The Australian Small Business Blog

The Entitlements of a Small Business Owner

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:46:00 +0000

It can be intimidating for a small business owner visiting their corporate clients. They take the lift to the 41st floor and in a marble clad reception, they ask to speak with the executive with whom they have an appointment. They wait in a plush chair in a reception lounge with a magnificent view where they are served a cappuccino in a fine china cup. Finally, the executive assistant ushers them into the executive suite in a corner office, beautifully furnished with expensive artwork on the walls.

This is not the office of a small business owner, as they know they have a choice. They can have their own executive suite, or they can re-invest in their business to increase profits or increase their own dividends.

An executive on the other hand sees these trappings as perks. Along with first class travel and a luxury car. After all, they believe they are entitled to be treated this way. It is proof of their importance and authority. Besides which all the other executives at their level are getting the same perks and the company should provide them to demonstrate its strength and position in the business world.

Most executives don’t own the business, although they may hold some stock. They did not build the corporation from infancy. They are opportunity takers, and if things don’t work out, they will take another opportunity. The opportunity creators are the entrepreneurs.

So what are small business owners entitled to? Apart form hard work, long hours, stress about meeting their commitments to their customers, staff and suppliers?

They are entitled to keep their customers happy and see them return time after time. They are entitled to the referrals their customers give when they send their friends and colleagues to their business. They are entitled to the recognition and support they receive from their business owner colleagues who understand them better than anyone else.

They are entitled to decide who they will work with and who they won’t. They don’t have to justify their actions to others who just want their job. They are entitled to the rewards of their efforts – without someone else claiming the credit and getting the bonus. They can take satisfaction in seeing their business grow and prosper as they do watching their children grow.

When business owners understand this, they no longer need to feel in awe of their executive clients. In many cases the have risked more and done more than many of the high flyers. They don’t have the arrogance of the corporate executive. Arrogance doesn’t sell. They have created a valuable asset with their own mind and hands. Of that, they are entitled to feel very proud.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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July Small Business Owner Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:40:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

How would you like to win one of 3 HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One printers valued at $499 each?

All you have to do, is put a comment on this blog, on any posting you like. The more the merrier.

At the end of the month, the best 3 commentors will each receive one of these printers. The only catch is I can only ship them to Australian businesses.

*****Please Note: When you comment for the first time, just let me know that you have here so I can contact you if you win. (Blogger comments are usually anonymous unless you leave your email address in the post which I don't recommend).

Genuine commenters are also welcome to put a link in their comment which will help with their ranking from this highly Google ranked site for the Australian Small Business keywords.

May Your Business be as You Plan It!

Dr Greg Chapman

The Australian Small Business Blog

Hope is Not a Business Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:22:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

A record $90 million lottery has been announced for this week. Half the nation are buying tickets. Even my normally very sensible wife has asked me to buy a ticket, against my better judgement (although that is not the first time I have felt I have had to acquiesce to such things in the name of harmony at home, and I am sure it won’t be the last).

As someone who regards themselves as having good analytic skills, I find lotteries are an affront to commonsense. The only way they are commercially sustainable is that everyone on average loses. However with the odd ticket in a major jackpot and our annual flutter on the Melbourne Cup this is just a bit of fun for us. It is not our financial strategy. We are not banking on it to pay for our retirement, and our investment in it is petty cash, annually less than a nice night out.

Unfortunately, all too often, a lottery strategy is the one adopted by many business owners. That is something will turn up. One of their ads draw will draw in a whale customer. That their business gets profiled on a family talk show resulting in a huge surge of business. Maybe one time they do get lucky- but what happens next?

In most cases, not much. They blow their luck (like most lottery winners) and are back to where they started, because they were not prepared for it. They may have been depending on the luck, but didn’t expect it to happen.

Samuel Goldwyn once said to someone who commented that he had a lot of luck in his business “I agree and the harder I worked, the luckier I got”

Now that is the kind of luck upon which you can depend.

Luck starts with a vision, but doesn’t finish there. It must be backed with a plan. A vision without a plan is just a dream. How many of those have come true for you lately?

Your strategy is how you bridge the gap from your current state and your ultimate objective. So write out the key things you want to achieve in your business. This might be more profit or just more time off. Next describe your strategies for bridging these gaps. These would include your Marketing Strategy, your Business Structure or your Operations and People Strategy. If there are gaps you can’t bridge seek advice.

When you add an action plan to these strategies you have what I refer to as the Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

So with the new Financial Year just commencing, don’t just hope that next year will be better, plan for it.

Or just buy a lottery ticket and hope.

All you need to do now is to Empower yourself and take action ...

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

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The 2009 Australian Small Business Summit Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:32:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

The Small Business Minister Dr Craig Emerson was asked to summarise in one word what he thought described the sector. The word he chose was “Resilience”. While the other R word (Recession) was in common usage (it even passed the lips of the Prime Minister 11 times) I think Resilience described the mood well.

I have attempted here to provide a brief summary of the issues that caught my attention at this year’s summit.

Mr Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister

While a large part of the Prime Minister's address was a repeat of his regular talking points there were a few specific comments made for a small business audience:

• 35% of GDP is due to small business
• The 50% tax break for capital investment by small business extended to the end of this year
• Reduction of PAYG instalment in 2009/10
• Small business online program announced in the budget to help businesses establish an online presence with the national broadband program
• Tax credit of 45% on research and development for small business
• A small business banking complaints clearing house for businesses that believe they have been unreasonably denied credit
• Announcing the detailed implementation framework for the Small Business Advisory Committee
• All federal government contracts up to $1 million with small business are subject to the “on-time payment guarantee”. That means accounts will be paid within 30 days, otherwise small businesses will have the right to charge penalty interest.

Mr Richard Brooks, Chairman Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA)

Key areas of concern raised by the Chairman included:

• Impact of the Fairwork rationalisation of awards increasing substantially rates of pay, particularly in the hospitality sector with little recognition that Australian no longer just works 9-5 Monday to Friday.
• The lack of balance in bank contracts
• Expected increase in ASIC fees when it takes over regulation of business names
• Training incentives for employees don’t apply to business owners
• The need to pay a $900 upgrade fee each year for accounting software because the ATO keeps changing their forms

Mr Malcolm Turnbull, MP Opposition Leader

Again putting the expected politics to one side he proposed some interesting policies.

• The small business minister is in the shadow cabinet, and would be in the cabinet if they were elected (different to both the Rudd and Howard cabinets). It is in cabinet where the decisions are all made and currently small business, in spite of its 35% contribution to GDP is unrepresented.
• Improved incentives for apprentices
• A tax loss carry back (we currently have the ability to carry forward losses, but not to claim a rebate against past tax payments.)
• Revision of insolvency laws to offer the equivalent of the US Chapter 11 protections to allow businesses to restructure and avoiding a fire sale of assets where creditors get very little.
• Tried to introduce an amendment into the award modernisation legislation to ensure no additional cost would be imposed on employers, but this was rejected. Job losses are expected.

He invited ideas for helping small business at the website www.jobsforaustralia.com

Mr Michael D’Ascenzo, Commissioner of Taxation, ATO

The commissioner reviewed some of the initiatives that the ATO has undertaken to assist small business owners

• 12 months interest free payment arrangements for businesses with less than $2m turnover
• Ability to defer payment of activity statement liabilities where there are cashflow timing issues
• Maintaining a level playing field by identifying those avoiding their obligations. They now use industry benchmarks to find businesses in high risk areas who seek an unfair competitive advantage.
• Undertook 8000 audits of those in the cash economy and are developing more benchmarks and doing more audits this year.

Dr Craig Emerson, Minister Small Business

The minister made the following observations:

• Retail sales for the last quarter were up 4.8%, 5.6% for small retailers
• Saw the stimulus package as a ‘tradies package’
• PAYG has been reduced by 20% and there will only be a 2% escalation in 09/10 rather than the usual 9%
• Red tape reduction in 27 areas- three examples- national trade licensing and a national system for business name registration, standard and simplified business reporting online.
• ETS will only directly affect 1000 big emitters, but there would be flow on costs to everyone else
• Awards have been simplified from 1600 to 18, and there only have been significant issues in three which are currently under discussion

Damian Karmelich, Director Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Dun & Bradstreet

Damian provided some great insights on how the future looks, based on analysis of their substantial database, and devoid of political spin. Very sobering.

• Every 4 minutes, a new company is formed in Australia and every 35 minutes a business goes insolvent
• Perceives much greater risks in China with high levels on unemployment – risking political instability. There is an unwritten compact in China which forgives many of the governments shortcomings as long as it delivers economic improvements to the population
• Expects Australian unemployment to exceed 8%
• Businesses are clearing out inventory and not restocking
• Expects a 20% increase in business failures, and has assessed a 130,000 increase in the risk of failure in the last 12 months along with a 150,000 risk increase in paying bills late from their database of 2 million businesses
• The average days for payment is now 58 , with big businesses delaying to 65. Late payments for big businesses ultimately cause delays in small business payments
• There has been a 49% increase in debts being referred for collection on 2008.

He also suggested, not only getting credit checks for new customers, but also for old ones, particularly where you have seen payment days deteriorating.

My Thoughts

Apart from being able to hear directly from key players in our economy, it was also an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback. This is my third such summit, and it is fair to say each has its own character. Progress is made between each, but I am always skeptical about depending on others to make you a success. In the end, our success is up to each of us individually.

Ron Barrassi (not present at the conference) said:
If its to be - its up to me

What's your plan?

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Attention Small Business Owners – You can check out any time you want – but Can You Ever Leave?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:11:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Owning a business is a 24/7 job. Even when you are away from the office or store, it is hard to switch off. Almost everything you see somehow reminds you of something you need to do in your business.

You might be reading a book, and the hero enters a store that is selling in a way that gives you an idea for your business. The author may not own a store, but is likely to be very creative and wants to make their hero’s time in the store memorable in some way. Of course you would like that for your customers.

It is like the science fiction writer who dreams up all sorts of new devices to create a wonderland for avid science fiction fans. The funny thing is many scientists and inventors like science fiction, and are often inspired by the creativity of the science fiction writer who may have little or no science training. The scientist who reads about the idea then becomes intrigued by it, then obsessed, until they actually work out how to make it happen. There are numerous documentaries on inventions inspired by programs such as Star Trek.

When you leave your business at night, you too see ideas around you – what others are doing in the commercial world in other sectors, or even ideas dreamed up by TV writers. It is hard to switch off. The only time a business owner can switch off is when they sell their business when it becomes someone else’s problem.

However for most business owners they can check out – but they can never leave.
They are their business, and when they are not there- nothing happens. No-one wants to buy a business like this. Certainly, their family wants nothing to do with it, and the staff are just hanging around for a payout.

In order to be able to leave your business, you must have an Exit Strategy. The best time to create an exit strategy is when you start-up, but it is never too late.

Three things can turn your business into a Saleable Asset:

1. A Marketing System that generates predictable sales
2. A Business System that allows others to run your business without you
3. A Reporting System that enables you to manage your business when you are not there.

With these three systems you will be to check out from your business when ever want, and ultimately be able to leave it to some one else.

All you need to do now is to Empower yourself and take action ...

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

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Are Your Customers Cats or Dogs?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:46:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Our dog is not particularly active, suffering as he does from a touch of arthritis, but he loves his food. If you give him fillet steak, or just plain dog food from the can, he eats it with equal gusto. He will eat what our cat doesn’t finish from her bowl. In fact if she throws any of it up, he will eat that too. He is just not that fussy. In fact the only thing we have found he won’t eat is brussels sprouts. (I can’t say that I can blame him.)

Our cat on the other hand is quite fussy. She is rather partial to mince topside- and won’t eat cheap cat food. It has to be the type of food you get from those small containers which are twice the cost of the larger cheap brands. If you put out something she regards as inferior, she will leave it… for our dog. She would never go near the dog’s bowl.

So what are your customers like? Are they cats or dogs? Are they only interested in the premium cuts, or couldn’t tell the difference between topside and reprocessed meat.

The problem many business owners create for themselves is trying to sell a service that only felines will appreciate and pay for to their canine clients and then are upset when they focus on price. There is nothing wrong with having canines as clients, but they will not appreciate and pay for topside.

If you have canine clients (and there are a lot more of them than the felines) make sure that your service is designed to meet their needs rather than your ego.

You can of course have both feline and canine clients but make sure the message you present to each does not confuse.

When you understand if your clients are dogs or cats, you will know what food they will appreciate and pay for and be able to keep them happy and faithful for many years.

All you need to do now is to Empower yourself and take action ...

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

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Comparing Your Business With Others

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:48:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

As a small business owner you probably regularly meet with other business owners. (If you don’t, you need to get out more as that is where the opportunities are.) However when you do, are you finding that when you leave an event you end up feeling disenchanted? Everyone seems to be doing so much better than you?

Are you comparing everyone else’s fiction with your own reality?

Think of it this way, if someone’s business was actually not doing so well, and in fact their sales had dropped significantly, do you they would tell everyone they know? Of course not as it would potentially make things worse for them. People don’t want to do business with someone who they think may not be around for long, so the talk is always positive and it is quite likely that many of the people who say things are just fine, are in no better shape than you.

Armed with this information, you can carry on attending such events with a fixed grin hoping that something will turn up from someone who may be even worse off than you, making promises to you that they will not deliver on. You can waste a lot of time at such events hoping for a big opportunity. It can be like someone who can’t swim hoping to be rescued by a drowning man.

Alternatively you can take matters into your own hands. If the things that you are doing are not working, you need to change them. Start to experiment more.
If you don’t know what to do you need to seek some kind of advice.

The Advice Catch 22

When things are going well, people don’t tend to seek advice. They see it as a cost (time & money) and don’t believe they need it. When times are tough, they need it but can’t afford it. Catch 22.

The correct approach is to regularly have a range of different sources of advice, from reading books, attending workshops or coaching. In the good times, you need to be prepared for the tough times. In the tough times, the need for advice is even greater.

While cash might be scarce in the tough times, if the person was convinced that advice they got would work, they would, of course pay for it. So how do you know it will work for you?

Here are some questions to ask:

-Are there others you are aware of that are doing well in your sector?
-Do you believe there is something they might be doing that you are not doing at the moment?
-Do you believe that if you could learn what they are doing, that you could also be successful?

When learning to drive a car, you start off being unconsciously incompetent. You really don’t know how hard it can be. Once you start to drive, you soon learn you need lessons. At this point you are consciously incompetent. If you answered yes to the 3 questions above, this is you. You know there are answers out there, you just don’t know what they are.

At this point you can decide to remain unconsciously incompetent and learn by trial and error (smashing up your car in the process), or you can get advice. People think advice is expensive.

Abraham Lincoln said; “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

Advice is a catalyst to change, and if you change nothing, nothing changes.

What’s your Plan?

Dr Greg Chapman holds regular workshops for small business owners:
Visit www.events.fivepillarsbusinesssuccess.com

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The Best Salesperson in Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:07:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

A common myth in which many small business owners believe is that all they need to do is find a great salesperson to be successful. They already know how to make great widgets, and they are really good at providing their service to their clients, but if they just had someone who is good at door-to-door to bring in new customers, their business would be brilliant!

The problem is to find great salespeople. On average, most sales people are average. By definition, half are below average! You can, of course train a new sales person, but if you are not great at sales, it will be the blind leading the blind.

You may find a great salesperson – they certainly exist. A great salesperson may be good at selling lots of things, but the thing they are best at selling is themselves. They know their value. They know the value of the business they generate.

Unfortunately, many business owners truly don’t understand the value of great salespeople and will not pay for the best. They are expensive. They like to have uncapped commissions. They will probably be the most expensive people in the business. They will also most likely leave you when they realise you need them more than they need you. The really great salespeople work for themselves. The ones that stay are the average ones.

Large businesses with many sales staff know that they must continually invest in sales training and have sales managers to drive performance in an effort to keep them above average. In contrast, small businesses try to hire salespeople with these skills already in place. They try to get them on the cheap. Only the average ones are cheap.

For any business that has been around a number of years, the owner will have developed some sales skills. They are also likely to be the best salesperson in their business. This is as you would expect, as they have the greatest incentive. The profit goes to them. They are also responsible for the training and support of any sales staff, whose skills and motivation will almost certainly be less.

However, some business owners truly dislike the sales process. They would like to be left alone to build their widgets with someone else providing the customers. The only way that they can do this is if they get a job working for another widget maker.

Business owners need to make the choice on whether they want to stay in love with widget making, or fall in love with owning a widget business.

Marketing and sales is part of every business and the owner must take a lead in these areas. This is what differentiates the owner from the employee that just makes widgets.The owner must be prepared to be the best in marketing and sales so they can lead their sales team. This means investing in education and training for themselves if they are unsatisfied with their existing sales results.

In small business, the best salesperson must be the owner. It’s their business. If they can’t sell it to others, who else can?

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Reducing Your Small Business Debt

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:30:00 +0000

by Paul Jenkin

Choice has just released a report on managing personal debt in this time of financial stress. For some small business owners this debt may have been exacerbated by debt in their business caused by the slowing economy.

As for personal debt, in business there is good and bad debt. In most businesses some level of debt is necessary, firstly to commence your business, secondly to keep your business operating and thirdly to expand your business.

Business debt can be good as long as it does not get out of control. However, there are numerous reasons why it is not viable for a business to carry high debt levels for too long.

Often business debt can come with a ridiculously high interest rate, thus taking longer to pay and using up valuable cash flow. Carrying too much debt may also make it harder to reinvest when expanding your business or looking to purchase capital equipment.

Increased debt can take away from the quality of your end product or service as you take from your cost centres to meet debt repayments. As the owner of a business, high levels of debt may also cause higher levels of stress, affecting both your personal life and the decisions you make in your business, and once your business decisions become worse your final product suffers, thus affecting your reputation and ability to keep clients.

Debt may also lower the value of your business and make it less attractive to investors. Too much debt can become a cancer in your business and can cause your business to spiral out of control with the ultimate price being bankruptcy of your business and potentially yourself.
If debt does become a problem there are things that you can do.

1. Look at how your debt is structured and what it is secured against. If you can, your debts should be consolidated into one debt and secured against an asset, for example your house, this way you have the ability to finance your debt over a much longer period of time and at a lower interest rate. It should also be remembered that the good thing about business debt is that it is tax deductible so it is usually a good idea to pay off as much private or non deductible debt as you can and examine whether you may be able to just pay interest on your business debt. This also has the benefit of giving you more equity against which to secure your business. Any debt restructuring should always be done in conjunction with your accountant.

2. Look at your life style and take less from your business to prop up your personal life. For example, should you go on an expensive holiday? Do you need an expensive car? Do you need Foxtel? Again look at the Choice report for more tips on managing this.

3. See where your business can cut costs to make debt repayments. In taking this step, extreme care needs to be taken not compromise your quality.

4. Review your business structure with your accountant. This can affect the amount of tax you pay and you ability to defer tax whilst you repay debt. Your business structure will also play a vital role in protecting your personal assets if your worst fears are realised and a debt provider takes action against you.

The most important thing to do is to have a plan, rather than hope the problem will fix itself. It generally doesn’t at this stage of the business cycle.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Paul Jenkin is a partner with small business accountants Andresen McCarthy Partners

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Business Tip #3: Creating a First Impression

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:11:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Many people when they begin in business unconsciously send out signals that scream “Start-up”. No-one wants to buy from a start-up, because they are unproven. They could disappear at any time without a trace. So people learn to recognise the signals- you have a hotmail account. Your address is a post office box. You have printed your business card on your inkjet printer. You only have a mobile phone number on your business card.

You might think that rectifying all these things will cost you a lot of money. There is some investment, but it is small if you understand that people will run in the opposite direction when they see these signals.

Get a proper domain name. (It will cost you less than $50 to set up a domain name with an email account attached.) Get a virtual office address from the many virtual office providers that are around the country. They will even answer the phone for you with your business name and send messages to your mobile. This gives you a proper street address as well as a landline number for people to call you on. (It’s ok to have your mobile on the card, as long as it is not the only number.) All this is cheaper than you think, with some virtual offices as low as $100 per month depending on the services provided. You can top this off with a simple 1 page template website for a few hundred dollars. Internet printers will also provide you professionally printed business cards from under $100.

You can obviously upgrade as your business grows, but with these low cost steps you no longer scream start-up!

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

Dr Greg Chapman

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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The GFC and the Small Business Advantage

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:33:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

It seems every week there is news of more layoffs by large businesses. Feed into that announcements of burgeoning deficits and negative growth forecasts and it is no wonder that highly precious, but fragile commodity, business confidence is weakening.

The reaction from businesses when this occurs is to become risk adverse. It’s all very well to attempt to remain positive, but if the fundamentals are rotten, you just become like the Black Knight in Monty Python who has lost all his limbs and still thinks he can beat King Arthur. Therefore expansions are deferred. New projects are put on hold. Upgrades are delayed. With many businesses, the layoffs or liquidation, while directly as a result of the downturn, were often an accident waiting to happen. Decisions avoided until the cash flow pain made those decisions unavoidable. Evidence of this is being seen with the US automakers.

For small businesses, the impact is far less spectacular, however, it is still there. Until a few years ago, 70% of the employment growth came from small business which resulted in unemployment falling below 4%. While there does not appear to be a lot of evidence that small business is laying off staff in significant numbers, it does appear, with the fall in job ads, that they aren’t employing at the same rate.

However, there is reason that there should not be same doom and gloom in the small business sector as for large business. Larger businesses tend to be more highly financially leveraged and have tighter margins. These factors along with their larger market shares, mean they are the first to feel market shrinkage impacting on their bottom lines.

Without these pressures, small businesses are able to be more positive as long as they take steps to address the changes in the economy. This may mean repackaging their offers due to the changed market conditions.

They understand that while there is a lot to be concerned about, there will be oases of opportunity that they can uncover. One advantage of being small is that these oases don’t need to be large. (Small oases are uneconomic for big businesses and big ones are rare in a major downturn.)

While there might be a lot of desert between oases, if a small business can find one they can prosper for a long time while those around them dehydrate. These oases, niches in business-speak, may be different to the ones that exist in the good times, but they can be just as commonplace.

If you have a pre-existing niche, you may find that your oasis is turning to desert. If you stay where you are, you will feel the same pain that larger businesses feel: stranded as their green pastures die off.

Re-examine your strengths and look for the new opportunities that arise as the market place changes. How have people’s needs changed? They may not want to buy new equipment, but may be prepared to lease it. They will certainly need to maintain their existing equipment if they don’t replace it. People eat out less, but they still eat. How has your market changed and how can you respond? Small businesses can do this quickly. That is their advantage.

The oases will always exist and you may need a water diviner to find them, but sitting where you are waiting for an oasis to find you is wasting your advantage.

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Sales for People who hate Selling

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:46:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Are you someone who could sell ice to Eskimos? Not everyone is a natural salesperson, but in business, nothing happens until a sale is made. So what do you do if you hate selling, or you can’t find staff to sell for you?

You can create a marketing strategy that does not rely on strong sales skills. Imagine someone just comes into your business and when you ask: “How can I help you?”, they say: “I want to buy that and here is my money.”Does that sound too good to be true? Well it happens all the time. Look what happens when you go into McDonalds. The person just says: “May I take your order please?” They don’t spend time explaining why their burgers are superior to everyone else’s or that their prices are the best. They don’t have to, because this is all done by the marketing that the buyer is exposed to prior to entering the store- and when they enter, they will buy.

McDonald’s has chosen this approach because they are using low skill labour and they don’t want to go to the expense of teaching their low wage, part-time and casual staff how to sell.

If you create a marketing strategy that sells your buyers before they contact you, you don’t have to be a super-salesperson to make a sale from an enquiry. The marketing does all the hard work for you and all you have to do is to take the order.

To do this, however, you must have a marketing system. A good marketing system will attract enquiries so you don’t have to cold call, and pre-qualifies buyers so that the tyre-kickers and time wasters are filtered out.

Then a sales pipeline is used through which you move your buyer, step-by-step. Each step is a test where the buyer must make a new commitment to you before they move to the next. At the penultimate step they have decided that they want your product and it is value for money. Then all you have to do is ask them: “May I take your order please.”

This requires a lot more planning than you will see from salespeople in a used car lot, where arm wrestling seems to be the most important skill. We are no longer talking about hunting the buyer – instead we nurture them.

There are few really natural sales people that you can hire. (The very best start their own business.) Yes, your employees should have sales training, but boost it with a well defined sales pipeline so even people who hate selling can sell for you. This also removes the dependence on a star salesperson who could leave your business at any time (and probably will).

So even if you have staff that could sell ice to Eskimos, don’t you think their skills would produce more sales if you also used a sales pipeline, and sold Eskimos something they really want, like central heating, and then you can sell them an icemaker for their drinks so they don’t have to go outside.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Business Tip #2: Your Business Name

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:03:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

What’s in a Business Name?

When starting your business selecting a name can be quite problematic. Should John Smith call his business Smith and Associates? It depends what he wants to do with his business in the future. If he would like to sell it, a business name based on the name of its previous owner will be a handicap. He should also consider, if he wants his business to grow, he may find all the clients want to deal with John Smith rather than some other unnamed associate.

If the name John Smith is well known on the other hand, this may be good for marketing the business, at least in the early stages. Your name might not be well known, but if you intend to make a brand of your name, then this strategy would also be ok.

Whatever name you choose, you will need to check the ASIC website to make sure it has not already been taken. Also check to see if the domain name is available. If it close to another existing domain name, it is not advisable to make just as small change, as people often will type in the wrong name and may not find your website if a similar domain name exists.

Often naming your business after yourself, will only impress one person (and possibly also your mum).

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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Business Tip #1: Taking Action

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:08:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

When people plan some business activity, they, of course, want it to work. However, there is such a thing as overplanning. It is impossible to predict everything that will happen. While we might like to achieve perfection in what we do, this is business, not art! Comprompises must be made. The 80/20 rule should be applied.

After a while, pursuit of perfection just becomes procrastination.

Because we can never be sure how our market will react to what we do, we must, at some point take the plunge. We can always adjust later. So it is:

Ready-Aim-Fire-Adjust your Aim-Fire some more.

If we are unsure, we can always run a pilot, but in the end, it is more important to get it done than get it right.

Completion is more imortant than perfection.

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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Mastering the Strategy of Failure

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:47:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

There is a saying:

“If you owe the bank $100,000, you are in trouble but if you owe the bank $100,000,000, the bank is in trouble”

In this time of economic turmoil, the same goes in business. If you are a small business that employs, say five people, and you lay off one, ie 20% of your workforce, apart for the unfortunate person involved, no one takes notice. If you however employ 5000 people and you need to lay off 20% of your workforce to stay viable, and they belong to a union who funds the government’s re-election campaign, one of two things will happen. If you play the game, you get a bailout. If not, you are vilified in the media.

So the obvious choice, particularly for the largest businesses is to take the money. That works for a while. However, taking the money means that you don’t have to take the hard decisions necessary to have a sustainable business. Almost certainly, one bailout leads to another, where each time the stakes are higher. The management soon realises, they can afford to take risks because they know the government can’t afford to let them fail.

Just look at the auto-manufacturers. Each job is subsidised to the tune of $300,000. Apart from the sheer volume of jobs, why would the government subsidise so many unprofitable jobs? Well if your electoral fund providers would lose their ability to fund your next campaign if the businesses failed, you have to keep paying subsidies, albeit with other people’s money.

The other question to ask is why would the managers of such a business accept these bailouts that, each year, make their businesses more and more unsound? Just looking at the abuse received by the boss of Pacific Brands, you can see why taking the money is easier. However, the management of these companies must know that this is just postponing the inevitable, and in fact putting their businesses in a more difficult position to compete against others who have made the hard choices. Isn’t this against the long term interest of their shareholders?

Yes.

So why does it happen?

This is where we see a difference between small business and large business. In small business, the owners run the business. In a large business, managers run the business on behalf of the owners. Owners know that if the business fails, they have failed and they must bear the brunt of the consequences. Managers on the other hand, know they can leave the business and get another job. All bailouts come with strings, and business owners know that these will erode the value of the asset that is their business. They lose flexibility and control. They become answerable to stakeholders who have different agendas than a profitable business.

Managers know they can still make a good income while the bailout occurs. Their life is easier when they don’t have to stand up to big government and unions. They also know that as the business continues to struggle, as it will with a lifeline that becomes a noose, the government must continue to bail it out. The business becomes worth nothing, and is effectively is turned into a nationalised company worth nothing on the market. The owners, being many and with little influence, given these businesses are largely owned by investment funds, who are more interested in just keeping the business afloat, just watch this car crash from the sidelines.

Businesses can last many years following this strategy of failure, but at some point, the price to avoid insolvency becomes too high even if your re-election depends on it. This will occur at time of economic stress and the government is running out of other people’s money.

While small businesses may resent this support of failure, why should they care? Because their own money is being used to prop up their largest competitors who will undercut them. However unless you owe the bank a $100 million, no-one is going to bail you out!

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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Small Business Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 07:48:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Starting this week you will see a series of tips for small business. These will be short, easy to implement ideas. I look forward to your comments and suggestions, because at some point I will compile these into a book. But you will be able to read it here first, for Free!

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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Driving Business Growth with Calculated Risks

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:01:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Business is all about confidence. Confidence that the risks you must take will have a high chance of success. The reason this is essential is that you must provide all the resources (time and money) to make the strategy succeed. Too often, businesses are timid with their actions, and are looking for a 2-way bet.

More tightrope walkers fall while using a net than those that don’t.

An example of this was a residential program I attended during my MBA course some years ago. The program was run by 3 university lecturers. Two of these lecturers worked full time for the university and one only part time, and had his own property development business.

Each year they ran a business game for the course participants. The participants would be placed in teams and act as directors of a company in competition with the other teams. As they only ran this program once a year, the lecturers would have a dry run of the game beforehand, the three competing against each other. Every time they did this practice run of the game, the part-time lecturer always won. So this particular year, the two full time lecturers out and out colluded to defeat the part time lecturer, but he still won!

At this point the penny dropped, and one of the two full time lecturers said, that’s why he drives a Porsche and we don’t.

What the part time lecturer did was take risks, just like he did in his business. He did not wait to have all the facts before he made a decision, and when he made the decision, he backed it. Not every decision paid out, but he quickly cut his losses when he saw it wasn’t working rather than obstinately throwing resources at something that was never going to turn around. As he knew he was taking risks, he was also more vigilant in the signs that it was working or not.

The other two lecturers, by the very nature of being full time, were conservative, not wanting to take a decision until they had all the facts, by which time, they had missed the opportunity. They made fewer mistakes, but also made less money.

You never score goals from balls you don’t kick.

So understand the risks you want to take, put in place measure to monitor the strategy, and once you take the decision, make a commitment to provide the right effort that success requires. Like the tightrope walker who is halfway across Niagara Falls, turning around and going back to where you came from is not an option. You should have made that decision before you started.

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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Link Employee Motivation to Success in Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:32:00 +0000

by Kevin Cahalane

Do you ‘motivate’ your people by delivering platitudes and sermons? Or, do you provide them with a ‘success motive’ by giving them the skills, knowledge and attributes required to excel at the work they do?

Motivation is a natural consequence of being successful, happy and focussed in your work (for most people anyway; you will never achieve 100% in any endeavour involving people and motivation – but you will come close!). Below are some thoughts to provide a motive to your team, and encourage their self motivation:

 Ensure that employees have the resources they need to be successful. Do staff members have the tools they need to succeed? Is company equipment up-to-date? Does it support efficiency and success?

 Provide employees with the necessary training. What skills do employees need, but currently lack? Is there a commitment to ongoing skills development at your company? Are employees encouraged to attend seminars or conferences to stay abreast of industry changes and trends?

 Put everybody on the same page … develop standards for how the work gets accomplished. Do employees know what is expected of them or does the company rely on common sense? Are standards documented, understood and agreed to by both employer and employee?

 Provide an environment that supports success. Is the workplace neat and orderly? Is their a sense of productivity or does chaos prevail? Are people provided the uninterrupted time they need to achieve success or do unnecessary disruptions limit their efficiency…and effectiveness?

 Develop your employees. Ask employees what their career goals are and help them achieve them. Why would someone want to excel at a job that is not rewarding and fulfilling?

 Promote success by providing consistent, open and honest feedback. Never miss an opportunity to acknowledge an employee. Employees need recognition and praise. Give ample feedback and public recognition whenever possible. When employees need to alter habits or change course, communicate with them as soon as possible; don’t wait for annual reviews.

 Be a model of success yourself. People will respond according to the actions – not the words - of their leaders. Effective leadership is difficult if a manager has one set of standard for themselves and another for everybody else

 Innovate! Foster an environment of creativity in the workplace. Elevate the self-esteem of your staff by asking them their opinions and ideas. Solicit, encourage, and implement new ideas and ways of producing results. Employees with high self-esteem tend to experience greater success in their jobs

Kevin Cahalane Sales and Customer Service Training Professional. See what Kevin can do for you at www.sasemo.com

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Why 90% of Your Website Spend is Wasted

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:16:00 +0000

by Ron Stark

Every visitor to your website is armed with a .45 calibre mouse. One click and your website is killed off. At that moment the impression they have gained from your website is the lasting impression they have of your business – good or bad. A website therefore has equal capacity to help or harm your business.

What is your website doing for your business?

When your prospect asks “What’s your web address?” they’re really asking “Show me your business”. However, when they find you through a search engine, they’re not looking for your business – they’re looking for the fulfilment of a need they have at that particular time.

Many businesses think that websites are somehow something that you need computer expertise to understand and IT skills to build. This myth is perpetuated by website developers who tout technology instead of business value.

The “language” of the Internet has rapidly evolved, along with the expectations of your clients and prospects. An obviously old or dated website will brand your business as being out of date or worse, out of business. No website at all brands you as a business not worth bothering about.

Your visitors have a unique type of relationship with your business while they’re on your website. In a matter of seconds they will quickly gather an impression of your credibility and who you are, whether you’re easy to deal with and whether you are able to resolve their needs at the time. In minutes they will come to a conclusion of whether they will bother to contact you.

Unlike a face-to-face meeting or a telephone conversation, you don’t have the luxury of body language, intonation, inflexion, eye contact or the multitude of other forms of non-verbal communication on which we all depend. Your website has to encompass the entire spectrum of communication and interaction you have with a person you can’t see, can’t react to and don’t even know exists. You don’t even know who they are, what they want or what their needs are.

