PostsLove the mythbusting about the biting Reindeer, and smoking elves telling people to have a poop Christmas! It's, Oh so British! :-D
The issue is, if someone wants to complain, they will complain about anything...
Frankly, there's no snow, it aint the real St. Nick, and the UK is pants at Christmas - so, if you go along with this inside knowledge, you won't be disappointed!
The complainants probably expected a portal to the North Pole, a 20 mins Sleigh ride through the air, before landing for tea and mince pies from Mrs Claus!
There are things I detest when it comes to trying to run a company. Most of them spark up in the early days of trading.
It’s important new business startups prepare for the tricks charlatans will present them, eating away at their time, and hard earned cash, but these phonies aside, there are issues which we don’t expect to have to deal with, which may bring a new company to criticality.
Here’s a list of my pet dislikes which are common within the first few months of trading, and my own personal solutions to dealing with them:
Dislike - Rents & Some landlords
Landlords who retain a poor standard of premises and expect premium prices for their leaky, mold ridden shed like buildings.
Solution
If it isn’t like a brand new building, I’m having money off. And more money drops off with the more work I have to do to get it up to standard. Negotiating 6 months rent free, and paying 1/3 the asking price for sorting out the decor is common. Leases are always with a get out clause for early termination in our favour, and the Landlord is always responsible for Roof, Bricks, Mortar and Windows above ground floor. If it’s an issue on moving in – I won’t pay rent till it’s fixed – and that’s in the lease too.
Dislike – Utility companies - Gas, Water, Electricity
Money is tight, and anyone, whether they are in business or not knows it. You try and have a connection for specifically Gas and Electric in a business premises, and have a new Limited company, or a not so great credit rating as an individual, and you can expect the provider to ask for a bond. If you’re really on the breadline, and you don’t expect to fork out £800 a piece to get power on, it can be a travesty, especially if you’ve just moved in, and now they are threatening to cut you off!
Solution
It’s happened to me. I negotiated to pay the bond in several stages, making the initial hit not so high. It had taken us 3 months to renovate the premises, and we had been using all manner of power tools and electric heaters, and the meter was quite clearly broken when we moved in... so....
Dislike – Travelling Salespeople
Especially in retail – they just walk in, and decide now would be a great time to talk to you for as long as possible whilst you’re really busy.
Solution
Tell them you’re not interested, and they need to buy something, or leave.
Dislike – Time to get stuff done
You need something done is business, and you need it done now. Getting a phone line installed, and the net connected can take weeks of your life away. Once you get the premises, you need everything up and running asap.
Solution
Do as much of the leg work yourself, ensuring the internals are fine from the master socket beyond. Tell the connecting party (BT for example) that you’re free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and do an install at short notice. If you see a BT Openreach guy outside, pester them. Eventually, they will escalate the job just to silence you.
Dislike – Wanderers with ulterior motives
Mainly in retail, people will wander in, often in suits with a clip board, making notes. Half the time you have no idea who they are, or what they are doing. Often they are from the Health and Safety department, or your local rates office in the council, or trading standards, or some other agency on the fish to trip you up.
Solution
As with anyone who walks in, be friendly, bouncy and happy, and interrogate them to who they are, and why they are there. If they are official, they should identify themselves.
Dislike – TV Licensing
I bought a flatscreen TV for our CCTV as a second set so the camera views could be seen by potential shoplifters. A few weeks later, we received a threatening letter from TVL saying we needed a licence. We don’t, so I ignored it. Some weeks later still, a gent arrived and looked around. He introduced himself, and asked where our TV’s were. He wanted to then search our property.
Solution
I threw him out, then sent a letter to TVL removing their right of implied access.
Dislike – PRS for music
The organisation that invoices for playing music in your work location.
Solution
Pay for a “Licence”, don’t play music, or claim the artist is being benefitted by extra exposure, and so they should be paying you.
Dislike - Shoplifters
You've spent all your life savings on getting your business up and running, in refurbishment, stock, resources, and within a few days of opening, some cretin comes in, and nicks something.
