3 Ways to Grow your Business

As a former ‘banker’ and marketing student, what follows is probably the best practical information on how to grow your business. It is just good common sense, neatly packaged, and yet brilliant. Now to turn this into practice is much harderr but I think if we concentrated on one of these each month, we’d see huge results in our business turnover. I picked this up from a guy called Chris Cardell who picked it up from someone else:

http://www.squidoo.com/3waystogrow

Providential entrepreneurialism

From Goethe: “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too and a whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”

Picked this up from an article I read on YoSushi founder Simon Woodroffe. It speaks to me of God’s general will and freedom he gives us. To me the argument for specific will is dangerous (perhaps paralyzing) if you are risk adverse and/or starting a business. At some point you need to just take the plunge. Starting a business is not for the faint hearted.

With planning, wise counsel, prayer, seeking the Holy Spirit’s direction in community & alone, knowing your character and motivation, assessing your capacity, gaining knowledge, some educated risk, passion, etc. I think God will be like a breeze in your sails, directing you as necessary. Sometimes storms come but he still is the safe harbour and the breeze. For in Him we live and move and have our being.

Motivation & Character

It has been a while since I posted – 8 months of full on business start up is a lot! Over the past few months as things have settled, and the business seems to be thriving and moving on its own more and more, I’ve turned my attention toward motivation and character. This comes from some excerpts I have read by Dee Hock, former CEO of VISA International. From his writings (blog I took this from below) he states:

“Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities.”

I want to consider motivation & character more and more in my work and leading/direction of others. Integrity can be considered during an interview process (targeted selection questions) but I believe is really borne out over time by observing people; thus a hiring decision is always a risk in that you need to wait to see their integrity.

I’ve had some success with this reorientation but I have also found that when you start to address these things with others, you disturb their equilibrium. The opposite is so en-grained in our thinking and thus working – that knowledge and experience are paramount in hiring and promoting. One thing we can do as leaders/business owners to change this is to be up front about our way of thinking & leading – that we want to highlight and constantly work at the integrity, motivation and character of the team member. Putting this upfront may help avoid a poor hiring decision, trying to work through this later (which is hard but can be successful) or may help you find the perfect match.

This assessment and reordering begins with us knowing our own motivation and character (and our dark side issues) and then living that out in ourselves and our leadership of others (integrity:consistency of action, values, principles). Let us go disturb some equilibrium through God’s Spirit and for the glory of God the Father as we walk as disciples of Christ!

You can read a good post about more of this here.

Healthy ambition

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

In my case, the first question I would be asked is ‘what do you do?’ and once I explained that I worked with  a church that pretty much ended the conversation; people were hard toward the church and that meant relationships if they started, did so with a bit of suspicion of my motive or that I was a nutter. The problem for many workplace Christians in a post-Christian society is that their faith would not even hit the radar screen for their colleagues. Their colleagues would see them acting as anyone else with little of the salt & light to indicate that something was different about them; mainly that they were a Christ follower and this made a difference. If they did act in godly ways, the culture is so far removed and/or people are so ‘good’ themselves, there is little to stand out other than they are a nice person. I think the key for me now as I enter the workplace is that my work wins the respect of outsiders. Through honesty, through loving words, doing things in a different (godly) way, people would perhaps see that the motive or driving force behind me is not my own ways, but God ways. The ways of someone who follows the risen Lord.

 

It doesn’t hurt to ask

I’m learning that if you ask, you may get what you want. Minimally, you’ll get valuable insight/information that will help you in your decisions. On the other hand, you may get the critical information or answer you want to hear. For example, I am considering advertising in a consumer trade magazine. Because all advertising is negotiable (one advertiser proactively offered me a advert for £5000 when it would normally be £32,000!), you should rarely pay full price. This trade mag said no when I asked for a 3 for 2 offer; as they don’t do that as it would be unfair to existing advertisers. So I called an advertiser in the magazine to find out their experience and to help me decide if I should advertise in the mag. They don’t get a discount, which frustrates them, and they believe there are OTHER magazines that are better. She went on to tell me of those magazines – which I didn’t know – and to remind me of a reason for advertising. She indicated they advertise for brand awareness in this trade mag and recognise this is all they receive. Being a new player, I need to determine if it is worth advertising at full price for brand awareness at this stage. I want to new customers and trying to ‘peel’ off someone elses loyal customers is hard; unless they are in your store (which shows they are willing to be a customer). In the end the phone call was very helpful as it reminded me of some things and taught me some things. It doesn’t hurt to ask!

Business Update

I received word last week that the premises would not be ready in June and they were hesitant to give me a date. I was in the shop twice in the past two weeks and I am really encouraged about the progress. I asked the project manager for us to push ahead with the lease negotiations so we could be ready for when the turnover does happen (I think it will come very quickly and/or without much notice). I’m progressing with quotes for shop fitting, continuing to order inventory, and arranging for advertising. This week I will be focusing on detailing the shop fitting requirements, completing ongoing paperwork for VAT & corporate tax, and ensuring that other items are just lined up for us as we approach a date for entry.

