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Archive for April, 2009

Einstein’s favourite theory

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Einstein's favourite theory

Albert Einstein the brilliant scientist, Nobel prize winner, humanitarian and Philosopher called this the most amazing phenomenon of the universe !

The law of compound interest !

What is the law of compound interest i hear those of you who hate numbers ask.

It’s the law that states that if you have for example £1 today and you have it in a magical bank with 10% interest – next time you check you’ll have £1.10 which is nice, but not lifechanging, but the real mystery of this law is that any interest that now comes to you, doesn’t come on the original £1 but on the £1.10 – it keeps on growing! It ‘s the gift that keeps on giving !

Most of us know that compound interest applies to money. But you can apply it to any area of your life or your business. Because you can be sure that if compound interest is not working for you, it’s working against you.

If you invest in something and accumulate interest, that interest compounded makes you money. But if you borrow money, you pay interest and that interest compounded costs you more money. In both situations, a day of interest is not going to rock anyone’s boat, but taken over time and compounded the effect can become huge !

Just like the rule of 80/20 the phenomenon of compound interest relates to whatever situation you apply it to, so this is not just about building societies, but about business, health and relationships, nothing is immune.

If you eat a fatty meal today it won’t kill you, but if you eat one every day never allowing your body to recover, eventually you will be really unhealthy. Likewise eating an apple today doesn’t make you a healthy person, but eating an apple a day every day, will help you to be a healthy person.

In business, being rude to one customer today probably won’t ruin your business (unless they’re extraordinarily well connected) but do that every day and you won’t have much of a business for very long. Conversely go out of your way for one customer each day and you’ll increase the goodwill in your business. This is the law of compound interest.

Everyday we make hundreds of choices – what to wear, what to eat, who to employ, how to market ourselves, where to advertise. Each choice in itself is a small thing, and either positive or negative, but taken together over a period of time they propel you to either where you want to be, either in a positive or a negative direction. While we often don’t see the bigger picture, being too bound up in our own little dramas, making as many positive decisions a day as you can is only going to help you and your business move forward.

The more positive associations you have, the more leverage and momentum you create, remember the law of compound interest and aim for some positive decisions each day to get the law working for you….

Tags: Compound interest, decisions, einstein
Posted in Compound interest, einstein, money | No Comments »

What kind of story is your shop…?

Monday, April 27th, 2009

What kind of story is your shop?

Recently, we’ve been going through a few changes in our business, some pleasant, some, shall we say not so pleasant. As a small business and talking to other retailers i realise that we are not alone in some of the dramas that befall us.

One of the biggest hurdles to get over is staff leaving (or being asked to leave) In a small business where everyone knows everything about everyone, and emotions can run high, its easy to get caught up in all the emotion.

But what if its all a story? The story of your business ! What kind of story would it be? Is it an epic drama, with lots of adventure, or a fireside ramble through familiar territory. A cookbook or a thriller? Is there espionage and a plucky heroine?

When staff leave us, its easy to be upset about it, but what if we chose to see it as the close of a chapter, or a space for some new narrators to come in. After all no-one is irreplaceable, people will come and people will go and that’s the long and short of it… But if you were to choose what kind of story would you choose.

Sometimes its not whats happening to us thats important, its what we make it mean, and standing back and seeing it as all a chapter in the story might make it a bit less personal…?

So, Chapter one, the beginning, high hopes, new shopfittings and excitement.

Chapter two, settling in, slight change in direction, taking on staff

Chapter three, the website adventure

Chapter four, getting down and dirty with social media…

I leave the rest up to you… I’d like to think of my shops as an adventure story, complete with choppy waters to overcome (rise in rent and rates, and some shoplifters for good measure) a villain or two (I’m undecided on them as yet) a quest and a community to welcome us back….

As John Lennon said, “you may say I’m a dreamer….” but it beats the heck out of sitting back and feeling sorry for yourself, and if life really is what we make it, then we might as well make it a fun adventure….

Now I only need to convince my staff …….

Tags: changes, Independent retailers, Stories
Posted in Challenge, Change, Stories | 2 Comments »

Not a budget for business ….

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

Small comfort for small businesses ...