Solution
Find them. Hunt them down. Make an example of them. We invested heavily in theft prevention products and CCTV, but, nothing quite replaced the chase up the street, and rugby tackle. (Be VERY careful of committing assault). Systems like 'Storenet' are awesome, as the operator will give you a heads up. We call the Police every time we catch a shop lifter, and for the times we don't, we identify them on CCTV, and print out their mug, which goes on our wall of shame.
Sadly, it all get worse now... My biggest hate....
The moment you have a phone line installed, and start getting your business registered in the Yellow Pages, Thomson etc, the calls start...
I don’t mean the odd cold call, I mean one of tens of ‘businesses’ posing as a utility provider.
The Script goes like this:
“Hi, can I speak to whoever is responsible for the Electricity for.... address?”
They then say they are calling to organise the transfer over to them, and require all the meter details etc.
How did I discover the Scam? We don’t have meters in certain business premises – they are shared office spaces, with a central meter which our rent fully covers – therefore, there is no account to switch.
Around 10 calls a day for the first 2 weeks, then slowly dropping down to one a day, to one a week. You can imagine how much of your time this takes up, and what a distraction it can be.
My solution for this should be to just hang up, but, even without a meter, I keep them talking with a German accent, before giving them a fake meter number, and an address at the North Pole. You can guess the name I use... “Sint A Klaus”.
What other issues have people found in business they disliked? What was your solution? You're totally right Steve. I am most fortunate to have a very supportive and open family. Using this as a business module, the extended family (Co-Workers) perform better than in a cold impersonal environment.
My parents still tell me what to do though, and have a go at me for smoking, swearing, and not washing behind my ears... It's a miracle they still talk to me!
If this lowers Royal Mail prices, I'm well for it!
We send out certificates by Royal Mail - we used to mail products out by Franked post. The loss ratio was emotional, so we pulled the plug on the franking side of life, and now send products by courier, which has worked out cheaper and more reliable (Through Hermes). We're about to courier certificates also, for the very same reason - although this will increase costs slightly - but is offset by better customer relations, and the admin cost for lost documents.
So, if this bond increases performance, and lowers prices, it's win win. RM may be its own worst enemy though. You have to justify to the customer why you put prices up - thus far, for us, their service has depreciated, so no justification, causing us to pull £1200 of postage a month from them. (I'm sure they're not crying over it.) In retail, we've traditionally not seen an increase in trade - even in city locations.
There seems to be a lot of people heading out as of an evening, but shopping seems, again to be the last thing on their minds.
Zip forwards to Christmas eve, and it's chaos in the stores.
I've been racking my brain on how to jump onto the bandwagon I keep hearing about with increases of trade. Perhaps the way forwards is to have my own pub.... That would be a bad idea for many reasons! Thanks for your post!
#1 would be making a business plan. There's great software, which comes free with various business bank accounts (Which will also give you a free account for a year or so). Backed up with a good SWAT analysis.
So many businesses have great ideas, but adhoc planning - it's easy to loose focus, which from the outside, can look like a half attempt.
#2 Really is doing everything in this post BEFORE you open a business, whilst you're still in paid employment, then making the transition when revenue starts being produced. (Hardly ever works out like that! Such is life!)
Don’t have time to read all this? Scroll to the bottom to the Summary! (You’ll miss out though!)
When we enter business, it starts with a great idea, and bags of enthusiasm.
The effort expended by the founders is rightly immense. The thought, planning, personal investment in both time, and money is beyond that which most employees would ever consider giving a fraction of.
How disappointing it can be when turnover is slow, and profit nonexistent.
For most people entering the new SME startup realm, this is a common experience. Most businesses fall by the wayside before even getting past the starting blocks, a high percentage die within months, the remainder float along, or progressively grow throughout the life of the business, the latter being the goal of everyone surely.
There are many posts on the internet about how to make a business a success, filled with ‘Do this’ and ‘Do that’, none of it guarantees success, and quite often, the advice is founded upon things that cost money – which most new startups simply don’t have.
This post aims to be refreshingly different, and is based on both experience and opinion. It is at times quite blunt. Why? Because I don’t want anything from you, other than for you to succeed!
