Tough Love - The Harsh But Essential Advice If You Want to Run a Successful Small Business - Part 2
In part one of Tough Love, I gave you five fundamental pieces of advice you should immediately adopt if you run, or are thinking or starting up, a small business. Part two carries on giving you real advice you need to make a success of your small business. You may not find this information in business management books but believe me, it comes from a man who has experienced the toughest times in small business and knows that difficult times call for difficult decisions...tough love in small business.
1. Don't need a website?
Yes you do. I don't care if your business only relies on local customers, you still need a presence on the Internet. Hundreds of books have been written on Internet marketing so go read one but for now you need to know a couple of basic facts. Firstly, localised businesses need a website even more than national ones because they don't have the same marketing budget and a website is a cheap way of reaching your customers. Secondly, a short, descriptive domain name is much easier to remember than a telephone number. When you close this article down, try to remember 'Call - 72618974990' and 'KatesPetStore.com' and see which one is easier to recall. Put your website address on vehicles, signs, windows....just about anywhere you can put it and it will bring you more customers.
2. Sack your Accountant
Why pay a small fortune every month/year for something you can almost certainly do yourself? There is so much cheap accountancy software available online that month-to-month bookkeeping is something you must do yourself. I don't care if you're computer illiterate or not. The fact that you're reading this article is proof enough that you are capable of looking after your monthly accounts. You will probably still need an Accountant for your end of year submissions and for tax issues but don't pay somebody for something that can be done so quickly and easily with a $50 accounts program. Don't have time to do your own bookkeeping? Get your partner, sister, uncle or next door neighbour to do it. I guarantee that even if you pay them a small monthly fee, it will be considerable cheaper than your Accountant.
3. Advertise-Wise
Whatever your product or service, you need to advertise. It may just be putting flyers through the neighbours door but it still costs time and money and you need to know if it works? I have seen so much advertising money wasted in my career it makes me weep. You MUST establish how every one of your customers came to find your business. This data is absolutely crucial in determining where you spend your valuable advertising budget. Monitor it closely and if something isn't paying it's way, get rid of it. Don't be concerned that other companies still use the medium, that's their look-out. Have you ever considered that some companies advertise in certain media just because their competition do? Madness!
4. It's always cheaper somewhere else.
You MUST conduct a thorough appraisal of your existing supplier costs. It doesn't matter if it's electricity, water, products, gas....there is a good chance you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Not worth the hassle to save 2-3%?How many suppliers do you have, 5, 10, 15? If you can save an average of only 2% with every supplier simply by re-negotiating their prices or going elsewhere, you can save up to 25%-30% from your operating costs. That's real money in your bank account and not theirs. I still find it incredible that small business owners spend so much effort on bringing in money that they never consider how much they're giving away to suppliers.
5. Sorry, the office is closed.
Every time a potential customer tries to contact you and can't, you've wasted advertising money. Work out how many customers you have in one month then divide that by your profit and you'll quickly discover how much you've paid to attract each individual customer. Every time you don't answer the phone, that's how much cash you've wasted. Sinking in now? If you only want to take customer enquiries 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday then go and get a job, running a small business is not for you. Whenever you leave the office, have your office phone re-directed to your mobile phone, it's cheap, easy and means you will be able to take customer enquiries when your competition are closed.
I hope some of the above advice is worth the time it's taken you to read this article and please stay tuned for the next part of my series on Tough Love Small Business Advice.
Important Note: If you have found this free advice useful, I'd be really grateful if you could give me a vote so I can gauge overall reader opinion.
K A Pearson
Take A Step In My Direction, Visit http://www.coursesdistancelearning.com
1. Don't need a website?
Yes you do. I don't care if your business only relies on local customers, you still need a presence on the Internet. Hundreds of books have been written on Internet marketing so go read one but for now you need to know a couple of basic facts. Firstly, localised businesses need a website even more than national ones because they don't have the same marketing budget and a website is a cheap way of reaching your customers. Secondly, a short, descriptive domain name is much easier to remember than a telephone number. When you close this article down, try to remember 'Call - 72618974990' and 'KatesPetStore.com' and see which one is easier to recall. Put your website address on vehicles, signs, windows....just about anywhere you can put it and it will bring you more customers.
2. Sack your Accountant
Why pay a small fortune every month/year for something you can almost certainly do yourself? There is so much cheap accountancy software available online that month-to-month bookkeeping is something you must do yourself. I don't care if you're computer illiterate or not. The fact that you're reading this article is proof enough that you are capable of looking after your monthly accounts. You will probably still need an Accountant for your end of year submissions and for tax issues but don't pay somebody for something that can be done so quickly and easily with a $50 accounts program. Don't have time to do your own bookkeeping? Get your partner, sister, uncle or next door neighbour to do it. I guarantee that even if you pay them a small monthly fee, it will be considerable cheaper than your Accountant.
3. Advertise-Wise
Whatever your product or service, you need to advertise. It may just be putting flyers through the neighbours door but it still costs time and money and you need to know if it works? I have seen so much advertising money wasted in my career it makes me weep. You MUST establish how every one of your customers came to find your business. This data is absolutely crucial in determining where you spend your valuable advertising budget. Monitor it closely and if something isn't paying it's way, get rid of it. Don't be concerned that other companies still use the medium, that's their look-out. Have you ever considered that some companies advertise in certain media just because their competition do? Madness!
4. It's always cheaper somewhere else.
You MUST conduct a thorough appraisal of your existing supplier costs. It doesn't matter if it's electricity, water, products, gas....there is a good chance you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Not worth the hassle to save 2-3%?How many suppliers do you have, 5, 10, 15? If you can save an average of only 2% with every supplier simply by re-negotiating their prices or going elsewhere, you can save up to 25%-30% from your operating costs. That's real money in your bank account and not theirs. I still find it incredible that small business owners spend so much effort on bringing in money that they never consider how much they're giving away to suppliers.
5. Sorry, the office is closed.
Every time a potential customer tries to contact you and can't, you've wasted advertising money. Work out how many customers you have in one month then divide that by your profit and you'll quickly discover how much you've paid to attract each individual customer. Every time you don't answer the phone, that's how much cash you've wasted. Sinking in now? If you only want to take customer enquiries 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday then go and get a job, running a small business is not for you. Whenever you leave the office, have your office phone re-directed to your mobile phone, it's cheap, easy and means you will be able to take customer enquiries when your competition are closed.
I hope some of the above advice is worth the time it's taken you to read this article and please stay tuned for the next part of my series on Tough Love Small Business Advice.
Important Note: If you have found this free advice useful, I'd be really grateful if you could give me a vote so I can gauge overall reader opinion.
K A Pearson
Take A Step In My Direction, Visit http://www.coursesdistancelearning.com