Triangle
This is a quick and dirty technique to tighten up your business practices and put yourself in a better position. You can apply this at any time and is a useful check on what your doing with your business ideas. This describes three ways to make more money out of your business ideas.
1. Do more
Can you work more efficiently? Is there a better way of doing things that could save you time, and therefore spending more time on stuf that adds value; i.e. selling more.
2. Charge more
Have you got your price right? A frequent mistake of new entrepreneurs is not to charge enough and this often means the difference between success and failure. Have the confidence to charge a fair price (based on who is your customer). E.g. charging an extra fiver per item is five hundred pounds profit on 100 sales.
3. Spend Less
Can you source your materials cheaper? Can you organise your working day better to spend less on fuel? Will Asda Smart Price do the job just aswell as Waitrose special range?
Are you a victim?
So which are you - Villain, Victim or Hero?
- Are you a villain?
ourselves. Not just in the criminal sense (although that is one way)but as people we have the ability to do some stuff that’s not very nice. Why? Doing bad stuff is a way of getting some control and some power at times when we feel like we don’t have any; you hurt the most the ones you love.
Are you a hero?
So what’s a hero? You know the kind; they are the people who are early on the school run, they always get the parking space nearest the door, they never queue at the checkout and they always win at everything - and they annoy the hell out of us.
Be fabulous to your customers
Every time a customer comes into contact with your business, they get to make a decision about you and this is your opportunity to fabulous. The chart below shows three standards of customer service for a mobile hairdresser. So why be fabulous?
1. Customer loyalty - much easier to sell to an existing customer than going out to find new ones, and 2. Grow your business - This is a scientific way you can generate word of mouth (WoM) marketing.
Be fabulous!
The more you can operate in the last column, the more your customers will love you. I’m not saying give away your profits by free gifts and discounts, but consider pricing yourself approriately to enable you to offer incentives to your best customers.
This model is based on Jan Carlsson’s (SAS Airlines) cycle of service model.
Have you asked for help?
Help!
This is based on the premise that human nature, with some notable exceptions, has a genuine desire to help people that we care about within our limitations. People are most likely to buy stuff if they know the seller, they like the seller and they trust the seller.
Pick the people that you think know, like and trust you and ask for their help in growing your business and give them something specific to do, such as; ‘Can you introduce me to…’
Focus groups can spread WoM
If your friends and family represent the types of customer that are likely to buy your stuff, you can use them for market research. Buy them off with cream cakes and a coffee and run a ‘focus group’ asking them a list of questions about your product, your branding, what price they’d be prepared to pay. Do this with two objectives: 1. Get some really good information about your business ideas to help you make some good decisions, and 2. Make them feel they are part of your business (for free) so they tell everyone about it.
Mass-energy equivalence?
There are two planets. One planet is where confident live and the other planet is for people who aren’t brimming with self confidence. The second planet only has a fraction of the opportunties of the first planet, which has fabulous opportunities in abundance.
This of course is complete nonsense. There is only one planet inhabited by humans (as far as we know - see Area 51). That means there are the same opportunities for all of us. So why is it always the same people that seem to find them and grab them?
The more self-confidence you have, the easier it is to spot opportunities. If you don’t feel confident about stuff, an opportunity could land in your lap and peck you on the nose but you still wouldn’t see it. It’s off your radar.
This may not be his best photo
If you’ve lost your confidence, success is for other people - not you. But hear this. We all have the ability to realise our potential. Some are naturally confident, others are not, but we can all learn ways to re-program our heads to feel a little more confident tomorrow than we did yesterday.
Here’s a story about chopping trees down. Eric is a lumberjack and a very keen one at that. In order to clear a wooded area he had to chop 50 trees down. Knowing what a fast worker he is, Eric guesses it will take 10 days to clear the wood, chopping 5 trees a day.
Oh I'm a lumberjack
On the first day he chopped 5 trees down and was pleased with his progress, but thinking he could do better he tried harder the second day. He got up an hour earlier and finished an hour later but he only managed to chop 4 trees down. Frustrated he set the alarm even earlier and finished later and he didn’t take a lunch break. Eric worked harder and longer than he had ever worked. Yet by the end of the day Eric had only managed to chop 3 trees down.
Why?
If Eric had sharpened his saw at the end of each day…?
An exceptionally brief history of manufacturing goes like this. Busy in self-congratulation for flattening Japan, the British and the Americans ’selflessly’ sent their top manufacturing experts to Japan to help rebuild industry. 
Whilst waving goodbye to their mentors, the Japanese thought, ‘hang on a minute’ and realised they could do it much better than these clowns and thus continuous improvement, or ‘Kaizen’ was born. The Japanese are considered to have unrivalled manufacturing plants as a result. What has this got to do with you?
Entrepreneurs who work efficiently and find ways to keep improving are more likely to be successful. Before being fabulous Toyota needed to sort itself out - and keep going. The same is true of you.
The 5s are the English translation of a Japanese methodology for eliminating waste (including effort) and improving efficiency. This is much more than a de-clutter. This is about a sustainable change in the way your run your work and you life.
Seiri - Sorting
Be brutal. Only keep the stuff you need. If you are a hoarder and feel the need to keep pointless tat put it in a box labelled ‘tat’ and put it in the loft.
Seiton - Set in order
Arrange things in your house that promotes an easy flow. Most of us have already got the tea bags and coffee next to the kettle - but find ways of sorting the cupboards and drawers to ensure you don’t spend an hour hunting for sellotape. This also includes the way in which you store your files on your computer. Yes I know it’s a mess.
Seiso - Shining
Clean and tidy regularly at the end of each work period. This keeps things looking sparkly and helps prevent you slipping back to bad habits. Cleanliness shoud be a part of everyday work, not just when you start to live like a student again.
Seiketsu - Standardising
Everyone in your house knows where everything goes and how their contribution helps. This is the tough bit - you need buy-in and some people take some convincing.
Shitsuke - Sustaining
Yes interesting word isn’t it - no, this isn’t the lesser known character from Godzilla - this is about keeping your end up and not going back to the old ways.