Proverbs 26:10 & 27:23 – Godly hiring

I’m not sure what an appropriate title for this post should be. I’m wrestling with hiring decisions and want to make sure that I am not hiring out of merely need for the business but also taking into account the potential employees gifts/skills, personality/fit for the work, motivations, integrity, etc. I have centred on two verses that are keeping me mindful.

First, I think the employee and employee relationship is abused. The employer will sometimes hire the person merely on perceived skill as they are desparate for someone to fill the ’spot’. They don’t take into considertation many factors that might make the hiring decision a poor one. For example, the person’s motivation is critical. When I worked at Citibank a person told me they really never wanted to do customer service work by telephone - the job they were applying for! However, the pay and benefits were what they needed as their child needed a heart transplant. Was this a sufficient or appropriate motivation for the work? To hire them? They hated the work, needed it though, but would they last? Was this what they were made to do?

Second, I think the job application & interview process doesn’t do enough to determine someone’s gifting and purpose. Application forms ask for facts and employers hire based on experience & skills that seem to match with their needs. But what if the person was designed for something else? What if they were not suitable for the job but capable of doing it? We need to do more to get at the person’s purpose and proceed carefully to find an appropriate job match. Employers needs to help employees get at their purpose through the interview process. But this takes time and this means money. However, hiring the wrong person can be a costly mistake. Is it not the employers failure then if they took the easy road and the person fails to thrive in their position? Read about Paul Potts for someone who took time to discover his purpose in a unique way: http://www.paulpottsuk.com/article/biography. How could he have been redirected or encouraged to pursue his gifting?

Two verses have helped me wrestle with some hiring decisions lately and I share them here ~ Proverbs 26:10 & 27:23.

Prov. 26:10 – Like an archer who wounds at random
       is one who hires a fool or any passer-by.

Prov. 27:23 – Be sure you know the condition of your flocks,
       give careful attention to your herds;

Paperwork

I have a bit of free time in the morning and the evening since my wife is away so I thought I would catch up on paperwork -VAT enquiries by HMRC, billing dispute for a cancelled service, tracking expenses, etc. I had done this last week as I needed to clean up my desk for some guests who would be staying in my office on the futon. It took me about 30 minutes to do all the paperwork so that is pretty good. However, there are times through this week I have filed stuff, responded, or organised my paperwork so the amount of time spent on this task is likely more. It is critical to keep on this task, develop a system of recording and filing, and use technology. For example, I need to track the funding of the business as I have funds in both USD$ & GBP£ and in two different accounts at the moment. The reason for this is I need to pay many suppliers in dollars so it is not beneficial to move the funds o the UK and incur commissions/fees and currency conversion expenses. However, I need to make sure that the funds are carefully accounted for. By keeping track of each wire payment (expense) with each transaction, it takes me about 5 minutes to record the item in a spreadsheet. This morning within a couple minutes I was able to reconcile the balance of the account to my spreadsheet and have the confidence I’m doing a ‘good job’. If I hadn’t been doing this all along I think I would be confused, could loose track of payments, and run afoul. On top of my inbox is a letter from HMRC indicating they are going to call me proactively to discuss VAT since I am newly registered. It is always a good thing to have your records prepared when you get a call from the ‘tax man’!

Advertising

I have been looking into the various options for advertising – magazines, newspapers, billboards, transport, etc. and something I have learned during the process is that MOST advertising rates are negotiable. Some options are so popular or competitive that you won’t even be able to negotiate as space or placement is at a premium. However, MANY options are not this way and requesting a discount, even being proactively offered a discount is customary. A month ago I was offered a 3 for 2 offer and since then every other advertiser that has a similar offering and market, I have requested the same. They have all said yes. This week if I followed the ‘rate card’ for a specific advertising vehicle, I would have paid £32,500 for the rest of the year. They came to me and offered it for £5000! I still don’t want the method as I think it not the best use of advertising  but it still highlights the savings that can be had if you ask or the over-inflated prices of advertising!

Lease Negotiations

We are in the midst of negotiating a lease. For me this is a particularly stressful period as it tests my patience. I want things my way. I want to dictate what happens. I’m grateful for our solicitor who is more objective and can pursue my interests with grace, persistence and authority. My brother is a solicitor and I know all the jokes about them and the disdain people have for their profession. However, I think this is unfair and really our uncomfortableness of the work they need to do. With our lease negotiations, our solicitor has been diligent in obtaining information so that he protects our interests. This is a good thing and I’m afraid if I did this, I’d come across as aggressive and impatient.

Here is a true Proverb 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”