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Answer Upon - Small Business Secret #5: Choose Your Customers Carefully- They Are What Can Make Or Break You
Are you surprised that the fear of public speaking is the number one fear of our society – probably not. In fact if you are reading this you most likely suffer from this fear just like so many others.Have you ever thought how strange it is that people who speak comfortably to a group of peers are paralyzed with fear when a lectern and a microphone are placed in front of them?I am reminded of a comment made in the TV series Seinfeld.If you perform a search on the internet for the number one fear in our society, you will find that it is that of public speaking. It may be surprising that the fear of death is actually number six. A natural conclusion from these two statistics is that for most people, if th
The downfall of many countries and political leaders are attributable to poor leadership succession. Yugoslavia plunged into civil war with the demise of President Tito in 1980. Till then, he was all-powerful and had no intention of passing control to anybody. Former President Suharto tried to perpetuate his powers too by surrounding himself with weak subordinates. This brought about his downfall and the economic disaster in Indonesia when the Asian economic crisis hit in 1997.Similarly, many once successful companies have failed because of poor succession planning. Many entrepreneurs want their children to succeed them and take over the reins in their businesses. However, their offspring may not be the b
There are many reasons why you want to choose your customers, rather than they choosing you. One of the key reasons is money. Having too many companies that do not pay you within an acceptable period of time can in fact put such a financial burden on your business that they can bankrupt your business. Let me explain …
I had a number of government clients a few years ago which had a policy of choosing when and if they were going to pay. These government clients used purchase orders to buy training from our company, but just because they could, they decided that they did not want to pay because the whole purchase order had not been completed. So even though one person out of 15 had not completed their training and had been sent overseas, they chose that they were not going to pay the $14,000 bill.
Fourteen thousand dollars to any small business is a massive amount, add onto the fact that we had to outlay money for these courses including wages, catering and manuals. The consequence of this organization deciding not to pay put a huge financial burden on my business. I should note that this client was not dissatisfied with our training, which was
If you are looking to get your name out there, chances are you are looking to do it for little or no cost. So, how do you get free publicity? There are several ways to get this done.One of the main things to remember is that press releases are not just reserved for big announcements or major accomplishments. Put out a press release when you develop a new product or service. Let the community know when you have contests, award prizes, have open houses or when you have a speaker coming to your establishment. Anything that is out of the ordinary of business as usual is grounds for a press release.Write articles for anybody you can think of; newspapers, trade publications, magazines, newsletters, websites
There are many reasons why you want to choose your customers, rather than they choosing you. One of the key reasons is money. Having too many companies that do not pay you within an acceptable period of time can in fact put such a financial burden on your business that they can bankrupt your business. Let me explain …
I had a number of government clients a few years ago which had a policy of choosing when and if they were going to pay. These government clients used purchase orders to buy training from our company, but just because they could, they decided that they did not want to pay because the whole purchase order had not been completed. So even though one person out of 15 had not completed their training and had been sent overseas, they chose that they were not going to pay the $14,000 bill.
Fourteen thousand dollars to any small business is a massive amount, add onto the fact that we had to outlay money for these courses including wages, catering and manuals. The consequence of this organization deciding not to pay put a huge financial burden on my business. I should note that this client was not dissatisfied with our training, which was
All businesses need to engage strategic thinking and planning in all aspects of their business, especially the marketing plan for the business. In working with custom home builders as part of my business coaching practice, I discovered only a few of them ever recognized the value of being strategic in their thinking and planning and had limited themselves to lower levels of success. Fortunately, after they opened their minds to being more strategic, their outlook changed and they started putting some tips on strategic marketing to good use. One of the most vivid and remarkable examples was one custom home builder that went from one of their worst years in business to a record setting best year in business after committing
I had a number of government clients a few years ago which had a policy of choosing when and if they were going to pay. These government clients used purchase orders to buy training from our company, but just because they could, they decided that they did not want to pay because the whole purchase order had not been completed. So even though one person out of 15 had not completed their training and had been sent overseas, they chose that they were not going to pay the $14,000 bill.
Fourteen thousand dollars to any small business is a massive amount, add onto the fact that we had to outlay money for these courses including wages, catering and manuals. The consequence of this organization deciding not to pay put a huge financial burden on my business. I should note that this client was not dissatisfied with our training, which was
I don't want to put you off becoming a pro, but there are a few things you should ask yourself. Firstly is it worth it? Can you push yourself to the extreme and still be courteous to customers who are having a bad day while you are having one yourself. If you can be understanding and kind while you yourself are feeling like hell then tick yourself one box. I found that serving time as a sales assistant helped me a lot in this regard.Second, can you put up with working from 6am until 11pm even when you are ill and on Sundays? Being a photographer isn't just about taking some nice pictures and sitting back while the cheques roll in, I wish it were.You see, most clients don't realise that what happens after the ev
Fourteen thousand dollars to any small business is a massive amount, add onto the fact that we had to outlay money for these courses including wages, catering and manuals. The consequence of this organization deciding not to pay put a huge financial burden on my business. I should note that this client was not dissatisfied with our training, which was
Being a professional and speaking like a professional are two very different things.Before you can speak like a professional, you need to be certain that you believe that you are a professional. This may sound like an odd statement to some readers, however, many small businesses are successfully started and run by those who are more accustomed to working behind the scenes than in front of the microphone and camera. The fact is, no one is born with an innate ability to speak well before large groups and it is a skill best learned through experience and practice.If you have confidence issues, stammer or are at a loss for words when someone asks you what you do, don't ignore the problem! Immediately after reading t
Anyway, after 9 months we did finally get paid, however, that training actually cost us more than $14,000 by the time we accrued things like penalty payments on products we purchased and interest plus legal fees in recovering the money. In the end I learnt a very important lesson that you need to be very careful as to whom your customers are because they can do a huge amount of damage to your cash flow and can put you into huge debt just to survive.
Let me give you another example of a family member who recently experienced the same situation …
Certain members of my family decided they wanted to try their hand at the trucking industry. They purchased a truck and got into a contract with a large freight distribution company. Essentially, they ran into trouble within the first few months of starting their business, simply because they chose to have just one client and the contract they entered into with this client allowed the freight company to withhold payments for upto 3 months before they got paid. This has cause this family a lot of problems
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