Respect in business

It’s often said that respect is something that can only be earned not bought. In my experience that is entirely correct. However also in my experience with my clients I tend to find that there are some key areas in which companies are assessed by external parties, and their managers to, as to whether or not they are deserving of respect.

So why do you want to have the respect of your peers, suppliers, customers etc? Don’t you just want to make money? The reality is that without their respect, or at least to a certain level, you are guaranteed not to make money.

When considering the key elements of your business / decision making that determine whether or not you are going to achieve success you should keep in mind the following:

1. Tough decisions. When faced with a tough decision between doing the right thing and making a lot of money, what is the track record of your company? This could be to do with environmental responsibilities, or the willingness not to sell clients the wrong product / service and maybe even turn down work. Don’t be afraid to shout these decisions from the rooftops either.
2. Charity and community. A lot of people say that they support the community and are involved with charity through contributions in the form of dollars and cents. That’s a fantastic start. But the reality is that everyone does that. Which means that you have to actually somehow make sure your company gets involved on a personal level, with bodies involved preferably senior management to actually score any respect points.
3. Say no to business. If you aren’t the best possible choice for your client. Say no and refer them elsewhere. Reiterate what you are best at and when your clients need that they will come back. Guaranteed they will respect you for it. I have personally seen this with multiple companies I have dealt with.
4. Company before all else. Sometimes it’s important to put the company ahead of an individual. Including yourself. If there is an issue / incident and you don’t do something about it, particularly if the person involved should be removed then you will be discredited for it. Always be seen to act and don’t be afraid to remove yourself if you are an owner-manager. Sometimes it’s the only way your company will retain a shred of respect.
5. Environment before dollars. Per haps that’s a little over zealous. You should probably focus more on incorporating the environment into your dollar making aspirations. Make sure that you are not exploiting the environment for money because in the current global climate, everyone is watching, and everyone is judging you by it nowadays.

These are only a couple of things that people and companies focus on when determining whether or not they respect your business. Hopefully this will give you some insight and you can go on yourself to take a look at your company and what you may need to work on.

Til later.

The Lad.

Plan B

Although we would always like to think that our first plan of action is going to be the one that gets us exactly to where we want first time every time, this is not always likely to be the case, and in fact things going exactly to plan is actually quite rare.

So perhaps we should take a leaf out of the military’s book and seek to have a ‘Plan B’ for certain if not most situations. Often however we are so obsessed with our Plan A occurring that we forget how to develop that Plan B to protect ourselves.

If you are looking at a project then, here are some ways in which you can work out your ‘Plan B’:

1. Critical steps. Work out in your project what are the key milestones, the ‘points of no return’ or the thing that if they didn’t go well would blow you out of the water. These will be your trigger points for when and or if you need a Plan B.
2. Critical people. From the steps that you’ve just highlighted above now work out who is attached to each of these tasks and who could replace them / assist them if they were unable to complete the tasks. If you are too reliant on one person you have a problem that a ‘Plan B’ needs to address.
3. Supplies / Suppliers. If you are relying on another company then you need to make sure that you have alternates in your ‘Plan B’ just in case they don’t come through for you. It’s a remote possibility because they will be driven by performance like you, generally, but what happens if they go under?
4. Equipment. If you are utilising equipment, make sure you have a spare. Make sure you have more than one person ‘who is the specialist at it’. And make sure that you have some or a company at hand who can repair it. If you are relying on equipment you must have a ‘Plan B’.

Hopefully these few points will highlight how necessary a ‘Plan B’ is for your particular scenario and what to look out for when planning.

Til later.

The Lad.

Client follow-ups

One of the things that I emphasise to all my clients is the need to follow-up with your clients, whether they are potential clients or existing clients. The reason for needing to continually follow-up with clients revolves around timing.

In business, particularly small business, the companies that actually get the purchase order or the brief are those that were just last in front of the client, looking hungry for the work. The main reason for this is that companies and their managements are busy. If they have the ability to just flick work off to someone at the right time then they will do so. As a result you need to make sure that you are constantly in contact with your clients so that you are that ‘last person’ in front of them.

