Fed Up With Your Job?

Here's some random thoughts if you feel trapped in your job and want to jazz it up. Some variations on a theme.

1. Redesign where you do the job – disappear to the internet cafe
   
   Show the company how you can give them what they want faster or cheaper but doing it your way,
   eg working from home or an internet cafe or getting someone else to do the paperwork.
   Keep the company’s best interests at heart. Create a business case for doing it your way. Demonstrate the upside and minimal downside for the company. You work when you want to. The company gets better value for money.
   
   
   
2. Redesign Your Life – Become the Outsource – disappear to Thailand
   
   Create a proposal to automate your job (using Virtual PAs, better computer systems and email autoresponders) so that you don’t have to physically be present. Move to somewhere cheap,
   eg Thailand, and work UK hours via Skype phone and conferencing, email and the web to deliver the same service.
   You get to live like a millionaire, sit by the sea and go scuba diving. They get the same if not better service from you.
   
   
3. Go freelance – jump ship
   
   Make yourself indispensable. Create a niche or centre of expertise. Offer to go freelance and deliver the same product/service (in half the time at twice the hourly rate). You end up getting all that free time; they still get your expertise. Spend the other half of your time doing other work or practicing your golf swing.
   
   
4. Mini-Retirement – you won’t get it unless you ask for it…
   
   Propose that you were thinking of leaving but would like to suggest an alternative: a mini-retirement with a return to work guaranteed. Take, say, 12 or 16 weeks to do that trip you always wanted to do.

Getting Gold Star Service For A Bronze Price - little things...

Thursday 09:00:
see the computer I want on the Misco website and phone up to get a RAM upgrade added to the pack.

“No problem” the man says, "but it will take up to three days to be fitted and tested what with the weekend on the way etc”. Fair enough I say to myself.

The next discussion is about delivery. Do I want ‘standard’ which is 4-5 days or ‘super express’ for the extra ten pounds? Not being in a rush I was happy to wait the extra few days.

“Fine” says Andy, “in which case your computer should be with you in 8 working days, maybe less, maybe more”.

I hand over my credit card details and pop a note in my diary to chase up the machine if it hasn’t arrived in the next fortnight. Because I am a past customer they have all the correct delivery details already. Excellent. It is now 10.00am.

Friday 08:45:
The doorbell rings and there’s the postman standing there with my new computer in his hands!

How did that happen? It is a tad under 23 hours since I put the phone down in which time they have found the obscure Toshiba model I had ordered, fitted and tested the extra RAM, reboxed it and sent it off so that it was with me for breakfast the next day.

Talk about under-promise and over-deliver. Talk about exceeding customer expectations. Talk about blowing the customer away. So, Misco, to quote Eminem, “I’m your biggest fan!”

How to play your own game and ignore the big dogs!

Here's a lovely 12 minute video (below) about John Nese at Galco in LA - a soda store. Yes 12 minutes! It covers so many key themes:

• working a niche
• playing your own game
  
• passion about your product (he sells 500 varieties)
• passion about customers
• passion about your suppliers
• sticking your fingers up at the big dogs (Pepsi Cola in this instance)
• focusing on the people who want your product and ignoring the rest
• becoming the expert in your field
• selling the product and the benefits and not selling on price
  

I wonder, how much soda can you sell?

HOW DO I... ensure my supply chain is flexible...?

Jerry mentioned the Director article which is not available online so here it is (my piece) in a nutshell:

HOW DO I... ensure my supply chain is flexible enough to cope with changes in demand?

Wine merchant Edward Parker says margins in his sector are not generous and so 'cash flow management is absolutely key'. So too is seamless operations strategy. Parker sources wine for private individuals from producers globally and delivers across the UK...

Robert Craven, founder, The Directors' Centre

You are right to be sensitive to the situation. Your long-term financial performance will be related to your ability to get the right product to the right person at the right time.

To manage the unforeseeable is a contradiction. You must keep involved and engaged in every stage of the supply chain. To manage customer expectations, you need to know what is happening.

One option would be to offer gold, silver and bronze guaranteed delivery dates to accommodate different customer expectations with prices to match.

