If you could change one aspect of your business, what would it be and why? This is a standard question asked by business consultants, not to trap you into using their services but to encourage you to Think for a Minute about your business from a different perspective.
Some of the answers are obvious so let's forget about them - increased sales, more customers etc. All these would be nice and are very important to your business.
What I want you to consider is this. You have a very busy schedule running your own business, you have many varied tasks to carry out. If by changing one aspect of your business can make your business life easier - without the headaches etc which you get when things don't quite go to plan - WHAT would that Be.
Once you have decided that, there is one more question you must answer, and this is even more important than the first one. How am I going to Achieve This.
This is the first step which you can take to improving your business and you must find the time to implement that change.
Now comes the harder part. What do I do next?
Well it's not that hard really - what you have to do is put yourself in the position of being the CUSTOMER. The way things stand at the moment would you buy from your business? Write down what you think you are doing right and what you could do better. Then start working on these to improve the vision your customers get of your business.
Remember the old saying "If it isn't broken, don't try and fix it.
I hope by reading this blog I have achieved the only aim I had in writing it.
Have I got you thinking outside the box?????
Friday, 21 September 2012
Friday, 18 May 2012
Invoice Factoring - Yes or No?
In today's economic climate, many small to medium sized businesses are turning to Invoice Factoring to maintain their cash flow. Here are 4 reasons why we say the answer should be NO.
1) It is a short term solution to a long term problem. The factor will pay up to 90% of your monthly invoice total - good start, it's money in the bank fairly quickly. Alas that's where it starts to go wrong.
You immediately lose control of the process. The factor wants to first of all recover the 90% advance which he made, and more importantly make a profit for himself. He does not care how he achieves this or whether he upsets your customer or not. So you immediately start to lose customers - OK some you might not want to continue with anyway, but that's not the point - your customer base gets depleted.
2) Many of your customers will be good payers, and when they see they have to pay a factor rather than you, they will start to think there is a problem within your organisation and will start looking elsewhere for a supplier or contractor to carry out the work.Again your customer base gets depleted.
3) Any invoices which the factor fails to collect are returned to you to chase yourself, so you immediately find yourself with potential bad or doubtful debts. Your Aged Debtors Analysis is now showing invoices at least 60 days old, making them harder to collect. Also you now need to allocate resources to try and chase these up to maintain some form of equilibrium.
4) When it comes to the next month, the factor will deduct the amount of debt he did not collect from your ledger balance.That is the FULL balance (100%) So instead of 90%, you might only get 85-87%. sometimes even less so your cash flow immediately starts on a downward spiral. This trend continues month on month,
So here is the question.
Is your business strong enough financially to cope with the decrease in revenue.?
Have you got the resources to chase invoices returned by the factor?
Is your business strong enough to cope with a diminishing customer base?
Do you really want to lose control of your business's finances?
If the answer to any of these questions is NO, then your answer to using Invoice Factoring must also be NO
There are simple methods you can use to ensure YOU get PAID and get the finances your business needs. We'll tell you more in the next blog
1) It is a short term solution to a long term problem. The factor will pay up to 90% of your monthly invoice total - good start, it's money in the bank fairly quickly. Alas that's where it starts to go wrong.
You immediately lose control of the process. The factor wants to first of all recover the 90% advance which he made, and more importantly make a profit for himself. He does not care how he achieves this or whether he upsets your customer or not. So you immediately start to lose customers - OK some you might not want to continue with anyway, but that's not the point - your customer base gets depleted.
2) Many of your customers will be good payers, and when they see they have to pay a factor rather than you, they will start to think there is a problem within your organisation and will start looking elsewhere for a supplier or contractor to carry out the work.Again your customer base gets depleted.
3) Any invoices which the factor fails to collect are returned to you to chase yourself, so you immediately find yourself with potential bad or doubtful debts. Your Aged Debtors Analysis is now showing invoices at least 60 days old, making them harder to collect. Also you now need to allocate resources to try and chase these up to maintain some form of equilibrium.
4) When it comes to the next month, the factor will deduct the amount of debt he did not collect from your ledger balance.That is the FULL balance (100%) So instead of 90%, you might only get 85-87%. sometimes even less so your cash flow immediately starts on a downward spiral. This trend continues month on month,
So here is the question.
Is your business strong enough financially to cope with the decrease in revenue.?
Have you got the resources to chase invoices returned by the factor?
Is your business strong enough to cope with a diminishing customer base?
Do you really want to lose control of your business's finances?
If the answer to any of these questions is NO, then your answer to using Invoice Factoring must also be NO
There are simple methods you can use to ensure YOU get PAID and get the finances your business needs. We'll tell you more in the next blog
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Lies Damn Lies and Statistics
We are sure you have heard that saying before, but there is a secret behind your web site statistics or don you bother about them.
As the saying goes, statistics can be and often are manipulated to suit the circumstances. So the secret is to establish clearly what you want the stats to tell you - Before you start looking at them.
