Tag: profitability

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What makes one small business more profitable than another?

By Chesney Bradshaw

Two small restaurant businesses started up, one after each other, in the same premises. After 18 months, the first business went to the wall and had to shut its doors. The second business took over the same premises also with a restaurant but business is strong and growing.

What made the difference between these two small businesses? What made one unprofitable and the other profitable?

If you are looking to open a new business, what key fundamentals will you look for when it comes to profitability? Even if you are presently running a small business it’s worth looking at these key fundamentals because you may be missing out on profit opportunities. Without running your business profitably you are unfortunately not going to make it over the medium-to long-term. As a start-up or any individual who is starting any income-generation opportunity, you need to carefully consider how profitable your business is going to be. Continue reading “What makes one small business more profitable than another?”

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Is the cost of energy hurting your small business?

Photo courtesy of "Death to Stock"
Photo courtesy of “Death to Stock”

I saw some interesting news from the UK where small business owners are under pressure to cut their energy use. Some of the issues that small businesses have is trying to make old buildings more energy efficient, finding the cheapest and most sustainable ways of heating and lighting buildings, dealing with the many separate sources of energy advice for small businesses from central and local government, lack of transparency from energy suppliers about the most appropriate tariffs, problems with direct debits that over- or under-charge leaving them with huge bills or rebates and a poor idea about support from energy efficiency schemes. Continue reading “Is the cost of energy hurting your small business?”

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What else can you do in your start-up or small business this month to improve performance and profitability

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

I was with an entrepreneur recently discussing ways in which he could improve his business in 2015. One of the ideas that I had suggested for 2014 had worked well for him. It involved a method to help reduce his inexperienced staff from making errors. This one idea alone has helped save him time, money and frustration.

But you don’t need to have goals only for the whole year. You can also have goals for the month ahead in which you try to increase performance, better manage your finances and attract new customers. Continue reading “What else can you do in your start-up or small business this month to improve performance and profitability”

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What can you do when costs get out of control?

Johannesburg
Johannesburg (Photo credit: austinevan)

The Free State’s Young Farmer of the Year for 2014 shared his saddest day in his farming career:

He had to sell his 400-strong dairy herd five years ago because his declining profit margin made it impossible for him to continue.

The local agricultural publication Farmers Weekly reports that the farmer has now gone in for diversification to spread his risk through beef cattle and sheep, irrigated wheat, maize, sunflower and lucerne. Continue reading “What can you do when costs get out of control?”

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How long will it take before your idea becomes profitable?

Cover of "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Cover of The Wolf of Wall Street

If you believe in overnight success, perhaps you are one of the people standing at the Lotto queue on a Saturday/Saturday afternoon.

Movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street” give the impression that money can be made quickly. Perhaps it’s the truncated form of the movie, portraying a life and business that took many years to develop, that gives the impression that overnight successes possible. I’m only talking about Jordan Belfort and the time it took for him to get his boiler room penny stock operation going rather than the ethics of the type of business idea he came up with. Fleecing people from their hard earned money and pension savings is the work of a crook and con artist rather than what we believe to be a honest business person. Continue reading “How long will it take before your idea becomes profitable?”