What your business needs is CASH

Cash will always be KING

Small Business Owners tend to avoid looking too far into the future. Month end is about as far as we can cope with mentally. Month end after month end. That's as far as we peep ahead.

WHY?

Purely because if we have enough cash on hand, we feel OK. Cash will always be KING. So, why do statistics tell us then that over 80% of small businesses fail in the first year? Is it because we lacked passion. Did we lack enough drive? Hardly! Every business owner I have met or spoke with, is a fantastically passionate individual who really knows their product.

So what's the problem with small business then?

Horse. H2O.

That's about as short as I could pen the answer to this question. Having created this tread mill we ourselves, we can tend to be the biggest know-it-all. Ain't no one going to tell me what to do. Well, in internet speak....FAIL! Do I need to explain the horse and the water story for you? No, I thought not.

So, who can help us understand how to solve our problems?

Customers are the best source of advice

You just have to understand their language. Customers are the most amazing people to me. You know, all they want is a little help.

So, if I offer to take us to a really nice pool of water, do you want a refreshing drink with me there? Ok, enough horsing around. Let's get serious now.

What can my customers tell me?

Firstly, they can tell me what they WANT and not what I think they want. Listen to what customers want. I applied this to one of my businesses in the past in particular. I was surprised to learn that my customers thought I sold a whole range of products I hadn't yet considered. This single change in my thinking (my little drink at the horse fountain) brought me an increase of 60% in turnover in high margin sales.

Get rid of your overdraft!

In 90 days this one change helped me get rid of my overdraft. More sales meant more cash for me. There is a downside to having more sales though. You overdraft is probably the biggest danger your business has

Improve your service quality

More clients meant less time for managing the business. That meant I had to improve my systems. I no longer had time for manual one on one tasks. I had to learn to delegate and keep an eye on the quality if what was delivered. Keep an eye open for my soon to be released Turnover Improver. It's free, for now.

Better systems means more time to run your business

Do you hate doing the same thing again and again? I sure do. Did you know that repetitive problems are an indication of a missing system? I spend my time helping people see where they can implement simple and effective change in their businesses. I really hate it when mistakes are repeated. repeating mistake costs MONEY!

Follow the system

There is a darn good reason society has rules.

These drivers are looking for disaster. What if they were YOUR employees? Would you know they are running your vehicles in this way?

Every mistake in business is an expensive lesson

Especially true if you just keep on repeating the mistakes. Each mistake highlights a micro system that needs implementing. It takes effort. Ignore it at your will. Listen, adapt and survive.

If you had a half decent GPS Vehicle Tracking System, you would know immediately if one of your company vehicles was driven the wrong direction on a road. You could then deal with the employee right way.

Follow the system. If there isn't a system, invent one.

Improve your cash flow in 3 easy steps

It's no secret, it's just plain common sense

Do you struggle to get final payments in from jobs you complete? Do you want to solve the problem? Do you hate begging to be paid?

Bet you answered Yes three times there!

This is a typical problem for the small business owner. Can I put it really straight to you why this is a problem we all experience?

Well, you see, one day a man who had lots of money met a man who had lots of experience. When they parted, the mane who had had lots of money, now had lots of experience and the man who had had lots of inexperience left with....you got it, lots of money!.

So there it is. Straight up like I said. It comes down to experience. as an SME, you don't have time to spend hours each day studying. If you did, we would all have Phd's. So, most of your knowledge comes from hard earned experience, doesn't it?

I must admit, I am a lazy person when it comes to repeating mistakes. I simply hate mistakes. So I make very sure I don't ever repeat them. It only takes one sting to make me learn and never forget.

How many times have you been stung, by not being paid for work you have done?

Whilst you cannot cure this 100%, you can make a 95% improvement. Here's what you must do:

How to improve your cashflow IMMEDIATELY

Implement a deposit system for all quotes issued. NO deviations. So all new quote syou issue, can only be converted to "order status" once the deposit has CLEARED in your bank.

Next, implement some milestone payments.

20% on delivery of all materials.

Finally adjust your last payment as a balance on completion of the work. You can split this into two parts. First, 10% when the job is complete. Then the final part say 30 days later, this gives a huge benefit to the client. They only pay the last amount once the job is 30 days old. Obviously by then, they would have raised any issues which you should have resolved. Final payment should be a breeze now.