It’s no wonder, then, that a website designed and built as a technology instead of a business tool will consistently fail to benefit the business that owns it. More often than not, such a website actively damages your business.

When your website succeeds in delivering enquiries and requests for information to your business, that prospect does so with high expectations that you are able to provide them with the information, product or service they’re looking for. After all, that’s what your website is supposed to do.

Your off-line business process must effectively deal with that enquiry, consistent with the expectations you have created; if you cannot, or neglect to do so, you have a disappointed customer as well.

Ron Stark is the author of “Websites are like motor cars, and technology doesn’t really matter”. He has extensive experience in business systems, website development and business process. Ron is the founder of Snapsite (www.snapsite.com.au), a provider that helps make your website an integral part of how you do business.

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Discount Price Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:20:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

When competition is stiff or times are tough, and businesses experience a slump in sales, the natural response of business owners is to reduce their prices. In response to this, they find their competition starts to do the same, and before you know it, you are in a price war.

Price wars are like trench warfare. You may gain a few meters in territory here, whilst the other side gains a few meters from you around your flank. And both sides incur large losses. In this type of battle, it is a war of attrition, and the last person standing wins while bleeding red ink. They also inherit a decimated market landscape with their buyers educated to expect discounts.
A number of negative impacts occur to your business when you discount. The most obvious one is the loss in margin, which you hope to make up with increased sales. In most cases, this does not happen.

The next problem that may occur is that you get a reputation as a discounter, with potential customers waiting for your sales times, particularly if they are seasonal. (I like to buy a new car when dealers are trying to get rid of their last year models from their stock. Major savings are to be had at such times and they are much more willing to negotiate.)

Discounting may also confuse your message to your best buyers, especially if you are attempting to appeal to an up market clientele who are price insensitive. An example of this is the upmarket department store David Jones who when they want to shift old stock, they somewhat snootily declare “As you know David Jones do not have sales, but next month is our annual clearance.” Clearly they do not want to be known to their up market clientele as discounters, but they still want to move their old stock.

Finally, after you finish discounting, how do you lift your prices again? If someone comes in after your sale has finished, and asks you to give him the same 25% discount offer this week as you had last week, it is hard to justify a negative response unless…. you have a clear reason for the sale in the first place. In the case of car dealers, it is to make way for the new model, even if the only difference is a cosmetic facelift. For retailers, it is selling off the last of their summer range before winter.

So if you are discounting, you must have a reason other rather than you are not making as much money as you used to. The reason must be transparent and short term so as not to damage your relationship with your best buyers. Your discounting may indeed attract more buyers, but many may be price shoppers who will not stay loyal to you when your prices do eventually return to normal. These people will be off finding bargains elsewhere, and in the meantime you may have damaged your brand in the eyes of your best buyers.

Most people lose money when they discount. Learn How to Discount Your Way to Higher Profits, by subscribing to The Small Business Achiever. Also in this month’s issue:

How to Track Your Profits So You Can Drive Them Higher
Which Online Directories should You Use to Boost Your Google Rankings?

The Small Business Achiever – Business Owner Brief is Your Shortcut to Success and Your Unfair Business Advantage.

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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Your New Years Business Resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:16:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

What a roller coaster ride for 2008. Never boring, and a bit scary towards the end! How did your business fare? Did you achieve your goals? Did you finish ahead of where you started in January?

Make sure 2009 turns out the way you want it to. Use my free New Years Business Resolution Tool located at www.FivePillarsBusinessSuccess.com to make sure that you start 2009 the right way.

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It

Dr Greg Chapman

The Australian Small Business Blog

Tips to Help SMEs Target their Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:31:00 +0000

by Christena Singh

Economic conditions are tough at the moment for small businesses, there is no doubt about that… In our latest Sensis® Business Index we found business confidence at its lowest point since we started the survey over 15 years ago.

Australia has been enjoying many years of strong economic growth, so if your business is relatively new, this will be the first period of significant economic slowdown that your business will have experienced. So you are not alone if you are looking for new business ideas to get you through this period.

The first thing to remember is not to panic – you will be hearing bad financial news every day in the news at the moment – remember that the majority of this is coming from financial markets – you probably don’t make your business decisions on what the Dow Jones did last night. The decisions that you make now for your business need to be able to see you through the next year and beyond.

The good news is that the Australian economy is in a much better position than most other advanced economies. We saw positive growth in Australia’s GDP in the September quarter and recent data on housing finance commitments and retail sales indicate that Australian consumers might be starting to regain confidence before the Federal Government’s economic stimulus package began distribution.

We are also measuring some turn around in consumer sentiment in the latest Sensis® Consumer Report – when we look at how consumers are feeling about the year ahead, they are now telling us they think things might be starting to improve moving forward.

Economic downturn mainly means one thing to many businesses – fewer customers. When we asked the businesses that had been impacted by economic downturn what they were doing about it, most told us that they were either cutting costs or advertising more – strategies aimed at addressing the two critical factors for any business – getting customers through the door and money in the bank.

Cutting costs aims to at least keep some money in the bank, and advertising more aims to bring businesses the ingredient they need most – customers.

So here are some key tips to help you target your advertising to keep bringing customers through the door during the current economic conditions:

Your print directory listing is the core listing on which the majority of people search – you can use innovative solutions like mobile codes that people can scan to take them to your latest offers on their mobile phone
Make sure all your advertising, both print and online, have as much information as possible to make it easy for potential customers to choose your business – giving customers a good feel for the products and services they can expect from you, as well as locations, opening hours, payment methods and accreditation can all help customers call you first
Measure the return you get from your advertising to make sure it works for you – develop strong relationships with your advertising account executives so that you can tap into the knowledge that they have built up working for many customers over the years.