So here are some tips for following up, without making it look like you are always bugging your client:

1. You’re in the area. If you aren’t in the same locality as your client you can get away by making a call to them to let them know that you are nearby and see if they want to catch up for a coffee. This can often be enough to get talking about how things are going, whether they are busy and whether or not they have anything going on that you might be able to help them out with. Great face time.
2. Call  with more information. One of the things that I like to do with my clients, and particularly with prospects is call to say that you left something out and that you just sent them an email with some additional information that might be of interest. This can often rekindle the interest in your company over another company and show that you are committed to the tender even if your prospect is thinking about it.
3. Talk to someone else about something else. Sounds vague doesn’t it? Well if you have an excuse to talk to someone in another division of your client about their matter or another matter, you may be able to ask / see how your prospective work is going. Be careful though, people don’t like to be taken advantage of and if they feel that you didn’t really want to call and talk to them you may damage that particular relationship let alone miss out on the intel.
4. Send mail. One of the other things that I have a lot of clients doing these days is sending some information in the mail to their clients. It may not even be specifically about your company. It could even be an interesting article that you say in an industry magazine or newspaper. People like to feel like they are in the know and sending them industry info as a ‘heads up’ can be a great way to keep in touch with them.

These are just a few tips. You are going to know better than I am as to how to get in front of your client, but remember the key is for you to always follow-up on your client. See if they need further information, just have a chat, get the face time and be that person in there at the right time to win the work. Happy hunting!

Til later.

The Lad.

Pre-arranging your finance

Pre-arranging your finance is often something that people only think applies to your personal finance such as purchasing a home or an investment property. But why should shopping for either businesses, people or equipment for your company be any different to having a pre-arrange loan or a credit card with a certain limit?

Most smaller companies limit themselves in this regard as they do not have a strong relationship with their banker. I have spoken about the desperate need for this previously in my articles, so I won’t harp on about it now. But what I will highlight are some of the elements with regards to pre-arranging finance for use in your business.

1. Timing. Make sure that whatever facilities you arrange have two elements of timing, the first being some time to actually go out and execute usually 3-6 months before the bank will withdraw the available funding. The second element to timing is the duration of the pre-arranged finance. Make sure that you don’t settle for a short loan period just to get the pre-arranged finance, if you need it for longer you need to build in the refinance risk and try to get this longer period initially rather than think that you will deal with it later.
2. Go for more. It never hurts to go for more. Banks can withdraw lines of credit but the last thing you want to have to do is go back for an extra $10,000 as it looks like you didn’t budget properly / may have overpaid for whatever it is that you are purchasing. You are far better off drawing down less than the agreed amount and handing it back once the overall cost is determined.
3. Conditions. Be aware of the conditions of a loan, sometimes you may think that you have pre-arranged funding but if the asset that you are purchasing doesn’t fit into the box of the pre-arranged funding you may actually not be allowed to draw down on the loan, and worse you may have committed to a seller to purchase it regardless of finance for the transaction.
4. Additional costs. Remember to always build additional costs such as Stamp Duty and Taxes into the cost of the purchase and work out whether you can finance them or you must expense them, sometimes these can have a material impact on borrowing either directly depending on how much you can roll in, or indirectly through diverting saved money to the duty and taxes instead of a deposit, thus limiting the amount you can borrow.
5. Fees and charges. Be aware that sometimes having a line of credit open causes you to incur fees and charges, so again remember the first point regarding timing as it can translate directly into outstanding bills.

Hopefully these few tips will help you when determining some of the elements of refinancing your business loans. As always pre-arranging is like pre-planning, it prevents piss poor performance.

Til later.

The Lad.

Management optimism

There are many studies that show that a lot of what constitutes performance can be put down to a mental state. It’s imperative then that you have a positive management to make sure that you give your employees and business team the best possible chance of being in the right frame of mind to succeed.

