More business? No thanks I’m fine! What?
I despair.
Is entrepreneurism dead for British businesses?
So here I am at the Ibis Hotel in Earls Court at a seminar being run by Lee Gilbert (he’s great by the way – look him up. He’s an Internet Marketing Expert) and lo and behold there’s a ‘traditional’ English public under the same roof.
So, what has this got to do with the headline? Well, I only found out by accident because it happens to be raining and I didn’t bring a brolly; therefore thought I’d see what was available in the hotel.
There are another 50 people at the event, any of whom would only have found the venue by accident not by design.
There is admittedly an A-frame billboard in the reception of the hotel but no concerted effort by the pub to promote their services to almost a captive audience.
There’s 2 possible exits from the conference room we are in, neither with any clear promotion for delegates.
Wouldn’t you as a business owner do something proactive rather than leave it to chance – a couple more A-frames, leaflet delegates as they came out, liaise with the event organisers to highlight the venue as opposed to all the establishments outside of the hotel,…..?
How many thousands of potential prospects just walk out the door and spend their pounds elsewhere over a year?
Why rely on the weather?
Stranger than fiction!
If You Were An Entrepreneur – What Would You Do With A Dead Donkey?
I thought you might find this amusing:
If You Were An Entrepreneur - What Would You Do With A Dead Donkey?
Young Johnny bought a donkey from a farmer for £100.
The next day the farmer drove up to Johnny and said: ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad news. The donkey’s died.’
Johnny replied, ‘Well then just give me my money back.’
The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I’ve already spent it.’
Johnny said ‘OK then, just bring me the dead donkey – I’ll raffle him off‘
The farmer said, ‘You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’
Johnny said, ‘Sure I can. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’
A month later, the farmer met up with Johnny and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’
Johnny said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at £2 a piece and made a profit of £898‘
The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’
Johnny said, ‘Just the guy who won, so I gave him his £2 back!’
Is Customer Service Dead?
Is Customer Service Dead?
I do wonder sometimes whether customer service is actually dead or dying?
Here’s an example that just beggars belief.
It involves a venue that I have been using for an event since last May and I wanted to introduce another event. So I approached them and, bearing in mind I am looking to place new business with them, they came back to me confirming the availability for the new event whilst, in the same email, putting my prices up on the existing event!
Undeterred I let that one go as I negotiated a deal for the new event that offset the existing one if that makes sense?
Anyway moving on, I raised a few issues, some of which I thought were helping the venue be more efficient and was hit with:
“That makes it more difficult for us”
“You have to think about the waste in the kitchen”
“This doesn’t help the chef”
“It is easier for us to use the other room”
“What you pay us doesn’t cover another pot of coffee”
What? I don’t care!!
The last one almost had me cancel the venue and find somewhere else, unfortunately they do have me by the short and curlies to an extent as it is the best venue around does get very positive feedback from the attendees to my event.
But I ask you..?
I have placed in excess of £2,500 of business with them that will increase in 2012 and all their communication was about them – nothing about me, their customer and what I wanted.
After a rather snotty email from me stating that I was “not feeling the love”, things have now improved and the extra pot of coffee (that must cost them pence is now forthcoming at future events.
What surprised me the most was that a venue like this just doesn’t get customer service. Maybe I should approach them and offer them some training?
Onwards and upwards!
Less Than 1 in 5 Business Owners Will Be Able To Solve This Puzzle
If you can do this – then great. Still check out the link below to find out why this is important to your business.
Here’s the challenge:
Link all 9 dots using 4 straight lines without taking your pen off the paper or retracing any of the lines.
This is possible – to find out how and to find out what the hell this has to do with helping your business be successful, visit www.nine-dots.co.uk
Don’t Get Your Mucking Words Fuddled
Whatever message you are trying get across, using the right words is essential. Sometimes subtle changes can make the world of difference – as exemplified very well by the following video:
embedded by Embedded Video
Making sure you have an appropriate level of IT Support for your business
Making sure you have an appropriate level of IT Support for your business
In today’s hectic internet based market place, businesses are heavily reliant on their IT infrastructure. Any lost in services of key IT systems and infrastructure will lead to loss of time but more importantly, loss of revenue and customers. And in most cases these outages occur when insufficient high availability services are not provisioned, in the solution provided.
It is therefore critical that businesses budget for back-up and IT support services for those vital systems, to ensure the business stays operational, in the event the worst does happen. To help reduce or eliminate these risks, IT Support companies are the first line of defence.
Whether you’re a small business with little or no in-house IT staff or a multi-national with a dedicated IT department, having the right IT Support strategy in place, is essential to the smooth running of the business on a whole.
IT Support Services: What’s included?
Within all businesses their IT requirements will vary greatly, even between departments within the same organisation. An IT Support company will have a range of services, which are either standardised one size fits all or highly customisable. In most cases providers, will deliver a number of support packages, which cover workstation and server monitoring/management, back up, security services and network maintenance.
