Forthcoming Events
all held at:
Henley-
Golf & Country Club
Thursday 16th September 2010 Networking Event & Lunch
12.00 o’clock to 2.15pm
Presented by: Richard Suthons -
Richard Suthons Associates
MEMBERSHIP
With effect from 1 September 2009, membership of the Warwickshire Business Club is FREE. The individual annual membership fee of £50 and the corporate annual membership fee of £150 have been scrapped! To become a member, all you have to do is attend just one networking event and this entitles you to free membership of the club.
proud to be networking since 1982
The Top 10 Tips for Staying in Business
by Helen Dowling of Exceptional Thinking
No matter what the economic situation is outside, it’s always important to think about how you’re going to stay in business in the future. Funnily enough, I originally planned to write this article in 2007, but never got around it to. So, here now are my top 10 tips for making sure your business survives through 2009, 2010 and beyond…
1. Watch your cashflow. If you want to stay in business, my very top tip is to watch your cashflow. It’s no good having fantastic turnover or great profits if you don’t have any cash in the bank. How will you pay staff, do new things or pay your bills? Businesses can go out of business so quickly if there’s no cash available – make sure your business doesn’t go this way.
2. Smooth out the peaks and troughs. If you have times in your business where you’re really quiet and then other times when you’re really busy, you need to smooth out these peaks and troughs as soon as you can. The only way to do this is to do marketing continuously – that means even when you’re so busy and rushed off your feet. Any marketing you do today will take time to see an impact so by the time you see the results, you could avoid a quiet period.
3. Talk to your customers. You should be talking to each of your customers as often as you can in your business. The more you talk to them, the more you’ll find out answers to the questions you want to do. This can help you with marketing; with delivery and with service.
4. Under promise, over deliver. How many times over the last year, have you been delighted with something you’ve purchased? The service was great; the quality was fantastic and you were really excited about working with a company? It doesn’t happen very often does it, but it’s an experience that you should be trying to accomplish everyday with your customers. Always go the extra mile.
5. Thank your customers. We don’t often get thanked when we buy something do we? Try it with your customers and you’ll notice the difference very rapidly. Customers love to be thanked.
6. Plan & set goals. If you know where you’re going, chances are that you will get there. But, if you don’t, how can you expect anyone else to? Customers and staff like to know where your business is heading. Plus, having goals that you’re trying to achieve will keep you motivated and focused too.
7. Look after your staff. If you have staff, make sure that you look after them. Treat them with respect; communicate well with them and give them the little extras (like half a day off if they’ve been working really, really hard). Your staff will appreciate and want to work with you more.
8. Look after you. If you don’t look after yourself, no one else will. Taking regular breaks away from the business will make you feel better and help you stay motivated. You’ll also find you come up with your best ideas if you’re away from the business for a little while.
9. Measure what you do.
Set up targets and measure how you’re doing as compared to your targets. You’ll get to know what’s working in your business and what’s not and can adjust accordingly. But if you don’t know how you’re doing, how will you know what to change?
10. Focus on working ‘on’ the business
Finally, focus on working ‘on’ the business, not ‘in’ it. I know it’s hard, but strategy and where you’re going is equally, if not more important than marketing, operations and finance. Make sure you timetable working on strategy into your schedule too.
So, there you have it. There are my top 10 tips for still being in business in 5 years or 10 years time. Oh, and one more thing to add, a bit of luck too. And if you think you can’t make your own luck, think again. Luck is about thinking positively and actively looking for opportunities.
And the great thing is that all of the things I’ve put above are things that you can have an influence on. If you’re not doing any of the above, get out there and start today. Small steps can make a huge difference.
Exceptional Thinking provides advice and help to small business owners on their marketing and to people setting up in business.
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Articles written by members of Warwickshire Business Club
Copyright (C) 2009 Warwickshire Business Club. All rights reserved.
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