• Why don’t we sell our service or product quality?
• What are you competing on?
• What is your differentiation in the marketplace?
• Why are your clients dealing with you?

Society has been conditioned to barter or ask for a discount.  Why bow to the pressure of discounting.  Look for alternatives to sell your differentiation or Unique Selling Proposition (USP).   Are you able to offer better quality and service; add options of extended warranties, payment plans or upgrade bonuses?

Explore and extend your unique product or service experience by marketing that which is your advantage.  (Exploit it)

By having a marketing communication plan, you will have already looked at the positioning of your product/service and its rightful place in the marketplace.  A pricing strategy is critical for long term business viability and the covering of business overheads in addition to cost of goods (COG).

Sit back and reflect as to why you are really discounting.

Don’t get me wrong, certain times call for a form of discounting. Bundle services with an applicable saving; pass on freight savings due to volume discount you receive on larger deliveries.  All great selling points are where your service now takes the focus off the price.  The customer is getting quality service as well as a competitive price.

Don’t sell yourself short and compete purely on price.

John Burkhardt – Gold Coast Business Coach

Does your business structure support your long term business goals?

Do you really understand the use of Companies and Trusts in achieving these goals and ultimately achieving your exit or succession plans?

Start with the end in mind! Realistically nearly all of us get into business because we are great at what we do…  When reality strikes, we are usually not that great at the non “my stuff” functions of business.  It is never too late to align your business structure with your long term personal and business goals.

If you would like to discuss this, please let me know and I can introduce you to some great professionals in that field.

In the current monetary climate there is more and more focus on making sure you know what your money is up to.  With a slower economy (apparently) there is now the focus on even more control on your expenses and how to (market) maximize your income?  This is a great time to become more financially literate.

Do you know how to effectively read your Profit & Loss Statement and challenge some of the items on it?  Do you do this regularly (a minimum of once per month if not weekly)?

Is your Balance Sheet up to date or is it an item that the Accountant does up and it remains in your tax return for them next year?  Do you know what it is for?

Financial literacy is also about knowing how your business structure works and ensuring it matches your long term business and personal goals without you getting caught in capital gains tax or stamp duty penalties.  If you don’t know what structure you have and how to benefit from it, now is the time to talk to you financial advisor to learn!

Do you know what your competitors pricing is for the products you stock or service you offer?  Are you positioned to take advantage of their challenges?  Is your mark-up rate standardised and can be implemented quickly to ensure that you don’t eat into your gross profit?

Financial control is about 1/7^th of the business functions performed and should be treated accordingly.  Be informed; be ruthless in your decisions.

A lot of time is wasted and relationships formed during meetings.  So what is the answer for a balanced productive meeting to achieve your objectives and to ensure all parties are happy with the result?

Some Simple Guidelines to Effective Meetings (Time Management):

Have an agenda – Issue it before the meeting, ask for input, stick to it.  (Set the meeting context)

Start and finish on time – A little hard to have a meeting by yourself, but respect yourself and your time.  If the other party/s is consistently late or doesn’t turn up, move on.  Is this the type of relationship you want to have?

Keep great notes and circulate them to the attendees/invitees straight after the meeting.  If someone has a problem with the content, let them address it straight away.

Don’t get sidetracked by “fluffy talk”, issues not on the agenda (put them on the next meetings agenda) and keep to time.

Make sure the meeting addresses what the next action step is, who is responsible for it, the outcome desired and when and where the feedback on the action is to go to.  Leaving a meeting without setting responsible and accountable action steps is really a waste of time and energy for everyone.  You call that a social outing!

Keep people honest. If they are going on an ego trip or talking BS, just tell them that and move on.

Set a time, date and agenda for the next meeting before leaving the first one.

I hope this helps, there are lots of templates out there for running a meeting, but keep it simple and stick to the guidelines.

Regards,

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

Outsourcing is sometimes overlooked whilst people are planning within their business and its requirements for Human Resources (or services and products).  I have listed some benefits and challenges with outsourcing for you to consider:

Benefits

Contract rate: No overheads with regards to tax, GST, superannuation, workcover, insurance, office space, tools or equipment

Specialized expertise: You gain access to specialized expertise, machinery, tools and equipment which you may not be able to otherwise afford, investigate, operate or source by yourself.

Timely: It can be managed to fit in with your product or service delivery.  It may work much faster than if you had to arrange and source the item or service yourself.

Challenges

Contract rate: With no previous experience here you will need to do a lot of R&D into what you get for your money and how to operate and control it.  Allow yourself plenty  of time to work on researching the original contacts.

Specialized expertise: You will need to gain some knowledge of the area yourself so that you can see how good the expertise is that you are contacting in.  All too often we see where outsourcing leads to poor quality, poor standards  due to insufficient boundaries or briefs.

Timely: Be careful with time restrictions.  Know what time frames and share expectations with the outsourced company.  It will go a long way for both of your businesses if you can coordinate what time frames with realistic outputs.
The best advice is to research the area you which to outsource, do a full brief (being very clear), call for tenders and manage the project.

More to come.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

As such we have created a short presentation which explains the most common basics of the internet and how things fit together.  Please email us  to obtain a copy of the presentation.  This is part of the same presentation to be used at workshops.

The main reason to dedicate a blog to IT services is to convey that knowledge is power.  You don’t have to be an IT person or super IT tech, however it certainly saves a lot of time and money if you understand the industry, the terms and how the basic structures work.

Whether employing an in house IT person or subcontracting this role out, make time to become aware of what is available, make sure you understand the basics of how things work, their capacity, features and how the network (connect) together.

The most productive part of utilizing information technology is to plan ahead. It performs much better when you have made the decisions surrounding IT to compliment your business planning and direction.  Sometimes an upgrade on a machine to expand its functions or capacity can have 100% increase in capacity for less than 10% additional cost.  This is irrelevant if your IT consultant doesn’t show you these options when quoting to your business.

The most significant advance outside of email and the internet is the ability of devices such as Blackberry’s and IPhones which can become mobile business computers.  With the ability to use email and web searching from these devices along with calenders and other office documents, they have become a powerful and efficient tool in business development.

When sourcing an IT professional, ask for referrals from peers you respect, work out what you want (the big picture) before hand, check the quality of their work with their customers, set realistic time frames and enter into maintenance agreements to ensure you remain top of their preferred customers.

Educate yourself on IT developments and the use of IT solutions to stay in contact with customers, prospects, provide information 24/7 and to structure your business model and organizational plan to leverage the most out of the technology base you have.

We are shortly adding a book/presentation about the terms and how to navigate the IT world.

Regards, John

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions