The Japanese call it kaizen. Western management gurus call it continuous improvement. Most business people would best recognize it as ‘not sitting on your laurels’.

The big question is;  “How am I going to do this in an effective way?” And, just as important, “How do I make this renewal and improvement process part of business routine rather than one off events?"

There are several ways to institutionalize competitive improvement in your business. First, there is customer feedback. Many successful business leaders say publicly that the best ideas for product and service improvement came from customers. So it’s up to you to ensure that your customers have some readily available way to contribute their views on your business, and that when they do submit ideas and suggestions, you personally thank them for their contribution. This way, customers will know that you take their suggestions seriously.  

If you decide to act on a customer’s suggestion, you should make sure the loop is closed; that is, you should write to the customer who made the suggestion and explain that it was such a good idea that it has been implemented. No doubt this customer will tell others about their experience, and, as a consequence, the business is likely to receive even more new ideas and suggestions.

Second, you can introduce a system for finding out what the competitors are up to. Ask yourself the following questions:

·       How much detailed information do I have on my competitors?

·       How recent is it? What business initiatives have they taken in the last quarter?

·       How will this effect my market position?

You can make it a point to update this information every quarter so you know what is going on. Your team may be able to make valuable contributions here by tapping in to what customers are being told by your competitors.

Third, and this is something few companies do, you can use the concept of ‘organized rebellion’. Organized rebellion works like this: take your best people and put them in a room for two hours. Give them a sensible amount of pretend seed capital and tell them that they have just left the company. Armed with their capital, their task is to plan a launch against your business and beat it in 18 months.

If you have enough team members, set several teams the same task at once and make a competition out of it. At the end of the two hours, ask each team to share their competitive business plan - perhaps through a fifteen minute presentation. This way you will get a good idea of your company’s strengths and weaknesses; its vulnerabilities in particular. The next stage is to sit down and plan how you would beat such an attack by a new rival. In thinking how to beat this theoretical rival, you’ll probably come up with some quite innovative ideas that will raise the barrier of entry to new competitors. 

This sort of exercise is best managed by an external facilitator who knows your business. The role of the facilitator is to ensure that all ideas are heard, to advise the groups when they need financial and other advice, and to make sure that management stay out of the process and don't kill ideas.

What has been your own experience when you’ve asked other businesses for more information about their services or products? Some of course can come up with a well-designed, informative brochure; but many either have nothing at all or some poorly written and designed leaflet that you throw in the bin immediately. In this case the result is you don’t have the information you need, but you do have a poor image of the business in question. Which situation is your business in?

Developing an effective and attractive brochure doesn’t have to be an expensive and time-consuming exercise. With the following tips you will be able to create a brochure that you can be proud of, that presents your business attractively, and will win new customers.

Don’t rewrite your old brochure!

This really is the number one rule - don't start with your existing company brochure in front of you. There’s no point rewriting an ineffective brochure. So sit down with a neutral person and explain your business to them. Ask them to imagine they are a customer, and get them to ask questions about your business. Record the exercise and produce a transcript. Then take a look at the key points you have raised in describing your business, and look at the sort of questions that have been asked. You can now map this against what is in your existing brochure and either rework your old brochure, (if it sends the right message), or throw it out and start from scratch.

Write it to sell for you

There are several key questions you need to ask yourself in order to develop a brochure that includes the right selling messages: 

·       What is the purpose of the brochure - what do I actually want people to do as a result of receiving it and reading it?

·       Who is my target audience – i.e., which people are going to receive, read and act on my brochure?

·       What are the Unique Core Differentiators of my business, and does the brochure emphasize them?

·       What do the brochures of my competitors look like and say?

Design for appeal

There are a few things you have to keep in mind when designing your brochure:

·       Don’t overdo the cover. Try to keep the cover simple, with a clean, clear concept that gives a good impression of the material in the brochure. Avoid clichés such as “we are 100% committed to service”, or “we meet your needs”. There is room in your brochure for lines like that – just not on the cover!

·       Use call out boxes for more impact. You can use a box to break up a page and highlight important information, such as Frequently Asked Questions, special offers, or testimonials.

·       Don’t straightjacket your message. Use spreads and run your text and graphics across two pages. This gives you a nice big area to work with. And again, don’t be afraid of a bit of white space.

·       Use sub-headlines. Sub-headlines can break up the copy and give an indication of the contents of the text below, which is handy when the reader wants to get an idea of what’s on offer from a quick scan.

Always include a call to action

Many brochures don’t tell the reader what to do! If you want people to call your sales team, fill out a coupon, return a postage paid business reply card, or go to your website, you should tell them what to do and motivate them to do it by providing an offer of some sort based on doing it.

Give it the professional look

If your budget allows for it, you may want to get some advice and input from external sources or even get a designer and copywriter to do the work for you. When talking to a designer, remember to be specific about what you would like them to do. Discuss the look and feel of the brochure and show them samples of brochures you like. Be clear about your budget and ask the designer to explain to you exactly what you will get for your investment.

Burglary, vandalism, shoplifting, employee theft, and fraud cost businesses billions of dollars each year. Crime can result in the loss of both customers and team members, and one bad incident can devastate a small business. But many of these incidents are crimes of opportunity; someone decides to take advantage of an obvious lack of security somewhere. Failing to take good security precautions really invites crime into your business.