Having had a little time to review the Chancellors budget (not my favourite weekend activity) it looks like overall, it was a bit of a missed opportunity. While the borrowing figures of £175 billion (and that’s just this year) with £173 billion next year, are enough to make me feel a bit giddy. There’s the news that economy is going to shrink by 3.5% to digest too…

With such big borrowing sums being bandied about, its small wonder that there’s small support for our small businesses.

Missing in action was a reduction of employers’ National Insurance contribution rate and tighter government control over bank charges(which would have been nice!).

There was no extension of VAT reduction to 15 per cent for a further 12 months and there were only a few real high points.

1. Main capital allowance has doubled to 40%, which is helpful for those of us investing, as we all know that cashflow is the numbero uno in the priorities list, particularly in a recession.

2. An extension of the three year carry back means that loss-making businesses can reclaim tax on profits made in the last three years, this should help lots of small businesses.

3. Business rates: The spread of uplift is a positive move for small businesses.

4. VAT threshold increased: While the extension of the reduction didn’t happen, the raising of the threshold to £68,000 at least means that many small businesses will fall outside the VAT bracket.

5. The introduction of a top-up supply chain insurance to help companies protect themselves against non-payment.

But there were also some nasty surprises for those of us wondering why we do in fact bother?

1. The 2p rise on fuel duty – this always has an impact on costs somewhere down the line.

2. No change to corporation tax rates with the rise from 20-21% remaining in place;

So if we cast our minds back as to why we did set up in business… if it was for the long hours and ever present responsibility, the learning how to steer a sometimes unmanageable ship in difficult waters, or the satisfaction of knowing that our bank is receiving good returns on their oh so reasonable charges….. or maybe it was because we just love giving the opportunity to the government through our employment of our staff, to increase the tax aspect of the PAYE and NI and add some more paperwork?

If, however it was to be successful and be recompensed for our hard work, then you have to wonder if the opportunity to earn, which is a stimulant for most entrepreneurs is going to seem as bright if the government is going to reserve the right to take nearly 60% in tax and NI when we do….

Ok so there aren’t many directors of small businesses who earn over £150,000 but it’s a nice dream….!

So thanks Mr Darling, but not that much !

Tags: Add new tag, Budget, sme's small businesses
Posted in Budget, money, recession | No Comments »

Who’s the bogie man?

Friday, April 24th, 2009

In the 1950s, Congressman George A. Dondero denounced modern art as a communist plot.

Every day, we hear ideas that some people are annoyed with or more likely, afraid of. And in the face of fear, people lose eloquence and start calling things names, usually names that don’t make a lot of sense.

There is a danger in labelling things, because once you give it a label, its like the wait is over. For instance if an ill patient is told that they’re about to die, chances are they will, there have been innumerable cases where members of the family have forbidden the doctors to relay the news in this way, and guess what the person lived on for several more years.

Of course, that’s illness, but I’m interested in the labelling of the “recession”

Its all in the mindset, your psychology, because sure as eggs is eggs stuff will happen, but its not the cards you’re dealt, its what you do with them ! In my local town there are now about 6 empty stores, but this week one of my favourite shops opened a new store – in a better location, and its been packed all week ! Why, because for the last three years they’ve been quietly getting on with it, building a network, building a mailing list of satisfied customers, not deviating from their USP, trying, refining and getting ready for the next step.

Did they let the “recession” stop them? The answer is a clear No !

Nothing is a communist plot any more, but there’s never a shortage of bogie men available to us, to make us afraid, steal our dreams so we can’t sleep and generally make the world a scary place.

Beware of the bogie men – they’re on your TV, they’re in the newspapers and they could be all around you !

Be careful who you listen to – make sure they’re not a bogie man !

Tags: labelling, mindset, PMA, the bogie man
Posted in Bad news, PMA, Positive mental attitude, Questions to ask, negativity, recession | No Comments »

Where does learning lie?

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Which is the biggest segment?

This one’s a bit philosophical, so grab a cup of tea and prepare yourself…

There’s basically three sectors to the pie chart of our lives, the smallest one, is what we know (for example, we know where we live, or how to do a Z report) The second sector is what we don’t know (and we know that we don’t know it.) For example : I know that I don’t know how to speak Chinese, or how to fly an aeroplane.

