Recessions, boom years, credit crunches… they are all a natural part of our lives. An integral part of the huge economy we are all a part of. You can’t have a boom time without a bust time. They follow each other like night follows day. Life constantly cycles. All the recent noise the experts have been making about global warming for instance. It is a proven fact that every 10,000 years or so our planet goes through an ice-age. We can’t fight it, we can’t stop it. There were no cars, aeroplanes or huge factories belching stuff into the atmosphere that caused the last ice-age and changes the politicians propose aren’t going to stop Mother Nature going through her cycles of life.

Recessions come and go every few years. They are nothing to be afraid of; they are just a normal part of business life. It is always sad when a business folds. The owner of that business will blame the recession, competition, changes of tastes, any manner of factors rather than own up to the fact that they allowed their business to fold. It folded because they wouldn’t, couldn’t or simply didn’t see the need to change and adapt as the world around it changed and adapted.

The worst thing you can do for your business at any time, let alone in tough economic times, is just to carry on regardless as if nothing has changed. Things are always changing and you need to constantly adapt and tweak your business in order for it to evolve and stay profitable.

A business that doesn’t change over time will certainly die and it will be solely the business owner’s fault.

It doesn’t mean that you have to drop all the traditional values of excellent service and quality products, just that the way you present your business, the way you market your business, the way you conduct your business all need to move on constantly.

A small company has a huge advantage over a large one in any trading conditions simply because it can act immediately to conditions around it. There is no waiting for a board meeting, for a committee to assess and report, for backers to be swayed. A small company can see an opportunity and jump on it without delay.

It is no good for a small local computer shop, for example, to try and under-cut the likes of Dell or PC World when supplying hardware items. But a small business can easily find small niches that the big players never spot, or are simply not geared up to support. Have you ever tried to get PC World to repair your 6 month old computer? Well, they can’t. They send them away for several weeks to another business set up for that purpose. Most business people though are completely dependent on their computer and the thought if it being sent away for weeks is unthinkable. So, step in the small business who loves fault finding on machines. They will come to your office, fix your fault and have you up and running again within hours.

Pundits have forecast the demise of the good old English Pub at least twice in recent years but most of us still have a Pub within easy walking distance. The first death knell was cheap imported alcohol from the EU when the borders were opened up. There were experts showing people driving over to France on a day trip coming back loaded with cheap booze for their own consumption. Vans overflowing, trailers packed solid. It would be wrong to say this didn’t have an effect on Pubs because it did. People chose to stay at home and drink their cheap imported alcohol instead of going out. But did it kill the Pubs? No. Most of them adapted to this new scenario but devising ways to lure people out of their homes and back into the Pubs by changing the way they operated.

The second death knell was the smoking ban. Experts said it was an infringement of civil liberties, people only went to the Pub for a social drink and a smoke and now they couldn’t do that they would boycott Pubs. Again, the forecast disaster never happened. Pubs fought back with smoking areas to keep the smokers happy and again used other means to bring people into the Pubs, not least, those of us who don’t smoke and couldn’t tolerate going into a smoky Pub before the ban. Food also now features in most Pubs, quizzes, hog roasts, bbq’s, slave auctions, charity nights, darts teams, function room rental etc. Some of which they did before, but some of which they could now pull in a whole new audience for.

Can you see the differences here?

Even when times are tough and competition fierce, there are still opportunities for entrepreneurs to find and exploit for the benefit of their business. You will find some of these methods here to help you through the current trading conditions.

Remember…

Your business will only die during a recession if you do nothing different.

Your business will only die, regardless of any current boom or recession, if you do nothing different.

~Ray

I don’t mean winning at all costs!  I mean that in every business situation, and in every deal you do, you try your very best to make sure that everybody involved wins something of value.

If you are of the ilk that likes to extract maximum money from people as soon as possible and have no thought of future trades, then this idea will be abhorrent to you.

However, if you are building a long-term sustainable business, then taking a little time to ensure that everyone involved in a transaction wins something will give you an enviable reputation of being “the” one to deal with.

In practical terms it means that if someone buys bookkeeping services from us, I veiw that as a compliment.  I will then make sure that this client, and every client, receives a stunning service and that we add real value to their business.

We win because:-

• We take on a new client and boost our own income.
• We have another potential source of referrals and testimonials for marketing purposes.
• We keep our bookkeepers happy doing the work they enjoy the most!

The client wins because:-

• They no longer struggle with their own bookkeeping.
• No more VAT returns.
• No more payroll and all it’s hassles.
• No more deadlines.
• No more sleepless nights.
• Accurate and regular reports about their business.
• The ability to ask questions at any time without incurring any extra fees.

The balance is always tilted in favour of the client for a soundly based, long term relationship.

We have all seen businesses that are out to rip the public off, and then disappear into the ether generally owing lots of money and leaving loads of unhappy customers in their wake.  They are sadly quite successful in the short term and can amass many thousands of £’s for their owners before they disappear.

However, a sustainable business will ensure they give substantial value and their customers are happy to pay for that value.  The business will then be around for the next 50 years or more and will be more than strong enough to ride any waves the economy throws at it.

~Ray

Thank you for all those who responded to my post about the best direction for the advert I have booked in a charitable booklet.

The person who first suggested the recession busting report was Rachael, although I have to confess I had already listed 24 hot tips to go in the report so it seems lots of you had similar feelings to me.  Perhaps the current financial climate has something to do with our thinking!

