One of the biggest problems facing business owners is the question of price. How much they charge and when is it the right time to raise their prices. Many businesses set their prices when they first start trading and fail to lift them up for a number of reasons. Read more…
This is an exercise that every business owner should carry out at regular intervals. To do this you will need to some pretty simple information. The sort of information that every business owner should keep up to date. Read more…
When most people start a business, they bring a specific job skill to the enterprise. They quickly learn that running a business is considerably more than the trade or job which brings in the money. They find out that financial management, purchasing, marketing, planning, selling and leadership are just a few of the other skills that they require.
It is not until they employ their first member of staff that they realize the difficulties associated with leadership. Normally, nothing prepares people so that they can take up a leadership role. Most managers learn leadership by making mistakes. Not a very effective strategy. Read more…
When we are talking to potential customers, we often find ourselves in a difficult situation where the potential customer is dealing with one of our competitors. We would dearly love to win business off our competitors but the process can be quite dangerous. In trying to win the business, there is a great temptation to criticize our competitors. If we do that, we are in great danger of violating the rule of business that states, “Do not criticize or complain about your competition.” This will make us look petty and unprofessional. Read more…
Business owners often tell me that marketing is complex and horribly expensive. They believe that it is a hit and miss affair without any guarantees of results. Generally, I agree with them and explain that the majority of business owners don’t realize that marketing can be carried out very economically without huge outlays of money. Curiously enough, the low or no cost marketing gets results because it is targeted. Read more…
We have all had them. The problem customer. Every business has a downside in the form of the problem customer. Don’t you wish sometimes that you never agreed to do any work for this customer from hell? Don’t you wish that someone had told you before you accepted the work that this person was going to be impossible to deal with? Read more…
I guess it’s happened to all of us at one time or another. A supplier or subcontractor has let you down and failed to deliver on time. This means that you have to go to your customer and apologize for someone else’s failure.
Situations like this can have a serious negative effect on your business. Firstly, it weakens your relationship with your customer. Secondly, it makes you feel that you cannot trust your supplier and your relationship with their business is less strong. Thirdly, an event like this can affect productivity, lower morale, disrupt planning and create a huge amount of stress for all concerned. Read more…
When you’re in business, there is always a shortage of the right customers. There are several ways of getting more customers but they all seem to have a financial or an emotional cost. Read more…
Your target market is vital to the survival of your business; it is your resource base. You provide your customers with the product or service, and in return they support your business by continuing to purchase your product or service. One of the biggest problems with a business is that there is always somebody who comes along wanting to compete with you for your customer base. Read more…
Bills are curious things because when we send them out, we forget just how unpopular they appear to be in the eyes of our customers. It’s very hard to get paid without them.
When we receive them from a supplier, we dislike them just like our customers. We believe they are an unpopular piece of paper. Read more…