Christena Singh is the author of the Sensis® Business Index, Sensis® Consumer Report and Sensis® e-Business report. For further commentary from Christena or for some smart business ideas, visit http://www.smallbusiness.sensis.com.au/.

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The Problem with Business Targets

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:30:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

We often hear about targets and deadlines being set by organisations and governments that are never met. Most recently, there have been targets set for CO2 emissions reduction. The initial target equates to 34% per person reduction, and yet others are demanding targets double that. Even the initial target is heroic. (For example, 90% of Victoria’s power generation is from brown coal.)

Before that, most of the developed world signed on to Kyoto targets, and most missed by miles.

What is the relevance of this to small business? When you have targets with no mechanism to reach them, it is meaningless. In the case of governments, they often set ambitious targets to appease their political constituency and the smart politician makes these targets big, but sets them a long time in the future, long after they expect to be out of office. It might help them win the next term which is where their focus generally is, but at some point, like the widely missed Kyoto targets, reality comes home to roost, and a price must be paid.

When we set targets without a plan, it is almost guaranteed that we will miss them. If the plan is to do research to discover the answer (the government’s plan) rather than rely on proven strategies, we need to expect that it will take much longer, and there is a chance that it won’t work at all. (Which is why the government just loves 2020!)

When we set targets in small business, they should be ambitious, but we must have a mechanism to achieve them. If our target is to increase sales by 30%, we must have a plan to achieve it. Do we have a plan to increase enquiries- maybe a new advertising channel, or an alliance? Is our intention to increase our conversion to sales by improving our sales pipeline, or providing sales training?

If we don’t know how to achieve the target, the strategy would be to go get advice from someone who knows what strategies work. (For the government, this is not an option as on-one knows!)

So for each of your key targets, write down where you are today, and where you want to be in 12 months. For each gap, create a strategy and for each strategy write a plan to implement the strategy.

If you find this difficult, please use my free Mission Statement Tool on the Resources page of www.FivePillarsBusinessSuccess.com Now is the time to set your targets for the next year, but make sure you have a plan to back it up!

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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Control your computer (don't let it control you)

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:28:00 +0000

By Mark Byers

See your computer as part of the solution - not the solution itself.

Computers and applications can make life a lot easier as they allow you to do so much more than ever before. The problem is that just because there are tools that allow you do something, people sometimes don't question whether they should be doing it themselves - ie just because accounting software is available I should use it because it is "cheaper". What is not often considered are the hidden costs and the distraction from your core business, which can be costly.

You can effectively become a slave to the software - ie you are working for it.

With the internet there is now a whole different way of looking at, and engaging with computer systems; with the potential benefit of it working for you, rather than you working for it. With its in-built communication system the internet allows you to use applications built specifically so you can share information internally and with external providers that can do the non-core tasks for you, but still keep you in the picture - reducing the risk of business blindness (loss of direction) through abdication

The situation most businesses face today:

With the people being both internal and external.

With an integrated business system based on the internet, you get to solve two problems at once, at a business system level moving towards this:

and because the system is a fully hosted internet solution you don’t have the issues traditionally associated with PC based solution, like:

 Installing the software

 Installing updates / maintenance fixes

 Doing backups

 Purchasing servers etc

 Managing hardware servers etc

With added benefits of a internet based hosted solution, like:

 Potentially don’t need as much office space for people to work from, as people can work where best suits them, including at home if appropriate - saving time, money and the environment (less cars on the road!).

 Don’t need office space for servers and hardware

 People can be more productive, as have the information they need when the need it and don’t have to spend time communicating it.

Just because you can - doesn't mean you always should... to find out more benefits go to dontdiyit.com

Mark Byers is the CEO of myworkspace which is an Australian service that allows you to take control of your computer systems, allowing you to share the work out where needed and allowing you to focus back on the reason you got into business.

Over to You. What do You Think? We welcome comments but you need to contribute in a meaningful way to earn a backlink. Blatant commercial plugs will be rejected. Post Your Insights, Critiques amd Questions Below.

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The Value of Your Big New Business Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Greg Chapman) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:17:00 +0000

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

I am often approached by people with a big business idea who want someone to pay them for it. How much is your big business idea worth?

Back in the early eighties, I worked for a year in the US for another company. Whilst there, I noticed that they had home delivered pizza. This was especially great in the winter when there was snow on the ground and I did not want to go out. It was when I first heard the Domino’s pizza slogan – delivered in 30 minutes, or its free!

This service was so taken for granted, that they talked of those dreaded areas in town which were pizza delivery no-man’s lands- outside the delivery area for any pizza shop. You wouldn’t want to buy a house there!

So what has this to do with great business ideas?

This was before the time there were any pizza home delivery stores in Australia. They didn’t exist. So I came up with the idea that pizza home delivery would work in Australia… if only I knew how to implement such a scheme. I was sure this idea was worth a lot of money.

Then I came back to Australia, but what do you think I did next? If you said nothing, you would be absolutely right. At that time, I had no idea how to implement such an idea, and there was no way I was going to quit a well paid job to risk everything on this great idea. Clearly there was one big impediment for me:

I was not convinced that I had the ability to make this idea work. It was safer for me to keep on doing what I had always done.

It was about 3 years later, Dino’s pizza home delivery started in Australia, which grew to be a national franchise which was within a few years sold for millions.

I had the idea 3 years before Dino’s started up. I had a first mover advantage, except for one thing…. I didn’t move! You can’t patent an idea. Someone else can have the same idea.

So how much is your great new business idea worth?

Nothing unless you do something with it. Prove the concept works. Set up a pronto franchise or a pilot. Once you prove the concept works, then the people with money will come along. People with money to invest in business are inundated with opportunities, and they would not invest in one without a track record, except with their own efforts and resources because that way they can capture most the value.

If you aren’t prepared to invest in your own idea, why should anyone else?

It’s not the idea that’s worth the money, it is the person implementing it, and if they aren’t implementing it, it will just remain an idea.

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It!

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