• What to look for in hiring a marketing company

    Many companies get reinvigorated early in the new year.  They set new goals and decide to “do things differently”.  Very often this includes deciding that they need help with their marketing, particularly if growth or increased sales pipelines are among their overall objectives.  However, if they haven’t hired a marketing company before, they may not know what to look for. Here are some [...]

    Read more

    The danger of Instant Gratification

    Our world has become  obsessed with instant gratification, and it has impacted on the way we do things as well as what we expect.  Since the digital world has started delivering instant gratification on many levels, the biggest danger is the expectations it has created, for the new generations and the old.  Each generation has a different viewpoint and a different capacity to deal with such [...]

    Read more

    Credit granting policies to improve cash flow

    In a recent article on Cash Management by the authors, we mentioned the importance of credit granting policies in the cash management cycle. This article elaborates on the importance of this and some of the issues that should be addressed in managing the sales processes, to facilitate the cash management that will follow. Management of Accounts Receivable is significantly influenced by a [...]

    Read more

    Reducing expenses

    Most businesses are constantly trying to reduce expenses but fail to go about it in a methodical way.  As a result, as with most exercises that are not well planned, insufficient focus leads to missed opportunities. One very valuable aid to reducing expenses is to utilize and frequently review checklists, on a regular basis and by more than one staff member. Five checklists covering different [...]

    Read more

    Interpersonal Communication - Encoding The Response

    Interpersonal Communication is a method of conveying a message from one person to at least one other person. This type of oral communication comprises three components: body language, tone of voice and the words themselves. The following percentages can be debated, but some studies indicate that body language accounts for about 55% of any message, tone of voice is 35% of the message, while the [...]

    Read more

    How many ways can you market your business?

    Whenever I speak to people about marketing their businesses there is one question that I always ask them: "How many ways are there to market your business?" OR, if said another way, "How many marketing tactics are there?" Then, the next question is: "How many have you tried?" Inevitably, the number that is mentioned is approximately 5 – 10 different tactics. And the number that most people have[...]

    Read more

    Deadlines

    Deadlines are inevitable!  They often cause a high level of stress for the person responsible for meeting the deadline.  There are many strategies that a Controller and CFO can implement to manage deadlines effectively and, as a result, reduce the stress level of the Controller and support staff.  Deadlines for recurring routine tasks and ad hoc assignments, that are both long and short-term, [...]

    Read more

    Is Old School marketing still relevant?

    The rapid evolution of technology over the last few years has driven organizations to take note of digital opportunities such as search, smart phones and social media.  Driven by the acceptance of younger generations, these types of media are all the rage and are driving innovation and a new way of life.  Or is it? Is this new way of life becoming the norm for EVERYONE or just the younger [...]

    Read more

    Swimming against the tide - the contrary approach to decision making

    No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or 'get rich' in business by being a conformist. - J P Getty In the short term the market is a popularity contest; in the long term it is a weighing machine. - Warren Buffett Why do two of the foremost successful businessmen in recent times believe that following the crowd is not a good idea - yet the average Joe follows the popular belief[...]

    Read more

    Focus on the important not the urgent

    In our daily work lives it is so easy to get swept away dealing with time-consuming tasks that seem urgent. So we procrastinate and often do not attend to, or do not give sufficient consideration to the really important projects. How many times have you looked at your watch at the end of the day and said “where did the day go?” and realized that you have not done any or most of, what you [...]

    Read more