How to Stop the Firefighting in Your Business

                     by Dr Greg Chapman

A key reason that most business owners don’t ever find the time to work ON their business is that that spend far too much of their time fighting fires. They lurch from crisis to crisis. No sooner than a band-aid fix has been found for one problem, than their biggest customer rings up to say they haven’t received their urgent order. This means that the time you had put aside to review your monthly sales performance is lost. The urgent takes priority over the important.

What if you could get out of the firefighting business? That you didn’t get continual surprises from your staff or contractors. That things worked the way you expected 95% of the time. (100% would be nice, but as long as human beings are involved, that can’t happen!) What I am about to recommend will appear to some as just extra time that takes them away from the fires they know should be dousing. There is only one way of getting out of the firefighting business. Unfortunately most business owners believe the answer is to get better at firefighting. All this will do is over time wear you down and exhaust you and your staff. The correct answer is below:

When is a Sale not a Sale?

            

 

                       by Dr Greg Chapman

 

The upmarket department store, David Jones used to say, rather snootily:

 “As you know, David Jones don’t have sales, but we do have Clearances.”

Regular sales can cheapen a brand. People will hang out for sales to get bargains.

Don't Charge at Elephants

by Dr Greg Chapman

In every sector there are 2 or 3 big guys, the elephants. Everyone knows them. They have marketing power. They have buying power. And yet, elephants are afraid of mice.

But don’t try to beat an elephant by playing an elephant’s game. You can’t beat them on price. You can’t out-advertise them. You can’t offer the same range. Your distribution network will never be as extensive.

So how can you be like the mouse? The mouse scares the elephant because the elephant feels something happening between its feet, and it can’t see it or stop it.

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The Five Pillars of Business Success: Pillar 5: Taking Action

                     by Dr Greg Chapman

Last month I covered the fourth of the Five Pillars of Business Success: People Systems.

In this post I discuss the fifth of the Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success: Taking Action.

So you have just had this fantastic business idea, or learned of a great new strategy. What is the most critical barrier to success?

Back in the early eighties I had this fantastic business idea. At that time I was working in the US for another company. Whilst there, I noticed that they had home delivered pizza. This was especially great in the winter when there was snow on the ground and there was no way I wanted to go out. It was then I first heard the Domino’s pizza slogan – delivered in 30 minutes, or its free!

Small Business Solutions in the COVID Era

                     by Dr Greg Chapman

The following is an interview with Liam Webster of Channel 31 on the impact of COVID on small business and some strategies that they may able to use to recover as we move out of lockdown mania.

How badly were small businesses affected by COVID?

Ad of the Month – Comparisons with the Competition

by Dr Greg Chapman

I love this ad. Made me laugh out loud.

Imagine you have a low cost competitor whose products don’t last. But they’re cheap. How can you get customers to value your superior products? By showing them what happens to the cheap ones.