The more money you collect up front, DURING the process of completing the work, leaves less money to argue about once the job is complete.

Obviously, I am talking about straight business here. If you want to operate as a crook then get the hell of my page. So this applies only to small business owners whose intentions are good.

If you liked what you read here, please head over to my blog Make more money 4 less hard work

You do NOT need to know how to sell to run your own business

Sounds a bit controversial doesn't it? But think about it a sec. You have customers. You have products they want. Running a business is really just a system for connecting the two, customers and products.

If your business is not accumulating cash in the bank, it is not a business. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh.

A job is where you go to work, get paid, and just manage to make the month end commitments.

• A business makes CASH. Got that?

OK, I didn't mean to offend your senses here. So lighten up a bit OK? Lets look at why this is true.

You left your day job and started up this little business, you know the product well, inside out in fact. But it is seeming like a mammoth struggle to just break even.

Ever wondered where your money all went?

Here's a little secret for you. FAC. Just remember that for now. It's a little secret I will show you to use when you decide how much to charge for your products. It's a costing method, that works. In an upcoming video, I will show you how to use a simple spreadsheet to implement FAC to make sure that every single action you take, will MAKE YOU MONEY.

I once bought a business, well a franchise actually. The franchiser insisted that the way to calculate the selling price, was just to take the cost price of the materials, add the labor charge, and there you are! Your selling price! When he told me that, I realised I was in serious trouble. These guys didn't even have a system to control orders, you know, like "order entry" - ever heard of that? If you worked in a large company, you probably have heard of it. Its a simple system to control Purchase Orders. We'll discuss that later.

This small business solved problems for people. They had security concerns and I provided a simple barrier system to give them ease of mind.

Customers would call us up and ask for quotes. We would provide them quotes. They bought our products. That's is a trite boring isn't it? Well, we were selling, without having any selling "skills".

All you need to do is get in between your client and the thing they are looking for. Be pleasant, offer a good service. That's all there is to selling. Just be friendly and look for ways to help the customer.

In many of the small businesses I have helped, many have been really worried about tax year end, month end, oh my, just about everything that has an end. Every time I come across a worried business owner I know exactly why they are worried as soon as I check their bank and balance sheets. There is no cash.

You can prevent this!

Keep an eye out for my simple money making machine. It's coming soon at www.easyleadanalyzer.com. You can use it on your PC or on your phone while you are on the road. Capture all your leads as they come in, then at month end lets look at where you can leverage your marketing spend.

So don't worry about selling right now. We first need to make sure your marketing is on track. So hop over to www.easyleadanalyzer.com.It's free and you can use it anywhere!

Keep an eye out for my upcoming video that will teach you how to price right, using FAC.

Why the Top Ten Complaints in Small Business are NOT what you should be worrying about!

When I read this at first, I thought, "Yeah, those are things most people would be concerned about". The real problem is hidden. Most people won't even see it. I bet, your business has the same problem, or you wouldn't be here looking for help.

It's those month ends, right?

They're tight. Not enough money in the bank. 18hour days. No time for your kids.

Its a bit like being in a Ski lift. You never experienced a ski lift ride, when someone lets of a stinker? Last time I was in Switzerland, I swear, I know now why their cheese smells so strong. You see, when you are in that lift, and the air is so green with pong, you know someone did a dirty, but you just can't say so can you...?

Your business is like that ski lift. We all know it needs something fixed. You're just a little afraid of what it might take to put it right.

If you are spending all your time worrying about tax payments, workers compensation and the like, you are worrying about the symptoms and not the cause. The cause is a lack of CASH.

That's right. If there was more MONEY in the BANK, you would just pay those worries off and move on, wouldn't you?

Right, so now we've identified what the real problem is, the Top Concern for Small Businesses is MONEY.

What if I told you that that you can put the MONEY WORRY and all of the Top Ten Concerns for Small Business to bed, forever? You can. I have over the last 20 years developed a simple five step system to improve the bottom line in Small Business.

UP-SELL, CROSS-SELL, How can I sell more?

