Do you lack business understanding?

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Business coaching Brisbane

If only business was as simple as buying at one price and selling at another to make a profit. It should be that, but most overcomplicate it due to lack of understanding. Nevertheless, it is this blissfully simplistic notion that will seduce you and many other new entrants in launching a business enterprise, blind to the reality of what lies ahead and riding high on the dream of wealth and riches.

It is easy not to pay sufficient attention to the customer and it is even easier to avoid some of the more mind-numbing administration issues such as finance, inventory, cash flow, leasing, employment, industrial issues, occupational health & safety, compliance, licensing conditions, taxation and superannuation. Such avoidance and neglect can quickly unravel a promising enterprise.

Few new entrants fully understand what operating a business really means and it is almost impossible to gain such an appreciation until you have stood by the cash register and lived on nothing else but the sales you make. A University degree will not provide a true perspective, only experience from time served in business can do that.

I guess that is why Winston Churchill said that “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”.

For all your professional business coaching Brisbane needs call Gary on 0408 756 531

No planning or priorities

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Business planning Australia

A new business enterprise that is poorly planned and starts badly will usually get worse. The saying “time heals all wounds” is a truth only when the wound is attended to. If the wound is neglected, it can worsen over time. Even if you plan your business well from the start, it can go stale over time.

Staleness can occur when you get a little too comfortable and fail to notice that the market environment has changed and you haven’t kept up. Your products and services that were in demand a year ago might now be edging towards obsolescence, but obsolescence is not an overnight event. It is a creeping adversary that is detected only by your constant vigilance, regular review of your goals and resetting your priorities.

For all your professional business planning Australia needs call Gary on 0408 756 531

In business … or buying yourself a job?

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Business planning Australia

You have been recently employed and now you decide to go into business merely to buy yourself a job.  Nothing really changes except you have ditched the old boss and you are free to do as you wish. 

Not only are you the boss, you are probably the only employee – well someone has to do the work!  Unfortunately, it is likely that you are the boss in name only because the employee mindset rarely changes overnight. 

Even though there is a new boss sitting in the big comfy chair, your thinking is still that of an employee.  Old work habits and employee thinking die hard.

If this is you, then expect to struggle unless you have a fast change of mindset.  Not only do you still think like an employee, you now also lack the resources that your old boss once provided and you don’t receive the guaranteed weekly pay packet as you did in the past, even in those weeks when you didn’t earn it. 

Back then you were a small cog in a big wheel, even if you were called ‘a manager’.  Now you have to be the whole wheel as well as the engine that drives it.  It’s not an easy transition to make.

The tasks that you once performed and mistakenly believed to be central to your former employer’s profit will probably not make you a cent in your own business.  Filling up your day with non-core activity will not make you a profit now. 

You must come to the rapid realisation that only ‘high payoff’ or ‘profit’ activities related to ‘customer demand’ will make you money and you need to work out what they are.

You could be a dangerous liability to your new business if you don’t have a complete change of mind and work ethic. 

Until next time

Gary

For trusted and respected business planning in Australia call 0408 756 531

Are you a supply pusher?

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Business management tips Australia

It can be a very costly mistake to assume what customers want.  The smart strategy is to first find out what the needs are and then to set about finding a solution to satisfy it.  It is easy to fall into the trap of being a ‘supply pusher’, where you peddle what you have available to sell instead of responding to what customers actually want.

You wouldn’t be the first to launch into business with what you believe to be a good idea and then focus most of your thinking on the technical side of your product or service offering.  It is common to do everything else but make sales, believing that sales will just magically appear.

Unless you have some serious traction and some supporting promotion, it is a mistake to take for granted that simply by opening the doors for business, customers will magically seek you out and rush to buy.  This rarely happens!  The ‘build it and they will come!’ fantasy may have worked in the movie ‘Field of Dreams’, but it rarely works in practice.

Until next time

Gary

For more business management tips read Customers compete to buy, business should allow them

Internet marketing goes mobile

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Business building Australia

As mobile browsers become standard on future mobile phones, it is estimated that in three years, more people will access the internet through their mobile phones. A mobile website is typically less expensive to develop and it can reach more end users with one site than multiple applications. 

