Finance | Teik Oh

10 Business Survival Strategies in Difficult Times

Jun 30 2015

We are in uncertain times for business at the moment. The economy seems to do well one moment, at other times there is doom and gloom.

I’m not an economist, yet even I understand that despite some good signs there are fundamental economic indicators that are worrying, including interest rates, international GDP trends and unemployment. I’m a business owner just like you, and while I look after my business as best as I can, I do realise that there are things happening that is outside of my control.

However what is important is that we keep track of wider economic trends and see how they affect us, and, even more importantly, implement strategies that mitigate risk. So when I received an email last week from Sheryl, a follower of my blog, asking me what “common sense” things she should do to ensure that she was prepared for whatever might happen, I reached into my toolbox and pulled out 10 strategies that are useful in difficult times.

In over 30 years’ of consulting to business and other organisations, I have found that history often repeats itself. So why reinvent the wheel?

In this video I run through 10 business survival strategies for difficult times that are “common sense”, can be instigated now, and that I have seen work in other times of economic woe. Would you believe the first paper I wrote about these strategies was for a conference I presented to in 1987? Since then I have refined them at least three times as the world economy fluctuated over the last 28 years.

There’s no secret really – here they are again:-

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How to grow your business with no external capital

Jun 05 2015

You’ve started your business. You may have been running a few years and you are now at a stage where you need some capital to organically grow your business to its next stage.

We all want to see our businesses grow into something bigger, but finding external capital is difficult these days. Where are the angels when you need them, especially if you don’t want to go into debt?

Well there are things you can do to grow your business from within. Watch this week’s video to see what you can do.

Remember – there are always innovative ways to find capital from within your business. Sure, if you could get an injection of $250,000 to half a million, what you could do to your business! But when it’s not there, it’s not there and your growth will have to be organic and a little bit slower. But grow you can.

As always the fun starts after you watch the video – what do you think? What are your ideas or experiences in finding organic capital?

Get over to https://teikoh.com and leave a comment. Better still, sign up at here and be part of the Masterclass conversation!

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Six Steps to Make Your Business Resilient

May 11 2015

As I write this, there are fresh concerns across the world economy over recovery in Europe and North America, Chinese GDP is slowing, and the Australian mining boom seems to be coming to an end.

These are world-wide economic affairs, and as owners of small businesses you might be wondering how this affects you, the small fish in a big pond.

The effect on you trickles down from what happens on a global scale. As countries batten the hatches, the larger companies in your nation’s economy slow down because their customers buy less. These larger companies buy from smaller companies, and these smaller companies buy from you. As the larger companies tighten the belt, employees might lose their jobs. Some of these individuals buy from you. Business might still seem good to you today, but it may take some time for an economic crisis to trickle down.

Nevertheless all is not doom and gloom, there are some signs of opportunity that encourages continued optimism. So what do you do today with these mixed messages?

As a small or micro-business you need to recognise and take advantage of modest opportunities to grow, but at the same time recognise the existence of potential downside risks.

Certainly, pay attention to your bottom line but at the same time, focus on cash flow and not just profit growth. Ensure that you are putting away sufficient working capital to survive any shocks. You need to continue pursuing business opportunities, but with discipline and careful planning. And, this is the time to put in genuine efforts at reorganising your business for efficiency.

As a small or micro business today, realising that you are at the mercy of market forces outside your control, I would look at these 6 steps to build resilience into your business.

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Why write an Executive Summary?

May 08 2015

An Executive Summary is a summary of the key items in your planning or other document that is full of facts and information.

The best planning documents, whether strategic plans, business plans, corporate plans, marketing plans, or implementation plans, contain compelling Executive Summaries.

Yet at first glance (or indeed in a badly written Executive Summary) it simply appears as if information has been duplicated. Why can’t the reader simply go into the body of the document to read the information there anyway? The answer is because these documents are meant to be read by busy people. Often, they are to attract investment or engagement from these busy people who would be a befit to your business. They may be investors, bank managers, or even your own busy managers or team members. I order to get past the gate of continuing interest, and to engage them, you need to first draw them in by creating excitement and interest.

The Executive Summary provides that tantalising glimpse into the document – it creates a sense of excitement and gets the document through the gate so that they continue reading the document or pass it on to people who will then go through the document in detail. Business plans written as enticements to invest rarely get past the first executive reading it to see if they will be interested – often because there is no quickly read Executive Summary to entice them in.

This video talks about why you should have an Executive Summary, and what it should contain.

If you want to know more about planning in your business, come on over to teikoh.com and get the planning templates, tools and resources available for free. While you are there sign up for our newsletter that will deliver more resources on developing strategy, providing leadership, and growing your business.

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3 Ways to Increase Your Sales

Mar 20 2015

Tell me if this sounds familiar:-

For some reason, perhaps you want to increase profits or you just want to grow your business, you sat down and decided you needed to increase your sales by setting a new sales target. Having worked out what sales you need to increase your profits or grow your business, you look at your new sales target – at how much you need to increase your current sales by – and you went “Oh crap!”

The increase in sales is scary! Oh my goodness, increasing my sales by 30% sound alright but that’s an extra $600,000! How the heck am I going to do that???

This video tells you exactly how to do it in three different ways that leverage up to a substantial increase in sales.

Remember all sales are made up of three components:-

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Increase your sales through a highly focused marketing plan!

SMART Marketing: In this book, the owners of a small business are led through the SMART Marketing 7 Step Process to produce a marketing plan targeted at their most desirable customers. Any business can use these principles and in 4 to 6 weeks implement a plan to get them through the door! Find out how...

The SMART Marketing Workbook: Companion to “SMART Marketing”, this workbook sets out the SMART Marketing process in 7 workshops for you and your staff to complete questionnaires and templates that at the end, form the marketing plan you need to sell your REAL product to your REAL customer! View now...

Category - Finance

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10 Business Survival Strategies in Difficult Times

How to grow your business with no external capital

Six Steps to Make Your Business Resilient

Why write an Executive Summary?

3 Ways to Increase Your Sales