IT support services traditionally comprises of the following component elements:
Service Desk
Service Desks is support framework provided by expert technicians, via telephone, email, chat programs or through special remote management tools. Highly skilled IT professionals monitor, track, report, fault find and resolve any non-service affecting and service affecting issues, as they arise on the customers IT systems.
On-site Support
If after several attempts to resolve any issues remotely have failed or if the customer has a project based requirement, trained IT professionals will attend the customer’s place of business, to complete the work or resolve the reported issues. This could include reinstalling hardware or software, replacing broken parts or simply rectifying any user problem.
Server Monitoring and Maintenance
At the heart of most businesses IT infrastructure, is their server environment. IT support companies will continuously monitor these IT systems, to ensure they are running at their optimal. This can include patch management, server security, domain/user management and file access performance.
Security and Back-Up
Unexpected loss of data or breaches in security protocols, will cause many thousands of pound worth of damage and in some cases, put the affected business, out of action completely. A specialist IT support company can provide highly sophisticated remote backup solutions, data replication services and business contingency planning, to help reduce the risk of service failure or data loss.
Selecting the right IT Support Services Company
There are many considerations to take into account when choosing an IT support services provider. You need to select a provider with the right level of skills and expertise, coverage in a local or national area, and the appropriate pricing structure.
10 Steps To Success in 2012 – Step 10: Plan
10 Steps To Success in 2012 - Step 10: Plan
Ultimately whatever the aspirations for your business, write them down in a business plan in line with what you want to achieve over the next 12 months. By documenting your S.M.A.R.T. objectives, you are able to share them with peers, staff, bank managers and/or advisors to the business and it enables you to track progress and make decisions more easily that are congruent with where you are heading.
Include specific actions with who is doing what, by when and the associated measure such that you can monitor how you are getting on with the plan. Time is one of the most valuable assets you have and it is limited to so many hours in a day, days a week, weeks in a year and, as you know, time flies (where does it go?).
With a dynamic business plan (i.e. one that doesn’t sit on the shelf gathering dust), how you prioritise this commodity is made clearer and you can make the best use of the time made available to you and be more effective with the actions you take.
(Download a free business plan template)
Download the full guide: 10 Steps To Success in 2012
Or alternatively, you can use Facebook or Twitter to get your copy:
10 Steps To Success in 2012 – Step 9: Outsource
10 Steps To Success in 2012 - Step 9: Outsource
As a business owner, you are not an expert in every single aspect of what it takes to run a successful business – no one is (not even Sir Richard Branson or Lord Alan Sugar!). So outsource those functions that you either don’t like doing or can’t do effectively. The obvious ones are the financial accounting requirements for a business, legal matters, HR/Personnel issues, Health & Safety.
But what about sales, marketing or operational needs for your business?
Employing staff is not always the answer or the best option for your business (as employees bring their own problems for business owners with them!) – there are advisors, consultants and experts that can provide solutions for whatever your business is looking for.
The benefits of outsourcing (versus staff) are that it is ‘turn-on-and-off-able‘ as and when demand changes and the relationship is one of supplier to customer, not manager to staff, so potentially the dynamic is better; or at least different.
By offloading such responsibilities from your shoulders, this takes the onus from you working ‘in’ the business, allowing you to work ‘on’ the business and take a more strategic view on the direction of where you want your business to be.
Download the full guide: 10 Steps To Success in 2012
Or alternatively, you can use Facebook or Twitter to get your copy:
10 Steps To Success in 2012 – Step 8: Cashflow
10 Steps To Success in 2012 - Step 8: Cashflow
Cash is the biggest killer of businesses – large and small. Lack of cash within a business (or extensive borrowing and the inability to repay it) cuts off the lifeblood within an organisation and ultimately will lead to its failure. Knowing what cash is coming in and out of your business and when is essential. Invoice regularly – there is no need to wait for the end of the month and chase invoices before they are due.
Doing this ensures there are no issues that would prevent payment, that you are on the payment run and to keep your bill in the mind of the debtor – sometimes it’s who shouts the loudest gets paid the soonest.
Manage relationships with creditors and negotiate better payment terms that benefit your business. Have a cashflow projection that looks forwards not backwards, so you can manage bills that will become due in the future; like VAT for example.
(Download a free cashflow template)
Download the full guide: 10 Steps To Success in 2012
Or alternatively, you can use Facebook or Twitter to get your copy:
10 Steps To Success in 2012 – Step 7: Profit
10 Steps To Success in 2012 - Step 7: Profit
No doubt you have heard the expression: “Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity“? There is no point, as a business owner, having a high turnover but only a few pounds profit – or worse still, a loss. Understand the break even point in your business and keep control of your costs; whether it is staff, raw materials, utilities, rates, etc.
Have regular management accounts generated (at least monthly) by your finance person that provide you with the key financial measures that are important to your business (including a cashflow forecast).
Knowing where you are in your business from a ‘bottom-line’ perspective enables you to make more informed decisions about the direction of your business.
Download the full guide: 10 Steps To Success in 2012
Or alternatively, you can use Facebook or Twitter to get your copy:
