Where to get your GROWTH FUNDING

To SME Owners

YEP growth takes cash/ funds , go look into the following.

1 Get ride of your low margin products, which also have low sales volumes

2 Re look at your advertising budget/ promotion budget, can you reduce, depends on many things
ie how well known is your business brand, how long have you been in business, do you have to find more new clients each period, year etc vs current clients

3 If you have SBU's can you re allocate resources to areas that are having, need growth.

4 Obtaining outside funding.

5 And obviously from sustainable profits and cash management re your debtor's book and stock management.

Interesting

Till next time may the Force be with You

How to tell Good Growth from bad Growth

To Sme Owners

Yes, growth of any kind, shape, or form will increase sales, BUT is it

Profitable, sustainable and creates wealth over time for you the Sme owner.

Sure go do price cutting, reduce your price below acceptable gp%, but then you must have a corresponding cut in costs, if not big big risk.

Your gp% benchmark, ask how did I calculate what we must charge, yes you know the calculation, so do not do business under your benchmark, really better to walk away from the deal.

remember your main functions as a leader of your business, is to
- develop strategy, and implement through your team
- position your business as different
- ensure your client needs are met
- develop and inspire your team

Quite SIMPLE?

Cool Product/ Unhappy clients???

To Sme Owners

So you have cool, great products, low pricing, so you think, you will win the deals, the war, wrong.

Clients want and need more these days, do you know want they want from your business. If I was you I would go and ask your top clients, yep those one's that are good payers and profitable, you chat to them, do not send a rep.

Yes sometimes you will think, and say, client xyz is a pain, is high maintenance, but before you bullet, fire them do your home work.

You must get a handle on the attitude of your client and how they think, most of them are inefficient, yes they are, most are busy being busy, so you have to understand your position vs theirs, but do you have to, nope, your call.

Chase the right clients, that fit your values, and culture, I can not over stress this enough, otherwise your business will not be positioned where it should be.

www.srecoaching.co.za

till next time may the Force be with you.

YOUR VALUE as an SME Owner

To Sme Owners,

I hope you ask yourself this often, do you see clients face to face,
Do your clients view you as being valuable to them, your Knowledge, your conversation is on the right track with them, do your bring solutions to the table, etc

Some other things to think about,

continue to educate your client,
help them make quicker decisions
have valuable input at every face to face meeting
remind how you can help them

cool YOU may wish to Visit www.srecoaching.co.za  my new online SME owner coaching platform.

Till next time may the Force, be with You.

ARE you really, really client driven

To SME Owners

Check out these areas to confirm if you are really, really client driven, may be better to say client focused.

1 Do not be reactive, in a status quo mindset, you will be heading for trouble big time.

2 How do you focus on client satisfaction, repeat business???

3 Is the client a true partner, one that works for win win and who refers business to you.


Go check out your key clients, re the above, interesting, SIMPLE .

Till next time may the Force be with you, I see new Star wars moving coming out in December, fantastic, blog by Kyle Daines

Your Decision Making

To SME Owners

Yes we make big and small decisions every day running our businesses, many are great, many are
poor.
Ask yourself HOW have you made, and make decisions, do you take time to gather every fact possible, or go with your gut.
Here is the trick, those decisions that involve big money, you need to fully understand the RISK LEVELS, but you still must move with SPEED.

I had a client that spent hour after hour for a week deciding on a poor performing staff member,
whether to fire or keep, staff members salary was R10k per month a light weight member of the team.

interesting,

Till next time may the Force be with you.

SOFT issues vs HARD issues in you SME Business

To SME Owners

We all know the above great time for a refresher, soft issues affect your business more than hard issues, REALLY
1 some soft issues.
- to much politics with staff, between departments
- lack of personal leadership by staff, and or bosses
- negative thinking, and attitudes
to name a few, I have a list of 20 which I coach staff, sme owners on.

2 some hard issues.
- correct sales at the right gp%
- your monthly operating costs
- your cash flow vs profits
- your business assets vs liabilities
 to name a few.

go think about the above, cool
till next time may the Force be with You, post by Kyle Daines.

YES 2017, so

To SME Owners

it is time for you to engage VISIONARY BUSINESS and be DISRUPTIVE, in your markets you serve.
I have been slow on my blog , reason finished my book, which did take longer than I thought, yep TIME EFFECTIVE, could, and will be better on my second book.
But back to the two points above, your competitors will disrupt you this year, having Vision, you may be able to pick up on which areas.

Go take time out, now to give this a lot of thought, yes a good time to do it before the roller coaster hits you in Feb and March.

TILL next time may the Force be with you.

THE LEAN STARTUP

To SME Owners,

In my view no such thing as a lean start up, if you are in B2B market selling a product, WHY you may say.
Back in the day, when sme businesses started the owner, owner's worked 18 hour days, due to lack of a support structure.In today's business world you can not afford this. It will take you to long to get your business to the CRITICAL MASS LEVEL, and to be making money.
 1 yes you still need a vision, but you can not take time to LEARN and EXPERIMENT, time and speed are the key's today
2 from day one you will have to ADAPT your business and your thinking, yes trust me on this.
So go re look your PLAN, cool

Till next time may the Force be with YOU.

Managing E commerce in your Business

To SME Owners

Ask yourself the above, it is critical that you have some form of plan,
Your plan should cover these areas,
1 One to one marketing
2 Data base marketing
3 Market research
4 Blogging
5 SMS marketing
to name a few.

