Business Growth Blog

In trying economic times it is especially crucial to keep tabs on your finances.

          There was a piece on CNN about a woman who lost her white-collar job and reinvented herself as an advisor to other white-collar unemployed. Her primary service is to advise them to create a household budget and reconcile their checking accounts. Her fee? $1,000.

           Bookkeepers-PLUS offers the same service and the difference in the fees is a big, fat zero That’s right. We offer this service for $100 instead of $1,000, – and we include the budget form, advise on completing it, and training on reconciling a checking account – yup, for 100 bucks!

           Who do you know who is white…or blue, or gray-collar; unemployed…or employed…who needs a household budget, who doesn’t reconcile their accounts, or both? Have them call Bookkeepers-PLUS. We’ll help them write the story of how they rode out the economic storm.

The Movement of Manufacturing Jobs

Over 5 million manufacturing jobs have left the United States over the last ten years, with the majority of them to the Far East. The reasons seem obvious:

Lower labor costs and Fewer regulations

Most predict that the trend will continue unabated, BUT

I PREDICT that the trend will reverse!

In fact it already has begun.

Am I nuts? That may be a topic for a broader discussion, but in this narrow context, hear me out.

1) The differential in the labor costs has narrowed dramatically. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2002, the difference in average hourly labor costs was over 48%. By 2009, that margin had diminished to under 21%.

2) For better or worse, domestic regulations have lessened significantly in that timeframe, while the global international atmosphere has led to a dramatic increase of controls in most foreign markets.

3) US manufacturers have come to realize that they failed to consider certain less tangible factors; factors that nonetheless impact the bottom line. These include:

• Timeliness and delays in getting products back to the US, and thus to the marketplace.
• Reduced control of the complete process, resulting in inferior products, products that do not match the intended specifications, and overwhelming, sometimes devastating recalls.
• The marketing value of the Made in U.S. label, especially when compared to the negative P/R of a foreign label on products like American flags, clothing products for the NFL, NBA, and MLB, etc.

There are other factors, as well. But at the end of the day, the fact is that a net of almost a half-million of these jobs has returned during the last two years. That may be no more than a dent in the 5 million that left, but the tide has shifted and the numbers will increase in favor of domestic production over the next decade.

Mark my words. You heard it here first.

“How’s business?” one person asked another at a networking event.

“This economy is killing me. We’ve got people canceling right and left and trying to get people to buy anything isn’t happening — things better turn around fast.”

I hear statements like this all too frequently. Although we might agree with the sentiments, talking this way can worsen the situation. The person who asked, “How’s business?” could have been a prospect. Not too cool!

So what’s wrong with telling the truth? A lot! No one (I repeat no one) wants to hear doom and gloom — especially not someone who might want to do business with you.

Could there be anyone worse to share the misery with than a potential prospect? By even thinking negative thoughts, forget saying them, you put yourself in a mental state of failure. You subconsciously tell yourself the odds are against you, and you are doomed to fail. Both positive and negative energy are contagious. Your actions reflect your thoughts and people will detect your outlook. Ask yourself whether you’d rather deal with someone who acts desperate to stay afloat or someone who is convinced of the benefits of his product or service? From someone who complains about the economy or from someone who makes any economy work for him and his clients?

People want to do business with winners. The average person, including businesspeople, takes great security in doing business with successful businesses. If you’ve ever purchased something from a person or company that has gone out of business, you know what a pain that can be. Minimally it’s going to cost you extra time calling or physically running around to find another service agent. Worse is when you find out that the product can’t be supported at all. There are two simple yet powerful ways that you communicate that you’re a winner or not, that you’re thriving or struggling in this economy: verbally –your choice of words and nonverbally – your choice of dress.

So, better ways to answer “How’s business?”:

“Our new marketing campaign is really taking off” or “Our new marketing campaign is bringing us lots of new customers.” (You don’t have to mention that your “new marketing campaign” is you making dozens of cold calls each day.)

“We’re growing market share?”

“Even with rising costs, we’ve been able to maintain our current pricing.”

Hopefully you can also say, “We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm about our new products.” If you can’t, solicit positive responses from your customers. Once you have obtained some glowing kudos, share them on a regular and consistent basis with customers and prospects.

Why go through this bother? Because people are innately followers. Prospects are drawn to successful businesses and typically follow the positive experiences of others. Successful businesspeople take responsibility for finding positive messages and passing them along.

These positive messages will also cheer you up and help you create your own economic boom.

An old business principle says our job is to meet our customers’ expectations.

Well, I have some Bad News and some Good News.

The Bad News is that it’s no longer enough to MEET expectations. We have to EXCEED them.

The Good News is  - THAT’S EASY TO DO!

Today’s reality is that most people are used to being underwhelmed by products and services. New products that don’t work, or at least don’t do what they were promoted to do. Items that are received damaged or broken. Customer service people, retail clerks, and tech support who don’t have the right information, but act like they do.

So why is this Good News? Because the bar has been set so low, that it is well within our capabilities to perform at a higher level. Even an “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” goes a long way, particularly if you DO find out.

So, who do you know who has gotten used to bad service?

Have them contact Bookkeepers-Plus (www.bookkeepers-plus.com). We’ll EXCEED their expectations showing them creative ways to do the same for their clients.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, and that might be the most important thing I bring to the table as a bookkeeper and business coach. My clients get to make new mistakes, rather than repeat mine.

A simple example comes out of the question, “How much does QuickBooks cost for a small business?” Believe it or not, that ranges from $99 to $5,000!

What should you pay for your business’ accounting software? Rarely is the $99 or the $5,000 version appropriate. I just got a new client who was about to spend $3,000 on QuickBooks. After our review, we determined that a $300 version was the best fit.

As with all business decisions, one must judge Value rather than Price. They are NOT the same. Pay too little and you don’t get what you need. Pay too much and you simply waste that very limited resource called money! You will live with your software for a long time. Spend the time up front to determine the best Value.

What do you need to know to start a business?

 1. Well, there’s all the legal and accounting stuff to set it up in an appropriate form.

2. There’s having a basis to believe that there’s a market for the product or service.

3. How about your ability to run the business – AND WANT TO.

I met with a potential client who had done all that work, but overlooked one significant detail: He could not get enough product to make the business worthwhile! He maxed out at $300,000 in sales, based on the available supply, but needed to sell twice that to make a reasonable return. Could he sell $600,000 of product. Sure could – EXCEPT HE COULDN’T GET THAT MUCH!

Oops.

So, who do you know who may know the answers – BUT NOT ALL THE QUESTIONS?

Have them call me, Andy Cohen at Bookkeepers-PLUS