Bruce Outridge

What Do You Do When Your Professional Board Disagrees?

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Bruce

As a business owner there are many tasks that you are responsible for and probably handle yourself. Everything from signing the big deal to cleaning the washroom may be in your list of jobs to be done at any given time. That is the joy and life of most entrepreneurs. Although many of us are good at multitasking we generally know quite a bit about several parts of our business but not everything. That is where the board of advisors come in for your company. The board may differ from company to company but usually consists of your acountant, your financial planner, your banker, and a business consultant. You may have more or less depending on the size of your business. Having all theses people on your board may make you feel that you’ve got a decent team behind you, that you will get financial and business advice that helps you grow. What happens however when the team doesn’t agree? When you are a small business keeping cash flow running smoothly can be a creative task especially if you have debt and obligations to pay. So as you are trying to do your best you are being told different things from each advisor, and the problem is that they are all right.

Here is what happened to us, we were trying to pay down debt and improve our financial picture. My partner and I had made a sound decision not use credit cards if at possible and live on cash. Our financial planner was elated and said that was the way to go. As our accountant was doing our taxes we were going over expenses and he said that it would be better to be paying certain items with the credit card as it helps in tracking items better in the long run, also the right advice. Our business consultant said try to increase your cash flow by reducing debt meaning that we should pay by cheque whenever possible, also the right advice. By now you are probably starting to see the disconnect that was starting between the advisors.

In the end the final decision comes down to you as as business owner. The team are advisors only and you have to do what is best for your situation. Just like the President you have to weigh each decision against the actual situation. When advisors give you advise they are advising from their outlook on the situation, which will be different for everyone. You have to make the best possible decision for your business based upon the facts and the best case scenario. Welcome to the world of business.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant for entrepreneurs. More information can be found on his website at www.outridge.ca

Working with Referrals

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Bruce

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Have you ever gotten a referral from someone that turned out to be a very profitable project? It is a great feeling isn’t it? Have you ever given someone a referral that didn’t do what they were supposed to do? That probably left you feeling lower than an ant on the ant hill. Referrals are very important to business, to self esteem, and to our integrity as a person. Whether you are giving someone a referral or accepting a referral how you act upon it or deal with it says much about you but also the person that the referral came from.

Back when I was starting at a moving company I was 17 years old, the boss liked the way I worked and asked if I knew anyone else that would like a job. He assumed that my friends would be as hard working as I was. The friend that I recommended turned out to be the laziest guy on the block, very loud, with no customer service skills at all. I felt terrible and he eventually got fired, but his work ethic was a direct reflection on me. I was too young to know that at the time and vowed it would never happen again. This has happened in business as fellow entrepreneurs that seem to be very driven and dedicated are looking for business. I give them a lead and tell them to take good care of the person and sometimes I am let down again by people not following up, or not getting them the information required promptly. I have been given leads that I follow up with, they accept the project, waste my time, and then seem to disappear. All of this looks worse on the person who gave the referral than the person that I am working with. I don’t understand why people go to business meetings, network, and spend most of their waking moments looking for business, then when it is handed to them through a referral they blow it by doing nothing or not following up properly, it blows my mind. So what is the best way to handle referrals and be successful.

First, when you have been given a referral follow up immediately with the client. Treat that client as gold and make sure you inform the client that your friend is an amazing person and thought the contact would be a good fit for the project. Once you’ve contacted the client respond back to your friend, thank them for the referral and give them a status on where the conversation ended and the next steps to be taken. Once the project is completed you may want to thank your friend with a lunch or small gift, of course the best thing is to refer business in return to them if applicable. If the client was referred for one project only and is a client of your friend then any future sales or contact should go through your friend unless otherwise arranged. Don’t steal a client from your friends it won’t take you very far down the road. Blow a referral and you may be blowing future business right down the toilet.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant. He specializes in two areas namely transportation and the visual arts and helps entrepreneurs start and run successful businesses. For more information visit his website at www.outridge.ca

Evaluating Your Target Market

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Bruce

Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Business

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Bruce

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Marketing, promoting, exposure, whatever word you use to describe how you get your message to the world is an important piece to any puzzle. Most companies scrap their marketing budgets and plans when things get tough. In speaking with a friend of mine the other day that produces a local trade magazine he is seeing big changes in the way companies are advertising and spending their marketing dollars. With the economy on the edge at times since 2009 everyone is watching their dollars in a desperate way of trying to not only keep a float, but keep the message continuing forward. The ones who do this successfully will win while the others with no plan will simply fall by the wayside. So how do you keep your message moving to the masses without blowing the wall out of the bank? Planning is the first thing, knowing who your customer is key, and knowing your budget is the other piece of the puzzle. I also believe in one more piece that most people don’t think of, your strengths, what are you good at, what comes of ease to you that can help send your message to the world?

Many times as I coach small businesses on their marketing efforts I encourage the person to write blogs or articles about themselves that can be used to get their message out. You can see the change in their faces as I finish my sentence. “I am not a writer” is the response often replied. I had an owner that went through the exercise and did manage to get out an article for my magazine Collar to Collar. He sweated over it for months, and when it was produced asked me never to ask him to do that again. Okay so I don’t want you getting a heart attack writing an article, but it can be a great way of letting people learn about you and your company.

When setting up your marketing plan you have to take all of your clients, products, and services into account. How are people seeing you is it the web, network meetings, print ads, how do they see your message? Decide how many dollars you have in your budget for marketing and which avenues are most important to you? Take into account online promotion, offline promotion, local promotion, and national promotion. Now look at the best methods under those areas and figure out the lowest cost, but best method for reaching the people in those areas. You may have to break it down into product or service segments depending on the nature of your business. Don’t just jump on the online bandwagon and forget about the offline marketing or you may find your business actually goes down. The plan works as a whole so make sure the whole plan is included.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant. He helps many business small and large with their marketing and social media programming. For more information visit his website at www.outridge.ca

Is Your Business Keeping up with the Competition?

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Bruce

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Many small business owners often start their businesses as a way of helping out someone else. They do a good job and get referred to another person needing assistance. This goes on and on and some businesses have been lucky enough to never have to market themselves or advertise. In past years this was certainly the way to go and your customer base would be very strong, localized, and loyal. However the evolution of technology has changed all that and the businesses that have not kept up with new marketing efforts are finding their client pools starting to dry up. I am seeing this much more and the businesses that are having trouble in this area have not had to market for a very long time. You always need to be marketing even when things are busy and you always have to be keeping up with the way people are looking for products and services.

Lets look at a bookkeeping business, for years your client down the street has been delivering their receipts for you on a regular basis, no questions asked, they have been a good loyal client. One day there is an internal change in management, they decide to assess their vendors and start looking on the internet for providers. They find three providers on the internet, one of which is not you because you don’t have a website, and ask for proposals. They receive the proposals and before you know it have switched providers and you have lost a client. As younger people come into the workforce they don’t understand or care that a company has been dealing with one business for a long time, many times it is about the numbers and not loyalty because they don’t have that original connection. It is extremely important to keep up with changing marketing possibilities.

I tell new business owners that the first thing they should have is a plan for their business, both operating and marketing, business cards, and a website. Once you have that you can start to expand your marketing efforts to target your ideal audience. If you are looking into a service provider for your marketing it is important to work with someone that understands your business. Don’t get left behind because you were too busy to market your company on an ongoing basis.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant from Canada. More information can be found on his services on his website at www.outridge.ca