companies house made easy

As a society we struggle to control our weight. The urge to over overeat is natural as we are programmed to believe that we might not get our next meal.

I was just thinking that if we could channel this evolutionary energy towards our businesses instead of our mouths we would instead have an epidemic of healthy but fat businesses.

If we worry equally about where our next client is coming from then maybe we will put more energy into finding and taking better care of our customers.

The problem is, like years ago, this type of business nutrition is not so easy to come by. However, if you continue to test and improve your strategies it won’t be as easy as unwrapping that Mars bar but a heck of a lot more satisfying.

Think of your new business in terms of your diet:

What goes in (sales/food) less what comes out (costs/exercise) = what is remaining (profit/weight).

Here’s a suggested diet plan:

What goes in:

• Delegate as much as possible to allow you to work on the stuff that makes your business money.
• Regularly consider all marketing, PR & branding efforts
• Get out of your cave; network, build links with other businesses, speak at events, pick up the phone, pound the streets if you can.
• Ensure all your communication is excellent from how you present yourself to the way emails and telephone calls are made and answered.
• Consider and action how to delight your existing customers even more.

What comes out:

• Sounds obvious but stop overspending and make sure your financial planning is accurate e.g. overestimating demand vs underestimating marketing.
• Take money upfront if possible, set clear payment terms or consider factoring.
• Regularly review your supplier’s costs and payment terms (perhaps have 60 day supplier payment terms and 30 day client payment terms).
• Consider commission or bonus structures instead of employee salaries.
• Are you customers costing you too much, fire the ones that don’t pay up!

Keeping to our ideal weight levels is extremely difficult but lets all try to enjoy some, guilt free, business gluttony! Anyone got any further business diet tips?