Month: March 2011

Are you a business mentor?

The benefits to both parties of business mentoring.

Hello again,

This blog is different as it is all about other businesses.

A couple of years ago, I was approached by a local Chamber of Commerce to be a business mentor for a small local business. I was flattered and surprised. But mainly, I was perplexed as to why they had asked me. I did not consider myself as having any special talent for business and couldn’t see how my experiences could translate over to others.

Well, I was wrong on all of those ideas.

Several mentee companies later and I am happy to report that I really look forward to spending time with the companies I now see. It’s not really that I have experienced exactly what they are going through – all businesses have their own unique issues to overcome. I think it is more of a case of at least I have been going long enough to have survived all sorts of disasters and have come through it all with a sense of perspective that the mentees find useful. Or I hope they do anyway.

The other aspect that I find useful is that for an hour at a time, I have the opportunity to help someone out and when I describe how I am handling something similar to their struggle, it often happens that they too have ideas that I can bring to bear on the situations that I am handling.

Some business mentors have a very strict method of going about it. I prefer to chat through things and focus on one main issue at a time and then track it from meeting to meeting, checking progress as we go.

Why not help out another business local to where you live? Too busy? No time? Don’t know who to contact? All these and other excuses are just that. Give it a go and see how you get on. After all, what do you really have to lose?

Have a good weekend. Kind regards, Roy Lewis

Decluttering and progress for the new season

Suppliers and customers – sorting out whom to deal with this year and why.

Hello,

Another wintry week here in Argyll. Odd time of year this, with sales a bit quiet, but Easter looming. Being busy sorting out what we want to keep in our office and what to throw out.

The same applies to our suppliers and customers – which ones do we want to deal with this year? Well, it all comes down to dealing with suppliers that are aware that we rely on them to treat us well and not mislead us on delivery times and availability of their goods and services. For retail customers, it is having ones that are doing well and are willing to pay us in a reasonable timescale.

First impressions can be deceptive. Several years ago, I signed up a ‘very successful’ delicatessen chain of stores here in Scotland. All and sundry helpfully informed me that I had to be in their shops. They took our liqueurs alright but were very reluctant to pay for them. It took over a year and endless calls to get our money. Having done this, I decided not to supply them any more. At the end of the day, it was not worth it as I expected them to go bust at any time and it would be a total loss to us. As it turns out, they are still trading, but even now, I would be reluctant to supply them as they still appear to be very disorganised.

Nowadays I am happier supplying nice steady, but perhaps lower profile retailers, that have a good solid customer base and buy regularly from me with no hassle or tricks. For lots of small businesses when starting, up, they chase too many unsuitable retailers and customers. It does take a while to work out which ones are worth having and sadly, many of these small businesses go under because that have a poor selection of customers and can’t cope with the losses.

Having good suppliers is the same. I want them to look upon us as one of their best customers and that we are worth looking after. I tell them this right at the beginning of our business dealings because I want to be clear from the start that I am serious about doing business with them and want them to be keen to sell their goods and services to me. If they don’t, they will find that we will change suppliers until we find one that does look after us, has an interest in us doing well and shows it.

All the best.  Roy Lewis

 

 

Fuel price increases make mail order purchases even better value

Fuel costs and mail order business – one drives the other.

Hello again,

Like most of us, each time the price of petrol and diesel lurches upwards, I go through the angst of filling up while calculating that my expenditure per minute matches that of a footballers wife let loose in Oxford Street.

From January onwards, I limited myself to one day per week of driving about for work. This not only saved the fuel cost and time involved, but also forced me to plan better, just like we all should. Years ago when I started my first job, my boss schooled me in making each trip worthwhile. If I was going to Edinburgh, I had to try to fit in 4 meetings in one trip,  not plan four trips.

So using the same plan of cutting out trips this year, the result was that I got my fuel expenditure down from £200 a month to less than £100.

I now apply the same logic when looking at buying goods mail order and paying what might appear to be a high delivery charge vs driving, parking and buying it from a shop in Glasgow. To put it in perspective, it takes about 1 hour to get to Glasgow. The cost of this is £15-20 per trip, plus parking and the likelihood of buying more stuff that I didn’t plan to while I am there.

In comparison, buying an item online means that I get what I want and am not tempted by offers for stuff I do not actually need or want right now. It is almost always better buying online rather than wasting time and effort in getting the goods myself.

What I am really doing is paying other people to do things that I do not need to do myself.  It’s the old time and money issue. I am now totally used to having a quick look on Amazon and E-bay, working out the right price to expect, finding the item at that price and then just getting it. Instead of taking 3-4 hours and costing £20 to purchase an item, it takes usually less than 15 minutes to find it online and buy it.

Have a nice weekend – winter has returned to Argyll – keep warm and busy – all the best, Roy Lewis

 

Show Distributors

Booking events for the coming year…which ones to go for?

Hello,

The new season for consumer shows is almost with us. Our Show Distributors are busy evaluating the shows and fees for the coming year and booking up with the organisers. Working out the true cost of attending an event is one of the key factors in making it worthwhile. This sounds easy until you start to factor in the time taken to get to an event, the fuel costs, parking, time taken to get set up, overnight costs, meals etc.

What often happens is the when all the costs are added up, the more local, less expensive events are the more profitable in the long run. I can vouch for that too from my own experience here in last year.

I attended a number of high profile Shows in Glasgow – The BBC Good Food Show and The Country Living Christmas Fair being two. These are both ‘very prestigious  events’ according to the sales pitch, attracting masses of potential customers. They do, however, cost a lot to attend both as a consumer paying the entry fees and for the Trade Stand fees.

I am aways concerned if it appears to me that the consumers are being asked to pay too much for, when all is said and done, is just a different set of retailers. The more the consumer has to pay to go to the event means they have less to spend while they are there. In addition, the consumers can feel ripped off if the entry and parking charges are too high. Not good for business.

I also attended a local event here in Helensburgh. Easy to get to, easy to get set up, lower fees per day and low cost for the customers to attend.

The result? Well you can probably guess from the tone of the above – yes, the local event was more profitable once all the costs were added in. I sold fewer bottles but made more money.

About now, I am called by sales people selling space at the big, high profile events. Sadly for them, it is really not worthwhile us going to most of these as their fees, sometimes over £1000 for a few days, are so out of touch with reality that it is a waste of time even trying to negotiate with them. Perhaps these is a gap in the market for Consumer shows that do not charge so much for everything and that the businesses going to them , will all make a good margin and rebook for the next year. Now there’s a plan.

Have a good weekend – cold and wet here-horrible.

All the best, Roy Lewis