Monday, July 4, 2011

Consultants can help

There are three main types of consultants that small businesses use;

1. Strategy consultants... these people concentrate on getting all the great ideas from your head, mixed with some expert and advise and and some reality of the world to help you work out WHAT TO DO NEXT. This is especially importrant for a rapidly growing business as often you can be busy fighting fires rather than staying focused on the long term so that decisions you make today, will be relevant tomorrow.

2. Implementation consultants help you ACTUALLY DO IT. They need specific expertise and experience in a related area and can really help with the diverse range of things a business owner must manage. This sometimes the "doctor syndrome" or a feeling of inadequacy that you can't do it yourself can creep in. In really its about getting the job done.

3. Systems consultants similar to strategy consultants are more focused on tomorrow rather than today; but rather than dealing with the dynamics of the business, concentrate on streamlining the day to day operation. You can make the business more "scalable" by working on systems that maintain quality and allow to manage the business as it grows.

In an ideal world you would use outside people for all of these tasks to ensure you get the best expertise.

To get further help on your business, contact Graham Bell at Bell Management Consultants P/L on +61 0418 832 220 or Email bell@bell88.com

An industry asociation for giftware etc.

The Gifts and homewares association is worth considering if just for the great deal they have for credit card merchant fees, but also;

Get FREE HR advice for your business!

The HR Hotline is a dedicated FREE help desk service supported by a team of experts available to answer all human resource and industrial relations questions for all GHA Members.

You can get advice 9am-5pm, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year so it's like having an internal human resources department, but for FREE. You can get advice on:

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Call the HR Hotline today on 1300 315 355.

Contact us
Visit www.agha.com.au or call the Member Solutions team on 02 9763 3222 to find out how you can take advantage of more great GHA membership benefits.

Business relationship lessons learned from China

Rushing into a business relationship is like marrying someone you don’t know – If you don’t plan to stay together long – it doesn’t matter... if you are looking for a partner with similar tastes and views – look around to find the right one.

The dangers of low engagement transactions. Business transactions rely on trust to a large degree; “trust has several connotations.[1] The typical definition of trust[2] follows the general intuition about trust and contains such elements as:

  • the willingness of one party (trustor) to be vulnerable to the actions of another party (trustee);
  • reasonable expectation (confidence) of the trustor that the trustee will behave in a way beneficial to the trustor;
  • risk of harm to the trustor if the trustee will not behave accordingly; and
  • the absence of trustor's enforcement or control over actions performed by the trustee.”

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_%28social_sciences%29]

One of the most significant trends in International trade over the last 20 years has been the speed of transactions. As an old-timer – I remember placing orders with suppliers by Air Mail letter and Telex machine. The time taken just to get an order in place and make payment was often 3-4 weeks. Now with the advent of global sourcing sites such as Alibaba etc, people are looking to complete all aspects of a transaction in minutes. This has advantages but also some serious drawbacks especially when dealing with China as this represents a major cultural shift.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Puma_teleprinter.jpg

Some of my fondest memories of China are extended business meetings that flowed on to extended meals and sometimes even Karaoke – when I was on trips to meet with new clients. The idea of meeting with, understanding the philosophy of , and building a solid basis for communication was paramount. This made resolving disputes so much easier after meeting someone as you had some idea how they were going to react. In short you felt you knew whether you could trust them.

It was not always possible to meet every one that you are going to do business with but it is still possible to build a relationship. For new exporters/importers, I suggest working on a “relationship development model”.

For example, an Importer may look at a system like this;

Step 1, send an general email to the company asking about their range of products and whether they already have any local distributors.

Step 2, Ask about the cost of samples for two or three of their products.

Step 3 Once you have the samples ask about packaging, shipment port and warranties.

Once you have this information, then ask about pricing etc.

The idea of this process is that if at any time you feel that you do not get the level of service you expect: consider ending the relationship. The other advantage of slowing down the process is that is gives you chance to look at the value proposition (quality, service, suitability etc) rather than just price.


Governments world wide are reducing red tape and regulations to small business – this is a good thing but it also means that the barriers to entry of new business have never been lower. This coupled with “Gen y” people now going into business means that the values of these newcomers may be different to yours. Some product sourcing and auction sites encourage new starters but some of their clients do not consider customer service to be important and are more interested in turning a quick buck. For many of them it is only a part time income – so if it does not work out after a year or so – they will just shut it down.

Rather than you go from this article feeling that the writer is a grumpy old man, I would like you to consider that the temptation to stray away from your core product focus can lead you into a world of low involvement transactions that just may not be fun!

On a positive note, the many facets of web 2.0 and social media provide the new opportunities for high levels of engagement. Explore, engage, - ENJOY!

Further reading at;

http://www.deloitte.com/us/2010technologytrends_chapter9

Depth Perception,

http://www.slideshare.net/ContentKeith/engagement-understanding-it-measuring-it-achieving-it

Engagement Understanding It, Measuring It, Achieving It

http://www.mediabadger.com/2009/01/passive-active-social-media-high-and-low-engagement/

Passive and active social media high and low engagement

Written by Graham Bell of Bell Management Consultants

Training workshops in Victor Harbor

Please let us know what type of training you would like to have in Victor.

We are keen to get more happening and would appreciate any input.

What type of topics would help you to improve and or grow your business.

If your business has an ABN you are probably eligible for a free help from a business consultant on a range of issues. Contact me for details on 0418 832 220 Graham Bell