The art of everything

Being artistic isn't limited to the traditional arts. Anyone can be artistic in any field, no matter how far away from a traditional art it is. You can apply your own artistic flair to your job by simply treating your outcomes or deliverables as an art form.

My local tailor is an elderly gent who works in the corner of a shoe repair shop. His work is amazing and everything he does is beautiful, even if it is a simple hem lift. During my last visit I sat and chatted with him for a while about his work. He uses a 50 year old foot-pedal powered sewing machine - the reason he says, is because the new machines don't give him the ability to impart his own skill into his work. His skill isn't in using the machine, it's in understanding fabrics, dress style, and how clothes are supposed to fit. This is his art, and he is a master.

Makes you realise that anyone can be an artist by finding the art within your work and applying your arty side to everything you do. An artistic plumber/ Yes I believe it's possible.

Time to relax

It is that time of the year to lock up the office and change your focus to more relaxing things. This year I'm off to Switzerland for some snowboarding - the flights and accommodation are booked and I'm super excited.

The aim is to have such a relaxing time that by the end of the holiday I'm excited to get back to work to tackle a new year, put your exciting ideas into practice, challenge the norm, and achieve higher levels of success.

All the best for the year ahead!

Delegate to technology

In the process of learning a tough lesson on running a small business: never think you can do the accounting manually! It is a cost that you think you can avoid, but no matter how great the urge to be frugal, you have to get a proper accounting software package.

I've been creating invoices in Excel for 5 years and today it bit me. There is a query with a large client - I have the invoice, they have the invoice. They say they paid it but naturally Excel doesn't know - and I don't remember. I now need to sit and go through hordes of bank statements and invoices to figure out what is going on. This is going to be a monumental waste of time.

My first investment in 2007 is going to be some accounting software. Lesson learnt!

We want you ..... NOT!

Investec Private Bank are currently running a series of TV ads appealing to the entrepreneur, with lines like, "Entrepreneurs don't follow formulas, they create them" and "Where one and one don't always equal two". Investec have obviously identified entrepreneurs as a desired target market which, on the surface, seems amazing because many banks don't like the risk involved with people who "create their own formulas".

However, take a closer look at Investec's offering and it becomes a little confusing. Their requirements contradict their appeal for entrepreneurs. In order to become a client of Investec Private Bank, you need to personally earn over R550,000.00 annually and your company needs to clear an annual profit of over R350,000.00. In other words, you, as the owner of the company, need to realise a combined annual increase in worth of almost a million Rand.

Interesting...

Interesting in that the bar has been set quite high for the good 'ol entrepreneur. Sure there are plenty of people who attain this easily, but there are plenty of exceptional entrepreneurs whose businesses are thriving but who don't make the grade according to Investec. Here are some of the basic business rules Investec don't seem to take into consideration:

1. An entrepreneurial business needs to re-invest as much as possible in order to grow the business
2. An entrepreneurial business needs to keep salaries lower at first in order to afford to grow
3. An entrepreneurial business needs to keep profits as low as possible in order to be less burdened by tax
4. An entrepreneurial business needs a bank that understands it's needs and offers solutions that are suitable

Investec, you really are a great private bank, but why spend millions targeting a market you don't actually want as clients?

Child entrepreneurs

Most people say it can't be taught, but these folks would beg to differ.

Check out Ka-Ching!

Don't make a promise you can't keep

There is always a danger in making promises to customers. You do need to make certain promises and the core ones are essentially your pledge to your customer, your mission statement. But making promises outside of your core service can be dangerous.

McDonalds sell fast food. Their promises to you are that it will be quick, easy, and in-expensive. They have perfected this and are rarely unable to deliver on these promises. It is in fact these exact promises that make me frequent McDonalds when driving between meetings in a rush with a hunger. Keeping their promises makes me a satisfied customer.

So what happens when they up the promises? Yesterday, driving into my local McDonalds, I noticed a massive sign saying "Free internet access inside". I was intrigued. Unlike normal I parked and ordered from the counter, standard promises delivered, found a table and opened my laptop while eating a burger. Then nothing. I couldn't connect to the internet. I did everything I normally do on other networks, even phoned my friends, but not a single person could help me make it work. McDonalds didn't have on-site tech support and all they could say was that they think it's broken.