Therefore one can understand,  the role the above can play in moving your business forward or backwards, it is your call.
Do not allow your opposition to out smart you in the E commerce space, it will take you along time to catch up, yep trust me, i see it first hand coaching businesses.
Till next time may the Force be with you.

Your Decision to Grow

To SME Owners

Yes, growth, is hardwired to our PSYCHE, that's life in business, the TRICK, is
- how and when and why to go about it, this is the critical issue,
VERY FEW SME business owners spend time thinking about the type of growth, sales go up so we have grown, no, no.

- do not try to seize upon every opportunity that comes your way, why
   timing could be an issue, not geared up staff wise, finance wise, do not know the type of risks, do what if thinking.
- do not push into unfamiliar markets, without doing the right type of research, do not just buy another business because the numbers look good, the soft issues are key ie the people, the culture, their perception on relationships might be different to you.

Lots has been written about growth, I have done some posts on this interesting word, it is critical that you have a simple process to follow when you sit and think about how to go about it.

Till next time may the Force be with you.

6 internal focus areas

To Sme Owners
Here are some key areas for you to fully understand, if you want to position your business better.
1  winning Culture, in your business, yes you have heard it before but what actions do you take each day, yes each day to make sure it is happening.
2 very strong customer focus, external and internal customers( your staff and suppliers)
3 right people in the right job, a big issue in Sme businesses, people development.
4 consistency in your product, or service, quality control.
5 understanding the financial numbers, and the key ones to focus on weekly.
6 disciplined execution, yes it all comes done to this, simple just follow through, make it a habit.

Put in place how you are going to measure the above,

Till next time may the Force be with you.

Actions YOU must take

To SME Owners

Do you want a high Performance team, yes of course, why ask Guy!

Well , I hope you action the following-

Do you fully understand the behaviour of each staff member, yes difficult, but do it.
How much trust is there, between you and staff.
INTERESTING

Do staff members understand their role and who they report to, yep many times this is a grey area in Sme businesses
How is the decision making of your staff, do you train your staff in this regard.

cool, some thing to think about.

Till next time may the Force be with You.

Teamwork in Your Sme business( overrated)

To SME Owners,

Teamwork does not work in most SME businesses, for 19 years I have been studying teamwork, yes it sounds great, yes I have even pushed it, mainly for the individuals to put pressure on their peers.

But every team has a WEAK link, and that what sinks the team, division, department, My wife worked in a big SA corporate, in big businesses the weak link can hide, in your SME business there is no where to hide.

In SA, to many SME owners keep their passengers( the weak links) One reason why, you do not measure your staff on certain KRA (key responsibility areas),and it is only done once a year, if at all.

Till next time may the Force be with You.

Who Is Your CLeint

To SME Owners

Here is the deal, do your really know who your client is, WHAT?
Yep you heard me,

Ask yourself do you know what is going on, you are busy being busy, and aren't taking time out to know client's.

Why do client's buy from you, remembering that Price is the ultimate decision factor in the absence of differentiation, think about this, powerful,

Trust me I get so BORED when I hear Business Owners complain about Price, then I ask them, what are your plans to improve the situation, blank look.

If you know who your clients are, deep down and they know you, your business will be better off,
remember, ABC of selling, Always be Closing.

Till next time mat the Force be with you.

March 2016, start of new financial and sales year

To SME Owners

Yep for most of us in SA the above is in play,

Short but to the point this blog,
Ask yourself these three questions,

1 Is your business fit enough

2 how attractive are the markets you sell into

3 what is your ability to compete

go do the homework, it is good to review.

Till next time may the Force be with You,

Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life

To SME Owners
Does the above title seem strange, nope, with the USA elections on the go, I thought it good timing to cover the above, yep a book by Donald Trump, surprised.

On page 153 of his book which was published in 2007, Donald comments,
We do not have great negotiators in our US government. the US has great business people who are great NEGOTIATORS.

WHICH MEANS YOU MUST GET A HANDLE ON YOUR NEGOTIATION SKILLS.

Till next time may the FORCE be with You.

Your Responsbilities as a Leader

To SME Owners,

Yes you are RESPONSIBLE for the following,

- Your relationships with staff, clients, suppliers, yes all three
- How you set the example or NOT
- How you handle pressure in front of your staff
- How you think, you Emotional IQ
- How you set the pace in your business
- How you coach staff
- How you live your life outside of work, while playing!!!

Cool, so how are you doing on the above.

Till next time may the Force be with You.

PROMOTING your SME in 2016

To SME Owners.

Lots been said about building your Brand, why and how etc,
 Keep it Simple.

-Your brand must create positive feelings in your clients, go ask your clients who you have great relationships with, best way to get feedback
- Your brand must create positive emotional reaction via various forms of contact with your business.
- Sales reps are taught to sell to a clients emotion, so your brand should.
- Try to incorporate your business values into your message to clients, the market.

REMEMBER everything is about PERCEPTION.
perception, is the process by which the brain organizes and interprets information it receives. visual information is key.

Tell next time may the Force be with you.

PASSION in 2016 will be OVERRATED

To SME Owners

We all read and hear about you must have passion, here is the deal you need to know about HOW
a business works, you can have all the passion you want, it will come to nothing, I have seen this over the past 18 years dealing with SME's

Here are a few" business understanding areas"

1 have persistence
2 know the different's between profits and cash flow
3 fully understand the risks
4 manage time, so you max your return on effort.
5 understand scalability

to name a few for you.

Till next time my the Force be with You.