Tag: business

I wonder what would happen if…..?

Finding out that customer want free delivery and how I found out that is what they wanted.

Hello everyone and welcome to another Blog.

This week I have have thinking about how to move our Liqueur business into new areas.

Considering that I manufacture liqueurs, it may come as a surprise to find out that I do not consider that I am in the Drinks business.

Rather, I am in the Gift business.

This means that all new products and initiatives have to be seen through the prism of the Gift market and our customers. I do not supply supermarkets, pubs or hotels – I sell direct via our website, at consumer shows and via specialist drinks retailers.

What this means is that I do not have a high overhead company unlike some of the companies that are in the Drinks business. They have factories to keep open so they need to shift the products to make room for the next lot coming down the line. What this means is that particularly at Christmas, it is a great time for consumers to buy Malt Whisky – you’ll never see it so cheap. The stocks have to be shifted as there is another warehouse-full about to be bottled and then sent to the supermarkets.

In the Gift business, customer service is more of an issue and one that has to be taken seriously. One change that I am about to move to is to offer our mail order customers ‘Free delivery’ for all orders.

Up to now, they had to spend @ £50-60 to get free delivery – now it will be free for all orders. Obviously, our prices will have to alter a bit, but not by as much as you would imagine as most of our customers tend to buy over 3 bottles at a time anyway.

How did I work out if this was what customers wanted? Well, I started asking them to fill in a simple surevy last Autumn at a few large shows and then sent an invitation to our online customers to fill in an online survey – in return for doing this for me, they and anyone they know, get 10% off any of our liqueurs for the rest of 2011.

The number one service that our survey respondents wanted was ‘Free delivery’ – and now they are going to have it. I shall write another blog after this sales season to let you know if the move to ‘Free delivery’ was successful

All the best-Roy Lewis

 

When suppliers drop a massive price hike on you.

How not to be a supplier and what a price shock does to me, their customer – I look for a new supplier right away.

Hi there again,

Writing this while I am still reeling from the shock of a massive price hike by another of our suppliers. Unfortunately for us, all our price lists have been printed so as they cannot be altered now for this year, I will just have to take a margin hit.

So what happens next? The search is on for a new, more reliable source of goods. When prices just creep up, there is never enough impetus to find another supplier but when the shock is big enough, it is worth the effort to do something about it and quickly, so at least there is a back up plan in place.

Happily, this event is unusual, as I have a good set of steady suppliers who do not dump price hikes on me without any warning. Those that do, rarely stay suppliers with me for long.

Most of the time I focus on looking after our customers, but paying attention to suppliers is vital too. Just the fact that I do not have to keep researching and then changing suppliers, saves a large amount of time and effort. In addition, a new supplier may end up being worse than the last, despite the promises.

For a change, I took a cold call from a Card service company and despite having to postpone my meeting with their salesman several times, we eventually met up this week. I am always a bit wary of these types of companies as once they have you as a customer, that’s when the surprise charges start to appear. I ditched Pitney Bowes for that reason years ago – every few months they thought up a new way to fleece me. In addition, I had to pay a ridiculous fee just to have the benefit of their machine that was very costly to run. No winners there apart from Pitney Bowes. Not for me.

With this new supplier, so farI have been impressed by their ognanisation – they do what they promise. This is a massive issue for us, as we rely on other companies delivering the service we have paid for. Most don’t do it and we often have to check that they have collected goods, delivered them to the right address and even that they have read their emails or checked their fax machine. All this hassle does is persuade us not to use them.

If you have any either good or bad experiences with suppliers, please let me know and I will publish a selection in future Blogs.

Sunny weekend coming-Great! Roy Lewis

 

 

 

 

Frustration and hassle = new opportunities

New printer is great but too expensive to use-now what?

Hi there again,

Just when you think things are just fine, another real cracker appears on the horizon.

This time it looks like a real showstopper and the show that is going to stop is your business. If you are in a small business, you will probably have one of these moments. The trials and woes of employees seem easy compared to what you have to deal with and the shocks always come out of the blue. Otherwise you would have know what was coming and would have prepared.

This week’s one for us was tied in with buying a new printer. The old ones that we have used for years, HPBusiness Inkjet 1200, have done terrific service but the print was steadily deteriorating. A new printer was called for so I duly ordered one from the local PC repair company.

The shock was that instead of paying £2-6 for a HP black cartridge that would print out 1,000 pages, the new printer needs cartridges that cost £28 each and print @ 300 pages.

That means that the price per page has gone from 0.005p per sheet to @ 10p per sheet. I have estimated that instead of spending about £10 a month, the cartridge bill will be over £100 per month, perhaps even £2-300 per month.

So what can I do about it?

The new printer is great-very good print. But very expensive. The first thing I have done is to do nothing, i.e. print as little as possible. Before when it was amazingly cheap, prints were made of almost every email and document. That’s all been cut out. Next is to repair the old printer an reconnect it so that we have a high quality and a draft printer.

Now I’m off to find a better source of cartridges-more on this when I have some news. There must be lost of other users of the same expensive cartridge printer that could do with paying less too.

