LOVE your business
As strange as it might seem, you need to love your business, love your product and love your customer. If you don't, by default, you won't have the passion or attention to detail required to continuously improve and exceed the expectations of your customer.
It is common for business owners to become absorbed in the mundane operations and find themselves bogged down and short of ambition. This is a very dangerous place to be - and we advise you seek ways of re energising your approach with new ideas, fresh plans and exciting goals.
Thinking about starting up a new business?
Here are 5 fundamental and critical points you should consider:
1. Have a Plan – Define your business, identify your goals, know your market and have a road map of how you are going to take your business to the green pastures of success. Know your competition, identify your unique point of difference and be sure there is a market for your product or service. No plan – no chance – know failure.
2. Have a passion – Don’t think that success in business doesn’t come without a passion and determination to succeed, the will to continue in the face of defeat or your love of hard work! If it was easy, we’d all be doing it!
3. Cash flow is King – Make sure you have done all your sums, covering all scenarios and can be completely confident you will have enough operating funds to see you through any perilous trading drops in your first few years. This is all part of your plan – don’t assume anything!
4. Keep Cash on hand – This point is so critical but often overlooked in the excitement of getting into a new venture. Calculate exactly how much cash reserve you will require to trade to a sustainable point - then add 15%! This is one of the main reasons why so many businesses fail in the short term, they over capitalise on the purchase/setup, and leave no working capital or cash on hand to get over any bumps in trading.
5. Recruit a Business Consultant - The benefits a good Business Consultant will bring to your new business will be staggering, and will far out weigh the nominal costs. There are so many good things a consultant will work with you on - increasing turnover, cost control, budgeting, organisational planning, marketing, accounting, employment, training, quality control, continuous improvement... the list is endless. All geared towards making your business better than the rest and a more productive environment for you to enjoy.
So why doesn't every business have a consultant form the outset? The irony is an accountant and lawyer is a cost not questioned on a businesses accounting statements. But what actual value do they bring to the business? None. We pledge to enhance and improve your business with tried and tested business models.
I need help with my business model.
A business model should describe how your business positions itself within its industry and how it intends to generate revenue. It must answer these questions:
1. Who will pay the revenue? Is it the high street consumer, a producer, or third parties?
2. What exactly is your customer paying for? Is your customer buying goods, services, expertise, assurances of quality or what?
3. To whom? How is payment received - what is the accounting foundation of your business?
4. Why? What is the perceived value of your product or service? What makes it competitive and how is it priced?
You need a clear and convincing answers to the above questions, especially “why”.
If your business model cannot be replicated then it will difficult to turn your business into a growth business.
How do I improve my Customer Service?
Customer service is the single most important intangible element of your business. With out exceptional customer service, when the going gets tough (which it clearly has) your business is going to feel the squeeze ten fold.
Did you know? Those organisations with a superior customer service charge 9% more for their products and services? And better service providers grow twice as fast as those that provide a substandard customer experience.
But how do I ensure good customer service? Firstly, you need to understand this fundamental principle: YOUR CUSTOMER MEANS EVERYTHING TO YOUR BUSINESS. Without your customer, you ain't got a business.
Once there is this concept is completely ingrained in your organisation, you can go about designing systems and practices that reflect this through every contact point in your business. It will determine how you answer your phone, how you presnt your invoices and most importantly, how you get customer feedback.
We have a set of effective keys that will boost your customer service.
Focus on your strengths - Outsource your weaknesses.
The fact is, if you are an entrepreneur, you are by nature, likely a big thinker with a talent. If you operate a hair salon, you have a skill in style, design and beauty. If you have a restaurant, your talent lies in customer service and food. If you run a property valuers, then you are skilled at assessing markets and houses. So, our advice is simple - focus on your strengths and waste precious little time on things that don't feed from your strengths. Outsource to others the things you don't excel at.
An example: 'Dennis Developer' was an engineer by trade and loved to develop concepts - inventions. He came up with a world beater, a device which turned body heat into an electrical current strong enough to charge your cell phone. It was the same size as a 10 cent piece.
Denis new he was on the verge of making his million. So he set about marketing, branding and promoting his new product. He started his accounting platform, he labored over his business plan and he crudely set up his orders and dispatch department. He hated every moment of it as he didn't really know what he was doing or whether he was doing it right. All the while, his inventing passion began to fade under his mountainous workload.
When it came to selling his first 100 units, a customer complained that it only worked when they were 'very hot'. Of course Dennis needed time and energy to solve this issue before he sold any more, but between his customer service procedure, accounting requirements, promotional events and his operations, he simply didn't have any desire to do what he did best - develop his concept. The complaints continued and sales never really got going. Dennis walked away from his 'business' and left his invention with it.
The fact is, a business is not a business without its core product, service or concept as the CENTERPIECE. The peripheral activities within a business, the ones Dennis Developer struggled with are only there to support and control your core activity. Don't sacrifice the thing your customers pay for for the things the customer isn't interested in.
Stay In-Sync!
We recommend all entrepreneurs to Stay in-Sync. That means remaining fully up-to-date with what is happening in your local, national and international markets. It is hard to make medium to long-term management decisions without having a good understanding of trends and where things are heading. We supply a lot of resources on this site to keep you in touch with government policy, international tourism data, residential and commercial real estate data and more. CLICK for more.
Another valuable strategy to stay in-synch is to attend as many business orientated clubs, seminars, speakers and events as your calendar will allow. We recommend the Chamber of Commerce as an excellent place to start. As far as instant networking, business information updates, invitations to events etc - you can't beat it.
