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Bertie du Plessis. Tafelberg Short: Your Small Business Nightmare
Your Small Business Nightmare. and How to Wake Up
Is this book for you?
The reasons for the nightmare
Basket #1 What’s with you and the kind of business you’re in? Reason #1: You are in a tough industry and profit margins are thin
Reason #2: The business environment has changed and your business no longer fits the environment; you are flogging a dead horse
1. Disruptive technology destroys your recipe for making money
2. The physical environment of your business changes and your customers disappear into other necks of the woods, leaving you high and dry
Guidelines for deciding whether to continue or close down
Reason #3: You are in the wrong business; this specific business doesn’t suit your talents and your personality
The importance of chasing money
Basket #2 – You don’t keep proper score. Reason #4: The clients and customers you have don’t pay enough for your services
Step 1: Distinguish between what you earn as an employee in your business and the dividends due to you as an investor in your business
Step 2: How does the profitability in my business compare with other businesses in the same industry?
Step 3: Make sure you know what definition of profit you’re dealing with
Step 4: Focus on gross profit not turnover
Step 5: Make sure you’re not doing worse than you would have it you put your money in the bank
Reason #5: You simply don’t know how much time you spend without invoicing or charging for it
Reason #6: You work inefficiently and waste time
Reason #7: You work inefficiently and waste money
Valuable tip 1: Appoint a PA to manage your admin
Valuable tip 2: Outsource everything you possibly can
Basket #3 – Your marketing sucks! Reason #8: You have too few clients or customers, or you have the wrong clients
Reason #9: You pay too little attention to promotion
Reason #10: You don’t pay enough attention to building your brand
Basket #4 – Your positioning sucks! Reason #11: You try to compete on price
Reason #12: You try to compete on service
Reason #13: You try to compete on quality
Where to from here?
Summary of home truths
Reading list
These books should be at your bedside
About the book
About the author
Tafelberg Short books
Imprint page
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Bertie du Plessis
In your own mind you are an entrepreneur. After all, don’t you have a business? And what’s more, you can call yourself a survivor. You survived the dreaded first year when, according to whom you believe (figures differ widely), at least 25% of new businesses fail. And you are now on the brink or beyond the nemesis of year three in business. By now some 50% of those who took the big step with you back then have failed.
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That is not to say that this book will be of no use to those still contemplating setting up their own business. But it will be most valuable to those who have started to experience the brute slap in the face that the real world dishes out to small businesses. Of course, if you are considering starting a business and willing to believe what I share in this book, it will save you a lot of anguish.
• You pay too little attention to promotion.
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