Top tips:

Things I have learnt

in business – part 1

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Mark Coster

Founder of Pixooma

They say that every day is a school day – an opportunity to learn something new. So, it may come as no surprise to learn that with Pixooma having entered into its 12th year of trading, I might have acquired some knowledge and wisdom about running a business.

So, I wanted to share my top ten tips I've gathered over the years, and this is part one. Part two will feature in a future blog. Hopefully, some of these tips will resonate, or provide you with the confidence to start your own business and/or get your business into better shape so that it can (and potentially you too), be even more successful.

Remember the quote "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life". This emphasises the idea that finding work you enjoy and are passionate about can significantly reduce the feeling of it being a chore.

In this first blog, I will deal with lessons 1-5, which form the cornerstones of Pixooma’s daily business operations.

1. Make your own rules

The typical office hours I was used to still worked for me, but they don’t have to for you. There’s no ‘proper time’ to be at work. Start at 5pm and work until the wee hours if you want, but it probably makes sense to be available during some core hours that your clients work, in order to make communication easier.

You are not your client’s bank. You don’t have to give them 30 days to pay if you don’t want to. You can have 7 day terms or even 0 day terms if you like, it’s your call.

Your work uniform is what you want it to be. I like to be dressed when I am working as it puts me in the right frame of mind, but if you want to be in your pyjamas all day that’s up to you. In meetings I prefer to wear a branded shirt, but that might seem a bit old-fashioned to some. What you wear is up to you, but always keep in mind your client’s expectations.

Although initially I wrote my own Terms and Conditions of business (with help from templates I found online), I soon learnt that it made sense to get them done professionally to ensure they were legally compliant. The ones I have now are shorter, more effective and of course wholly bespoke.

2. Watch the numbers

Look at your financials and don’t just focus on one metric, make sure that you look at the whole picture. My advice is to check your profit and loss, bank balance and cashflow regularly.

Keep an eye on how many quotes you are doing, the time taken to do them, the value of them and their conversion rates. All these tell a story as well and can be early indicators of an impending problem.

Calculate your average project/customer value - this is helpful when it comes to making decisions about marketing campaigns and the right spend to ensure a good return on the investment.

Invoice promptly – once your client has signed off, or given their ok to say they are 100% happy, send an invoice. I don’t believe that you should wait until the end of the week or the month to delay getting the money that is rightfully yours.

3. Marketing isn’t sales (but they have to work together)

Come up with a set of questions that will help you to qualify leads and ensure that they are a good fit for your business.

Although you might not be confident in a sales role, you will still need to ask for the business, as well as be prepared to undertake and invest in your own marketing.

Marketing makes people aware of how you can help them, trying to make a sale without it is much harder. But just focusing on marketing without being direct about sales will reduce your results considerably. My advice is don’t be pushy, but don’t be timid either.

At its most basic, I was taught that sales is simply solving your prospect’s problems for money and if you remember that you won’t go far wrong.

4. Be organised

Have a robust set of systems in place. These will ensure you don’t miss a quote, a meeting, a call, timely follow up, a cold enquiry, important admin, critical financial stuff and so much more.

Your system can be paper based, or online. Once again, it’s your choice. I am more organised when using computer software as I respond well to the set reminders and alarms.

Save time and energy by creating templates for your quotes, regular emails and other extensively used documents.

No system is perfect, but it’s 100% better than having no system at all. Over time you will find that relying purely on memory, can get you into trouble.

5. Keep in touch

Sending a quote and assuming that the person you are sending it to will contact you is not enough. It’s up to you to follow up within a couple of days of the proposal being sent.

Keep in regular touch with your existing customers. They are generally happy to talk and can prove to be invaluable when it comes to sharing information, best practice and/or giving referrals.

If you have business partners and/or suppliers, I advocate for keeping in touch with them too for similar reasons to above.

Use computer software, preferably a CRM system, to set up reminders to speak to people who you haven’t spoken to in a while – past customers and prospects. It may seem a chore, but people like it when you call and often you can find out something useful or make important connections. If they are busy, you can always ask them when it’s convenient to call back. If they don’t respond at all, ask yourself why you are bothering with them. Perhaps it’s a timely prompt to remove them from your CRM.

Keep your eyes out for part two! In the meantime, good luck in your business and its set up and/or development. Remember the quote "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life". This emphasises the idea that finding work you enjoy and are passionate about can significantly reduce the feeling of it being a chore.

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