Listed below are crimes – and unfortunately they are common crimes – which could be affecting your business, along with some effective ways of closing off the opportunity for them to happen to you.

Pilfering

Nearly every business owner will, at some stage, encounter a team member who steals petty cash, stamps, office supplies, etc. Make sure only one person has access to petty cash and that records are kept each time the money is used. Make it your responsibility to check petty cash on a regular basis - daily or weekly. You can keep your stamps and office supplies locked in a cupboard and put one person in charge of dispensing and ordering them. Make sure you sign off on every order. Employees often feel they can get away with it because the business doesn’t have a clear policy in place, so create a written employee theft policy and communicate it clearly and regularly.

Time theft

Time theft occurs when a team member forges their time card (or for a temporary employee, their timesheet), surfs the Internet or conducts private business on company time, gossips with fellow team members, or simply daydreams. Make sure timesheets are signed off by people who work directly with the temporary employee, so their stated work hours are verified. If you have the budget, you could put in place Internet/email monitoring to track how much time team members spend surfing the Internet and sending emails to friends and family.­­ Again, team members feel they can do this mainly because no one has told them they can’t. So put a policy in place which clearly states what they can and can’t do during work hours (they can conduct personal business in their lunch hour for example).

Till tapping

It’s quite easy for dishonest team members to steal from you through the cash register. The most common practice is to under-ring purchases. Be aware that this may be happening if the register display is turned away from the customer or covered over. Another common occurrence is giving incorrect change. Watch out for coins, matchsticks or bits of paper with markings on them around the cash register area. A cashier uses them to help remember the amount of extra money in the register that is to be pocketed later.

Shoplifting

To prevent shoplifting you have three methods at your disposal: you can keep an eye on customers using well designed display space, security guards and/or video surveillance; you can secure items using cables or locked display cases; you can use electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems where special tags attached to items trigger an alarm if a shoplifter tries to walk out with them.

According to security experts the most effective methods are video surveillance and EAS, especially when used together. Watching everyone in the store is just too expensive in team time, and anchoring merchandise if often a frustration to the would-be customer. The Association Of Automated Identification Manufacturers estimates that over 800,000 EAS systems have been installed worldwide, mostly in the retail industry. These prevention tools require a significant investment up front but can save a lot more than their cost in preventing opportunistic shoplifting over time.

Burglary and robbery

To prevent burglary and robbery you should start by using good locks, safes, and alarm systems and putting a sign on your storefront window or office door that tells people you have taken these measures. Never keep displays of valuable items in your shop window overnight. Mark equipment, such as registers, calculators, computers, photocopiers and TVs with an identification number and put a warning sticker in your window to alert thieves that your equipment can be traced. Make sure you keep a record of all identification numbers off the premises.

As for robbery, it is probably the most heinous crime you can experience, as it may not only affect your material assets, but also you, your team members and your customers. It is often a violent crime that can result in serious bodily harm. A ‘no cash kept on premises’ sign will deter criminals out for a quick cash fix and you may have to set up a counter protected by bullet proof glass if you operate in a neighborhood that’s affected by serious crime. If you have any questions, seek the help of your local police force. They can work with you to improve security and design your space to reduce risk.

Whether you are setting up a new business or run an existing one, it is important you take your time when selecting your suppliers. This will help you prevent future misunderstandings and difficulties. Below is a simple, step-by-step process you can use in your supplier selection.

Step 1. List your candidates

Create a list of suppliers that could work with your business. It’s important to have this list as a source of backups in case something should happen to your preferred candidates.

Step 2. First screening – legitimacy and financial soundness

In order to identify, shortlist and screen prospective suppliers you need to profile each one. Contact all companies on your list through mail, fax or email and clearly state your business proposal and objectives, as well as the procedure you use in supplier selection. For those that express interest in your offer you have to determine their legitimacy and financial soundness. You can do this by requesting credit reports from credit rating agencies and checking whether they are a member of any associations or industry group.

Step 3. Second screening – past performance

After eliminating those who didn’t pass the first screening you will have to determine how the remaining candidates’ performance compares with the average industry performance. Contact customers of your prospective supplier and ask them for a rating on performance factors, including timeliness, problem solving, product quality, costs, technical support and attitude.

Calculate an overall satisfaction rating from your results and rank your prospects to create a list of preferred suppliers.

Step 4. Third screening – match your goals

Before making contact with a preferred supplier you should make sure their way of doing business matches with your goals. Get answers to the following questions (you may change and add to this list according to your goals):

·       How broad is their product offering?

·       Will they ship your order complete?

·       How much lead time do you have to allow for on an order?

·       How competitive is their pricing policy?

·       What is their preferred method of shipping goods?

·       Are there volume discounts available?

·       Can defective or damaged merchandise be returned or substituted?

·       In the case of returned merchandise, who pays the freight and is there a restocking charge?

Step 5. Establish a relationship

When you have made up your mind about your supplier after following the first four steps, it’s time to meet with the company of your choice. Talk about the terms and conditions of doing business together and sign a contract. It’s important that you realize that it takes time to build a relationship with a supplier. Get to know the people in the business and make working together easy. The better your relationship, the better the chance your supplier will be flexible in doing business with you.

“If you don't drive your business, you will be driven out of business.”

– B.C. Forbes