"But you promised me free internet!"

They had encouraged me to break my routine for the promise of free internet and then not delivered. McDonalds had broken a promise and a customer had left feeling cheated.

If you are going to make a promise, do so knowing you will keep it. That promise needs to make it's way onto your mission statement and be taken seriously by all. If not, don't make the promise!

Customer retention

Is it entirely necessary to focus on customer retention? The answer is an emphatic YES, but it isn't quite as simple as that. You need to decide where to put your focus.

It is imperative for any company to retain customers, but there are 3 drastically different cultural styles:

1. The first is the "no approach" approach. Yes, it happens! There are companies who show no apparent care for customer retention.

2. The "fear of rejection" approach. Born out of the fear that your customers may want to move to another supplier. This fear leads to the negative approach of preventing customers from having freedom of choice through restrictive contracts, customer lock-in, bargaining on price, begging them to stay - it comes in many forms.

3. The "love thy customer" approach. This is the positive approach to customer retention and involves an introspective look at what you could be doing better, how you could service your customers better, and what you must do to make customers want to choose to stay.

The love approach isn't necessarily more work than the fear approach, but it does require honesty, imagination, and a desire to have truly happy customers. Unfortunately there are very few companies like this because it requires less brilliance to adopt the fear approach.

*This post was inspired by my new MacBook from Apple Inc. a company of people who obviously love their customers, love giving you the best, and who don't use lawyers and fear to lock you in like that other technology company!

At your service

Until now, my experiences with FNB have been somewhat mixed. The in-branch service is pathetic because the tellers haven't received proper training and the banks systems are outdated by at least a century, but their online banking is (IMHO) the best in SA.

It was therefore refreshing to see an FNB teller honestly showing their absolute lack of interest in even pretending to care.

Today I had the pleasure of watching my FNB teller pick wax out of his ear with a match while he waited for someone to phone and tell him how to order me a new credit card. Priceless!

Rent or buy

After almost 5 years of working from home I have decided that there are no more excuses - the company needs offices. Looking at some rental options in my area has depressed me somewhat because they are all dull office blocks where individuality seems to be prohibited.

The one office park was very promising but the rental rates are ludicrous and I realised that we shouldn't use our profits to make someone else rich. Buying seems to be a good option but I'm stuck with the same bland office choices.

So, next week will be spent looking at houses in the area where I can apply for business rights. The monthly bond payments will be less than rent, it's a valuable asset, and we can impart our own style into the refurbishment of the house when converting to offices. Let's hear what my bank manager has to say about this!

The rules of play

When I started my first company in 2002, my start-up capital was equivalent to a stardard car payment which really isn't enough to start a business, and was going to last all of about 5 days. I had to make a plan and I really didn't want to borrow money from a bank/friend/family member/venture capitalist/loan shark.

It was my understanding that companies invoice their clients at month end and the clients would pay whenever it suited them after that date. I had a client lined up already, but I couldn't survive past my first month without more cash, and if the client had taken their time with payments I would have been thrust into a cash flow problem. (In case you don't know, cash flow is one of the biggest killers of business start-ups and those that survive can take years to recover from a cash flow hit)

I spoke to a person who had been a bit of a mentor/inspiration to me and he taught me the following invaluable lesson, "You must define the rules of play. The terms of business are detailed in the contracts that you draft. You set the rules and all your client needs to do is sign."
(This was followed by a stern warning to be fair and to never abuse your clients)

With a new outlook on business I went to the contract signing meeting with my very first client. I politely explained that my retainer is payable upfront at the beginning of the contract. "These are my terms" I said trying not to tremble. To my absolute amazement the client agreed that was fair, signed the contract, and wrote out a cheque.

Almost 5 years later and the same client still pays me upfront for all my services and (touch wood) we have never had a cash flow problem. Such a simple thing like being paid a few days earlier can save a company tremendous hassles!

Stop, breathe...

Being quick witted in business can often bite you in the butt. If you are ever under fire for whatever reason, take the time to stop, step back from the situation, and compose your response with foresight.

Impulsive responses to clients, customers, or colleagues can often dig you into something from which you cannot escape. The more enraged you are, the more important it is to take the time to respond instead of lashing out with whatever comes to mind.

The toughest thing is to try un-say something! Stop, breathe...