We could all list lots of things that we don’t know !

But if you notice on the picture, the biggest sector by far is the left hand one, which represents what we don’t know but we don’t know that we don’t know it !

So what does that mean?

Well, it means that for us and our businesses, there are many things that we know that we don’t know but because we know that we don’t know them, we can go and seek them out and learn them if we needed to – in order to improve our businesses.

For example we might know that we don’t know accounting very well, but as our businesses get bigger, we realise that we have to have a basic knowledge, so we enrol on our course. We knew that we didn’t know it, so we could take some positive action around it.

But, what of the biggest segment – What we don’t know, and we don’t know that we don’t know ! Hidden from our view in this segment are all the things that hold us back. They’re very difficult to get to, its kind of like spinning around and trying to see the back of your head, almost impossible and it makes you kinda dizzy, but if you could get inside that segment, everything could explode for you!

How to do this without the aid of psychotherapy?

Ask an honest friend?

Because the stuff that holds us back, very often isn’t a lack of knowledge on excel spreadsheets, or the failure to pick Billy the fish as the seasons top seller, its something a bit deeper than that ! You can train for those things. Its our own deeply held beliefs about ourselves, that we very often don’t even realise that we hold.

But although they’re invisible to us, others can see them, as they come out in the language we use and our view of the world…..

So, if you’re brave enough… and they’re a very good friend…. and you trust them….. Ask an honest friend !

Tags: knowing, what we don't know
Posted in Knowledge, Questions to ask | No Comments »

Snakes and ladders of life !

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Watch out for snakes !

What if its all a game?

All the stuff we take so seriously. Sales figures and footfall, and conversions. Web stats, staff sickness, customer returns and all the rest of it !

What if its all a giant game?

Sure in a game there’s winners and losers, just as there are in life. Sometimes its in the roll of the dice, you slip down the snake through no fault of your own, nasty divorce, illness, unfavourable partnership, you name it, there’s lots of explanations how, lots of reasons why.

But if it is all a giant game, and you knew this (someone whispered in your ear) then how would you play the game? Would it be different because you knew it was just a game, would you take it less seriously? Would you play to win, or team up and help the other participants to stop someone else winning? What would be your strategy?

Would you be the banker ? or the old boot? In fact, lets take it a step further. What game would you choose to play if you could choose?

Scrabble, Monopoly, Snakes and ladders, Cluedo or twister?

What does that say about you?

Finally, are you the kind of player who has a strategy to win? A long term game plan, or is it all just for fun. Because usually we win the game we play, and those with a plan, a vision and a long term view and a lot of hard work and persistence are the winners. Not always – unforeseen stuff can happen, but usually.

So what game are you playing?

In the long run, though, it’s those with right intention, a long term view and consistent persistence that manage to win.

Good thing, too.

Tags: game, playing, snakes and ladders
Posted in Conforming, Positive mental attitude, game, snakes and ladders | No Comments »

Who is the one in ten ?

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Who's your one in ten !

UB 40 sang about it, scientific studies use it as a way of grounding their theories, but what relevance does it have for retail?

Well, it’s the secret of a new style of marketing – the power of ten !

It works like this, you find ten people. These are ten specific people. People who trust you, need you, like you, respect you, admire you…..

These ten people want or need what you have to sell, and if they love what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, you win – big time ! Because if they love it, they’ll tell ten more people (or many many more !)

If they don’t love it, it won’t work and you need a new product, concept, idea or need to fulfil.

If they love it, your idea spreads, your business gets talked about – and grows ! Fast, much faster than you’d think, because people are talking about you…..not only are you news, you’re also being personally recommended ! Advertising can’t buy that kind of promotion – It just can’t !

This idea can change the way you do everything – instead of investing in blanket advertising to an anonymous “market” You find the raving fans of your business and market to them, get them on board with your vision, your plans, your ideas, let them contribute. Then they’re not anonymous, they’re willing participants, they’re invested in your business (emotionally not financially) You can only really market to people who are willing participants, like your group of ten people.