If you follow this link, you will find a very ingenious chap.

Richard Bennet knows whereabouts the treasure is. But it is just out of reach of the average person.

So, he built a solution to go find the gold with. Kudos Richard!

What about your business then? Do you know how to find the "treasure"?

Do you need top build a solution to "get you there"?

I don't know just how many people would shell out $28k for a big snorkel like Richard's. One would need to do some good old market research before you went off and started mass producing a custom built fix for something you don't even know there is a buyer out there.

Your business already has a market

So, you don't really want to waste time or money on custom development to get deeper into your market. Penetration they call it, the professionals in Marketing, that is. So how do you penetrate your market better? It does not matter what kind of business you are in. You CAN sell more and MAKE MORE profit. With very little effort.

Oh it's so cheesy!
The fast food chains have really perfected this trick of marketing. "UP-SELLING", or "CROSS-SELLING" as it is sometimes called.The good news is, you won't need to build a submarine to mine this potential in your market. The classic, "You want cheese with that?", has made kabillions of Dollars for the fat-food-sellers. It can make you some pretty fat profits too.

So how do I put this into ACTION?
Simple!

At very single contact you have with a customer, offer them your full service platter. Just say, "Is there anything else I can help you with?" It is amazing what customers will come out with. In one business I built up from scratch, this single piece of marketing ordinance increased my business by SIXTY PERCENT!, Yeah, 60% increase in TURNOVER!! The customers loved it. They thought they were getting really good service, just because they were listened to! That single change brought me $10, 000 per month, every month after that.

Now think about this:
What if my customers tell me they want something from me that I do not as yet sell? In my next blog, i will show you what to do. In the mean time, keep an eye on my soon to be released LEAD ANALYSER. Follow me on Twitter to be first in line for when I release this amazing little money maker. And....it's going to be FREE!!

Price for your market

I'll bet my socks that you would die a thousand deaths should you be told that you need to INCREASE YOUR PRICES. Here's the thing though. Please look back ten years ago. What were we paying for petrol and bread back then? Yes it was expensive. Yes, we struggled to make the month end. Ten years later, it's the same old same old. So what's up then?


We need inflation.
We need inflation. Sounds horrible I know, but kill inflation off and you will not have anything to feed "growth" with. Without inflation the only growth factory you can work with is volume. that's another story though and you will need your bean counter's hat on when you read it.

Price Points
When you have time, do a little research into "Price Points". I first came across this in some study material from Cory Rudl's company, The Internet Marketing Center. Derek Ghel now runs the company and is one of the biggest names in online marketing. A quick look at price pointing teaches you that sales will increase when you sell "perceived value" and not "whole dollar value". OK, that's my interpretation of it. It's plain English though. If you wanted to buy a new Lawn Mower and two shops advertised similar models, one at $49.95 and the other at $50.00, for some reason an internal lever in our brains tells us to go for the $49.95 deal. An astounding 200% more people will go for the $49.95 deal than for the $50.00 deal. Just look at the subject on Wikipaedia. Some astounding facts are waiting to be learned.

Test and Measure
The right pricing strategy cannot be arrived at simply by an executive decision. This has to be market tested. Tested and Measured. Exactly the same idea of testing and measuring as we applied to managing our leads and getting more sales, needs to be applied to finding the most acceptable price in our market. Testing and Measuring is HUGE business on it's own. McKinnnsey's and every other major business analysis offering all have their own method of Testing an Measuring. So it's not poppycock. It makes MONEY. Lots of it. So apply it in your own business.

Increase your prices and keep up with inflation
Now about increasing your own prices. Right now, July 2008, we are dealing with what would have been called a "depression" back in 1929. Prices are skyrocketing. Food prices here in the UK have escalated about 40% in the last twelve months. Funny, down on the tip of Africa, it's the same story, but they blame their inept Government for the rising prices. The UK blames the Oil Oligarchs.  We all look to someone else to blame, ignoring the fact that we need inflation. We have so much more today than our Grandparents had. TV, CDs, HDTV, Ipods, the list is endless :). It's all fueled by inflation.