A mobile website will be a must for all internet marketers.  It will offer higher returns on investment than traditional channels such as opening a new brick-and-mortar store.  

This is because consumers are spending increasing amounts of time each day on the mobile web and the larger online companies (e.g. Amazon and eBay) are generating massive revenues through their mobile channels.

A mobile website is ideal for mobile shopping.  Already it is faster to scan a barcode, check a QR code or check a mobile website for product information than it is to ask a shop assistant.

More retailers will turn to platform-specific smartphone apps to deliver enhanced experiences and push marketing communications (e.g. coupons) based on the customer’s current location and personal preferences.

Until next time!

Gary

Serious financial indigestion for a sinking food business

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Top business consultancy Australia 0408 756 531

It is frustrating to sit by and watch a perfectly good business drown in debt.  That is the situation for a two-generation family food business in Queensland.  The first generation owner of the company, who has been a friend for years, would dearly like my help as I have helped many businesses in similar circumstances in the past. 

As co-founder and owner of the underlying property, there is much to lose because the real property assets secure the bank loans.  The eldest offspring is the CEO and with one residential property and a salary on the line, all help is refused.  I guess it’s the same old story of misplaced pride and family responsibility. 

Family members occupy all key positions.  None has any form of business related qualification and no experience outside the company.  They are all trying their hardest but they simply don’t know what they don’t know!   They need specialist help.

When your closest competitors are the two largest supermarket power houses in Australia, a seasoned team of retail food professionals is required. 

This business like many other family businesses is passively managed.  It is there simply to provide a living for the family members.  It follows many of the same management practices that the first generation put in place 50 years ago.

The real problems began when company over-borrowed before the GFC to fund an ambitious expansion.  The plan was to enter the wholesale food business. 

All that really happened was that their interest expense and inventory costs rose sharply.  With skinny wholesale margins, it didn’t make enough of a difference to overall sales revenue.

Since then, relentless competition, falling sales and decreasing asset values mean that the value of the debt package now exceeds the value of the business.  The business is in real trouble!

The very conveniently located retail shop / land package is being sold to reduce debt.  There goes the only bright spot on the revenue horizon.  A new retail operation will be spawned out of the company’s storage facility in the middle of an industrial area.  Wow!  That’s a big call.

I may eventually get a desperate call to help but that will be after the family implements its own strategies and it will be all too late.  If history is any guide, I will be going in mere days ahead of the receivers. 

Gary Weigh & Associates – top business consultancy Australia – no BS advice!

Don’t be the riches to rags business story

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For all the business planning Australia needs!

Moving on from a death in the immediate family is very difficult.  Grief is hard enough to deal with, but poverty is even harder. 

It is very easy for a grieving family to be suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into poverty upon the death of the family breadwinner.  That applies to business owners too.

The death of a business owner can have precisely those consequences.  It can spell the death of the business and introduce a lifetime of hardship for the family left behind.

“She won’t be right mate!” if you, the former breadwinner, find yourself having a heart attack and you suddenly become a ghost. 

The spouse and kids are not going to be too impressed that they still have to repay the loan you mortgaged the house for; especially when they have no income.

Oh you think the business will still provide for them?  That was then … when you were alive and well, working your magic.  The reality when you are dead is much different. 

The financial reality is even worse if you don’t die and find yourself still alive, battling a critical illness or insidious disease and totally dependent on your family. 

Now they have to look after you and earn income as well!

Your life can turn to emotional and financial turmoil in an instant.  You can go from breadwinner to heavy financial baggage in one unfortunate health event!

So don’t be selfish!  Change the future for your business family while you still can! 

Build succession and estate planning into your business planning.  Australia does have a death tax.  It is now called capital gains tax.

Until next time!

Gary

For all your business planning in australia call Gary direct on 0408 756 531

Great article here 10 tips for the girst time business owner

Don’t let your business die with you

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Gary Weigh

Despite your best intentions, your business could die with you.  The asset you worked all your life to build for yourself and your family; your jewel in the family crown and your ultimate retirement asset, could be dashed against the rocks when you die.

Business succession is not a matter of whispering your deathbed instructions to your first born eldest child.  If you believe that, you watch too many Godfather movies.

Here is a brief outline of reality for the future of your business if you die whilst still the owner or a part owner.

