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How to create a marketing plan for your small business - build a brand, target customers and set prices that will maximise sales.

The internet has transformed business marketing. No matter what you do, the internet is likely to be at the heart of your marketing strategy.

Social media is firmly established as a marketing tool. Having a presence opens up new lines of communication with existing and potential customers.

Good advertising puts the right marketing message in front of the right people at the right time, raising awareness of your business.

Customer care is at the heart of all successful companies. It can help you develop customer loyalty and improve relationships with your customers.

Sales bring in the money that enables your business to survive and grow. Your sales strategy will be driven by your sales objectives.

Market research exists to guide your business decisions by giving you insight into your market, competitors, products, marketing and your customers.

Exhibitions and events are valuable for businesses because they allow face-to-face communication and offer opportunities for networking.

New initiative to help SMEs get public sector work

18 April 2023

A programme aimed at UK small businesses promises to improve their chances of winning government contracts by helping them work with bigger suppliers.

A new programme which aims to open up valuable public sector contracts to SMEs has been launched by Deloitte Digital and Enterprise Nation. It comes as the Procurement Bill goes through Parliament promising to give innovative small firms "an even bigger slice of the procurement pie" by mandating larger firms to work with SME quotas on bids.

Deloitte's SME Supplier Eco-system Programme is intended to help talented digital firms to access opportunities to grow their business via public sector contracts. It will enable small firms to become supplier-ready and overcome the hurdles smaller businesses face in accessing large government procurement bids - such as providing evidence of previous contract work or three years of audited accounts.

Getting SMEs "supplier-ready"

Deloitte plans to hold events to help develop a new culture of collaboration and a sustainable pipeline of innovative "supplier-ready" digital SMEs. Businesses signing up to the SME Supplier Eco-system will receive monthly newsletters with notifications on new contract opportunities and join a community of peers looking to scale.

"Accessing public sector work in this way can act like an accelerator for SMEs. Government contracts are solid, they pay within 30 days and small firms get to work with incredible machines like Deloitte. It's a very powerful way to evolve the UK's digital business community and apply the work from some of the UK's most agile and innovative businesses to solve public sector problems. This benefits not just SMEs themselves but the wider community, by saving taxpayers' money along the way." Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation.

The next Meet the Buyer event will be hosted on April 26 with speakers covering current contracts and a founder story of a company that has successfully sold to government via a Deloitte supplier opportunity. The event is online and free to attend.

Andrew McKibbin, partner at Deloitte Digital, said: "We are committed to building a thriving SME community that will bring unrivalled access to exciting opportunities across government, working on complex, large scale programmes that will make a difference to society … We have a rich heritage of working closely with SMEs and I am looking forward to turbocharging that through a diverse and collaborative SME community that will help businesses grow."

Written by Rachel Miller.

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