So when you want to launch a new spring collection for example, you wouldn’t need to spend a lot on advertising, you could plan a gradual build up of interest that turns into a tidal wave. You could plan your budget accordingly too. Which is the opposite to how it’s done now, where most of the money for advertising is spent up front, then it tails off, which is backwards to what you need.

Ten evangelists can make a huge difference to your business. Ten people who love your shop and tell all their friends where they got X from, who pop in all the time, sometimes just to say Hi, ten people who think you’re great and want to support you…..

Years from now, this advice will be so common that no-one will be able to comprehend that we didn’t do it.

But for today, I’m willing to bet that it’s almost certainly the opposite of what you’re doing?

So, who will you pick to be your top ten?

Tags: customers loyalty, evangelists, ten
Posted in Adding value, Change, Customers, loyalty | No Comments »

Are you tweeting?

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Are you twittering?

Hate Twitter? Ok, but just think about claiming your user name to protect your brand : Read on for more information !

What’s all the fuss about Twitter?

The New York Times calls Twitter “one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.” TIME Magazine says, “Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app,” and Newsweek opined that “Suddenly, it seems as though all the world’s a-twitter.”

If you haven’t heard all the media hype about Twitter recently then you must have been somewhere very remote… Its in the news, big retailers are talking about it and Stephen Fry loves it!

Twitter is a micro blogging website, and its this years internet phenomenon, but can it work for retailers? Well, ASOS think so, so do Carphone Warehouse and the guys behind the new Woollies online business and hundreds of others.

I want to return to Twitter next week. There’ll be post on Twitter and retailers and how it all works, but for now, if you hate it, or refuse to do it - thats fair enough, but perhaps just think about this one thing…. Remember way back when websites just came out… and lots of big companies got bitten on the bum because someone saw the value in their brand name before they did?

Well, ahem, it could happen again here !

It takes no more than a minute to sign up and even if you never use it, it could save you lots of aggravation later. At least if you do decide to do it later you’ll have the name.

So, its good advice to pop over to twitter right now and register your username – that way no-one else can get it. There’s three compelling reasons why this is a good idea:

1. Even if you never tweet – this will stop someone else from stealing your brand. If someone buys your brand and has a rubbish avatar and does inane tweets – its not going to look good !

2. It prevents people from claiming your name – you can register as a business or an alias, or yourself.

3. Ikea and Sony apparently failed to register their own twitter names, and the people who do have them haven’t activated their accounts……? Hmmmm do you see big money in the horizon for the savvy tweeters there – I do !

Best to put it on your list of things to do tomorrow, or better yet today ! After all how often do you get to put “Twitter” on your daily list…?

Tags: Protect your brand, social media, twitter
Posted in Building a media profile, Protect your brand, social media, twitter | No Comments »

Phone a friend…

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Find someone in the same box as you !

I’ve been thinking about how to handle some of the mental swings that come from being self-employed…. You know some days its all going well, you feel successful, its all going your way, and then others……… well, I think we all know how that feels !

So what’s the best way to stay motivated. Well, this is a blog about stuff few self employed people talk about and I think its really important to get the conversation started.

When you start your business you want to do it all yourself, set the standards, do the window, hire the staff, choose the products, make the advert, do the accounts, you want to do it all.

But its not a great idea for the following reasons:

Building a business can be lonely

Its really important to have someone that you can share your successes and failures with (that understands what you’re feeling) Don’t get me wrong, family and friends are great, and long-suffering in lots of cases, but they’re not standing in your shoes, so they don’t have to deal with the feelings that come from nowhere…

You need someone that understands your excitement when you make progress. You need to build a relationship with someone that can understand….

Trying to do everything yourself

This can work in the short term, but its not a long term plan, because you’ll exhaust yourself and lose your enthusiasm. Of course it’s great to learn new stuff, but there’s no way you can be good at everything… If you’re great at the accounts, its unlikely you’ll also be marvellous at selling for example, they’re different skill sets.
The fastest way to growth in your business is to find someone who’s done it and model them, that means go and talk to them about the pitfalls ahead of you, learn from them, take them out for a pizza and ask them questions…. They’ll mostly be glad to share their experience with you.

