Tag: small business operations

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

How can some small businesses afford to play fast and loose like this?

Fish Hoek beach, seen from the hills on the so...
Fish Hoek beach, seen from the hills on the southern end of the bay, looking northwards. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A customer stormed out of a local Italian franchise restaurant on Sunday evening before 8 o’clock. He was shouting “you’ve lost a customer”, “you’ve lost a customer”, “you’ve lost a customer”. No one from the restaurant rushed out to calm him down or give him assurances.

The problem with this restaurant is that the manager had not informed this customer and others that the closing time had been changed on Sundays from 9 o’clock in the evening to 8 o’clock. No notices, no informing customers personally, nothing. Continue reading “How can some small businesses afford to play fast and loose like this?”

Posted on

Simple ways to make your small business fail

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

During the time before the large commercial fishing boats decimated the shoals of snoek, yellowtail and bonito in False Bay, we were able to make good money from a ski boat in the bay. The crew that we selected for fishing would pull their own weight and help us to produce catches that were big enough to pay for the boat’s running costs.

On occasion we would take out what we called a “day-tripper” which was someone who had a deep interest in fishing but when they actually tried to fish they were not successful. But we usually kept an eye on the naturally talented fisherman who could become part of the permanent crew. Continue reading “Simple ways to make your small business fail”