4029 days ago
Aha, I am less in trouble I am now only one article in arrears at 24n.biz, the small business website that I write for. And I have three ideas of what to write. Hip Hip hooray! This is the latest offering in my weekly series on tips for small businesses ( SMEs).
It is 13 years and 17 days since I started my first company and prepared to launch my first product – a website with the (then) revolutionary concept of charging for access. Older and (I hope) wiser, last week I launched a major new product yet again. Once again it is a financial website. This time it is free to access. Naturally it is brilliant and I urge you to trot along to www.shareprophets.com and register at once. Thirteen years ago I had five months to prepare for product launch – this time it was one month. But the five point checklist is the same.
4037 days ago
I am still in trouble. This is five down in 5 days but I am still two columns in arrears with 24n.biz the online magazine for SMEs - my series on small business tips. Catch up continues...
And so you opt to change a manager. The existing incumbent or structure is not delivering – you have no choice. The process will be painful both financially and emotionally. I rather feel that at the moment having done just that on Friday. It is a financial hit and it was emotionally draining. I hit the red wine afterwards – it was the only mature, adult way to deal with it.
And so what now? The new incumbent starts today. What is my six point check list?
4042 days ago
I am still in trouble. This is three down in 24 hours but I am still four columns in arrears with 24n.biz the online magazine for SMEs. And so for the next 24 hours I shall be writing little else than articles with tips for small businesses. Enough is enough, it is SME time and so here is my third offering.
And so you have identified a member of staff who is somewhere between not very good at their job, downright bad at their job or criminally delinquent – what do you do? In an ideal world we would simply be allowed to fire them but we do not live in an ideal world. One of the main reasons NOT to take on full time staff is that it is so bloody hard to get rid of them if they are not up to the task assigned them. The net effect is that Britain’s incredibly “useless worker friendly” employment laws create unemployment.
But we are where we are. There is no real sign that the laws are going to change to create even a level playing field between those that risk their own capital (employers) to create jobs and those who simply earn a wage.
There is a lot of talk from HR professionals about “managing out” underperforming staff. That is to say warning them when they fail to meet the set objectives in their job description and going down a pre agreed process of three warnings and then termination. In theory you end up paying just the statutory notice period at the end and so it is a “cheap” option. In theory…
4043 days ago
I am in trouble. I am seven columns in arrears with 24n.biz the online magazine for SMEs. And so for the next 24 hours I shall be writing little else than articles with tips for small businesses. Enough is enough, it is SME time and so here is my first offering.
At the start of the year I outlined plans to market my excellent quirky Italian restaurant via old and new media and promised a report back after three months: it was a new foray for www.therealmanpizzacompany.com and I was uncertain of the outcome. Has it been worth it? On balance yes but to say that it has been a company transformer would be over-egging the pudding.
The amount invested in cash terms has been trivial. We have an in-house web design capacity and so that took up some time. The hard cash outlay was about £50 for targeted Facebook adverts kitting one strictly defined market segment: students in central/East London.
New media gurus will measure tangible new media metrics.
4065 days ago
My latest article on SME business tips from 24n.biz is now live..
You think that life is going well, revenues pick up, costs are static, your bank manager loves you and then a Black Swan not only offloads on you from a great height but then just launches a kamikaze full frontal attack. It is the unexpected.
About five years ago, the offices of the company I ran at that stage burned to the ground. That was an unexpected early morning wake up call. This week just ended, I suffered the total failure of my laptop so snagging my writing and then the shutdown of the Pizza Oven at Real Man Pizza, my Clerkenwell based quirky Celtic Italian restaurant – that put it out of action for three days. All in all it was not a great week for cashflow generation.
4178 days ago
There are only three ways to increase profits: cut costs, sell more by volume or to put up prices. I shall address the first two at a later date but the quickest route to increasing the profitability of your business is to stick prices up. Yet often we are reluctant to do so. You sort of accept that wages will go up year on year if only to match inflation so why should prices not follow?
4188 days ago
received an email today from a successful young entrepreneur keen to get press coverage. “Why?” I asked. “What do you wish to achieve as an end result?” It took some time to get a reply but in the end it emerged that the coverage he sought was not about his successful, if fledgling enterprise but about him as a person. I am in no doubt that he has achieved a lot. From what I can see he is a very clever and enterprising individual. But what is the point in broadcasting that news?
