The wrong time to Increase Sales

by Dr Greg Chapman

Whenever you read an article about business growth, it almost always comes down to a push to increase sales, but there are times when this may have totally the opposite effect that was intended.

The big mistake businesses make is using Sales as a proxy for growth. When economists speak about growth, they look at profit, which is not the same Sales. In certain circumstances, increases in Sales can reduce profitability, but people continue to use Sales as an indicator of growth because it’s easy to measure.


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May You Business Be - As You Plan It!

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Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success and Price: How You Can Charge More Without Losing Sales.

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Removing the Biggest Bottleneck in Your Business

by Dr Greg Chapman

A bottleneck is where a logjam occurs, allowing only a trickle to pass through the neck to the other side. Bottlenecks result in missed opportunities and impose costs due to underutilised capacity. While this is well known, little is done about the biggest bottleneck of them all.

Are Your Customers having a Nice Day?

by Dr Greg Chapman


Some years ago, I worked in the corporate world in the US, and after 3 years I, my wife and two kids were to be transferred to the UK. My employer had engaged an international moving company which would handle the packing and transport of all our possessions. The same company would handle the unpacking in the UK.

As we had accumulated a lot in the US (they make it really easy to spend your money there) it was to take 3 days to pack and remove everything. Each day, the packing team arrived promptly on our doorstep at 8am lined up behind their leader. They were neatly dressing in crisp uniforms. The team leader explained each day what they would be doing and they proceeded to work.

The packers, if they had a query about an item, asked politely about how we wanted them to be packaged, even our children’s precious items which to the uninitiated looked like junk. They were always polite and courteous. Each night they cleaned away any mess, and explained what would happen the next day. While moving is always stressful, they did everything they could to make the move as painless as possible.

After we flew to London we organised the UK removalists to deliver and unpack everything. The difference with the US team couldn’t be more stark. More...



May You Business Be - As You Plan It!

Subscribe to this Blog for more Small Business news and tips.


Share this article:Are Your Customers having a Nice Day?

Tweet

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below. [Note to those seeking a free ride on our google ranking, blog spam will be deleted,but genuine contributions will be happily published.]

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success and Price: How You Can Charge More Without Losing Sales.



Promote Your Business on our Facebook Fan Page

The Australian Small Business Blog

To send this article to a friend, click on the envelope below.

Circle of Price

by Dr. Greg Chapman


The Circle of Price:

1. The more you charge, the more you are respected

2. The more you are respected, the more your clients comply with your recommendations

3. The more they comply, the better the results they get

4. The more results they get, the more clients you get

5. The more clients you get, the more you charge

Marketing Moments – Maintain Your List

by Dr Greg Chapman

Possibly the most valuable asset for most businesses is their list, a database of people who have bought from them, or have shown interest in their products and services.

In this podcast I discuss the importance of a customer database to any business.

Business Coaching – Does it Work?

by Dr Greg Chapman

An interview with Dr Greg Chapman by Mark Anthony.

Mark: So Greg, people in business are already good at what they do, experts in fact so, what is a business coach exactly and why would someone in business need or want a business coach?

Greg:I agree Mark that people in business are good at what they do. Plumbers are good at plumbing and carpet cleaners are great at cleaning carpets. But are they actually good at running a plumbing or carpet cleaning business. That’s not the same thing!

Case Study: How to Transform a Business

by Dr Greg Chapman

Changing a business is not easy. The first step has to come from the owner. Hear how one client took his business from nowhere to receiving an award from the Governor General of Australia whilst increasing his prices by 400% in 12 months. In this podcast, Dr Greg Chapman interviews his client who explains how he transformed his business.

Small Business Best Practice Benchmarks - Operational Plan

The first article on Small Business Best Practice Benchmarks was about how all great businesses have a five year strategic plan. While this is a necessary part of the planning process, it is not sufficient. There also needs to be a detailed operational plan.

Getting the most from your people

by Dr Greg Chapman

One of the biggest impediments to growth in most small businesses is lack of people systems. When there is poor alignment between your staff’s and your business’ objectives, this becomes a major obstacle to your success.

In this Small Business Success Club podcast learn how to obtain peak performance from the most important assets in your business with good people management systems.

Ad of the Month – Preroll

by Dr Greg Chapman

Using preroll advertising on YouTube has become ubiquitous. You know those annoying ads you have to wait 6 seconds to skip? Well what if the preroll ad showed how much it’s going to cost on your mobile data plan to watch the cat video you just clicked on.

Cable company Xfinity put together a series of these preroll ads based on common YouTube categories. A sample is below.

Marketing Moments – The Power of Asking

by Dr Greg Chapman

In the world of business, there is never enough time, which is why this year I will post podcasts just 2-3 minutes long with a single, easy to implement, marketing idea, that I call a Marketing Moment.

The first topic is: The Power of Asking.
You know, in most cases before we get anything, we have to ask for it. Right from the time we're little, we get things by asking. But somewhere along the way, we lose the ability, or the want, to ask.

Buying an existing small business: smart or not?

by Dr Greg Chapman

You have just decided that you don’t want to work for someone else anymore and build their dream, you want to build your own. You know the kind of business you want and are not afraid of the hard work it’s going to take. The question you are now asking is whether to buy an existing business to avoid early growing pains. Here are threekey issues to consider before you buy.

At What Price

by Dr. Greg Chapman

When marketing a product or service, businesses find it difficult to set their prices. Too high, and no-one will buy, too low, everyone will buy, but you will go broke. So how do you set your prices? The basic principle of pricing is that you should set your prices as high as the market will allow. But what does that mean?