I am meeting the talented young designer Chris Eccleston tomorrow and we are going to work on the look of the advert to try and get it to reach out and grab people’s attention over the festive period.  I will put a link to Chris’s new website tomorrow once he has decided on a name!  I spent an hour in this lad’s company on Saturday morning and was really impressed with the way he thinks.  The funny thing is that he was at school with my eldest son, also called Chris…  it’s strange the way things work out!  I forecast a bright future for him and it is a pleasure to meet a 22 year old lad who is so commited to making his mark in the world.

The report is now up to 30 tips and my mind is still buzzing with ideas.  The problem is trying to pick the ones that should go into such a report, and which ones are more suited to other articles or reports.  I don’t want people to be put off by the length of it, but I want it long enough to be seen as having real value.  The 30 tips already earmarked are at least a page each so you can see my problem.

The trouble is that I have worked my way through 3 recessions so I have some idea of what works and what doesn’t and have seen lots of businesses survive and quite a few that haven’t.  The advantage of my great old age I suppose.  But if I can stop even one business from failing, from doing something fatal in a recession, then all the effort involved in writing the report and puzzling over the advert will have been time very well spent.

So I am going to crack on with writing the report and I will post the link to it here first so that I can get some feedback before the advert goes live in December.

~Ray

This week I have been reading a book lent to me on Monday called The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea into a Great Business.  It contains quite a lot of useful information for people thinking of starting a new business.  However, it does leave the reader with a few misconceptions about the number of people involved in getting a new business up and running.

For example, they left me thinking that unless there are at least 5 people plus a mentor involved right from the outset, that a business had no chance of life.  I wanted to add my two-pennies worth in case other readers received the same impression as me.

In my long experience, the reality is that most businesses are started by one person and grow at a pace determined mainly by the vision and energy of the entrepreneur.  A lot of businesses never get larger than 4 or 5 people throughout a long and successful life.  Does that mean such a business is any less successful than one that quickly reaches a multi-million turnover and is floated on the stock exchange?

Not really.  It depends on your definition of success.  What is yours?  How do you define if your business is successful or not? 

To me, success is if the founder achieves freedom.  Freedom to work, or not work as they wish.  Freedom to buy what they need, when they need it, without having to think about whether or not they can afford it.

This level of success can be achieved at any level of turnover, it just depends on the founder’s lifestyle and needs.  So, a small business is successful to me even if it employs one or two people and has a turnover of £150K.  As long as the founder achieves freedom.  Some people only look at turnover and anything less than multi-million is an abject failure.  I don’t agree at all.

So, how many people are needed to start a business - just 1.  So don’t be put off by some of the books out there if they claim any less than 5 will never get a business off the ground.  The authors of those books tend to be ones who judge success by millions of turnover, rather than freedom.

Don’t be put off.  If you feel the urge to start a business - do it.  You will regret forever if you don’t at least try.

~Ray

Yes.  The holiday season is officially over today.  Our youngest went back to school this morning with a lot of very blue air around his head!  Our daughter starts College next week and our eldest son returns soon to uni to do his final year.

Having just updated this blog to Wordpress 2.6 a couple of weeks ago, I found to my horror that it needed updating again when I came back to work on Tuesday.  So, with fingers crossed and tongue very much in cheek, I went through the upgrade proceedure manually once again.  It didn’t seem so bad this time and all went smoothly - so far at least!

Over the holiday season I have been asked to write a short post about business records - will the same set of records cover VAT requirements and corporation tax needs.  So I will get on with that hopefully later today.  I have a number of other topics I want to talk about as well.  I have found there is nothing more stimulating to the creative juices than sitting on a lakeside with a fishing rod in hand with my mind just drifting - well it works for me anyway.  I always have my little notebook with me and the number of ideas that have been jotted down in there this summer has truly surprised me.

So lots of information to look out for over the next few weeks.

~Ray

A small task to a techie no doubt, but ploughing through the upgrade of wordpress manually was a nightmare for me.  Throughout the entire process I was panicking I would never see my little blog or it’s contents again.  Sad really, but now I have finished it I am really chuffed.  Especially as it means I have been able to apply the new theme.

I hope you like it.  It is radically different from the old but I feel it has possibilities for the next year or so.  Please let me know what you think.  The old theme is only a click or two away if this one proves too unacceptable!

 Anyway, I am sure you will be pleased that I have now finished messing with the blog and its format, so tomorrow I am getting back to the serious business of helping you grow your business and maximize your profits.

~Ray

Lost records have been a problem since time began. Sometimes the loss is genuine and records ruined in fire or floods etc., but sometimes the “loss” is a smokescreen because the business person thinks they can outsmart HMRC by claiming the records are lost.

HMRC has lots of information sources they can access in these situations, including digging into your bank accounts when the statements are lost (have you any idea how much the banks now charge for each statement HMRC ask for? between £5 and £25 each depending how far back they are needed), looking at your lifestyle to get a handle on how much money you spend, interest information, dividend information etc.

Without records, investigations become much easier for HMRC because you cannot provide any rebuttals to assumptions they make about your financial affairs and those investigations always end up with a much higher settlement than if all the records are available.

So… try hard not to lose them - they are worth their weight in gold - literally. Micro-fiche them, scan them, copy them, protect them as best you can so that if the originals do go AWOL for any reason - then it is no big deal at all

~Ray

It seems that there are still countless thousands of households using BT for their phone calls at their extortionate call rates.  These days there are lots of alternatives to BT as long as you still have your BT phone line and Tiscali is one of those but also offer so much more.   

To qualify, you just have to be a faithful BT customer at the moment and try the service using this link, but users of other telephone providers may find it better value as well.

Here is the challenge…

I challenge you to save some money by trying the service from Tiscali.  That’s all there is to it… Read the full story