Is your business grabbing #EasyMoney?

Listen to the podcast here

There is no such thing as easy money right? Are you sure? There are really only two ways to grow your revenue: cut costs or sell more. There is a limit to how much more revenue your business can earn by cutting costs whereas selling more is limitless. If you only had time to do one thing in your business it should be focusing on how to sell more. There is no easy way to do that then by figuring out how to sell more to existing clients either directly or indirectly. The more systematic you can make this the more profitable your business will be and ultimately your business will be worth more.

So how do you sell more to existing clients or customers?

There is #NoFreeMoney for your business (ever)

Listen to the podcast here

It’s going to cost how much!!! You must be crazy!!!

That comment is made by entrepreneurs and business owners after hearing how much it costs to borrow money from either a mid market or private lender. The comment is usually followed by a series of expletives that I won’t type here but needless to say the cost of capital is something that can scare or upset someone who maybe hasn’t thought through the opportunity cost (see past blog post here). There is no such thing as free money when it comes to business but more importantly the money your business is using has a cost to it that you may never have thought about but you might want to.

How can your business #DoMoreWithPeople?

Listen to the podcast here

People use to be paid based on their daily physical output. How many widgets could they build? How many trenches could they dig? How many calls could they answer and reroute. There was a time not long ago when people were the machines that made a business work – actually work. Today life is quite different. Technology continues to erode the physical work that people do and has left a void that only people can fill. In the past people were paid based on using their body to undertake physical or manual labour but in the future people will be paid based on using their brain to think and manage outcomes. The real question is: how is your business doing more with people?

It’s a sad day when you learn of a #failedbusiness

Listen to the podcast here:

A few months back our family bought a piano from a local piano refurbisher and after making several phone calls to book an appointment to have it tuned with no response, I decided to stop by the business to see if I could speak with the owner personally. I had met him when we purchased the piano and learned that he had been in business for more than 20 years. On this particular morning when I drove up to the front door it became obvious that the business had shut its doors as the space was empty except for the sign still displayed on the front of the building.

Ask for the business, metrics matter and the value of your personal network

This week Dylan shares three personal reflections of lessons learned this past week relating to sales. If you are an entrepreneur or business owner you might be refreshed by these timeless lessons that are easy to forget.

 If you are an entrepreneur, business owner or investor and need help with a finance related issue, challenge or opportunity – click here to connect with me. Let’s chat.

Is there a little Leo in all of us?

“You’re hot one moment and cold the next”. These are words spoken by Leo who is a homeless man living in New York. Leo caught the media spotlight in 2013 when Patrick McConlogue offered him $100 to learn how to code. Leo took his skills and built a mobile app that generated him $15,000 in revenue – which is still sitting in a bank account while Leo continues to live on the streets (see video):

Execution is everything and here’s proof

What if your business never existed – would anyone care? What if you never took that idea you had and pursued it relentlessly to form a business that is now delivering value to the market? In listening to the first ever TWIST episode I was reminded that execution is arguably the only thing that matters if you are trying to start a new business or grow your existing business. As an entrepreneur or business owner if you are having trouble executing then it’s probably fair to say that you are either having trouble with your finances, managing your time or maybe both. Need some motivation to get focused again? Read on.

Can your company pull off a HoloLens?

Tough times call for tough measures. Even if your company is the size of Microsoft the market can force your business to change overnight and the only option you have as a business owner is to decide: will our company acknowledge the changes and adjust or will our company ignore what is happening and stay the course. These are not easy decisions to make but the reward for choosing one or the other can lead to new opportunities.

Last week Microsoft announce a new holographic/virtual reality product called HoloLens (video here). If you follow the technology wearables market at all you are probably familiar with Google Glass or Oculus but you probably didn’t know that Microsoft was about to become a contender for eyeballs. In fact you may have not thought much about Microsoft who really hasn’t delivered many new ideas to the market in recent years. The HoloLens is a product that doesn’t utilize the same technology as its competitors but does cater to the same customer who will be seeking a virtual experience. It would seem that Microsoft may have found a new way to bring revenue in their front door and will be trying to get your attention. So what does this have to do with your business?

$60 billion tells us there is a market somewhere

We all know that money doesn’t disappear it moves. Right now the price of oil is sinking which means that money is moving from one side of the market to the other. But what is the other side? If you follow the movement of money you will inevitably hit one spot along the way that cannot be missed – the consumer. With low energy prices consumers will have more disposable money to spend. This is a simplistic observation of a complicated shift in the market but does provide start-ups and growing businesses with something to talk about and respond to.

How is your business going to take advantage of consumers who have more cash?

An easy question that might not have an easy answer. 

What your business can learn from the GoPro stock price crash

Even a good business isn’t safe from competition or market forces – just ask GoPro. As an entrepreneur running a start-up or a business owner trying to grow a company you need to be prepared for what might be lurking in the economy or amongst those in your marketplace. In GoPro’s case they built a business around a great product and have experienced massive growth and market adoption – the goal of every business. Apple has filed a patent that might force some change at GoPro (read more here) similar to the type of change that is happening with businesses being impacted by the drop in oil prices. But there is a silver lining.