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Digg it UP - Small Business Secret #5: Choose Your Customers Carefully- They Are What Can Make Or Break You
In the old days, press releases were published in newspapers. Space limitations meant that only a limited amount of information could appear so journalists could pick and choose what to accept. But with the rise of internet sites where you can submit press releases yourself, it’s become much easier to spread the word about your business.You don’t have to have major, dramatic news to send out a press release. Especially as a small business or sole proprietor, you can wait a long time for something dramatic to happen!When you look around your small business, you'll find many seemingly everyday occurrences that you may take for granted but that offer good opportunities to let people know what you’re up to.
A positive article about your business in the media is a big pay-off. A published article or broadcast news item is accepted as a media endorsement of your company. The story makes your business more credible than any other advertisement.Cultivating the Media: A small business on a limited budget cannot afford to hire a media relations expert. A one-page document release with a summary of the company news in an interesting and creative manner can catch a reporter’s attention and pave the way for your advertisement in media at zero cost. Some other suggestions: • Offer the media a relevant, valuable and fascinating story about your business. This will give an interesting insight about your company to the medi
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 dissatisfie
For any special event, promotional products make such an experience even more meaningful. Take your carefully planned occasion and enhance it. You can accomplish this by creating enthusiasm, incorporating a creative theme, instilling motivation, and manifesting positive impressions. Promotional products help make your happening distinguished.Regardless of how much time and effort you have spent in planning, it is important to remember the importance of promotional products and their integration into your special day. Don’t miss the opportunity to engender long-lasting positive memories of your organization or event. Be sure that it is happily remembered for months or even years afterward by including promotional pr
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 dissatisfi
For many companies, training can drop off the agenda for a variety of reasons. The company may be going through a period of growth, with tight deadlines to be met. The challenges of the market place may squeeze resources for training. This begs two questions: firstly, when planning financial forecasts, is staff training considered a priority; and secondly when budgets are squeezed how can a company maximise its financial investment in training?During periods of growth and high demand there are new challenges to be met, with customers demanding a high quality relationship with any service or product provider. Managers and staff will be asked to deliver customer service that will delight customers, to ensure custome
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 dissatisfi
Quick Quiz: Let’s say you’ve just out-marketed a competitor who has a product that in all honesty is superior to yours. You’ve done a better job of signaling to the customer that your product will actually meet the consumer’s needs better.Congratulations.Now what? Do you: A. Stop communicating with the customer. (Hey, they’ll eventually find out the other product is better anyway.)B. Immediately fire out a quick customer satisfaction survey. (Hoping for a high score while they’re still happy with their brand new product.)C.Build a relationship with the customer. (Using appropriate post-sale signaling to counter the superior product’s advantages.) What’s the right answer
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 dissatisfi
Could online America actually be helping us?When it comes to ebusiness most of us take one side or the other: Business owners are either viewed as helpful visionaries or evil devils. The evil view feels that the heads of major corporations exist to fleece our pockets and take our money. They’d roll us in the alley given the chance. If you’re looking for a bad guy, few compare to the faceless evil of corporate America so often portrayed in today’s media. The evil corporation is out to get your money!If you ever bother to take a second look with the good light turned on, you will have to admit that successful businesses are there helping us fulfill our needs and desires at every turn in ways we co
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 the
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