I have also written a blog on why you should use a Business Consultant but in that blog it does not break down the job enough so hence my motivation for creating this series of blogs, breaking down the job, how and why I do things, to give potential clients the understanding of what a Small Business Consultant and more specifically myself does and how these areas may relate to their business.

Some of the following subjects will look at the following:

• Identifying potential clients and building a strong relationship.
• Finding out more about the clients business.
• Conducting SWOT analysis on different aspects of the business.
• Identifying the clients unique selling points.
• Identifying the clients ultimate goal for the business and developing a strategy to achieve it.
• Overcoming obstacles along the way.
• Achieving success – the end of a journey or the start of something new.

This series will be published over the next 4 weeks, I hope you enjoy the insight

I’m going to stick my neck out on the proverbial chopping block and say that you will have positive responses to all these questions except the last, the pay, thus we break the greatest assumption that money buys happiness in the work place.

Let me give you a couple of example of what I’m trying to get at; other than what I am doing now, my best job was when I was 17 years old, I worked for a sports retailer on a government scheme designed to get school leavers into work, the money was terrible (I was on 50 pence (UK) an hour even in that day it was very poor, so why do I look on it with fondness?

Firstly I had a great manager, Andy Croney, I still remember his name, he was good at managing the store but he kept the atmosphere a happy one, I received a lot of training both in sales and product knowledge which allowed me to develop very quickly, we had a small team but a great team, the dynamics worked well between us which flowed into a good social group out of work.  My manager left and his replacement Kenny Donaldson took up where Andy left off and continued in a similar management style, Kenny was a bit more adventurous in some of his methods of stock management which very much rubbed off on me, because of my rate of development Kenny shortlisted me for management training (age 18), I was accepted and within a year was managing my first store.

One of the worst jobs I had was my previous one, the pay was obviously significantly better, but there was no personal development, my manager was never around to pass on his wisdom and advice, I was left to my own devices in an office which surrounded me with staff that had been there for years and never stopped complaining, my bonuses were good but it did nothing to stop me feeling insecure and unhappy in my job.

When it comes to staff it is essential that the business owner of manager understands what motivates in and outside

Toys motivate me, give me this over a cash bonus any day!!

work, this information can be used to devise incentives, it may be used to help develop them further within the business, it will lead to a happier work place, increased sales and a lower staff turnover thus costs to the business.

Let me be very clear about something, the manager or business owner that thinks giving a staff a pay rise is the best way to motivate them, is wrong, a pay rise is only good for about one month, why, because the vast majority of us adjust our life style to suit our means and once that adjustment has been made the novelty of the pay rise disappears.

In my experience the best way to keep your staff motivated is to identify what makes them tick, is it money, do they have a specific interest, do they want rise through the ranks in your company, maybe they are about to buy a house (stability of job may be the key motivator), may be they are about to start a family (flexible hours may be their key motivator), what ever it is there is a duty to all managers and business owners to find out what they key motivator is.  Once it is identified then training programs, incentive schemes, working hours and general work conditions can be refined to ensure your staff are happy and motivated and most importantly loyal.

If anything in this article concerns your business please contact me or leave a comment below.

….. Politely declining the offer of trying this ab work out for Bruce Lee (now there’s a flash from the past) I explain I’m feeling a bit queasy, he sits me down gets me more water then puts this entire workout to paper just in case I might forget, now you might be thinking the worst is over until I come back tomorrow, well that’s what I thought but boy was I wrong .

Generally I like to think I have an average level of fitness, I’m never going to win a Triathlon but I am certainly fit enough to do what I need to do in a day without breaking sweat, except this day.  I get home wake my wife up (by generally making lots of noise rather than bringing her breakfast in bed!) and stumble into the shower.  Well bugger me, how hard does it need to be to wash my hair, I’m trying to rub shampoo into my flowing locks when both my arms start shaking uncontrollably and the shoulders feel as if they are about to explode, I have to resort to holding one elbow about head height so that the hand attached to the arm of the same elbow can rub the shampoo in and then help to rinse it off, what have I been turned into and I keep saying to myself, I paid $150 for this, they definitely seen me coming.

Anyway I survive the shower, have a plate of cereal and some orange and off I go to work, the rest of the day was just another day at the office but by the end of the day I found it harder and harder to get up and down the stairs by the time I get back home I’m starting to wall like the proverbial old man.  Glad to crawl into bed, I’m thinking a good nights sleep and I’ll be in the gym again tomorrow…..

6.15am the alarm goes off, I turn to switch it off and there is a very uncomfortable feeling shooting through my legs and as I try to get up my legs have already decided to sleep in, they each feel the same weight as that barbell Jamie had me squatting yesterday.  After an hour and a half of moaning and groaning I manage to have a shower and breakfast with the major hurdle of getting my socks on (I’m convinced the training yesterday made my arms shrink or maybe my legs grow longer) taking most of that time.  I have to say it wasn’t all doom and gloom, certainly for Kirsty she thought it was very funny and found the whole episode highly amusing!!