No matter who your site is hosted with, they will provide stats in some form or another, so become familiar with the terms used. You can also set up Google Analytics easily on your site, and it's FREE.
The key stats you need are 1) How many visits to your site 2) where they are coming from 3) What pages are most popular 4) What pages have a High Bounce Rate 5) What pages have the Highest Exit Rate.
Basically this will tell you 1) how easy your site was found 2)Where the interest is coming from 3)What they like 4) What they Don Like 5) Where they loose interest in your business.
These are all key indicators to show how effective your use of the internet is and where changes have top be made.
The choice is yours. Do the analysis yourself or use a company you can trust not to manipulate the stats to make your site appear good.
As the saying goes, statistics can be and often are manipulated to suit the circumstances. So the secret is to establish clearly what you want the stats to tell you - Before you start looking at them.
No matter who your site is hosted with, they will provide stats in some form or another, so become familiar with the terms used. You can also set up Google Analytics easily on your site, and it's FREE.
The key stats you need are 1) How many visits to your site 2) where they are coming from 3) What pages are most popular 4) What pages have a High Bounce Rate 5) What pages have the Highest Exit Rate.
Basically this will tell you 1) how easy your site was found 2)Where the interest is coming from 3)What they like 4) What they Don Like 5) Where they loose interest in your business.
These are all key indicators to show how effective your use of the internet is and where changes have top be made.
The choice is yours. Do the analysis yourself or use a company you can trust not to manipulate the stats to make your site appear good.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Our First Tip - Check Out Your Custiomer
All too often, businesses are more interested in securing that next order than ensuring that payment will be received, and checking out your customer's financial background.
The production of company reports and information on sole traders and partnerships can be costly to obtain. So, whatś the solution?
Our advice is simple. Forget about bank references. In all honesty, they are not worth the paper they are printed on. So to save time and money and to take that wee bit of extra care, ask your new customer for a Trade Reference. But don't stop there. Check out the phone book for other businesses in the area offering the same or similar services and ask them if they have had any dealings with your potential customer.
You may ask why do that? Simple - your new customer will not provide a reference for a company they have a bad reputation with. They will only tell you the good ones - they ones they pay regularly and on time. Before you grant credit to any of your customers - do a bit of research first. It will pay you in the long run.
What would you rather have as a customer - one who places regular orders and pays on time or one who places the order and delays making payment?
You are running a business - not a charity. If you have any doubts about securing payment - ask for a deposit up front. If they are not willing to do this, then you may well have problems later in getting paid for the work you have done.
The production of company reports and information on sole traders and partnerships can be costly to obtain. So, whatś the solution?
Our advice is simple. Forget about bank references. In all honesty, they are not worth the paper they are printed on. So to save time and money and to take that wee bit of extra care, ask your new customer for a Trade Reference. But don't stop there. Check out the phone book for other businesses in the area offering the same or similar services and ask them if they have had any dealings with your potential customer.
You may ask why do that? Simple - your new customer will not provide a reference for a company they have a bad reputation with. They will only tell you the good ones - they ones they pay regularly and on time. Before you grant credit to any of your customers - do a bit of research first. It will pay you in the long run.
What would you rather have as a customer - one who places regular orders and pays on time or one who places the order and delays making payment?
You are running a business - not a charity. If you have any doubts about securing payment - ask for a deposit up front. If they are not willing to do this, then you may well have problems later in getting paid for the work you have done.
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Introducing Allan Park Services
Welcome to our new blog. Our aim with this site is to post practical tips for small and medium sized enterprises to help them with the development of thier business, covering a wide variety of subjects.
Our one and only advertising post explains our business philosophy and introduces our services, details are on our web site www.allanpark.services.officelive.com
We do not believe in a single stream approach to business management. Every business is different, although their basic needs are the same. It's the manner in which the solution is developed which is the more important. What will work for one business will not necessarily work for another. It is that approach that makes us different. We look at what you need and together establish the best approach. So visit our web site and see for yourself.
For future posts, if you have a specific topic you would like us to comment on, drop us an e-mail - allanparkbusinessservices@hotmail.co.uk and we'll include our response in a subsequent post.
Allan Park Business Services - Solutions tailored to Your Business Needs
Our one and only advertising post explains our business philosophy and introduces our services, details are on our web site www.allanpark.services.officelive.com
We do not believe in a single stream approach to business management. Every business is different, although their basic needs are the same. It's the manner in which the solution is developed which is the more important. What will work for one business will not necessarily work for another. It is that approach that makes us different. We look at what you need and together establish the best approach. So visit our web site and see for yourself.
For future posts, if you have a specific topic you would like us to comment on, drop us an e-mail - allanparkbusinessservices@hotmail.co.uk and we'll include our response in a subsequent post.
Allan Park Business Services - Solutions tailored to Your Business Needs
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