So create a little of your own inflation and keep up with the global markets. Don't just do an across-the-board price increase. Test and measure. Launch a small advert in a publication which you know you can trust the results from. Results in this case are converted leads - SALES! Run a few tests. Split testing, again from the realm of Internet Marketing, will quickly tell you which advert is working.

You can expect your sales volume to decrease when you raise your prices. It's a natural reaction from the market to higher prices. You may not know that you can also expect to ease up a bit, not to have to work so hard.One small business I taught how to do this, took a brave step and increased their prices nearly 300%. From landing nearly fifty sales a month, they dropped to FOURTEEN for a whole MONTH! They had one week free do do those banal jobs like machine maintenance, preventative care that left undone, would normally cost them ten days downtime every two months. The best part was what they saw in their bank account at the end of the month. The Immediate Effect was each job left cash in the bank. Month end was met with a BIG SMILE and nearly 80 000 smackaroos in the account. Pretty little dollar bills. EIGHTY THOUSAND OF THEM!

Down in Cape Town, that beautiful city so bewitched by a mountain that they even sell wine in bottles shaped like the mountain, there I have a business friend started her business with a single advert and no inventory. That was a gutsy thing to try for sure!Demand has been ok, sales have been trickling along, but not leaving cash in the bank for the Month End. after a little help to deal with a fear about raising her prices, Julia realized that her product would still appeal to wealthy customers. So Julia raised he prices by 100%, ensuring that each job would leave 33% CASH IN THE BANK for the month end. The difference in the way she feels about her business has been interesting to observe. Jobs are no longer a dragon her time and energy. Each job adds to a feeling of well being, because Julia KNOWS each job WILL PUT cash in the bank.

Don't let inflation erode your business. As Mr T says in the Snickers ad...

"Don't be pathetic! Get some NUTS".

Raise your prices.

Test and measure

Two simple steps to creating a money making business machine.

Contact me if you would like to know more about my Five Steps to rescue your business. I call it SImpleFAST. Because it is. SIMPLE. And it 's FAST.

How to PLAN to FAIL so you wont ever fail

How many of us SME owners have been forced into running a business? It could have been retrenchment, being made redundant or due to some larger economic issues (inept government etc).

So what started you off on your own? A drive to succeed? Tired of seeing your boss every day? Whatever it was, here you are - on your own and in business. A good mate of mine has a phrase for this. PMOC. It stands for Paddle My Own Canoe. It's exciting, this doing my own thing. I am sure you think that almost every day.

How are your month-ends? Ever get really stressed about covering your outgoings? Worried about having enough cash-flow to start again from scratch next month? One reason I am so passionate about this subject, apart from the BTDT factor, is the rush I get from seeing people making a success of the simple systems I teach them to implement. Take Leads Analysis. that is such a simple tool to implement, ok, that picture I have lower down in my blog is from OpenOffice. I know most us mortals will be using MS Office.

You will be amazed at the powerful effect this tool can have on your income! in a small business, we have to sweat the details. Don't let the month end go by without you measuring what you have accomplished in the month.

You only need 5 steps to make some life changing alterations to the way your business is being run.

If your business is running you, don't delay! Get started on step one - analyze your leads!

Step two is a real no-brainer. all you have to do is look at your marketing spend in conjunction with your sales. The LINK between them is your Leads Analysis!

In my next blog, I will show you how to LINK your Leads Analysis and your Marketing Spend.

None of us will likely admit that we are failing when we know too well that the fat lady has already sung her part. Parallel to implementing these simple to use methods to increase your profits, there is some structural work you need to do on the framework of your business.

There are costs associated to this yes. But first lets compare two people. Guy, runs things by the seat of his pants. he should have webbed feet really, for he is always stamping out fires. he is about to meet and Elephant. then we have Cindy. Savvy young business woman. She focused a LOT on putting structure and systems into her little cake shop enterprise. Guy on the other hand was too busy for this waste of time, Admin (adbin as he calls it).

On a client's site one day, Guy got a phone call. His biggest client was canceling all further work. they had found a bigger supplier with 24/7 service, better than his day time only operation. He felt as if a huge concrete block had been parked on him, a tremendous weight was now on his shoulders. He had recently bought a new van for work. He was not going to be able to afford it! The van was bough tin his own name too, to add insult to injury this would wreck his credit record! Having operated in his own name for so many years may have been cheaper for tax and loans, but Guy was about to have everything wiped out as his creditors lined up to fetch money he owed them.