Accountability

There’s nothing like having to report on your progress to provide the impetus for action, we’ve all heard the old adage “If it wasn’t for deadlines, nothing would get done” and its true, but if you’re self employed how can you find someone to hold you accountable?

Well, my suggestion is to make a friend ! Someone in business too, with a shop or a service provider, hairdresser, accountant – whatever, doesn’t really matter and partner up with them.

Decide that you’ll hold each other accountable for things you say you’re going to do in your business and at the end of each day or week call them with an update on your list – or email them, or drop in for coffee and run through them. You could make it a weekly event and work on each others businesses…. A fresh pair of eyes see things that an owner is blind to.

Try it today, create your list of four things you’re going to achieve today and find someone to be a partner – ask them for their four things and then hold each other accountable – no excuses, no whining…. Good common sense and support and advice and experience and accountability –

What do you need to learn, what can you teach? How can you help?

Tags: accountability, Modelling, motivation, Partnering, pitfalls, self employed
Posted in Adding value, Modelling, Partnering | No Comments »

Happy Easter Egg-xess

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Happy Easter chuck !

Let’s be honest its kind of a strange holiday and a difficult sell, unless you’ve bought up all the Woollies Easter Eggs…!

When you delve into the background of this Christian festival, there’s a few surprises…. “Eastre” was actually a pagan figure, celebrated as the Goddess of Spring. A festival called Eastre was apparently held during the spring equinox by Pagan people to honour her. The goddess Eastre’s earthly symbol was the rabbit, which was also known as a symbol of fertility. So now I get the bunny connection, but how did we get from there to chocolate eggs?

Well, most ancient races around the world had similar spring festivals to celebrate the birth of the year, The Egg, as a symbol of fertility and re-birth, has been associated with these rites from the earliest times.

So when the Pagans arrived here in about the 5th century AD, the festival came with them along with their rituals. When the Saxons converted to Christianity and started to celebrate the death and the resurrection of Christ, it coincided with Eostre, so that’s what the early church in Britain called the celebration, Eostre or Easter in modern English. So that’s the history, here comes the sales… or do they?

The media is full of stories about Easter being a huge turning point in retailers calendars… Really? Its news to me. OK, maybe if you sell Sofas I can see its huge, but for the rest of us, its not mega….. It’s nice to celebrate the advent of Spring and to put some bright cheerful props around the shop, but talk about focusing on the positive. There’s some problems with creating a sales phenomenon around Easter….

Easter has rabbits and eggs – not an easy sell…! Rabbits are normally portrayed as either a bit dumb, or sex crazy…. Bugs Bunny doesn’t wear any trousers – I rest my case !

Everything that’s celebrated around Easter happens in the morning and we all know that nothing good for commerce happens before noon !

There’s no Easter songs? So you can’t really ramp up the marketing…. Christmas has reams of songs, we all know them by heart. Easter has…..?

Finally, the focus is on a corpse coming back to life…. Not cute! – Amazing, yes. Cute – No !

So I think we can agree Easter is a tough sell, pretty, but tough. But if it increases footfall then who’s complaining?

One of the things i’ve noticed about Easter this year is the choice on offer, you can get vegan eggs, protein free eggs, fairly traded eggs, green eggs, diabetic eggs, to name just a few. I’m old enough to remember when there were three choices and one of them was Smarties! So maybe the lesson here is how to differentiate your offering and how the market is evolving…. oh and offering choice?

So that’s the cynic in me satiated, but in the spirit of Easter, which is above all a story of hope, with the promise of new beginnings, lets not dwell on the bad stuff and instead lets think about Spring arriving and what we can create for this new season….

And if that all seems too sweet to be true, here’s my Easter gift to you: A get-out-of-jail-free carbohydrate card.

Apparently there’s a range of benefits and nutritious surprises found in chocolate. The key is learning to choose the right type and eating the right amount (and 50 grams is pretty decent) so now you can feel virtuous devouring it.

Now for another bite of that pair of ears on my dark chocolate Lindt bunny.

Tags: Chocolate, Easter, New Beginnings, Spring
Posted in Easter, Sales, chickens and eggs, retailers | No Comments »