Issue #85 - Things are looking up? 🙄
Are you growing your business? | 12 ways to increase small business revenue | How to advertise your business | The story of The Old Ivy House Pub | Words | Tunes | More
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Are you growing your business? 🌱
Welcome to Issue #85 of The Backbone - the fortnightly newsletter from Bionic.
Starting a business is one thing, growing it is quite another.
We’ve been speaking to loads of business owners this year, to find out their stories - how they got started, their plans for the next 12 months, the things they’ve struggled with, what they’re most proud of as a business owner, and so on.
As you might expect, everyone has a different story of how they got started. But there is one thing that loads of business owners seem to have in common - they’re most proud of simply staying open and having a steady stream of happy customers.
Having run a business ourselves, we know just how much of an achievement that is. And there’s nothing like the feeling you get when customers come back because they love what you do.
If this sounds like you, your business might be ticking along nicely but growth plans might not be a priority.
If so, you’re not alone - around a third (30%) of business owners predict any form of growth in the next few months. This is the lowest number since the Covid lockdown of January 2021, when around a quarter (26%) were optimistic about growth plans.
But should we start feeling more optimistic? Even if only cautiously so?
If you’re feeling positive, you might feel encouraged that inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), fell to 2.3% in April. On the face of things, this is good news as it’s well below the 11.1% it reached in October 2022.
On the downside, those price rises won’t be reversed. And prices are still rising, just not as quickly as they were. The fact is, we’re now paying a lot more for things than we were a couple of years ago.
If you do have plans to grow or expand your business, now is probably as good a time as any (things are still tough, but a lot more normal than they have been for years). But those ongoing inflationary pressures and rising costs could still pose challenges, so you’ll need a solid strategy based on thorough market research and dedicated financial planning.
Even if you’re not actively looking to grow your business, it could be worth considering ways to increase your revenue alongside any cost-cutting measures you might have in place. We’ll take a closer look at how to do this in our READ section below.
In the meantime, here’s the next of our coaching guides, which you can watch below or on the Bionic YouTube channel.
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Small business owners are the superheroes of the high street. But small business owners rarely get their voices heard. Now there’s a place where they can chat, share advice and help each other through the lows and highs of running a business. To get involved, scan or click the QR code above or click the button below to sign up.
🗞 READ
12 ways to increase small business revenue 💷
Could your small business benefit from extra income? There are plenty of creative ways to bring in extra cash, including upselling and cross-selling, customer loyalty programs, online ordering and delivery, events and collaborations, and more.
Here are more ideas with examples and tips on how your small business can use these to make extra cash.
How to advertise your business 📺
Advertising can be hugely effective for startups and small businesses to raise awareness about their brand and make audiences aware of their product or service.
But, it covers a wide range of activities and knowing where to start can be confusing. To help you understand how to put an effective strategy in place, our handy guide will introduce you to the basics of traditional and digital advertising and how they can benefit your business.
🗣 SHOUTOUT
#SmallBusinessStory - The Old Ivy House 🍺
For the last of our Small Business Superhero stories on pubs, we sat down with Kate Davidson, who runs The Old Ivy House with her business partner, Del. We discuss her biggest achievements, struggles, plans for the future, and more.
Bionic: Did you have a background in running pubs before you took over The Old Ivy House?
Kate Davidson: Before taking over The Old Ivy House, I’d been running a Shoreditch pub called The Price Arthur. Although I was running that pub, I didn't own the lease or anything. The two owners were quite hands-off and let me get on with it. So, it was a great way to learn what I was doing! With ‘The Price Arthur’, there wasn't much scope for putting on events. It had a good customer base, but it was a very small little backstreet boozer. It’s been great to have spread my wings at The Old Ivy House, which is much bigger.
B: How did you become the owner of The Old Ivy House?
KD: My business partner Dell was a customer at The Prince Arthur. He became a friend, then a business partner. We were talking one night; he'd always wanted to run a pub but didn't know how. Anyway, a plan was hatched and that’s how we came to take over The Old Ivy House. I’d have been so lost if it wasn't for Dell. He's in his mid-50s and has run a couple of businesses before, he's got a few things on the side too so he's very savvy.
B: What was the aesthetic inspiration behind The Old Ivy House?
KD: The main inspiration was creating a pub we’d personally like to drink in, so we thought about football, comedy nights, good music and dim lighting. All the things that make a pub’s atmosphere appealing.
B: How do you attract customers?
KD: It's kind of organic, in terms of events we try things out and see what works and what doesn’t. When we first took over, it was a bit of a dead pub. It's on the main road and there’s not much footfall, although it’s only a ten-minute walk to Angel, Farringdon, Barbican or Old Street stations, no one really passes our door unless they're going to one of the businesses nearby. To draw people in, we initially decided to try a comedy show, so we sourced a comedian who curated our nights for us. But we always come up with different ideas, we did a dog show last week. Last summer we got a jazz band from the local music school, and they play every Friday.
B: How do you market your pub?
KD: I think a lot of our marketing is word of mouth. We still get people coming in saying ‘Oh, I didn't realise you'd changed hands.’ But it takes a while for that to filter down. We make posters and put them in the coffee shop windows or the fish and chip shop. If say, we’re doing an open mic night, we give posters out to the local college or university. It's pretty basic marketing but it goes back to our roots.
Read more from Kate over at the Bionic website. Check out the full interview on YouTube or by watching the video below.
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🔊 LISTEN
Playlist 🎵
Laura, our top copywriter, recently went to see Tourist - a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who blends folk vocals, synth lines, and nostalgic melodic house ambience. We ran a radio on his track Elixir, and the result was more than three hours of ambient magic from Barry Can’t Swim, Four Tet, Maribou State, and more.
Podcast 🎙
This week, we’re delving back into crime with Camilla, our Senior CRM Manager. We’re usually at our most vulnerable when we go to our doctors. Dr. Death (now on season four) looks at what happens when we can’t trust them.
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