Should be free with every Gym Membership!!!

It happened on this day I had to do a bit of traveling, the first leg of the journey took 1.5hrs and by the time I got to my destination I was in trouble, I can’t remember the last time my body was in this state but when I tried to get out of the car I had to pick my legs up and swing them out one at a time, all I needed was a seat that swivels and then tips so I could roll out and that was the way the rest of the day went.  I swear I could have gotten away with parking in the disabled areas!!

For three more days I had to wait before my body came back to normal, five days in total, hell at this rate I’ll only need to go to the gym once a week, but I don’t think it will do anything for a shrinking belly!!!

I guess if I have learnt anything from this experience it is that someone will pay whatever they to and do stupid things if they are motivated enough and of course I have learnt the limits of my body in the gym!!  A week later doing only have the routine each morning I have managed to survive so here’s hoping the body is over the worst, and here’s hoping the belly starts shrinking!!

Now let me explain something, it’s not that I’m competative by nature (friends wipe that smirk off your faces!) but my gorgeous wife is pregnant and in the early days of the pregnancy she only put on a small amount of weight and very little on the tummy; being the supportive husband that I am I felt the need to go out in sympathy with her and grow my own tummy.

The problem I was having was I was winning the race, couldn’t believe how easy it was, hold up on the excercise add a chippy once a week and add the odd Big Bikki (ginger crunch flavour – hmmm yum!) most working days and wella 10kgs later I over take Kirsty (by 8kg’s).  To stop these alternative thoughts you may be having, I am no Thomas Beatie (truth be said, Thomas Beatie really isn’t Thomas Beatie – for those of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, google the name!!) but I was starting to look like it.

Being in my late 30’s and obviously thinking about having a mid life crisis (not that I’m any where near my mid life of course!!) it started getting to me that I could no longer fit into my work trousers, I looked like one of them tourists with their bum bag around their waste and my shirt buttons are starting to strain so having proved my point that I can win anything if I put my mind to it I phoned up my friendly council gym, Pioneer Leisure Centre and booked one hour with an instructor to give me a weight loss program.

Having blamed my work for not getting to the gym in the early evening and being freshly motivated I booked this appointment for 6.30am as this was going to be my new training time I drive the two minutes to the gym (come on, what do you mean lazy, I need my energy for the work out!!) and I am met by Jamie, towering head and shoulders over me and very obviously an active person waiting patiently to put me through my paces.  Being the Scottish individual that I am, I went in their to get as much out of the session as I could, after all I had just paid a small fortune for the next 3 months, at this point all I’ll say is “be careful what you wish for!!”.

What a site at 6.30am !!!

Having asked me whether I prefer weights or cardio machines and my answer being weights, he puts me on a cardio exercise program with not an exercise bicycle or cross trainer in site and he appeared to be excited at the prospect (I’m sure all personal trainers are reincarnated Drill Sergeant’s).  So the exercise begins, first off Fat Man Chin Up’s a very PC term for an exercise that is like a reverse bench press followed immediately by push ups until failure and let me tell you failure inevitably ends up with your face planted in the floor, great look!!  This then is followed swiftly by squats and lunges, at this point the cardio has kicked in, gone into over drive, my heart is looking for a way to get home with out me and my lungs seem to think they need to be twice the size ……………….. bugger me I’m only half way through!!!

At this point Jamie is looking incredibly pleased with himself, I am starting to see how it is that he can get up at this awful time of the day, I would to if I could watch over weight 30 somethings thinking they are 20 somethings try to look as if they can cope with what you’re throwing at them (hmm maybe I was a Drill Sergeant in a past life).  Anyway I degress, off now to punish the shoulders, then go back to squats (no weight, except my weight) mixed with step ups on a rather large step, bugger me here’s my heart again frantically trying to escape but this time my lungs have given up the ghost and are following my heart out the door, then Jamie says “what do you normaly do for your abs” christ I thought, the worst is still to come.  I take a minute to run off to the water fountain to give myself a well earned rest just to come back to Jamie lying on the floor holding a barbell arms extended (as if he was half way through a bench press) when he lifts his feet off the ground and starts dropping his legs to the side, when I’m watching this I am thinking of one thing only will I spew over him or run off to the toilets, I wasn’t feeling flash at all!!!

Politely declining the offer of trying this ab work out for Bruce Lee (now there’s a flash from the past) I explain I’m feeling a bit queasy, he sits me down gets me more water then puts this entire workout to paper just in case I might forget, now you might be thinking the worst is over until I come back tomorrow, well that’s what I thought but boy was I wrong ………..