This whole scenario is played out throughout businesses every day of the year. Things are jogging along fine until either a big price increase occurs or the owners come across an issue that is so frustrating that they go out and produce a solution that they can then sell to others in the same situation. Only then does something happen. A good number of the new ideas and products that I have ended up selling have come from just these situations. No doubt there will be others and those too will lead to another business revenue stream.

Fine weather coming-have a good weekend. Kind regards, Roy Lewis

 

 

How not be a supplier. Read on….

How a supplier successfully won and then lost my business before I even got started.

Hi everyone again. I’ve been out of the loop for a while but am now back for more.

Lots has happened since the last post and over the next few weeks I will be writing about real business experiences that just so happen to have crossed my path.

This Blog is all about how not to help your customers and the classic example of this is Royal Mail. They contacted me  several months ago about taking advantage of their small parcel service.

The idea is that, if a customer sends out lots of similar parcels, instead of trudging over to the Post office and waiting for ages to be served, the postage could be printed out on a label and the whole lot just handed in to the local Royal Mail office. The alternative is to have Royal Mail collect the bags each day, for a charge of about £500 a year.

Well, as I have started another business that indeed ends up sending out lots of parcels, I thought this service was made for me.

I duly signed up. then everything stopped.

Various staff got in touch with me, made promises and were never heard from again. At last after several calls to the original sales person, I have at last been able to log into our account. I  watched the Demo on the site and it appeared to miss out the crucial part of how to print out the labels.

I really want to do business with Royal Mail with their Packet Service but it seems overly complicated and tricky to use. Perhaps it will be easier once I get going with it. Only 3 months have passed with no progress whatsoever.

I have used this experience to look again at how we look after our customers. I am getting back to them much faster and sorting things out for them as much as I can. The result is that the customers do not keep calling us and the issue gets dealt with. Sometimes we have to wait for another company to come back to us which is very frustrating. In the end it always get sorted out.

Postscript: I have decided not to use the Royal Mail Packet Service. If they can’t help me get started, i have no chance whatsoever in them helping me once I get going. As I am spending £50-150 per week on freight that they could have carried, this is a bad move for them and a good move for me – at least I can keep the business moving along.

More real life business stories next week-all the best, Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

Getting to grips with too many ideas

Opportunities and getting started.

Hello again,

Ever ended up with too many business ideas all zooming around in your head and driving you mad?

Well, it happens to us all, if you’re in a receptive mood that is.

Before I ran my own company and was an employee, I could never figure out how it was that those that ran their own companies always seemed to be ahead of the game in spotting trends and new ideas. As an employee, I was focused on doing the job I was paid to do, quite rightly, but on long flights and train journeys, I would have nothing better to do that flick through magazines and muse on the ideas and products advertised.

The main issue was how to investigate and get a new business up and running while still being an employee. Everyone I know who has started up their own company has been in this situation. Some get their ideas fully researched before they go for it. Others are just convinced that the new venture will succeed and that’s that. Somewhat risky.

Do you have an idea for a business and just can’t seem to get anywhere with it?

What is stopping you?

If the answer is TV, newspapers and no time, then I’m afraid you need to look again at what is really motivating you and what you really want to do.

If, on the other hand, your business idea makes you wake up at night with the excitement of how it will pan out, then at least that will give you the push to make the time to do the research and get things moving.

Off for Easter Holidays for a week or so. All the best, 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

New delivery options

Mail order new delivery service.

Hello,

More new developments in our liqueur business this past week which will have a postive impact on our mail order business.

We have been using a delivery company for several years which has a depot near us. Locally, the staff are terrific. Sadly for them and us, their care and attention to looking after our goods does not extend to the other depots in the UK. What this means is that last November and December it seemed that we were constantly getting into difficulties with getting our mail orders delivered to the right address and arriving intact.

During January I investigated several Courier companies so that we could have an alternative service ready. The company that appears to have the best option for us and our customer is FedEx. So, from March onwards, I will be using FedEx for some of our orders and will see how they get on. There’s nothing like trying out a service to really work out how the process for delivering our orders actually works the way we and our customers expect.

Spring weather has arrived in Helensburgh – out for a bike run yesterday, the first of the year. Not long now until Easter and the real start of our year.

All the best. Roy Lewis

New multi-buy options coming soon on our webiste

New liqueur combinations soon to be featured on our website.

Hello,

Last year we saw a big increase in the number of customers ordering a selection of different liqueur brands in one order. This was the case even after free delivery was offered on orders over £18.

On our website, we do not currently cater for this type of order. that is all about to change as I am going to have a number of the most popular combinations available online and offline, for you to order. The multi-buy option will now comprise 4 x 50cl bottles and will include free delivery.

By ordering a multi-buy, you will not only get a good deal on the price but also be able to order your favorite liqueur for yourself and some for birthdays coming up. Or you could just keep them all for yourself!

If you have any ideas on offers we can set up that would be attractive to you, please get in touch and I will see what can be set up.

For 2010, the top offer asked for was the Liqueur Cakes. They were priced at £5 each or free if you ordered several bottles of liqueurs at full price.

Running up to Christmas, I gave away some Christmas Puddings to our top customers who were ordering over £100 worth of liqueurs.

Easter is not far away so look out for our Easter Special Deals on our website.

Kind regards,   Roy Lewis