Cindy on the other hand had made sure her business had diverse clients. No single client made up more than 20% of her turnover. Her company was a Limited Liability entity. It sure was expensive, all of £30 to buy off the shelf. Cindy's Dad had shown her how to use a Trust to own the assets, shares and trading profit in her company. Cindy is bullet proof! While her company can be liquidated by some event in the future, she has been careful to keep all the assets it needs to operate, in a trust. Insulated from any action against her so long as she behaves according to the law.

Guy wasn't as fortunate as Cindy. He lost his shirt. His TV, Couch and family too.

This is a simplified version of what we each need to put in place to protect our couch and our TV. Well, ok, not just the couch and the TV. Everything we ever bought should be protected by this Trust and LLC structure.

National Liquidators on your doorstep?

Maybe you should stop to think a minute.

Did you end up chasing your own tail last month, only to find your money ran out before the month did? Well, if you don't want to be a client of National Liquidators or some other debt recovery business, you better sit up and take note.

You run your own business. You think you are a "business man/woman". Like heck you are. if you are still one of those "have to be at work" types, who simply cannot leave the  business to run on it's own...then THIS IS FOR YOU!

Still working long hours? 18 hours days? or MORE? How would you like to WORK LESS, but EARN MORE? Yeah I can hear the crowds running towards me already! if only life was like that. Trouble is, we all are so buys just trying to SURVIVE, we forget to PLAN not to FAIL.

Here's a quick headsup. Earlier no I blogged about raising your profits.I caught a lot of flack because people think it is impossible and you will out price yourself. That's NUTS! What have the OIL companies just done to you? Huh? huh? Yeah, they raised their prices and you just sat back and took it. Well me hearties, this is life in the free market. Inflation is a necessary part of our markets. We need it, because without it we have no capital growth!

Keep National Liquidators off your doorstep! Your business can make more money than it is right now. the fact it exists proves there is a market niche you are able to serve.

Now you need to learn how to squeeze the niche for all it's worth.

Ever seen your profits do this?

A 10% difference can be more than a 20% improvement!

Yeah right! I hear you. It's ok. You can disagree. My math was always a problem, but when it comes to numbers and profit, then I get the picture very quickly.

Try this. You sell  widgets right? one widget sells for $7.50 - (lets leave the receiver of all revenue out of the picture for the moment, we want to enjoy the story!).

If you are buying the widget at $5.00, what is your Margin? 8 out of 10 people will say 50%.

WRONG! It's 33%.This is Gross Margin. There a few ways we can calculate "margins" from the same sum, but this is the one we want to learn how to use to make us MORE MONEY for LESS WORK.

If you are a service type business, wonderful, you can use fantastic margin(s). yummy money!

If you aren't a service type business, you can still use this "yummy money"!

Watch this space, there is more coming!

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Where is all this going?

Quite so! Exactly!

Like most small business owners, I bet you too are stuck in a fairly hectic routine. If you are not able to work for a day, maybe because you are ill, the whole shop grinds to a halt. The "CLOSED" sign goes up. My aim here is simple.

To help you see that your business CAN run without you.

It's shocking to even suggest such a heinous thing! But, yes, it is true. Isn't that the aim of every business owner? To have "residual/annuity" income? We all start out with this as a top priority. We all talk a lot about how important it is. We all let it slip from it's priority rating. Soon, it's buried under late invoices, uncollected payments, supplier demands and oh my goodness, who knows what else!

But just imagine. You are on holiday. Maybe the Maldives or the Andes. Your phone is switched off. You are relaxed in the comfort of knowing your business IS making money and it will still be there when you get back Imagine not having to take calls when you are on holiday.... When your two year old tugs yourshirt sleeve and says, "Dad...why is a turtle got four four legz?" you have the time to answer her.

Imagine.

Now quit imagining and do something about it. Measure your leads. Drop the adverts which are not selling. Move the money you were spending on them, to either:

a) existing product advertising channels
b) new advertising channels, which you need to test and measure again and again.

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