Finance: Raising Prices – the Entrepreneur’s Anathema
Pricing has the single most significant impact on how much you take to the bottom line. It’s the quantifiable, and therefore comparable, definition of your product’s value. So, “with great power comes great responsibility.” But there’s also a corollary, “with great weight comes great inertia.” As you’re planning for next year’s profitability, here’s a couple resources: A classic McKinsey article: The Power of Pricing (http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_power_of_pricing?cid=other-eml-cls-mip-mck-oth-1511) and an Inc Magazine video Inc: How to Raise Prices Without Losing Customers.
Finance: The Case for Not Selling
Inc. Magazine last month had a great article entitled “How to Build a Company That Will Be Around in 2015” (http://www.inc.com/magazine/201510/bo-burlingham/built-to-last-and-last.html) — on entrepreneurs are exchanging “steroid-like” growth with outside investments for the more deliberate organic growth that endures. A good read for sure, but what caught our attention is a sidebar on the financial reality of selling a company vs continuing to run it — something we regularly discuss with clients. Inc: The Case for Not Selling.
Image credit: Anthony Correia / Shutterstock.com Sales: The Secret of Selling to Big Companies
Now be careful what you wish for. But if you have indeed set your sights on — or better yet, been pursued by — a Fortune 500 type company, you need perspective. A few tips would help by those who have. Here’s some from Entrepreneur Magazine. Entrepreneur: The Secret of Selling to Big Companies. Entrepreneur: The Secret of Selling to Big Companies.
Image credit: Millo, 2014, B.Art-Arte in Barriera, Turin, Italy Leadership: What? Me? Biased?
A fundamental human truth is we make emotional/gut decisions which we then rationalize with supporting facts. It’s a common human malady — the heart wants what it wants. A recent Harvard Business Review article looks at the different ways we deceive ourselves, with some ideas on how to compensate. But remember, the first step to recovery is always acknowledging we have a problem. Then read on: HBR: Outsmart Your Own Biases.
Image credit: Harvard Business Review Management: Do You Know Who Holds Your Office Together?
“Treat your family like guests, and your guests like family” goes the maxim. Good business looks to build attachment to customers — to build that social connection that breeds trust and helps retention. Are you cultivating the same internally — treating staff like you do customers? An article in the Harvard Business Review looks at acknowledging and cultivating those people (and activities) inside your company who help hold it together. Retention is not just for customers. HBR: Do You Know Who Holds Your Office Together?
Image credit: Getty Images Management: What “Chip Cards” Mean for Your Business
October 1 presented a shift in some of the liability toward credit card fraud. If you are unable to accept the new chip card technologies (can only process physical cards via swipe,) you’re at risk of liability if there’s fraud on that card through your business. If your merchant service provider hasn’t discussed this with you, or given you the right hardware, call them today! Its more than a liability, though. Inc: What “Chip Cards” Mean for Your Business.
Image credit: Getty Images Management: Employees vs Contract Workers
It’s been noted that much of the decrease in the unemployment rate has been the result of more part-time work. The “gig” economy (where people, like bands, have off and on “gigs”) manifested in new phenomena like Uber and Lyft is under scrutiny. A recent case in California re: an Uber driver, and a new (July 2015) U.S. Department of Labor memorandum have begun to clarify the line between independence and employment. IRS 20 Point Checklist for Independent Contractors.
Image credit: Eve Online Marketing: Marketing B2B Services Like a Video Game
A fundamental observation of humanity is that we make decisions emotionally, and subsequently justify them rationally. That is certainly acknowledged in the world of retail marketing. Why talk about your product’s superior benefits when you can put a puppy in the ad? Who cares about what Coke tastes like now that you can find your name on a Coke can? But B2B is expected to be the cognitive choice. It’s a hyper-rational C-level exec crunching numbers and doing the cost/benefit analysis. Forbes: Why Can’t We Market B2B Services Like a Video Game?
Image credit: OLI SCARFF/GETTY Leadership: You Really Don’t Need to Work So Much
Do we American’s work hard to get ahead, then bask in the benefits and leisure of business ownership? Seems the theory doesn’t work out in practice. “Indeed, in 2006, the top twenty per cent of earners were twice as likely to work more than fifty hours a week than the bottom twenty per cent, a reversal of historic conditions.” Do we American’s just prefer work to leisure? The observations and solutions (if indeed it is a ‘problem’) are as individual as the people involved. The New Yorker: You Really Don’t Need to Work So Much.
Image credit: Harvard Business Review Leadership: 15 Diseases of Leadership
Are you a healthy leader? Are your leaders healthy? Gary Hamel, professor at Harvard Business School notes: “Last year, just before Christmas, the Pope addressed the leaders of the Roman Curia — the Cardinals and other officials who are charged with running the church’s byzantine network of administrative bodies. The Pope’s message to his colleagues was blunt. Leaders are susceptible to an array of debilitating maladies, including arrogance, intolerance, myopia, and pettiness. HBR: The 15 Diseases of Leadership, According to Pope Francis.
