Business Growth Blog

I had a meeting with a potential client because they weren’t happy with what their bookkeeper was getting done. Within 15 minutes it was obvious that their problem stemmed from the bookkeeper spending too much time creating a very detailed report – a silly report, actually – but a report that the boss had requested.

Rather than start out in precisely the same hole, I told them that this report was the problem, and that the report had to go away if the problem were to go away.

Their response? “Why didn’t Joan tell us that?” After which they offered me the role.

Most often, your staff will try to give you what you tell them you want, whether or not it’s what you need. And since many employers don’t like to be second-guessed, most staff members won’t say anything.

So who do you know who doesn’t know if they know what they’re asking from their staff? They should call Bookkeepers-Plus. We don’t know either, BUT WE’LL FIND OUT and set them straight.

I have been driving up and down the eastern part of the US for the last few weeks, and I experienced some fascinating business “presentations.” I’d like to share a few that serve as good reminders that:

How you present your business can be equally as consequential as how you run your it.

On the plus side was dinner at a Ruby Tuesday outside Savannah, Georgia. Our server was either in a bad mood, or just basically nasty. She failed to bring our side dishes or drinks with the meal, and when I asked about them, she virtually snarled at me, commenting “Well, I ordered them! What do you expect me to do?” (I suggested she go get them.) A few minutes later, the manager was going from table to table checking how everything was. I questioned whether he really wanted me to tell him, and he made it clear that he did. His reaction to my description? He thanked me profusely for the feedback, tore up the check, insisted on packing up some desserts, and gave us a $50 coupon that is good at any Ruby Tuesday restaurant.

Basically, for a cost of about $75, he turned a P/R disaster into a positive marketing opportunity. Good choice? You betcha.

Not so positive was a stop at the iconic South of the Border just south of the North Carolina border on I95. In case you’ve never driven there, you’ve missed roughly 200 billboards starting about 150 miles away in any direction, heightening your anticipation until you arrive at this 350 acre tourist trap. You have a choice of dirty restaurants, souvenir shops filled with an amazing assortment of junk, something of an amusement park, and a spooky motel. They have been in business for over 60 years and is a $40 million enterprise. This reminds me “It’s all about marketing!”

More humorous than anything else was a billboard for an Econo-Lodge motel in North Carolina. Draped across the billboard was a banner excitedly suggesting “Get Crabs Here!” Who’s their Marketing Director?

In the movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” the two main characters first meet at a hot dog cart in Manhatten. In this scene, Luke gives Rebecca $20 just to get rid of her. She comments “You just spent $20 on a hot dog,” to which he replies “Sometimes Cost and Worth are very different things.”

How much is something worth? Most often, it depends.

If you were about to collect a million dollars, you’d gladly pay $1000 to get the last cab that could get you here in time.

If the reports for your best client were due Monday morning, you’d not hesitate to pay extra to get your computer fixed on Sunday!

Yet, Value is not always about money, either. If it were, nobody would pay more to get a more comfortable car. Everyone would hire the cheapest CPA or attorney and “Damn the quality of their work!” There are people who travel ten miles out of their way to save ten cents on a gallon of gas. Good price? Sure. Good value? Not so much.

The next time you need to make a judgment about how you spend money on your business – for equipment, supplies, vendors, professional services…just about anything – consider the Value.

“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight…”

With some regularity, I ask my networking friends to introduce me to people, especially business people, who don’t reconcile their checking and credit card accounts. Those friends often get that sheepish look…they don’t want to admit that they themselves fit in that niche.

Why reconcile? Truth is, You make mistakes. The Bank makes mistakes. The Merchant makes mistakes. Your bookkeeper makes mistakes (not always unintentional)! The result can be a lot of bounced checks, fees, and repair of your reputation. As a bookkeeper, I have found that reconciling the account of a small business that has ignored it for a year typically results in savings of $1,000 or more in recoveries from posting errors, reversal of incorrect bank charges, and those pesky “errors” of the former bookkeeper.

One client deposited a check of $1,900, only to have the bank post it as $19! That was $1,881 that would have been lost without a reconciliation. Another had a $170 check to the electric company posted as $1,070 (oh, the electric company did its own coding, so you couldn’t even blame the bank)!

And wouldn’t it be nice to KNOW how much you have in the bank?

BTW, the fact that this is self-serving does not make it false. Give it some thought.