The level of optimism by management impacts the following areas directly:

1. Employee retention – if employees think a company is going under they will jump ship, or start to look long before you might suspect
2. Effort – employees will tend to drop their efforts if they feel that nothing they do is really going to assist the business anyway
3. Creativity – generally this is stifled hand in hand with pessimistic management, you might not realise you are doing it but often you are doing it to your employees subconsciously

So if these are just three obvious and direct impacts, what are some things that you can do overtly to make sure that you and your management team project a positive image:

1. Morning meetings. I like to think that a short 5-10 minute chat about the positive things going on in the office, a bit of back slapping and then back to work is the best thing that a manager can do to keep people upbeat. But you probably only want to do it once a week or once a fortnight otherwise it will lose its impact.
2. Smaller senior meetings. Have the tough meetings behind closed doors, this includes any firings, don’t do anything openly negative. Make sure that you inform all people in the firm when you’ve done something though so that they don’t feel left out of the loop.
3. Post targets that are achievable. Have the impossible on the board but also have the achievable on the board so that the teams get to tick off some items from their list and collect some bonus cheques if you can afford to do this.
4. Funding security. Make sure that you reiterate with your staff the strength of the company’s financial position. At present the biggest single concern that people focus on is whether or not a company has debt. You would be well placed to make sure that you outline this with your staff

These are just some tips. You can also get things like team building exercises and motivation speakers to assist but at the end of the day the staff tend to gauge the company’s prospects by the level of your optimism, so make sure you keep your worries internal at a very senior level, that is if you have any at all – hopefully not.

Til later.

The Lad.

Workplace creativity

Creativity in your workplace can be a challenge. The daily grind can wear you down quite a bit and if you are not careful and you get into the rut of the same old routines then you are likely to stifle the creative process as a result.

Although you might think that you would prefer mindless drones just to come in and complete their work without any mess of fuss, on contrary without a level of independence and creativity you are going to struggle to have a company that runs as efficiently and without need for your guidance as you would think.

Without creativity your business will lose its edge and is likely to remain behind your competitors in a lot of facets, particularly with regards to product development, advertising and growth opportunities.

So how can you foster creativity? Particularly without all the lavish trappings that companies like Google seem to throw at their employees these days.

1. Designated space. One thing that the best companies do is give employees areas where they can have a think or two. So the best ones are a combination of both quiet and vibrant space. Give employees a courtyard or two for contemplation and a coffee or a smoke. And or give them a room with plenty of light, bright colour scheme and props where idea generation meetings can take place.
2. Open plan. Open plan generates more conversation and some people argues diminishes productivity. However communication is the key to employees collaborating and generating ideas. Hence my personal view is that company’s with more open plan space generate a more vibrant creative atmosphere.
3. The tools. Make sure that you have plenty of whiteboard space, projector screens or rolling boards with paper and markers nearby. Also give them a number of writing implements / media whether it’s a pad and pen (my preference because too many people rely on computers these days – yours truly included) or alternatively tablet PC’s or overhead projectors & slides, even post-it notes do the trick.
4. Time. You need to allocate creative time. The best thing to do is set aside about 2 or 3 hours a week where employees can throw around ideas. Don’t do it in a formal session get someone to be the person that raises the issue they want to discuss. Let everyone chime in and do not have a hierarchy. The best ideas come in an unregulated atmosphere without bosses sticking their noses in.

Hopefully these small pointers will help you provide a creative atmosphere for your workers. There are lots more resources available on this and numerous books, but at the end of the day you have to be committed to giving employees the time to do this. If all you want are worker bees and you want it all your way, then that’s fine, continue stifling creativity, but few of these types of firms last in the long run.

Til later.

The Lad.

Advertising creatively

Being creative with advertising is more of an art than a science. There is something to be said for an ad that is interesting and yet at the same time informative all without being in a traditional format. Sounds like mission impossible right?

Well it generally is mission impossible because people forget to target their advertising. At the end of the day your company will have a preferred customer and you will know what the demographic and habits of this customer are.

So the key elements to take away from this are:

1. Target your strengths. If you know who your most common customer is then encourage them to buy more, so target your advertising to them. You can waste a lot of time and money trying to market to those customers that are in the 80% of people not interested in your product or service, instead of focusing on the 20% who are very interested in your products.
2. Keep it short and sweet. People and companies like snaps shots, don’t bore people. Get across your point as efficiently without sacrificing clarity and be done with it.
3. Balance your media. Make sure you have a solid mix of text, visual, auditory and other elements to your advertisements, people respond to a variety of stimulae depending on their personal backgrounds and historical experience so you need a good balance of all of these.
4. $ doesn’t always pay. Being creative is just as important as spending big. Make sure that you make your customers think a bit and enjoy your advertising, but don’t do what some companies do and fall into the trap of just entertaining at the end of the day it’s about your product or service, not just having a laugh.

