People love bargains. Lower prices get them excited. A Checkers supermarket opened recently near an upmarket estate and the specials on offer were incredible. In fact Kerry Gold butter was selling at an incredible half price special. One woman who does baking, for instance, bought 50 of the 500 g butter blocks. Shoppers went crazy. Even a shopper who normally doesn’t go bananas about specials bought 10 blocks. Continue reading “How much money are you giving away to customers through your own pricing mistakes?”
How long will it take for you to get your new business idea off the ground?
The founder of Liquid Paper, Bette Graham, came up with an idea while watching painters decorate Christmas Windows at the bank where she was a secretary. She came up with a way to correct typing errors but had to work five years while sending her product from home. She mixed up different colour paints with a kitchen blender until she was able to come up with a suitable product which essentially was correction fluid. After being fired by her boss because of the mistake she couldn’t correct, she started out full-time and grew her business into a large company. Continue reading “How long will it take for you to get your new business idea off the ground?”
When you’re sitting with a turnover crisis, what do you do?
I visited a garden nursery in Bloemfontein, Free State, during the time of drought and water restrictions. The nursery was in good condition, meaning that the plants and flowers looked lovely but that was because the nursery has a borehole. But the bad news was that the water restrictions on residents in the town because of the drought had damaged turnover severely.
The impact on the garden nursery was huge. It was not possible to order the usual large intake of flowers for Spring. With the water restrictions customers were just not buying as they did during previous Springs. This meant that its plant stocks had to be kept low and their borehole water had to be used sparingly.
All that the nursery could do was to sell small amounts of plant stock to those residents and homeowners who had borehole water. The other thing that they were trying to do was to sell more succulents, which require very little watering because they get their moisture mainly from the air and are adapted to harsh, water-stressed conditions.
But there was a rainbow in the cloud. The business just had to sit tight and hope for the rains. Something gave them confidence and I’ll come back to that in a moment.
What would you do if your turnover was in a crisis?
Business doesn’t always run smoothly. Change occurs internally and externally. Here we have a garden nursery that is being hit by the change in the local environment. Experiencing a crisis like this tests your strength as a business person. You have to think unemotionally and rationally and try to predict what will happen. You are sitting with huge sums invested in stock, customer demand has been cut drastically in your best selling season and you still have the same staff and other overheads.
Business people in these times need to have a cool heads. Unexpected events can occur in this volatile economy that can set you back. The hungry, rapid jaws of competitors snapping at your business all the time. The gargoyle takers with their voracious, daemonic appetites are trying to gobble up anything they can for free. The takers don’t create or produce – they steal, confiscate and destroy. In such harsh conditions, a business person has to have a steady hand, calm head and strong heart.
Small business owners are givers – they give value to customers. They create, they produce, they deliver value. Ultimately, it’s all about creating value. If you can stay the course and keep creating value, things will eventually improve. The garden nursery I spoke about earlier knows that once the rains come and the water restrictions are lifted customers will come in their droves to buy replacement plants and flowers to rebuild their gardens.
Make something yourself
“The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare.”
— Thane Yost
Have you ever made something yourself? Is there anything that you made when you were young? Have you made something yourself recently?
I suppose the key question really is: do you want to make something yourself? Continue reading “Make something yourself”
Honesty and business – oil and water or strawberries and cream?
Have you felt ripped off by any business lately? Doesn’t matter if it’s big or small. Why should honesty and business go together?
Businesses whether small or large play an important role in society despite the harsh and hostile environment. The small business owner plays a very important role in his or her local community. They provide valuable products and services and employment. Some people say large cities provide the basic social construct or infrastructure and are important to society. But I believe it starts in local communities. So when a local business person is dishonest he or she hurts the local community. Continue reading “Honesty and business – oil and water or strawberries and cream?”
How important is a new idea to the success of a start-up or small business?
When Steve jobs started out in a garage trying to build a personal computer that he could put into nearly everyone’s hands, he knew the basics about PC boards, electronics and computer programming. In fact, I remember seeing somewhere that he read Popular Electronics, a do-it-yourself approach magazine that covered the new field of electronics in the 1970s. But what was important was when he came up with an idea of how to make his own personal computer Apple that things started to happen. Continue reading “How important is a new idea to the success of a start-up or small business?”
What’s the one most important thing to have when you come up with a new idea?
You only have to take a look around in this economy to see how important new ideas are. People who were riding high two or three years ago have suddenly found themselves in trouble. This is not only small business owners but also individuals. I recall about three years ago a successful business woman, admired for her leadership and energy, who told about her long road to success. It was an inspiring talk and had the crowd at the gala dinner event were enthralled. Now, sadly, this same highflyer is without a job. Continue reading “What’s the one most important thing to have when you come up with a new idea?”
Can you handle the “sea of pain” struggle in getting your new business idea or venture off the ground?
A “marketing expert” started a new venture in the coffee shop-restaurant area, went through struggles to make it work but eventually before 18 months had ended, shut its doors. You can sympathise with this small business owner yet there was little, if any, evidence of the owner coming up with new approaches, new ideas or new concepts. Continue reading “Can you handle the “sea of pain” struggle in getting your new business idea or venture off the ground?”
Who would you go to for advice on starting a business?
When my father was big in fishing and the fish in those days were more plentiful it was very tempting to become a professional fishermen. So tempting, in fact, that several people who had full-time jobs did so. One youngster who came fishing with us wasn’t particularly motivated to work for a boss and learnt as much as he could from my father about how to fish professionally. Continue reading “Who would you go to for advice on starting a business?”
Does your new business idea solve a real customer problem?
The other evening we went to a local restaurant and were shocked when we saw that the prices of all meals had been jacked up. It was disappointing because this restaurant for a number of years has been known for its reasonably good food and reasonable prices.
It’s unlikely that we’ll be going back to that local restaurant mainly because of affordability. Yes, it might be possible to go there for special occasions such as birthdays but now it’s not even worthwhile even patronising this restaurant in a blue moon. Continue reading “Does your new business idea solve a real customer problem?”