Clients will tolerate late delivery if they are kept in the loop or offered alternatives. Ironically, the ambiguous delivery time could be used to his advantage and built into the story. You say “most of your suppliers are in France”. You could state: “Our wines are sourced from small family businesses so our delivery schedules may appear a little erratic”. This adds to the mystique, builds in some slippage and early delivery will be an extra surprise.

The full article can be read at this scanned pdf.

Robert Craven - Entrepreneur Guru - What would you do if you were in his shoes?

This was posted at the Business Support blog and I have taken a few lines from it.

"....Finally, I come to the aspect of what I would do if I were Robert Craven.

What could Craven do, occupying as he does the position of a leader in his marketplace (Consultancy).

Anyone involved in assisting SMEs wishes to help raise the standards and expertise of small business management.

As a market leader in UK Business advice and assistance Craven also needs to protect himself from business consultants trying to use or cheapen his business material.

So what’s my suggestion?

It is simple. Robert Craven (RC) already does a fantastic business presentation for UK SMEs in his business series: “Lets talk, More profit”. Market himself/rebrand himself as a business guru ‘celebrity’, increasing his ‘reach’.

He is already known as an author but he would benefit from raising of his profile. Creating top quality DVDs of his material (e.g. More Profit and Bright Marketing) and, with the help of the best PR in the business, he can try to -reposition himself as the celebrity business guru, such as the like of Alan Sugar.

Does this need TV to achieve it? I suspect it does, but that is where professionals come in.

The point is to rebrand Craven as a celebrity (i) is achievable and (ii) which bring him all the rewards he deserves (increased prominence, respect for his materials, financial return etc)."

Your thoughts?

Why 'DIY' When You Can Outsource?

I am slightly alarmed at the proliferation of so-called DIY solutions for small businesses.

A quick look at the internet sees people offering DIY solutions for
- accounting
- search engine optimisation
- promotional materials
- PR
- web design
- market research
- creating a brand
- ‘any marketing material’!!
- payroll
- health and safety
- employment law
- company formation
- business planning
- legal solutions
- IT networking
- ISO9000 and so on

I bang on about business owners being control freaks, never letting go... the main thing holding the business back is the owner/manager–director. There is no way that any person could deliver a half-decent result from trying to do almost any of these DIY solutions. You cannot do it yourself! You cannot be an expert in that many fields. And why would you want to?

You should be doing what you are best at. You should be employing the people who are best at function x to do function x. I would not want to look at a DIY manual to consider whether to perform my own heart surgery; I would not look at a DIY solution to figure out how to do my accounts. There are other people far better equipped to do these things.

Anyone who has seen the IKEA shelves I once attempted to put up will understand where I am coming from – reading instructions is not my strong point!

It feels like a no-brainer to outsource most of your non-core operations. Neither I nor my people have the time to be 100% bang up-to-date on payroll legislation and its application, the latest google algorithms, top tax techniques etc. That is why we employ/outsource experts to do the job.

The expert outsourcer can be local; they are an expert in their field, they bring years of their experience to your business but you only pay for the skill as and when you need it. No full-time Finance or HR Director, just an FD or HR Director when you really need one.

On the cost side this is incredibly effective; on the benefit side you get heavy-weight/blue-chip assistance for your less than blue chip business.

Here are a couple of examples of businesses I have recently met who are ‘doing what it says on the tin...’

James Benson – The FD Centre

Sue Tumelty – HR Dept

Peter Prater – QTAC Payroll Systems

Anthony Sherry – Chorus IT

Jason Flintner – Flint Design

(And of course I must add Paul Jobin - The Directors' Centre)

Marketing to Businesses at the Royal Mail - bad timing

According to the BBC, the second day of the second wave of postal strikes has begun at Royal Mail.

Ironically, the Royal Mail have been sending me stuff to help me grow my business!

Two links you should look at are:

• 10 Expert Tips to Help You Grow Your Business
  
• Grow You Business with Royal Mail will give you product and service recommendations.

The quote I like is the one that says "No matter what your size of business,we've got the answers to all your questions."

Meanwhile we are desperately waiting for an item sent to us by a client on Saturday!


RELEVANT LINKS

Marketing to Independent Small Businesses - blog entry