Raw 04 - December 2008 - (Page 15)

RACHEL ELNAUGH RAW is return for a commission or stocking their product on a sale or return basis then both parties benefit. As regards to cutting costs, businesses should always try to keep a tight ship in good times and bad. Unless your business is incredibly free and easy with money, to me cutting costs should be your last resort - as it takes the business into a negative spiral where everyone is so focussed on not spending any money they lose sight of value and start throwing out the baby with the bathwater - and everything eventually ends up going down the pan. But if you are in last ditch desire straights, and ruthless cost cutting is your only option, do it sooner rather than later. This particularly applies to staff – it may be painful to lose some of your loyal workforce now but far better to lose a few and survive than to keep them all on and see them all out of a job should your business go down. Money is not the only form of wealth Our society has become so obsessed with money that we have lost sight of other forms of value. I know many businesses which are increasingly working together to barter goods and services. The Government will of course never encourage this, as barter is difficult to tax, but it may be worth thinking about what you can offer to other businesses in return for what they need. This is where networking is invaluable – there are lots of local events run by the various Business Links, Chambers of Commerce and so on where you will meet a whole variety of other entrepreneurs happy to do deals on barter terms. Spend at least some time each day thinking and planning I have met entrepreneurs so stressed with their business they literally cannot switch off from activity. They work every hour God sends and wake up at 3am every night head full of stressful thoughts. Typically these entrepreneurs end up fire fighting, so focussed on the ‘immediate’ and the ‘urgent’ that they lose sight of the ‘important’. If you are caught in this negative spiral I urge you to spend at least 30 minutes each day thinking and planning. Each morning, download everything that needs to get done on a piece of paper divided into three sections: short term, medium term and long term actions. Then go back to the short term issues (which I guarantee you will be recurring crises) and think of the solutions which will solve them for good. Write these solutions in your medium or long term sections. Finally, delegate as much as you can on the short term list to other people so you can spend the majority of your time on the medium to long term issues. This is the way to build a well managed business which you control – and not the other way round. What is the worst that can happen? Fear can keep you frozen so it can be quite useful to explore what would happen should it all go pear shaped. Exploring (and exploding) your fear in this way is a very valuable process. Ask any entrepreneur who has lost their business (as I did with Red Letter Days) or who has gone bankrupt at some stage in their journey and they will tell you that, although difficult at the time the experience was actually quite liberation and long term lead to much better things. If you know that somehow you will be safe - no matter what happens - then it makes you feel more confident about walking the tightrope. Don’t let fear of failure ruin your life. millionimpossible.com 15 http://www.millionimpossible.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 04 - December 2008

Raw 04 - December 2008 Contents Imran Hakim Linda Klassen Brown Bradley Chapman Heidi Weir Colin Stroud Emma Thompson Raw Business Have a Care JPR Mortages TLB Events Alexander Davis

Raw 04 - December 2008

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