpayers and tax practitioners. This move will ease tax season headaches as SARS can send two or three verification letters, making it difficult for the taxpayer to understand what exactly SARS wants from them in order to comply.
Provisional taxpayers, however, will have until January 31, 2019, to file their returns.
Well, the goalposts have shifted and we will all have to redirect our aim so that we don’t miss out. The trend has been that most taxpayers procrastinate until the last minute to file returns or send the necessary documents to their tax practitioners and this may result in the late filing of returns, and SARS will not hesitate to charge interest and penalties.