Firstly, let’s acknowledge that every business is different. Its style, products, and direction are all separate from each other. To that end, there are opportunities present for one business, which aren’t for another. We will assume also that you have a product or service which people want.
Selling a Widget for a Whatsamacallit may be great with other products, but if it’s your only product, well, it’s a no brainer. Just look at some of the stuff being pitched on Dragons Den. Please know your market well.
If your business is missing one of the points below, you are not generating as much revenue as you could do, and there are undoubtedly points which are not covered – so please do add your thoughts, opinions, and experience in the comments!
All Businesses
PMA – Positive Mental Attitude
Never, Ever, Ever, let anyone tell you that you can’t meet your goals and dreams in business. You can, and you will do. Always approach everything with a positive attitude and a smile. Never, Ever, Ever, make an excuse for anything – including the items in this post. You can do, and you will do. And if something doesn’t work out, you switch it with the click of a finger. You will Never, Ever, Ever, fail, unless you let yourself fail, and if you let that happen, just pick yourself up, and try it (or something new) again until it works.
Image
Think 5 star service, 5 star image. Dress to impress, and keep it fresh and good looking. Holistically look at what your company appears like to your client base. Ask for Honest opinions from straight talking friends and forums – even ask me, and I’ll not lie to you.
Pitch 5 questions:
1)What does my company logo / brand look like? (Does it reflect me / us / the brand)
2)What do our premises / vehicles / staff look like?
3)What do our Business Cards look like? Ditto all paperwork.
4)What image does our language represent? (Profanity, slang, tonality etc)
5)What does our online presence look like? (Don’t turn up online? – change that today)
If you can’t answer these 5 questions with the word “Awesome”, or the words “The best out there” you need to rapidly alter the way in which you present yourself. If you do think you’re the best, ask for honest opinions – not from people you know, and preferably from people who will be blunt to help you, and always seek to improve. Being a work in progress is fine - so long as there is progress, and not procrastination!
Time management.
It’s not the hours you work, it’s what you do in those hours. Generally, you must work during the times that clients are likely to need you. You wouldn’t go fishing when the tide is out, equally, working at 1 AM in the morning when your customers are in bed, it not suitable for most businesses. If your customers contact you between 9 – 5, you work 8 – 6. If your business is 24 hours, those are the hours you work (Obviously employing staff to work shift patterns!)
If you hold down a second job – think long and hard about what you’re doing. If you want a business to be successful, you must commit yourself 100% to the task at hand. Perhaps your personal circumstances dictate revenue is required - hence the second job, in which case, you're going to have to work long hours for sure!
Never be late, expect everyone else to be late, never accept anyone being late.
You get paid what your worth – or your company dies.
The way you should pay yourself in business is by taking a cut from the excess. If you pay yourself £500 a month regardless of company turnover and your business produces £505, and its costs are generally £495 each month to sustain itself, you are going to end in serious problems. Take a percentage from the excess, and make that percentage low. 2% for example.
If your company produces £505, costs are £495, you take 2% of £10. Congratulations. This month you earned £2. That is what you are worth.
Pay your staff a wage from your percentage only.
By adopting this attitude, you will make sure, very quickly. Your company will produce more revenue to compensate. To pay yourself £500, you will have to produce £25495 each month.
Easy job!
Keep it in the family
People have mixed views on employing family – so do be careful.
My first ever office cleaner was called Mum. Mum also helped produce prototypes for me in another business (On a sewing machine – which I’m useless at). The outside catering for events was also done by Mum. Removals driver was done by Dad, with his trusty assistant, Brother.
Painting and decorating was done by the entire clan.
My mum works in a hospital, my dad is retired, and my brother works in a bank.
Total cost to me? £Zero
Equally, family may be able to help with things like websites, graphic design, advice, and general hands on when required.
Get online
If your business doesn’t have an online presence, you need one, end of.
It doesn’t need to cost the earth, and you can even make it yourself with a WYSIWYG online provider such as Godaddy.com and Moonfruit.com. Be aware, there are many more, and each one has benefits and disadvantages. Choose the right one for your budget and needs. Ask for opinions before committing. Ask for Honest advice to design and looks at every stage. Most websites for SME's are dreadful.
