Jumpstart Your Business

1. Rethink Your Value Proposition.

Keep adding value to what you deliver to your customers and try not to do it cheaply. Always think in terms of what you have to deliver to the client as opposed to what you have to so to get the sale. Products and services with the right value proposition can almost sell themselves.

They come to look see, they just want it free,
They got little money,to spend on their honey,
So your A/R stinks, your bank account shrinks,
Your inventories swell, your sales look like hell
Your business is drooping, your profit went pooping!

So, the Great Recession is here at last
Well, tell this recession to kiss your a$$!!!

Banking AIDS, Credit Card AIDS, Venture Capital AIDS, SBA AIDs, Other Government AIDS, and most of all Monetary AIDS from Friends and Family!

Firstly, if you have no experience in the restaurant business, I’d advise that you find work in restaurants for the next six months or so doing everything from busing tables and washing dishes to waiting tables and cooking if they’ll allow you back there and if you have the skills. This will give you some of the work experience that you’ll need to understand and run a cafe/restaurant profitably.

Understanding your limitations or what you are not proficient at, lets you focus on those things that you’re good at and by so doing helps you channel your energy to get the best results.

Looking ahead as opposed to always being absorbed with the past lets you chart new courses in life. If the great explorers had been satisfied with reliving their history we would not have discovered the new world. History is good for giving us a frame of reference for our future exploits. The past is simply a milestone against which future progress is to be measured.

A leader is someone who has a vision, makes a set of rules and takes off on a journey to make the vision a reality and people follow in his/her footsteps and leave a lot of breakage behind that others have to clean up.
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A manager is simply someone who makes sure that people use a set of rules to accomplish someone else’s vision. He/she is like a referee in a game, they make sure that the game is played according to the rules regardless of the fact that the environment may be changing and the rules need to be tweaked

Here is a slightly different look at these two different functions in a business:

Looking to raise money to start your small business. When you find the people who are going to lend you money, you need to get their interest first, then get their money. You have to move them from reasons to say no to looking for reasons to say yes. So rather than spend time on the hallowed business plan, listen to the advice given in this video:

Today, most customers search the web, read blogs, forums & group discussions, ask questions in their social networks, join on-line communities, and, in the end, know very well what they want, where to buy, and most important how much to pay. The bigger the purchase, the more completely the customer educates him/herself. So, like that bad penny that keeps turning up, the objection about PRICE will keep coming your way. This difficult objection, one that is not easy to handle without some thought, comes flying out of nowhere (it seems) and you have to respond. Griff has some ideas on handling the price objection.

Too often we look at our customers and completely misinterpret what their moves mean. Sometimes they are trying to show us that they are uncomfortable but we interpret their actions as signaling comfort and joy.

The following video demonstrates this very effectively. This is not a bear performing a pole dance but a bear trying to scratch an itch on its back. This is not a happy camper so do not misinterpret this and go near this sucker!

Having cash flow problems? Here are some tips to help your business stay afloat in this tough economy.

Ask for a Rent Reduction
You can’t afford to be bashful, so ask your landlord for a temporary rent reduction until the economy improves. The alternative is your going out of business and them having no tenant.