The second part of this little yarn will be published next week see you then!!

The place to be found

First thing I did was a Google search for web designers in Christchurch, I looked at only the companies on the first page (my reasoning is if a web design company can’t get themselves on page one how are they going to market my web site) I decided on three companies that I liked their work and dropped them all an email asking them to call me to discuss my idea further, this is what happened.

The first company phoned me first thing in the morning I explained what I wanted, they seemed happy to help so we set up a meeting later that day.

The second company sent me an email asking for more information, I never got back to them as I requested they call me to discuss, it was just too much information to discuss in an email.

The third company called me later in the day, they were also interested in helping me and this person also suggested doing things slightly differently, I was intrigued!!

I met a nice young lady from the first company, she sat me down and went over what I wanted, explained that the cost to develop this web site might be more than I anticipated but she would send me a quote through in the next day or so.  I left thinking I was taking on something bigger than Ben Hur!!

The third company I met with listened to what I wanted to achieve and then suggested something else that I had not thought of but would still reach my goal but it also had the potential to surpass anything I had originally planned for.  After a two hour conversation with the owner of the business I had already made up my mind that this company was the company that was going to design my site, I can only assume it is working otherwise you would not be reading this now.

My point with this little story is, the company that got the business was the one that paid attention to their product, their site looked great and was easy to find, secondly they made me feel special (I talked to the owner of the business not some young buck just out of college) and thirdly took my idea and developed alternatives for me to think about, they went the extra mile.  That is what makes a successful business.

Recently I came across a business where the owner really was questioning the value of the services their business was providing and how much they should be charging for them, when they asked their customers about their thoughts on this, most of them thought they didn’t charge enough!!

This particular business had no clear product range which made it hard for the business owner to target specific markets and price accordingly and of course with no clear markets to target it made it very difficult to do any form of promotion.

In a situation like this, what is the solution; using historical data on prievious work completed and the amount charged for each of the jobs the product mix can be developed.  Once this is done, gaps in the product line can be identified and addressed (if viable) and a pricing structured built around it.  With this information the business can then be proactive in promoting the full range of products to the desired market(s).

Of course any business will have to look internally to ensure the people were in place to cope with any increase in business due to any promotions put in place, but once this was done, the business owner will be able to, with confidence, hit their choosen markets running knowing that the increased business coming their way would not put the business under excessive pressure leading to an adverse effect on the quality of their product.

With this particular example it is easy to see how the principals fo the Marketing Mix can help any business.

If you have been following the series, I would appreciate any feedback, good bad or indifferent regarding the usefulness and quality of the information

If you have any questions regarding anything in this or any other blog please feel free to contact me or leave your comments below.

Over the years the biggest complaints I hear from retailer’s is “bloody staff they can’t sell for shit, my branch never hits it’s targets” or “can’t remember the last time I had a holiday, there’s no way I’d leave this lot to themselves”, well who’s to blame, the staff, I think not, the retailer more often than not is to blame for their staffing woes.

A well trained and motivated staff will do more to sell your goods and you retail company than many advertising platforms could, why, because positive word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising you can get and something every retailer should strive for.  It makes sense then to ensure you employ the right person for the job, here are some questions you should be asking yourself when you are about to recruit:

• What job specification am I trying to fulfill?
• What type of person is best suited to this role (think about the job and how they will fit in with the team)?
• Do I require someone with experience to help my store?
• Will I train this person from scratch, thus moulding them to the way I do things?
• Who will do the training if it is required and can the branch afford the time to do this?
• What can I afford to spend on a salary? (this will influence whether you try and find someone with experience or not).
• What parameters will I use to ensure the person I hire can fulfill the position (now that employers have a 3month window to try new employees this is very important).
• Longer term can I expect this employee to take the reigns when I am not there (future proof your staffing)

Money or recognition, what motivates you?

As a retailer you will never find someone that can do the job as well and consistently as you, why, because they do not get the same rewards and do not have the same motivation as you do but you can keep them motivated and not necessarily by throwing more money at them.  The trick is to find out what makes them tick, what is it that motivates your staff to get out of bed in the morning, what are there interests outside work?  If you want more out of your staff it is often easier to do this by rewarding them for good performance with something they really want whether that be a long weekend (not part of their normal holiday entitlement) or a new cell phone or an Xbox game!!

In retail I appreciate this is not that easy, especially if you have multiple branches but I urge you still to think about this, you may be able to pull off something say on the run up to Christmas!!   Rewards are a great way to motivate short term but to keep your employees longer term you should have a personal growth plan, continue to up skill your employees, whether in house or externally it really doesn’t matter as long as your employees feel they are improving.  Let them no how they are progressing, conduct regular appraisals making sure that the communication is two way (more about this in a future blog), use this process not just to highlight their strengths and talk about how to improve on their weaknesses but also use it for feed back about the store as a whole, employees have lots of great ideas to help the business they work for, they often just need an ear to listen to them.