Needing improvement is fine. Little mistakes are a work in progress. But a dreadful site that remains so for years is not.
Make a change to your website every single day. (Trust me)
Once you’re online, spread the word
You can have the best website in the world, but unless you’re on Page 1 of Google, and in Position 1, 2, 3 for your business, your potential to benefit from a website is stinted. Getting there will take you time – it needn’t cost you money though. You need to learn a little bit about something called SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) so that Google can see your website properly, and understand what you want it to know, then you need to be proactive, and socialise, leaving your company ‘business card’ wherever you go (directory entry, and good unique articles in forums.) Never ever Spam a site though. It's just not British.
Use Twitter, Facebook and all the such daily – even if you don’t quite understand or see the value in it.
And all these things, before you even open the doors...
Opened the doors already? Oh, Ok... then read on....
Now you need to market, and keep marketing, as well as always improving on the above.
Marketing is a process which some people in business don’t seem to understand. They open their business, and then keep it as the best kept secret!
Marketing, in essence is reaching out to people. Informing them, creating desire.
If you have a physical premises, on a high street, and this is your only marketing, fool on you.
If you sell a service, or your store is online, and you’re relying on being found by Google, don’t expect success. In fact, expect your stock to go out of date, and you to lose interest long before customers flood in.
“I once had a friend who in 1995 started his own business selling computers. He bought the equipment with a loan from his dad, and set up in his parents front room. He went to the Yellow Pages, got a free listing and waited by the phone.
Week 2, he stuck a sign in the window saying ‘486 DX2 66, 16MB RAM - £450.
Week 3 he made a leaflet and printed 20 of them out. Stuck them by the door for callers.
Week 4 he sold me all his kit for a loss and went to work in a Garden Centre. He never took an order.
Week 4 I started my first company selling Home PCs
Week 4 I got a Yellow Pages, Thomson, BT Directory listing
Week 4 I got a web domain, webspace, and bought a program called Frontpage
Week 4 I uploaded my first ever website by ftp
Week 4 I designed a black and white leaflet, photocopied it, and stuck it EVERYWHERE
Week 4 I took my first order
Week 5 I turned a profit”
This is a true story, and it is my story – which isn’t one of success in the slightest. A story like this should end with me saying I sold the company for X million. I didn’t. But you do get the idea.
It’s simple marketing, and there are many more opportunities today to reach out than there were back then – it is however more complex, and to succeed, you may have to learn to bring yourself into the 21st Century.
To summarise, and if you’ve skipped through all the text, to make a profit you must:
Live PMA
Give a fantastic image all over
Manage time with extreme accuracy
Pay yourself only a fraction of what the company can afford.
Lower your costs by getting family to help with projects and daily running.
Get online
Spread the word online
Market.
And finally, let me leave you with words that have carried me every day:
"If you always do, what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got"
I'm not a millionaire, so I'm changing day by day! Just thought I'd share a little Gem...
We've just had some printing done with our local Prison (Which will serve clients Nationally). It's a G4S Prison, and they employ the residents gainfully in their internal business.
As such, costs are lower than anyone else we've found due to their unique position.
I was in a quandary whether I should pitch them - but actually, their work in providing prisoners opportunity to reform is as vital as an SME in the UK, and they are technically a business - even if they are able to undercut local & national prices.
So, here's the deal - If you have a printer local to you, support them with your business. If you require huge print jobs, or are on a deathly tight budget, speak to these people.
Just as an example, I've just had about £300 of printing done (Vistaprint Price), for £54 - delivered. Quality is good, very good.
To contact them:
Printshop
Parc Prison
Bridgend
email: ParcPrintshop@uk.g4s.com Oh Steve....
The RCT has disbanded to the RLC long before I joined! (I'm mid 30's!), and, I most certainly wasn't in the RLC :-D Another Corps, but still a driver. I'd like to think we we're more refined... or drunk more refined drinks... I'm still undecided! Does your workplace have a lift?
Our head office, which we share with many other people does. I choose not to use it, unless I'm carting tonnes of kit from floor to floor, in which case, I max out the weight capacity massively with copious amounts of Manikins, Projectors, and other training aids. Then I send it unmanned to it's destination, with me sprinting up, or down the stairs.
