Friday, May 23, 2008

don't loose profits

When the discussion comes to entrepreneurial profits, the business owners are often puzzled how they can increase net income. The real question first is how to use the whole potential of an existing business.

My favorite small business - beauty salon has recently bought artifitial tan station. They need to pay off the credit. But since it is working no announcement came. Of course, best clients know about this service. But not all of them. I asked them to put info note at the wall close to reception area. Three times. Today I will check if they managed that.

Inform! How your clients can buy if they don't know what to?

Sunday, May 11, 2008

pleasure

What MBA really gave to me is a pleasure of choosing a place to work. Not companies are choosing me, but I'm really choosing my future employer.

A pleasure that requires a great deal of responsibility, but it is still a pleasure.

Friday, May 9, 2008

entrepeneurial spirit

Today I had a talk with my friend. She is around 50 and she is an owner of small beauty salon close to my appartment in Ryazan. This lady is a very active person, she's about to open her own kid's store here, in Ryazan (they're remaking an appartment at ground floor to a shop now) and also is an active member of one of the churches (she coordinates also a rehab center project for ex-prisoners).

Yep, she has a typical entrepreneurial soul with a lot of personal time devoted to her business activities. She understands the necessity of establishing the contact with her clients, she has a high percentage of clients who visited her salon more than 1 time. She has a bit higher prices than most of the hairdressers close by, but still, she has her clients. She loves her staff, her girls treat her as a close elder friend. She has a great inner ennergy sourse, that helps her to make actions even if she doesn't know how to act.

Well, she does a lot of things successful entrepreneurs do. But she doesn't know her profit. Yes, she has all the figures for taxation purporses, but she never counts the difference between revenues and costs. She operates on a basis of cashflow - if she has enough cash to pay her rent and public utilities, she's happy. Sometimes she knows that she hasn't earn enough money to cover them in curret period, but she has some money left from previous one.

I asked her to provide me with all data about receips and expenditures to understand her profit picture. I hope understanding inflows and otflows of cash will help her to understand her situation better and improve profit. I also asked her to make minutes about all the small expenses left unaccounted - at least this will give me a full picture to start my recommendations for improvements.

I will keep an eye on this company.

Monday, May 5, 2008

marketing essence

Marketing essence from Seth Godin:

Make big promises; overdeliver.


Mistakes:
- Making too big promises - unrealistic.
- Making not enough promises - not attractive.
- Deliver less than promised.

Friday, May 2, 2008

self promotion

Seth Godin's post about different approaches of self promotion: me-centric vs. client/customer/audience centric.

I published a book so I need you to read it
vs.
There’s something you need to read, so I wrote about it.