Proper planning will lead to a well motivated team which in turn will give your business great walking and talking billboards and an effective sales team.

If this is of any interest to your business pleasefeel free to contact me or leave your comments below.

Sales Promotion: There is one phrase that has stuck with me from the very first month I worked in retail and my manager at the time was telling me about the basic techniques in merchandising his imortal words were “eye level is buy level”.  His reasoning was that shoppers generally are lazy people, if items don’t stand out or are not staring them in the face then they wont see it, obviously you can’t have everything at eye level but a good manager will be able to prioritise which products would benefit the most in that position whilst still complementing the overall look of the store.

Which one stands out??

In a shop full of products how do you make a specific product stand out, for me, it was always keep it simple, if it was a single product then the “eye level is buy level” rule applied, get it under the customers nose, if you have sales literature to go with it even better, make sure it is in a prominent are within the store with maximum foot flow passing it, if you have windows, get the product in the window.  If there is a whole range of new products, then the “eye level is buy level” will not fit the bill so why not dedicate a whole wall to them or put them on stands towards the front of your store so as your customers come into the store so they trip over them, again, get them in the windows if you have them.  All this is common sense, why do I need to be spelling this out, in my experience it is too easy for a manager to over look the basics, especially if they are being inundated with stock from head office several times a week.  This is just a reminder, stand back, look at your store with customer eyes, what stands out, does it look good, is your store conveying the message that you want to convey?

Personal Selling: How good are your staff at selling your products, do they have enough product knowledge, when was the last time they had sales training, have they had sales training, do they no the importance of good customer service, do they practice good customer service?  Lots of questions and questions that every store manager should aask them selves.  Every store manager should also be a trainer to ensure their staff have to tools to sell the products confidently.  In the last of this series of blogs the last principal is people in this blog I cover off staff in a lot more detail.  Suffice to say, without them in most retail environments you will never be able to maximise your sales.

If you have any questions regarding anything in this article feel free to contact me or post your comments below.

Recently I required a job to be completed which, once up and running, would have a monthly service charge, the company sent out a proposal document to me after our intitial discussions, being happy with the proposal I accepted it and the work begin.  Well through the project we were discussing the monthly service fee and I was confirming that I had read the propsal properly and the on going charges would be $50.00 per month, to which the person providing the service replied “no, we’re only charging you $10.00 per month as that was what I told you during our intitial discussions” you can imagine my surprise, pleasant as it was this person had just lost $480.00 per year!!  No that does not seem like a lot but if I put that in percentage terms this company is losing 80% of it’s advertised revenue, how many businesses can afford to do that long term?

The point I am trying to get across here is, not only do you have to price you products or services properly, you have to have confidence in that price and stick to it, if you have done your home work your price should not be a big barrier for your clients.

So how do you set your pricing, what should you take into consideration when going through this process and how can you use pricing to increase sales?

• Decide how this product or service fits into your overall product range, will this product be priced as a loss leader; cheaper than your other products but used to draw more clients to your business.  Will the product be the ultimate product in your range so priced more expensive and helping the business project an image of quality.
• How are your competitors priced, will you have to be more competitive than them to get your market share?
• By setting your pricing at a certain level will you appeal more to a certain market segment than your competitors?
• Is your product seasonal, will you have to adjust your pricing depending on the time of year?

Being flexible with your pricing or ensuring your product range is wide enough to full cater to your chosen market is the key, but whatever you do have confidence that your pricing is what it should be, if your confident your clients are more likely to pay what you want.

If you want more information on this subject please contact me or feel free to leave any comments below.

From a retail point of view I have used this principal at branch level to refine how the store should be merchandised, there is no point in refining the product range (see earlier blog) to then have it crushed in an overloaded stand or hung on the wall in the darkest corner of the store.  Some common sense is needed when planning where to and how to show off your product range and would it surprise you to know that many Branch Managers get this so wrong but often it is not entirely their fault, let me explain…..
Many large retail chains have merchandising plans for their branches, the mentality for this is no matter which store the customer walks into they will be able to find what they are looking for as all the stores are the same.  With possibly the exception of food super markets I really don’t think this is relevant (it’s not like I’d buy a pair of training shoes or a 42” flat screen TV every week!!) as I probably wouldn’t remember where anything was!!  It is far more important to place your products in your store to meet local customers’ needs.

Again a Manager who can merchandise their store effectively will achieve the level of sales required by the company and because of this is more likely to be more motivated too.

If you would like to discuss more regarding anything in this blog please contact me for more information or leave your comments below.