Hopefully these tips will help you target your advertising. Always remember, you need to stand out, so you don’t have to follow standard formats. Don’t waste your time either on the 80% who aren’t interested in what you have to say, maximise the 20% who do.

Til later.

The Lad.

Social media vs. Productivity

Social media’s prevalence has surprised even the most technologically advanced of managers, first there was email, then there were Blogs, then there was MySpace and Facebook and now out of nowhere tools like Twitter and all the associated applications both on the internet and on cells / mobiles such as the Blackberry and the iPhone have put the world at our finger tips.

Now the only problem is that managers and employers don’t want employees spending time enjoying the world when they should be working. The problem is balance. If you come down too hard on employees then you are going to face the wrath of dissatisfied juniors who expect access to such tools regardless of your thoughts on the impact of productivity.

So here are some pointers to consider:

1. Blocking. Internet and social media blocking is a tool that many companies have decided to utilise to prevent employees from accessing these tools and websites. There are two problems with this. The first is that young people want to have access to these tools. The second is that there are ways and means around them that your employees will install on your computers and that is often times much worse for security of your network than just letting them use the sites.
2. Allow a select few. It may be better to work out whether or not you want a compromise. Some companies have blocked Twitter because it’s obsessive and so they allow employees access to say Facebook or MySpace but not to Twitter or the other instant messaging / communication tools. This is a good compromise as it doesn’t cut people off but it also ensures that there isn’t too much distraction daily.
3. Only during breaks. Discuss with your employees that utilising these sites is not a problem and that you understand but restrict it to say 15 mins x 2 in the morning and in the afternoon and their lunch break. You don’t have to enforce this but if you make people aware that this is the unofficial rule they will tend to stick with it. It also coincides with coffee times which generally are low productivity anyway so you really aren’t missing out on much from your employees then.
4. Get them to maintain your company’s. If some of your employees are savvy with the internet get them to maintain blogs / twitter pages / Facebook pages for your company in exchange for the privilege of utilising these services for themselves.
5. Mobiles away. There was a rule that most trading floors in the big banks used to have, that was mobile phones away. If you need to use a phone you have your desk phone for that. This cuts out the mobile phone usage of social media tools. It’s also just plain good habit, so that you keep your personal work separate.
6. Open work plan. People won’t do too much social media stuff if they are in plain sight of others that are actually working, or better yet, their managers. Make sure that you minimise office space, increase communication. Just provide a room that people can go into and make quiet calls from because everyone hates having to make private calls to their family or the bank etc. in the open.

These are just a few pointers. Remember these social media tools are hurting your productivity, but your employees will have come to expect access to these things, they thrive off them and it can assist your business. Just use caution and find the right balance to keep your productivity up and your workers happy.

Til later.

The Lad.

Meeting presentation and image

Your business generally only gets one chance to make a good impression on a prospect. This is also normally coincides with the first meeting you have with a prospective client (although it can sometimes be the first meeting with a decision maker at the firm). As a consequence, you need to make sure that you are on your ‘A’ game when it comes to presenting your firm in the best possible light.

A lot of this initial meeting perception will come down to the way that you present your firm visually. The reason for this is that human beings tend to take around 90% of their interpretation and perception through visual means.

So here are some tips for your office and your staff to make sure that you give a good impression, and you make your firm ‘act big’ which I’ve described in the past as being the key to success when trying to be a strong candidate when compared with larger competitor firms:

1. Receptionist. If your business can warrant the cost it is worthwhile having a receptionist. This is important as there are some functions such as banking, mail collection etc that it’s not worth your time doing it. You are better off getting someone else to do it. But when it comes to meetings, a receptionist is important. They can get your clients to wait while he/she gets you, rather than letting your clients wander through your office.
2. Reception presentation. It’s best that you have some signage at your reception and maybe some industry magazines to show your client that you are up to date on your industry practices / knowledge and that you read around the industry you’re in. Also make sure that you have a few chairs, people don’t like to be standing.
3. Don’t make them wait. If you are going to be more than 5 minutes, get the receptionist to show them into the meeting room and offer them beverages. Do not make them wait in the reception area. It’s embarrassing, people hate to ask where someone still is after 5 minutes. Think about it from your perspective, you’re usually peeved if someone is late starting your meeting and makes you wait around.
4. The meeting room. Give yourself the power. Try to usher the people into the area of the room you feel most comfortable in. If you are making a presentation, make sure that this is already set up and read to go. There is nothing more embarrassing than people watching you fumble with technical equipment. It also gives the wrong impression as to being prepared for the meeting.
5. Handouts. Always try to give the people something to take away from the meeting. People who have something to take away with them are often prompted to get back to you as a result. Even if that answer is a no, and then at least you know the outcome instead of perpetually waiting for a call, or having to chase them.
6. Business cards. Make sure you have plenty of business cards and with you in the meeting. Exchanging them at the start is pretty much normal practice. If you are dealing with an Asian client, take time to read each of their business cards. This is for two reasons. You should be able to determine from the title who is the boss. Second it’s a sign of respect in Asian culture to have a business card, and also to receive one. If you just ignore their cards and put them away you will be disrespecting your prospective client.
7. Beverages. Make sure that before the meeting, the room is set up with a water jug and glasses so that if people want water they don’t have to wait until coffee is brought to get it. People generally will want a glass of water and a coffee but won’t want to ask for both because it will seem like too much of a demand.
8. Finishing a meeting. Don’t make it awkward. Have everyone in the meeting say good-bye at the room and the rest of your side disperse (unless you are at your prospect’s offices). Then as the sole point of contact and the senior person see the whole party from your prospective customer out and shake all their hands before they go. Make sure that you do this, don’t just let them wander out, it’s your last chance to show them you mean business with a firm handshake.

Hopefully these tips can assist you in hitting a home run with your first meeting with prospective clients. Remember, be prepared, confident and think and act big. You’ll get them every time.

Til later.

The Lad.

Building a brand

Building a brand is one of the most difficult challenges that a company faces today. With so many companies trying for smaller and smaller resource pools it’s no wonder that you have to work extra hard just to even get noticed, let alone build a brand that people can actually recognise and throw into consideration when purchasing.

There are 6 P’s when it comes to building a good brand from what I have seen when dealing with customers.

Persistence
There is something to be said for sticking to plan once you have developed it. Even if your budget has been trimmed for marketing in the current economic crises there should be a core of both strategic and tactical activities that prevail. Continued perseverance with your marketing strategy during the tough times will provide reassurance to your customer base, and may win over others who see less of their suppliers during the tough times and more of your brand.

Planning
Despite the tough times you need to remain committed to spending time on your company’s brand vision. Do not waver in your vision for your brand unless you actually need to sit down and reconsider your brand entirely. Customers value companies that do not chop and change.

Performance
Brands deliver on value rather than price. If you seek to drop prices simply to either maintain or grow business and this is in contravention of your brand which for example may seek to represent exclusivity

Positioning
Don’t sacrifice quality of your brand by shifting production offshore for example if people value your brand. Remember that customers do recognise trends. Recently a lot of people have become aware of offshore product and they are seeking to buy ‘local only’. In fact some governments are campaigning for this themselves, so it’s important that you resist the temptation and stick to whatever your brand positioning is.

People
During the most difficult financial periods it’s important that you hang onto the people in your company that are essential to implementing your brand strategy. If they leave then your brand may be at risk of losing its direction or vision. If you need to find some way to incentivise these people more strongly then you may need to do so in order to prevent your brand from being at risk.

Principles/Culture
Make sure that your internal processes, values and visions do not change and that your company ‘walks the walk’. Companies that attempt to generate a brand but that are openly seen to be engaging in practices internally contrary to their brand image are easily found out by consumers. This is never more true than with the advent of social media.

Hopefully the 6 P’s of brand marketing and awareness can guide your thoughts and strategies during these difficult financial times. Remember, stay the course with your brand vision even in the toughest of time.

Til later.

The Lad.