I choose not to use this relatively new lift, because it is possessed.
It literally needs an exorcism, and until I see several priests travelling inside, flicking Holy Water at the mirrored walls and ceiling, before assuring me that the demon who rides on top of it is gone, I shan't so much as let the doors close on me.
Why?
When we first moved into this office block, I was unaware to this elevators troubled behaviour. No one told me about it, and from the outside, it looked pretty normal. Two sliding doors, a button to summon it, and internally, there is nothing really to cause alarm.
I became quite fond of the lift to be honest. First thing in the morning, I'd press the button, and it would deliver me quite safely without so much as breaking a sweat on the stairs.
One day, I was arriving late for work after having several teeth played with by a butcher pretending to be a dentist. I could hardly speak due to the anaesthesia, and every time I breathed out, I dribbled down the front of my shirt. We've all been there.
Now the top floor to our building at the time was occupied by a Chinese language education company, and it wasn't uncommon to find several new students visiting the building for classes.
On this day, 4 such students were waiting for the lift, and when it arrived, we all piled in. They tittered and sniggered at me with my half cooked look, covered in my own saliva, my jaw area twice the size as it should have been. I don't speak Chinese, but, I kinda get what was being said, and I was the butt of the joke.
I had my back to the door, and it's incredible how small this lift becomes when you get close to the "Maximum Persons" level. In fact, we exceeded it by one. Me.
I squeezed my arm past the girl with a 'Hello Kitty' jumper on, and pressed my floor number, and resumed my position, back to the door, like some kind of guard dog being tempted with a juicy succulent bone, drool pouring from my mouth.
The lift started to move, and after a few feet, ground to a halt, emitting a loud "Bleep". then it moved again, then stopped, "Bleeping" once more. In fact, it did this several times with my back to the door.
One of the Chinese girls started crying, and it all got rather loud after that, with the two male students communicating in the upper decibel range.
The other student started pressing loads of buttons on the command control point, which seemed to make the elevator move down a foot, then 'bleep' continuously.
I decided I had enough, so clapped my hands to get their attention, pointing out the alarm button. Unable to speak properly, I decided to make my contribution by pressing, and holding the button until a phone type noise could be heard, in the hope that one of the other passengers would take over for the talking bit.
A voice on the other end answered with a "Hello, this is ****** lifts, How can I help you?"
I gestured to the other students to speak, and they did. One by One. In Chinese. Perhaps Mandarin. Is there a difference? Who knows.
The attendant, ever so patient, replied "I'm sorry, I don't speak Chinese. Does anyone speak English?" So, I rose to the challenge. Kneeling down next to where the comforting voice came from, and said, through my numb mouth:
"Left. Boke. Hulp. Nid. Foyer. Beegade. Naaw" Spitting a mixture of saliva and blood over the buttons.
The attendant said, with concern "Is one of you injured? We know where you are, and the Fire Service in on route to you now". I sat on the floor, huddled up to the wall, painfully aware of the mess I made.
Well, they must have upped the emergency category, because within several minutes the lift was on the move again, and the door opened at the bottom floor, where we were greeted by a Fire crew and paramedics with stretcher.
The students exited, pointing at me and speaking Chinese to the emergency crew, who promptly rushed in to render assistance.
I did say "Naa. Dentist. Mauf." Whilst pointing at my head. They seemed to get that I wasn't really on my last legs...
Anyways, a guy with a white helmet on looked at us 5, and the lift (Which really doesn't look like it could take 5), before turning round and saying "Who was stood by the door?". I raised my hand sheepishly.
It's at this point he explained, this lift was fitted with an Infra Red Beam by the door. If you block the beam, the lift stops. The Chinese girl in her panic had then pressed the lift 'Stop' button, which had prevented it from moving.
All we really needed to do was to select another floor, and the lift would have carried on.
I now no longer use dentists, or the elevator. The Chinese company moved out weeks later.
I cannot believe I was to blame, so therefore, the Lift is Possessed, and it wasn't me. Please don't tell anyone...
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