  • Firstly, the beneficiary who inherits your business could be lacking any relevant knowledge and experience and could be the worst thing that ever happened to your business besides losing you.
  • Secondly, the beneficiary you choose in your Will might be happy doing other things and not the least bit interested in your business (despite what they say to your face).
  • Thirdly, any co-owners who survive you in the business are not going to be too pleased about suddenly being in business with a perfect stranger.  It was never their expectation that you would be replaced involuntarily by your spouse, friend or family member, who could turn out to be disinterested, lazy and / or inept (and yet still draw an income).
  • Lastly, and depending on the timing of your demise, the beneficiary you choose may inherit more debts than assets from you.  Your bank won’t care if you’re dead; they will still want their loans repaid; and upon your death, they will very likely want them repaid in full immediately.

Having no succession plan even for a simple business structure, is just plain dumb!

It is a much smarter decision to pre-arrange the passing on of your business and the repayment of any outstanding business debts in advance, while you are alive and well.

That way, your business goes to a good home at the right price without being a burden on spouse, friends or family.  Your family is looked after because they receive fair value upon your death from a pre-arranged sale.

For more reading about business planning Australia, read The First Rule of planning

Until next time!

Gary

Check out my other very popular site Aikido secrets to Calm Success

Business planning Australia – who gets your business when you die

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Gary Weigh

At Gary Weigh & Associates, we are business planning Australia!   That includes the all important and often forgotten issue of succession.  The answer to succession is not simple but the more you plan the simpler it will be.

If you own your business personally as a sole trader, it can be left to a beneficiary of your choice in your Will.  If you are a partner in a partnership with no partnership agreement, the partnership is automatically dissolved and your share can also be passed to your Estate via your Will.

If your business trades as a company, you are not the owner of the business assets and liabilities; your company is.  So you can’t leave the business directly to a beneficiary via your Will.  However, as owner of the company, your shares in the company are personally owned and can therefore the company (and everything in it) can be left to a beneficiary of your choice in your Will.

Your ownership interest in a fixed trust can also be passed to your Estate via your Will, in much the same way as a company, but the succession of a discretionary trust can’t.  It must be dealt with in the trust deed.

So the succession of most simple business structures looks very straight forward, doesn’t it?  However, it is not straight forward and here’s why!

The problem lies not so much in the passing of your business but in the receiving!  The critical issue is who will receive ownership via your Will when you die.   Not everyone is a willing or competent beneficiary.

Despite what they might have said to your face, spouse, friends and family may not want to follow in your footsteps, or may be incapable.  It is for this reason that a business often dies with its owner.

I will let you in on a secret to an alternative and much smarter business succession strategy.  This will be coming up over the next 2 installments of business planning Australia.

For more on business planning Australia read A challenge is looming for financial advisers

Until next time!

Gary

Learn The importance of a calm positive mind in business.  Visit my very popular Aikido Secrets website!!

IP cameras focus on better customer understanding

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Business management tips

Understanding your customer is paramount and technology is beginning to play a bigger part in this throughout the retail sector.  For business owners looking for business management tips to improve customer targeting skills, and the bolster the bottom line, it is worth taking a look at the uses of IP cameras.

An IP (Internet Protocol) camera is not just a camera.  It is also a computer processor and web server. This combination of technologies makes it possible to record images, compress them and transmit them in IP network or to the Internet.

Each camera has its own IP address and is connected directly to LAN (Local Area Network) or Internet.  Each camera can work completely independently.

The predominant use of IP cameras to date has been that of surveillance and security.  However, they can also be used in retail environments to monitor selected products or aisles and records shopper behavior.

This information can be used to identify barriers to sale or missed sales opportunities for both retailers and product manufacturers.

IP cameras can assist can be used to monitor shopping routes, the amount of time shoppers spend in shopping precincts, in front of specific products, or particular shop aisles.

They can also be used to assess the direction in which a store is walked through, most and least frequented areas, how people browse shelves or how they queue at checkouts.

This ‘tracking’ and ‘dwelling’ information can be displayed to store managers in the form of digital maps.  These help store owners to increase their understanding of the way customers behave and think.

For more business management tips read The mobile phone website revolution is just beginning

Until next time!

Gary